This is a similar home. Does the architect's response help you? "Yes the soffit is painted ( Resene Bokara ) to make it similar to the cladding. We did it this way in order to emphasis the sculptural form of the house - if it was white it would have broken up the form somewhat. I think it depends on what you want to achieve, if the line of the joinery is at ceiling level then it is good to have the ceiling and the soffit the same colour in terms of how you experience the interior space. If the exterior look is more important then the dark soffit would probably work better."

Personally , I think that to give advice , you'd need to supply more information -- what the neighbourhood is like , your favourite colours , the plants in your garden , and the likes . I quite like the colours there , but I'd do the front door , the gutters , the window sills and those cap pieces up the pillar supports in an orange or teal or red or similar to add some Wow and excitement , but thats just me .

Nearly finished painting my cottage and I am wondering what colour roof I should go for? I could refresh a brighter red (Resene Pioneer Red or Scoria are available) or go for a charcoal gray to match the trim?f thoughts?

We have a builder replacing parts of our 1970's roof. A 'change of pitch' flashing between a 45degree and 10 degree roof has been fixed 25mm from the bottom. NZ Roofing code of practice clearly has an example of this flashing requiring a perlin at the top of the flashing so that fixing through the corrugate does not penetrate the flashing and also Eliminates stresses placed on that flashing by hard fixing two separate roofing areas. Our builder is claiming that because he has replaced the roofing elements with the same materials and fixed them in the same place then following this roofing practice is not required. We had the roof checked by another roofer, who said he would have failed his exam had he installed this element that way. We want feedback and confirmation that our belief is that regardless of the work being done by a building professional they must apply current building standards when doing their job. Sometime this necessitates some extra work. Surely we should be following best practice to improve weather tightness. This builder is lining up to have a date at the disputes tribunal.