I think the interior of the rooms can be brightened/tweaked with lots of different approaches. Here a few examples: Photo one: bright, zen inspired furniture, lighter flooring(terazzo/carpet/wood). Organic colours.. Photo two: same thing, notice the bed fairly close the window. You could do that by having a pony wall/installation behind the bed as in photo three. Obviously not in wood, since your ceiling has enough of it present. Photo four: if you keep the wooden ceiling you can create interest and break up the stripe monotony with an interesting/large fixture.

I love a challenge, I would extend the garage to the full width of the property. Re-position the front door to the center with a window and a contemporary wide door as shown. Next I would remove all the hanging tiles and render as picture. For a full contemporary look change the windows to a dark grey profile. This will create internally a larger entrance, giving the owner more internal space, keep it open plan! I cannot see any images of the existing interior to advise a room layout. The back of the property looks rendered....I love the balcony, which I am hoping is off a living room??? Again if within budget replace the existing windows with dark grey profile, put dark grey bi folds where the sliding doors are at present, extend the patio by 1.5 meters, to allow for external seating area......keep it minimal. Spray the existing railings dark grey. A couple of strategically placed large pots with topiary trees.........Your Done!

I should say we also rationalised all the windows and removed an awkward 'step' in the floor in the main living space. Patio doors were also added to create more of an 'inside / outside' feel.

Consider any or all of the following: Getting the food pressure washed. Putting the front door on the front. Adding a pitched roof to the porch. Replacing the picket fence. Building a bin store in the front corner. Painting the side fence. Adding height to the front garden with an ornamental tree. I would personally only render the top part and paint it in something different to the window colour- my choice would be a strong grey with a brown quality. I would probably render the side wall (just on the low parts between the piers)