A Craig - your roof is what is known as a Mansard style. Search 'Mansard Style roofs' on Houzz for a lot of examples that may give you some answers (see one below). Obviously this home was built pre aluminium guttering that does not rust so to replace the existing guttering with seamless aluminium should solve your problems. It would be worthwhile replacing the downpipes with aluminium too. A bigger problem you could probably have is matching the existing tiles, but from photos on Houzz it does appear you would be able to get away with a different tile or even use a slate were you to change the flat area to a slightly pitched roof. Your existing tiles can be resprayed a different colour too. Call in the experts, the more people you speak to the more ideas you will get. Afraid whatever you do will be expensive, but consider it money well spent to alleviate any future water problems - water does so much damage that will negate all other renovation work you do in the house. [houzz=]

1 or 2. Skillion roofs look great and are easy to construct. Can you extend the skillion's as your veranda/carport as well? 3 looks too cheapy, like was mentioned before, 'a kit home'. Dare I say 'bland, ho-hum'. Quality Federation and pitched roof character type homes look great, the basic mock versions are sickening...... Flat roofed houses never date. Google modernism as a start, its not a new trend. Louise Thatcher, great pictures! Choose wall cladding carefully such as 'colorbond' custom orb as the sheets are cheap but the trims and flashings are quite expensive as they're custom made. The advantage is no painting but can scratch very easily and is then almost impossible to repair without replacing the whole sheet......... Have a look at 'EcoPly', 'ShadowClad', etc. as these give a great look without the expense of the custom made flashings. Scyon have a great looking 'weatherboard' called 'Linea'.

I would not do a dark roof in most places in Australia as it raises the temperature within in Summer. Medium is best, or light, if living in a hot place with no near neighbours.

With a North facing house the sun makes the front of house quite hot but only on those few days a year when it is over 40 with no sea breeze and I love the heat so ceiling fans work for me. The back of the house is much cooler and the winds generally come from the ocean side but can be from all directions at times as we know. On the west side of the house it is only app 1m to the fence line and so the option of having the garage on that side isn't viable. Sorry I am not up on terminology so when I said the set back was 7 odd metres that is the current set back from the front of my house to the road. The council requires 3m for house and 4.5 for garages. I have been looking more at mid century modern design and I don't really like it so I am looking at ways of changing up the bland facade to disguise the fairly flat roof line. With those in the know could I add a front porch and somehow blend the roof line into my current one to look more like this style? I realise it means saving more to afford it so on top of my current budget. I am just not sure how the roof line of the porch would look at the back end (how it would attach to my roof and look from the side and back) I wouldn't want it to look like it was just stuck on at the front. Would I carry that through to back of house so end up with a witches hat roof or is there a better way you can see this working. Once again thank you for all of your input I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time to help me :)