Keep the brick, please don't paint or render. Both eat into your budget (rendering in particular is not cheap), and will mean more ongoing upkeep (render still needs to be painted on a regular basis and with a two-storey house, that is a lot more work). Our house is rendered and we would never have it again. Whenever the house moves, the render doesn't, so is prone to cracking or, over time, pieces even falling off. Even subtle movement can cause hairline cracks, which means regular patching and painting. Quite frankly, most people render an older house to make it look modern, but when rendering becomes passe (which I think is already starting to happen), then the house will look dated again (and render is almost impossible to remove once its on). Also, if you're in an area prone to termites, termites can get in between the render and the brickwork and you won't see the telltale signs of "mud" at the access points to let you know they're there. As far as the rest of the house goes, I totally agree with what Timandra Design recommended.

Hi Tyrone_Topsecret. I think the dark at top with the light colour under works very well - let's the upper floor disengage and float above everything, which makes it so stunning. Your render picture shows a texture effect on the matrix which is nice - if you go for a solid colour there that'll appear very different to what you see at the moment - would still work of course, but I'd probably try and do a 'marble' texture effect like that (if within budget). If it was me, I would blend the bessa in with the render colour at the bottom, so either paint the blocks to match the render, or why don't you do it the other way around and match the render colour to the natural block colour? That could work well. I don't know the Resene colour you mention, attached is a picture with a Monument colorbond roof, and the little link building we've done in a Dulux colour matched to Monument - so it works quite well as a contrast without being too stark against an (off-)white. I wouldn't go the night sky, it is quite stark (and cold) as a colour, where as with a softer/warmer dark grey it all becomes more harmonious. Not sure about the garage door : You are currently drawing attention to it by matching it to the colour of the upstairs - I would recommend to try and guide the view to upstairs instead, and therefore blend the garage door in with the surrounding surfaces. So Bessa natural, render to match, garage door in a warm white, and then the dark grey upstairs - will be a stunner :-) Good Luck !

That will look beautiful. You asked if it's too much work...which begs the question, WHO will be doing the work? Will you hire a builder, subcontract out the parts, or do the work yourself? That will help answer the question, I think. If you have a firm price contract, the budget for it, and a timeframe you can live with, then sure, why not?

Hi again, my saga continues... Steps... My husband planned on getting our tiler (rather than landscaper) to put our pavers on as stair treads. They are 600 x 400. I wanted actual predone treads which can either come with pencil or bullnose edge. The treads come in lengths of either 800 or 1200.  The bottom set of stairs is about 1530 in width -so ideally 2 x 800 with a grout line in middle of step. The issue is the landing as it doesn't seem as though the grout lines will align because of having to trim the edge. I thought we'd have 4 in portrait orientation across the top and then continue that fashion along to bottom of top set of stairs. Then with the top set I was planning 2 x 1200 and for the top landing laying the matching pavers landscape so there is 4 x 600 edges. Husband thinks it won't probably line up and should just use regular pavers on top step and across landing with no specialised treads. I think if we do that we should just use pavers for whole lot and not worry about getting treads. Sorry I realise this is completely boring but it's really doing my head in.  I wish we hadn't gone for pavers on stairs at all but feel too late to change mind. I did also have random thought (not shared with husband) of getting the treads in a dark bluestone for contrast and then it wouldn't matter about lining things up on landing.  Although not sure how it would look right against the limestone.  If anyone has any good photos of pavers rhis size as stair treads I'd really appreciate it.