Hello Down Under! I love your house. Beautiful and I agree with keeping the color. Really nice. How about replacing the metal staircase with a nice raised deck to fill in that space and give a place to sit and put plants. Then turn the stairs toward the street to make them more inviting. Wooden stairs. As for landscaping after that, well, how about some of those fabulous English borders with lots of perennials? Replace metal awning with wood? Or fabric? Also, if I were you, I would keep the fence. It is ugly but it has great value --especially if you have a dog. How about planting English ivy all along the fence. We have it in our yard growing on a large rock and by the second year it was taking over. This can cover your fence completely and make it look, well, English. It will even grow up the cinder block wall--if you can handle that much ivy. There are some pretty green and white ivy varieties that would look great with your house color. I have another one here that is pale green and white. Not a fast grower but very pretty. Anyway, great house. All the best!

I completely love the twirly bits, and the window trim. It's unique, special and shows the family within has a sort of fun spirit. If you would be more comfortable with a cottage that looks more "regular", then take it off. But please don't! For some color and inspiration, google French provencal fabric images. I can completely see a little black metal bistro table and wood slat back chairs on your porch with a cloth of one of those fabrics. I would paint it a light dusky blue, with white trim and mid-charcoal accents around the windows and the corner pieces on the front porch. Although the yellow with the blue would be quite right too! The front walk looks to be in good condition. You can do a stone overlay on that, letting a small portion of the stones hang over the straight edge, to give it a little more rustic look. It looks like you have a good collection of Queen of the Nile lilies (guessing here). Were they blue on blooming? You can create some slightly larger and curving beds in the front, and transplant some within it. I would add lavender and rosemary in a mix with those. For some grey and texture, put some lambs ears (a perennial) along the outside edge. Check your local growing zone to see what will thrive in your area! Lucky you. What a find!

Are you sure the roof is stainless steel?? That is VERY expensive and only used in very exposed corrosive coastal locations since it lasts forever. I think it might be Zincalume, a low cost but very durable and very common roofing material that has a light silvery surface and should last for 50 years. Definitely do NOT paint the roof black (or any dark colour), it would add more than 10° to the internal heat load, and you would have to spend so much more on insulation and on-going AC costs just to get back to where you are now. Have the roof checked and repaired by a roof plumber instead. If it's an old leaky galvanised iron roof at the end of it's days, replace it with zincalume. The porch roof looks like it needs replacing, but I would replace it with new roofing, possibly the insulated sandwich panel kind, that has a smooth white underside, then add a gutter to the front edge so you don't make your visitors walk under a waterfall in the rain. The canvas awning suggested earlier would not last as long without looking tired and would require the removal of existing roof structure, so I think it would be the more costly option (and you would still have the waterfall problem). I would leave the front fence as is, it ties in nicely with the house, but trim the tree. The back deck could easily be roofed to match the front, and be more useful to tenants with weather protection. It would be good to make all trim colours the same, and against the cream brick I think the dark grey you have on the front door and columns works quite well. I would make the other windows and trim, as well as the weatherboards over the back door match that if it just involves painting. However, it's not essential and if it means changing powdercoat finishes it would be too costly to be worthwhile in a rental.

what an unusual looking house..would love to see the internal floor plans...my suggestions would be to keep the colours simple with Lexicon quarter for all painted walls (including the bricks?) black fascias and barge boards, dark grey gutters, black front door, white windows and try painting the striped blind and roof over the upstairs balcony in a deep grey, consider having wide steps across the front instead of sideways and lose the central garden bed and the untidy tall palm and consider new landscaping