Cover your cement path/s with more decking, even bring the decking out from the wall (so not to cover your vents) say 6 - 10 inches, then you could put down some little pots or planters of heat tolerant plants, which could form a little narrow border, between your new decked paths and your house and soften the brick, (then if you lose any plants it would be easy to replace them) Also, take the decking down far enough down the side, as to meet your existing decking, then remove some of your strung wire balastrading and enter your existing decked patio from your new decking/pathway, this will create a much better flow. Also, if you choose, you could put up a pathway wide pergola, over your new decked pathways, along the side of the house, even off the side of your house, and you could then grow and train creepers over it, this would cool the whole side of your house and make it more inviting to visit! I can see it already. Good luck.

Thank you for all the ideas. Sometimes you think about something so much you can't see solutions. Like the ideas of umbrellas or awnings. We have 80 mm of the timber beam available to put an awning on. I think they're wider than that.☹️☹️ (There is a bolt in the beam that protrudes 2cm, it's not easily seen in photo as it is painted cream). An awning would need to sit underneath this bolt. The panels are plastic not glass and their track would need to be clear for when we open the pergola up, which we do during summer on long hot spells. We did plant callistemons about 3 -4 m away but they have not grown according to plan...lol I'm thinking the most achievable solution is a cantilevered umbrella. I think we'd need to concrete the base into the ground and remove the pole during winter. The brick area is a play area - netball etc. Any pros or cons to this idea?

kitchen to south any day of the week....I'd also go further to suggest that possibly the building could have been designed to have the kitchen hard to the south boundary that would have opened up more north light opportunity and better use of the (unusable) side space behind the kitchen. You'd still need a light court for the bedrooms etc...& possibly by doing this the future pool could have been flipped and oriented more to the north/west corner and the net effect would be having more options/flexibility for the outside space, & also possibly alfresco area located on the north which is always better than to the west, so alternatively an extension that is more streamlined in design, following the line of the existing building rather than kicking out, I can see immediately that this type of design strategy would bring some arguably clear benefits on a number of levels .....not sure how far down the track you are (looks like still in concept/sketch design stage) may I add that it's always cheaper to consider re-design on paper rather than regretting less than ideal outcomes after they're built...... anyway food for thought........always consider the options and maintain an open mind...it's always ALL in the design Best of luck Cheer PD :)

Hello, thank you for your response. For some reason the site defaulted to the Australian discussion forum when I posted but I just went with it anyways and didn't think much of it. I understand your point about different perspectives in different countries though, thanks. I know this is all based on personal preference but I like either option of so I am looking for some other opinions. The developer has been very helpful with the different options and we plan to speak to some other local professionals as well. We have seen the materials in person (except for cabinets) in very small sample sizes and all of the colours seem to compliment eachother but for the purpose of this post a digital photo was the only option of course.