Congratulations Aaron on finding your "Forever home" & wanting to preserve it's 70's vibe. It does look like a big project to get your teeth into! I would think the black to be a bit strong & tend towards a warmer tone with the brick. Sandstone is also a light stone with yellows, apricots & warm tones. Woodland Grey from the Colorbond range has olive/brown tones which might suit. It depends on the vision you are trying to achieve but it looks like a natural modern style would suit the theme of the house. By that I mean taking cues from nature for colours. Good luck!

I beg to differ from Melwood Cabanas - rendering your home will look nothing like their photo as you don't have the classic Georgian proportions and windows. Render doesn't improve the design and propotions into a classic look, in fact it often does the reverse, and puts an emphasis on things that aren't quite right with a design, due to the loss of texture and visual interest. If the house is big enough to have a bathroom for bedroom 7 then I would be looking to sacrifice that bathroom (on the assumption that you probably have five or six other bathrooms), to improve the appeal of the front elevation. Engage a design professional to redesign the front of the home to be in sympathy with the existing architecture and proportions, and don't try and modernise it for a compromised result. It already has a charm that has been diluted by unsympathetic styling. Just cause somebody has painted the ground floor pink, added topiary and classic timber seating doesn't make it look Tuscan. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

Your home does look a little tired and dated in its design and form. Rendering will not modernise it, as the basic shape and form remain unaltered - it will just look like a rendered '70s house. I would be looking at updating the windows, getting rid of your silly, narrow, decorative shutters, and replacing the georgian paned windows with something cleaner and more contemporary. This would give you the opportunity to introduce more thermally efficient double glazing. It looks like the previous owner may have done something like this downstairs? The decorative brackets on the verandah posts should go. Then clean the roof tiles, possibly reseal the roof, and paint the gutters, eaves and trim. However the biggest difference you can make, which gives you the most bang for your buck is in landscaping your blank canvas. If you spent the cost of rendering on engaging a local landscape design professional and getting some semi-mature trees established then it would transform your house. You can't do a lot with the form of your house, so make it the backdrop to your street's best garden. Best of luck Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

" It is sooo tricky to get the balance right between modern and sympathetic to 70's." 100%, and if this stuff was easy, us Pro's wouldn't have a job ;) It's always ALL about balance, and when it comes to questions of what to do to existing dwellings it's probably just as much about what you don't do. You need to get the scaling , articulation and detail right. You don't want to do something that looks tacked on and incongruent with the existing. If you are extending a deck to the side on an upper level you'll need to take into consideration potential overlooking to neighbouring private space. We're currently working on a similar upper level deck extension to an existing 70's dwelling, and what we've done is use a combination of different balustrade materials (charcoal random depth timber battening & frameless glass) to simultaneously control the overlooking, focus the outlook, and achieve a balanced complimentary design. It depends on what the deck is for, is it for private use or are you trying to gain access to a view? These things will all influence the design. Budget of course will also influence what you do. The design solution ultimately should begin with responding to the function first and foremost, and then what it actually looks like will (should) naturally spring from this in conjunction with a sensitive response in balance with the existing & with consideration of your budget constraint Good luck! PD www.pauldistefanodesign.com