Thank you for these colours Lesley! I MUST put a verandah though - the front garden is heavenly - 9 metres to the front with roses and fruit trees (though it looks rough here) and is high up opposite a park for a view. I plan to play guitar here of an evening and add more white, blue & purple flowers to the middle and a pergola with climbing roses for a Moon Garden.

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!

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to respond. Your first photo siriuskey is the colour scheme I'd love to go with so good to hear that you'd think it would match with the blonde brick. I also like the shale grey roof idea butterflyroof and you're right that you don't see much of the roof at all (mainly when looking out the upstairs bedrooms). The olive green is definitely another possibility to look at oklouise and I've made a note to use 'mid-century' in search terms. Definitely plan to pressure clean bricks and a bit relieved to hear that leaving them is the better option. I'm still finding it hard to imagine a darker grey cladding like monument with the blonde brick debluc but it's certainly been suggested a few times so I'll keep searching for inspiration. Thanks again :) (attached is a photo of a house near us that I like and that has a brownish tinge to the cladding that would hopefully work with our bricks as it seems to work with their sandstone - maybe dune colourbond?)

Weatherboard first floor additions to a red-brick ground floor always look like additions. As long as you are happy to accept that it will look like an addition you will be fine. Rendering the red brick to match the same colour as the weatherboard won't improve things as the smooth render texture will contrast with the strong horizontal linear nature of the weatherboard. It will look like you are trying to camouflage the addition (but failing). It needs bold, unapologetic design to make it look good, and not be half hidden away like a box lowered into your roof. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls