I don't know why people want to invest in render. If money limited I would always first go with replacing Windows with energy efficient Windows which increase natural light and maximise views or garden trees from interior Plus I'd remove brick fence in front of door as houses where you can see front door always look so much more welcoming as upgrade of workers cottage on these latest dilemmas shows

For the street appeal I’d get rid of some of the trees - at least trim them so you can see more of the front of the house. Then look to paint in a tone-on-tone set of colours with the weather board and brick in contrasting depths of colour. Greys, blues, creaming grey-beiges look modern and fresh. You could also choose a strong contrasting colour like dark red or bright green for your door to make entrance more obvious. For the extra room, agree that converting the garage would be most cost effective. Then spend a little money getting a carport designed to create visual interest for the front of the house. Good luck!

Hi Matthew we bought an old doer upper that needs refreshing so I was keen to follow your post. We so far painted the front door replaced front letterbox guerney washed the concrete drive and have bought a panel lift door for the carport. We removed all the overgrown trees. Maybe guerney wash your roof , driveway and front steps, thats our next job (roof) and start with the gardens. If you keep the awnings - spraypaint them in a single tone, paint or replace the driveway fence, Remove that tall shrub or trim it, plant a row of plants up along the drive. Great house, like ours you can only improve it in value. Enjoy renovating!

JE C, we are replacing the 2 big windows in the bedrooms in the next month or so, but the 2 smaller ones are the in bathroom. The windows are not my style, but the bathroom is ok so we won’t be remodelling as early as we will be doing the bedrooms. And it’s a good question about going modern vs retaining the existing style. I don’t want to completely lose the uniqueness of the property, but it’s just not very appealing from the roadside, so I can’t help but think we need to radically change and therefore modernise it. The brown slated area has a slab and is about 5 - 6 metres wide and currently houses the rubbish bins! We have considered building another carport there as we can’t use the garage on the other side of the house (it’s too narrow)