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.

The best way to 'hide' something that you don't like is to draw the eye elsewhere. The screens etc that have been recommended with vines over them are not a good idea. I would suggest 3 trees within the lawn area and not in a perfect triangle. One could be placed in front of the problem area. Eventually you could make a garden bed of decent sized proportion, that would have all trees within and underplant the trees with the same low plant throughout - like a good native grass like plant. The use of the 1 plant will make the area look even bigger and will provide unity to the design.

@Lizzy B all went smoothly. the most time consuming part was installing all the battens into the brick followed by corner ends. This was harder because I cladded not only the wall shown with the 3 windows but also the whole front of the house which includes multi steped recession into the front door meaning lots of internal ans external corners as you will see in this next photo. most people would usually just paint this recession to door area rather than clad it because of how fiddly it is and so many short cut boards but i decided if i was going to do it, I would do it all prroperly. it all still looks fantastic and as if i did it yesterday.

One thing no-one has mentioned is the reverse wave things on the barge boards -- I guess you could say they add character , but yeah , nah , not really ! Just dates the look IMO , so I'd remove them . See Pic 3 of yours , the yellowy butter beige is in the shade , and looks way better IMO . So use that trick of the eyes -- go a light off-white . While Surfmist doesn't tie in with the brick tone , I suspect that with the darker roof ( and my next suggestion ) it would work -- lets face it , its not going to look worse than present ! Keep the dark windows , BUT alo do that 150mm or whatever 'band' between the upper and lower windows , in a charcoal . It will make your place look way more modern . I'd even consider painting the garage door the charcoal too -- I realise it risks looking too dark , especially on a dull winter day , but I'd risk it , as it sticks to the same theme . Leave the front door as is though -- it looks like it doesn't quite suit in the close-up pic , but actually works in the longer shots , which is what 98% of people see . The other option , but more $$$$ , would be to completely change the front door and garage door , going to the same cedar or cedar look for both , or even a Japanese black -- in fact , a Japanese black with those blue influences , and Surfmist ( which also has a blue tinge ) on the timber , would be my number 2 choice ( behind cedar ) .