Is it privacy or weather control you most want? A custom made long blind might work well for the long window, if you want both privacy and heat/cold control. You might also think of external solutions, including plantings that would manage both sun and privacy for the lower levels. Having something that cuts neighbours views and gives you a nice view is always a good solution, and can be an important part both of privacy and weather management. A front courtyard of any sort (built wall, plant wall) also works well - we had one at an earlier house and it worked well. We had, in our just moved into place, a long window beside the front door, which also gets late afternoon sun (hot at present), and I replace the two panes with a stained glass pair of windows and it cuts the sun and increases the privacy, but it's not a cheap solution when you have such a long window.

It is always a challenge working with a house that has been subject to lots of renovations over the past, some of which may not have been given enough design consideration. At the moment you have a bit of a mish-mash of colours and materials that are working against each other. Without knowing your budget I would consider two approaches to improve the look of your home cost-effectively: 1) Simplify the palette of materials and colours. At the moment it looks like you have face brickwork, render, weatherboard, fibro sheet with contrasting battens and a steel roof. By replacing the fibro sheet with a weatherboard to match the lower half, then painting all of the walls a consistant colour will make the house seem a bit more together, and less busy. With such a busy mix of materials you don't need any contrast or features standing out - so a monochomatic approach is best. 2) You have a huge amount of grey concrete which is great for cars, but isn't adding anything to the look of the house. Reduce the concrete area by at least 50%, especially if it is hard up against the house, and replace with mulched garden beds and planting that is appropriate for your location to soften the look. Best of luck Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

Hi all, we have a huge front yard, approximately 350sqm with some beautiful trees. But that’s where it ends. We live close to the beach and have fairly sandy soil, plus poor drainage and our garage is the lowest point on our block which floods frequently. We have consulted a plumber and landscape architect to help us with our yard. But we are still unsure of how to 1. Best tackle the drainage issues? (We have no storm water in our area so a few soaker pits will be needed) 2. Installing water tanks which don’t stand out too much? 3. A new driveway and car port? 4. Bringing the front yard back to life? And most importantly we don’t want to detract from our home and it’s style. We are very keen to get as much advice as possible. I’ve added a few photos of our garden and house! Thankyou

Thank you @bigreader - we've drawn out a rough plan and there is room for a .5m or 1m garden bed on the left, gate and ped gate. It just depends if the pedestrian gate should line up with the front door & centre of the house... I know a lot of little houses it doesn't @Sunfish House do you think it is important... Also... even removing the garden bed would be a squeeze to get the ped gate centred I think. This (I'm not a very good drawer) drawing includes 0.5m garden bed with blank space from the centre to the right garden bed as I'm not sure what to do with that. @dreamer thank you for the input... I saw this yesterday which I really like for the driveway which also looks quite soft & go with the Olive look (I think). Aggregated stone colour paver/concrete...