Mostly I've been thinking about the fence, garden and exterior of the house. I have been stopping and taking photos when I notice something I like.
There are three interconnected aspects that need to be sorted out in the short term:
The type of fence to erect around the front and side of the house comes first. As that's predominantly where our garden is and where we will be spending time outdoors it makes sense to me to put up a tall fence, probably 2 metres. This will provide privacy and keep the dog contained. The challenge is using the right materials, and how to create a fence which might look good with the type of house it surrounds. It isn't going to be consistent with the era of the house but nevertheless it needs to work aesthetically. I have been thinking of a colorbond fence with timber posts and tops to break up the boxiness of the panels, like this

without the contrasting post tops. But am now thinking maybe all timber might be good. Like this

Hard to really tell the difference with these photos - I was taking them for the fence but also because I like the plantings between the fence and the footpath - softens the line and ideally stops the weeds. I like these native iris plants and I really like the native grasses on this next one

Anyway back to the fence. It occurs to me to consider what colour we plan to paint the exterior of the house in the next few years and incorporate those ideas into the fence. This is where it gets tricky. The house has existing colorbond guttering and fascias which are in good condition and probably won't need to be replaced for some time. The gutters are a dark grey and compliment the roof tiles well. So it makes sense to incorporate the colour of those when considering the house exterior and fence. More research required.