Our house is 7 years old and has its original SW Duration Exterior Paint on the trim. Most of the house is stone, except there is wood trim in Belvedere Tan, Navajo White, and one small wing in cedar shingle painted Dark Birch (I'm fairly sure--it is a driftwood color), all SW colors. We are having the trim painted again. It is all in good condition except for a small area of Belvedere Tan on the front of a south-facing balcony. Our paint contractor usually uses Duration, but will use whatever brand and paint we wish. So, here is my question: Should I specify SW Duration Exterior again, or should I switch to FPE? I am sure he will not remove every piece of wood and prime on 6 sides, which I think is the only way to meet FPE's guaranty requirements. I do not want to change any of the colors because they work so well with the stone. Thanks for your thoughts! Oh, and we are roughly equidistant from Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, so whatever paints are available among the three are fair game. The big consideration is durability in the Texas sun and variable weather. This post was edited by kitchendetective on Wed, Feb 13, 13 at 15:07

I sell a bunch of vinyl windows and the complaints against them are mostly undeserving. That said...I can't see vinyl in any capacity in this home style. I would look at fiberglass with a wood interior.

It looks like you have beautiful wood doors, door trim and beams. Don't know what you have around the windows (not pictured). Looks like the stairs could use a bit of TLC. If I were you I would not be in a hurry to paint or refinish the wood. First year in the home should be figuring out what works, doesn't work, how the home functions and where to sink your money. Prime your walls - live with them for a bit and decide if you really want white walls. I know all the pictures on the internet today are white rooms, but they also have studio lighting. Not all homes look good with all white walls. White needs lots of light to really shine. Often a light neutral color looks better than white if you don't have giant windows, skylights or other great lighting. My last home had between 6 and 16 linear feet of windows in each room - natural daylight galore and I had white walls. My current home has more normal sized windows in most rooms and I am painting the walls that were white to something more appropriate for the amount of light. The white just isn't pretty with out sufficient light. With the walls all primed you can look at flooring and paint and make a better decision on what works best in your new home.

Love your tile. I'd use the light neutral background color of the tile for the walls. How about the green for the mantle?