A bit hard to know what to say here if it's only the fence colour you are wanting opinions on. I would definately go for black or dark charcoal for the fence, but I agree that it may not work with the house. The problem is the cream colour is very outdated. If you put a cream fence it will work better with the house as it is now, but then you are stuck with an outdated colour scheme. If it was me I would probably do a dark charcoal fence, and then slowly work on updating the colour scheme of the actual house - for example, the same charcoal for the garage doors, posts, colourbond fence, shed etc. But it would come down to budget, I guess.

I Like the up down cylinder/square black lights but your lights are high set so it would be just down light. I have a light like the last photo but it's a chunky cylinder instead of square, I think I got it at Bunnings ages ago, it's on an internal courtyard wall and looks amazing when turned on. Could your cousin do one of each, ie: up down and just down, Just down on the entrance as you don't want to light up the entrance ceiling and up down on the tall wall, it would be great if it could be dropped down a bit. cheers

The timber railings on the verandah we are replacing didnt stand the tests of time, so I was hoping for aluminium or as mentioned PVC. However this seems really hard to find, unless I settle for a contemporary chrome type number. Can anyone suggest a supplier of PVC or aluminium railings please?

siriuskey, i am not a big fan of glass balustrades. It would've been an easier option to be honest! And still keeping an open mind about it. We have hard wearing and low maintenance plant in the box, like agaves and other kind perhaps. We are learning from our neighbour whose planter above garage (but theirs is on the deck, different to ours) has gone wild due to the selection of plants. Maintenance? did mean something else?