Here is the old house..lower cedar undergoing clean and is now all oiled. Window trims on right painted in dune. Ok. So had heart attack yesterday. Roof painter came out. I am at work. He and my son decided to ‘colormatch’ my already woodland grey painted posts and decide ....yes it’s armour grey....I had told both days earlier woodland grey...now have an armour grey roof which is same as windspray...don’t know whether to laugh or cry..more cry actually. Heart was set on woodland grey and dune trims. But I did really like your windspray..so confused now what to do....any help would be appreciated.

Thank you so much, Julie. I thought you would be interested in the end result, given how much encouragement and advice you so generously gave me. :-) I do love it. It has made such a difference and I think (fingers crossed) the landscaping will give it the finishing touch. We are reroofing the pergola, so will post photos when that is completed. The gazebo looks great after its facelift, too.

I was thinking of options , and basically Kates sketch would be along the lines of what I am thinking . Just some obvious things -- you have a chimney -- do you want that in your Master ? You want doors off the front Den -- no matter what you do , that will cost reasonable $$$ , as you will have to alter the framing , maybe electrical , as well as obviously cutting through bricks . Could 'just' having screens and maybe even a small roof creating a courtyard in front , using the existing front door and probably creating a better entry experience if done right , be better than that ? Same with things like having an external door from a laundry/mud room ? If that was important , personally I'd incorporate that as part of the new addition at the rear -- its way easier to design framing and walls with a door included , as opposed to modifying a 60 year old building . Basically , we could question every room , and that is what the designer should have done . Without asking , I'd come up with a totally different design , but it would be what I would do , and maybe wouldn't be what you want . And as far as adding upstairs , again personally I wouldn't . Engineering wise its difficult , matching styles is difficult , and cost will be quite a bit more per metre than adding on the rear , but you may feel the advantages outweigh the costs -- only you know .

Hi, firstly congratulations on your decision to renovate. How exciting. We are nearing the end of a major renovation and choosing the exterior colours was a real sticking point. Most of the houses around us were built in the 1990's and my renovation had the potential to not quite fit in. I had to use a timber cladding to match the existing cedar but the original had been poorly stained and I was never going to get a cohesive match between old and new. I was left pondering my choices. The solution was to paint both but what colour? In the end, I looked at what of the existing was going to be left unchanged. It turned out to be the Karaka Green window frames - not my favourite colour - but in order to work with it I had to pray I didn't offend the neighbourhood. I didn't want the old dirty brown shade and a thousand testpots later, left me with only one really obvious answer. As you can see from the photo, I chose [quite radically] to paint the entire extention in Half Karaka green. It's still a work in progress and in the coming weeks, the rest of the house will be painted to match. I waited for the neighbours - particularly, the old people from the Rest Home at the end of the street - to tell me off for my choice but have been blown away by their reactions. Every last comment has been a major thumbs up. Even the painter - who was highly skeptical - apologised for his doubt, Don't automatically assume your neighbours are going to hate seeing the changes you are about to bring to the area. Which brings me to your planned renovations. I am assuming that your window frames are also going to remain the white colour in the photo. Rather than get all confused about greys etc. Start with them as the basis for the rest of the house and work out from there. If you do that, then I don't think it will be as difficult as it currently seems for you to pick what the rest of the house will be. Don't be afraid to spend money on purchasing test pots. They are around $4 or $5 each and I believe that I probably spent $200. It was worth every penny to me to get a few small off cuts of cedar painted and sit and look at them alongside the existing windows in order to make an informed decision. Good luck. I look forward to seeing some finished photos. I hope to post my finished renovation photos here soon.