Hey thanks, Maro, but it was Bill himself out in his garden who was heard to mutter those immortal words as he tried to fix a seepage issue into his basement. Only later did he adapt it for Hamlet. Bill was always having trouble with landscape design. A whole tragedy could have been avoided had he just built a higher wall. Clearly Juliet thought it was fine  JULIET: How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? The orchard walls are high and hard to climb, And the place death, considering who thou art, If any of my kinsmen find thee here. And what was Bill thinking when he moved that forest in Macbeth? Thanks, Ink, for inquiring after my own perplexities. I found the forum exchange extremely helpful, confirming some directions and clearly steering me away from others. I think I understand my own choices better. As it happens, the on-line conversation unfolded simultaneously with our putting some earnest money into the first stage of the plan. The one modification that the conversation would have helped me with was to restrain my temptation to put a small ornamental tree back into the picture. Once I thought it through, that really made no sense  but the outfit I was working with informed me that I had already contracted to purchase and plant a tree  so there it is. So  the burm is no more, grass has been seeded, and a tree planted. All in all, even with the tree, it looks far better than before. Regrets? The tree, although it will answer my inner shadow gardener who secretly loves "visiting" new plants in the garden. Also, I'm not much of one for growing grass. Positives? I think it was basically a step in the right direction. I'm looking forward to what comes next. Oddly enough, the next steps may need to include the downspout, gutter, drainage issue around that low wall. So  at some point I may post specifics. Wellspring

If it were me, I would go either real copper or paint to blend in. I usually shy away from gutters as an architectural accent, although on some houses it can work. We painted our brick/siding combination gutters to blend in - horizontal gutters were painted the trim color (off white) and vertical gutters were painted the house color (taupe). They disappear fairly well - and the paint has worn really well (3+ years in a midwest climate).

garage door with something like this, will have a big impact. some added accessories. i love the copper idea. as for doing a sage green against the stone, I think it's the wrong pick. I'd prob go with an iron ore color for all of the trim work, or urbane bronze. these two would be nice Do the white around the wood garage door, copper lights, and the dark color for all of the fascia. Or if doing a really dark roof, switch the colors. I stick w/these color options and forget the green. or, any combo of these would work w/the stone Or, I did compile a bunch of other sage tones you might like

Thank you all for your recommendations, any thoughts on gutters? currently going with copper. If we were building a new home or plan to retire here we would definitely go with a metal roof. We may seal the stone with a wet look to bring out a more color. Really like some color besides what's in the stone. Our neighbors home has the same stone and they went with a brown/red with beige color. Thanks again, looking forward to more discussions.