Hi, I know there are so many things to take into account and it's hard to get perspective from a photo. The white you can see is an extension with building paper, and the red is the existing building which is two story. The exterior is wide weatherboard planking, the windows are silver aluminium with very little trim. The doors in the front of the picture are French doors from bedrooms that will open to an enclosed courtyard ( yet to be built of course) The roof will be a light grey/brown but you won't see it much because of the flat roof style. There will be decking and ballustrades covering half of the new extension.

Hi definitely remove the x bars on the deck balustrade. Landscape close to the house so it grounds the house. Trees will make it look less bare. Chose some that work for your area, that are evergreen, and are not going to grow really big. With a really plain house - dark colors will make it look better. Dark Grey, or black with a warm tone so it doesn't have a blue undertone in it. Make sure it is a warm grey or black. Use green foliage around it. Paint out the pergola in the dark grey too or white if you want a different look. Fill in the balustrade where the x is removed with plants in front of those areas. Grow a vine up the pergola that is nice.

Thanks for all the great ideas everyone and sorry I didn't explain the polycarbonate a bit better :) This is along the lines of what we'll be using... http://www.psp.co.nz/building-brands/corrugated-sheeting/suntuf-polycarbonate The area is an absolute sun trap and we're hoping to use it as an extension to our living space, especially on rainy days! I've just sent my husband out to get a few pots of different stains for is to try - darkest brown (cedar) and a lighter brown (rustic oak) both by Cabots + the black we already have. Hopefully we can decide between one of those! I probably should have mentioned we will have black aluminium pool fencing running along the top of the second retaining wall - so the real question is do we keep everything black (pool fencing, horizontal fence, retaining walls and pergola) or do we go with a dark (or even light) brown for the pergola and retaining walls.... We just keep going around in circles at the moment. Decisions, decisions! Thanks again :)

Thanks for the replies! My wife suggested we talk to a local real estate agent, so i think that is a good idea... just that Im not sure how helpful they are likely to be if we arent selling yet :) As for saving for our dream house, I dont disagree, however if doing this up nicely over the next ~5 years or so while we live here nets us some extra in the eventual sale, then that of course will help us as well. Interesting thing happened today actually. I got a knock on the door and one of the older neighbours asked if he could take some lemons from the tree. I of course said yes. Anyway he was telling me he had lived in the street for 40 years. I asked him if the house had always looked like this, and he said no that ~30 years ago the old old owner did a massive renovation and pulled off the timber and put up the bricks and gutted the inside of the house. Interesting stuff!