Hi Sandra, Being in a marine environment either option you go with will require a bit of maintenance over time the salt air is pretty unforgiving. If you do decide to go with render make sure you go with an acrylic render it will last alot longer and avoid cracking much better than if you go with a traditional cement render only. Generally the cement render is applied and then the acrylic render is applied over the top this makes the cement render a lot stronger and more flexible. You can tint the acrylic render to the colour you wish so if you want you don't even have to paint it. Although some people still apply a bonding agent and paint it regardless. Good luck with your project I hope it turns out great.

@girlguides we haven't finished the project but this is the architect's concept drawing of our abode. Note that we have already had the new louvres installed on the top floor but we went with white frames instead. And unsure if we will go to the effort of changing the current soffits from fibro to the wooden panels on this picture due to the money and time that would go into replacing something that works perfectly well. And we will now most likely have another driveway on the most left side of the house for a carport on that side, as the current carport is only wide enough for one car, and we always need parking for at least 2 cars. We now have to figure out how to build in the underneath in terms of where to place the internal stairs, the bedrooms, and most importantly the front door. Will update with our plans once finalised!

The plan looks a nightmare - bedrooms facing the street, a tiny internal bathroom with no window to the outside (is that legal?) and a "lounge" that looks like it was meant to be a third bedroom. If the internal walls are stud and don't support the roof you're in with a chance, but I'd say to do a proper job the cheap option is NOT going to work. I'd put two bedrooms where the current family room and lounge are and extend the bathroom into the boot room to give window access, or scrap the current bathroom altogether and use some of the space in what is now the kitchen for a new one. Keeping the WC separate is a good move. If you make the street side the social side of the house you can open it right out and create a big front porch that's a social spill-over from the kitchen/dining area, creating indoor-outdoor flow. Planting (two or three shade trees and some stands of tall perennials rather than a "green fence" hedge) keeps your front garden private yet inviting and stops your front porch becoming a stage set for the street. Good luck! I think you'll turn this very ordinary house into a much nicer place to live!

Design inherently involves weighing up options against priorities within certain limitations/conditions/contexts. Structural integrity for the building needs to be addressed/managed either way and there are appropriate regulations/processes in place to ensure this occurs in order to achieve building approval ......the question here is more what do you want it to look like - ie do you want internal brickwork or plasterboard? You can manage termite risk or fire risk in various ways/methods.....best you balance/work through all this with the design professional you are working with or discuss some of the pro's & cons & cost differences of certain specification one way or the other with a local builder if you can