I think dulux 'self destruct' would look beautiful and blend well with your brickwork, also for garage door, we had exterior blinds with a scallop, I cut the scallop off and painted them to match the house and they look great and more modern , used exterior paint and roller, easy and fab update.

Oh boy oklouise, this is dangerous territory when you ask about the perfect reno! We thought we did have the perfect Reno we could afford in stages but we got just about ready to lodge with council and our architect surprised us with the costings going over by $200K and giving us a lovely flat roof and new cladding for our first stage budget. We now have about $10K less after this process and are really feeling vulnerable I suppose. So we are back to square one but the essentials are: repair the deck on the steep slope at the back, remove internal walls to open the space downstairs, reposition the staircase, new flooring, new kitchen and provide an aesthetically pleasing but functional entrance. Wish list would be garage/carport & driveway, flat roof, new bathroom upstairs, new laundry & WC downstairs and landscaping. $100K for the first stage (which probably means just deck repairs and removing walls?!) then we would be looking at refinancing and seeing what we can do next. The architect designs were beautiful but unattainable unfortunately. Anyway, I advertised our job about a week ago and I think someone is interested in meeting with us and I've also left a message for Dr Retro so I don't want you all to spend too much time on this although I really really appreciate and welcome your advice. Thank you again oklouise, Lisa

Do these windows face north? This should have a bearing on your decision. If north, east or west, consider a timber pergola, left natural if hardwood. Grow a Glory Vine over it so that winter sun can be utilized inside, while cooling in summer.

Thank you Dreamer for your comments. Good suggestion about the down pipe - hadn’t noticed that option. This site is so good for seeing things with fresh eyes. Attached a couple more photos to give an idea of the area. Looks a bit of a mess due to the renovations.