Had you considered reconfiguring and adding to the pool fence in order to incorporate the pergola inside pool fence boundary? I can certainly understand there are pros and cons to this, but I thought I would throw it out there. In any case, landscaping, lighting and painting pergola a more harmonious colour seem very good ideas to me. If you sketch out on paper some of the various plans and ideas you like or have in mind, and colour-in the different features, this might help you visualise things better. It's sort of rudimentary, but I have done it several times and it did help me 'see'. Best wishes, and please keep us posted on how you are going.

You have a lot of great features included that aren't replicated in modern houses due to costs. The semi circular stairs, thats wow right there! ^^petapea is spot on by the way! I'm currently working on plans for a house that was rendered in 2006. It has the wow factor; WOW that's bland as bat sh!t.... We're adding things like a bay window, new porch in painted timber and some masonry back to make it look good again. Then the new landscaping will really lift it! You could render garage facade and paint it, pressure clean the rest and do those maintenance jobs like cracked flooring, leaking gutters etc. The stairs are too narrow to be any use so widen them up to 1000-1200 wide. I'd spend more on landscaping (which includes fences/letter box/etc).

Hi Cat, We have a subframe product you could lay directly over your pavers. You wouldn't need to pull them up. Deckcell is available in 30mm or 50mm, depending on what height you have to work with. - https://nexgendecking.com.au/products/diy-deck-cell Our composite decking is maintenance free, made in the USA by Fiberon Composites and is backed with a 50 year warranty against staining and fading -https://nexgendecking.com.au/products/select-capped-composite-decking Get in touch if you would like us to send you some samples.

It is rarely cost effective to try and work within an old addition like your lean to. And hard to find somebody that will do it. Most will want to demolish and start with a clean base, and it’s generally cheaper to do so. Your ideas for expansion invoke removing part of the original back wall of the house. This is generally holding up the roof and is costly to adjust/remove. So demo at $25k depending on site access/asbestos, $20k per beam to replace back wall, $25-30k for paperwork/plans/permits. Then your rebuild costs at $4k sqm again depending on site specifics. And the new kitchen at $30k. Plus floor coverings, painting etc. A 100k doesn’t go very far with old houses.