There is a lot of dark wood trim inside, and it is surrounded by craftsman bungalows, but other than that, it's probably more Colonial revival. The triangle is the same cedar shingles. At first we thought about painting it a slightly darker shade, but now we're leaning towards painting it all one color, except for the trim. The house currently has white trim, but I'm thinking of taking the trim a few shades lighter than the siding color. So there is still definition, but not a harsh contrast. At the same time, I love a crisp gray house with white trim, and I don't want the house to feel too dark.

Thank you emagineer for pointing lsjtc in the right direction with clickable links and explnations. So much kindness and helpfulness will always be appreciated. Much better than being told "Wrong forum, try "That Home Site" with no help. One of the great things about T2T and Garden Junk is the mostly helpful and considerate ways of the members. CT

My son and I bought a house together after we lost our loved ones three years ago. I absolutely stated NO BRICK! I was living out of state & he was transferring to a different location 1.5 hours from where he worked. Where we were looking was and is even worse now to purchase a house, multiple offers first few hours on the market or gone before listed! He finally found one, has brick on the outside, we agreed & purchased it. Along with the brick it has aluminum siding, another no-no in my book. I started looking for ways to change the brick color this last winter and finally found the perfect solution. Sherwin-Williams has a product called COLORTOP. I don't remember if the following is a subdivision of SW, (I am thinking it is) or is made by H&C. It is an Interior and Exterior Water-Based Solid Color Concrete and Brick Stain. Many years ago I worked for SW so called their headquarters in Cleveland and spoke to a very knowledgeable person about this particular product. I was told that the formula is one that has been used in Europe for over a hundred years to color stucco, brick, mortar and block. (In some European countries like Switzerland they started building stick build houses about 10 years ago, but it is not common!) This is a water-based product made specifically for brick, stucco, etc. so it can breath. If this were my house, I would paint the house a color you like, pick a complimentary trim color for the windows, fascia, 2 posts, and paint the brick Because the brick is very tall, you might want to paint the first 4 or 5 rows the fascia color, then paint three rows the house color, the continue painting the brick in the fascia color again. I would also pick a bright outstanding color for your front door and security door as well! Paint the address numbers to match the doors. I figure you live in CA by how the soffit is made, I would paint that the same color as the house, because the trim around the door and the new color of the security door and house door will take your eye away from it. Would paint the cement the same color as the house as well. I know you are not plant folks, but I would recommend pruning your bushes and and getting rid of the dead leaves on the plant to the right of your front door. I would plant perennials that are different heights, colors and textures of leaves, and have the ones that will flower go with the color of your front doors. On our house, we have started to replace the 1968 windows and replaced them with windows that are framed in the color Terratone, so that is the color of the trim, the brick and house color is called Sandtone and the front door is Home Depot Orange, I can't remember the real name of it, but I saw it in a decorating magazine and loved the color as most houses in the neighborhood are rather bland. The flowers in the front are bright yellow, orange, with a row of red bleeding hearts along the front porch. These are the only plants that will grow in this one area and they bloom before anything else and the leaves are nice and airy so it doesn't matter what color they are! The other plant leaves being in shades of lime, dark green, blue, different colors of variegated leaves, ferns of different colors, heights and leaves, variegated Hostas, and Heucherellas with leaves from yellow to dark burgundy and everything in-between! Once you put in perennials there is not much you have to do with them, you need to find out what growing zone you are in, Google What Is My Growing Zone, it will ask you for your zip code and there you have it. I Then you need to decide if your area is full sun, part sun, part shade, full shade, or part sun, part shade. Full sun is 6 hours of sun. Everything you need to know you can google, or go to a garden center and ask, or go to Home Depot or Lowe's and look for the oldest person in the gardening department and they might be able to help you. Don't buy the biggest plants, I always buy small, and read how big they will grow and plant them accordingly. plant your plants, look for heat tolerant or drought tolerant ones if water is a problem, It is necessary to use stone or bark to cover the dirt in your garden to a depth of at least 3" to keep moisture in the ground. I have a large dislike for stone, as I had to move yards and yards of it when I lived in Northern CA because I wanted to get rid of some Ivy that had taken over just about everything in the back yard. If you decide to plant, in the spring it is a good idea to purchase a product called Preem, it is a weed deterrent. It comes in a granular form, follow the instructions and you won't have weeds popping up in the garden. for the first three years you will have to weed a little and add some bark, after three years I have very few weeds and I can go 3 years without adding bark, although I always put down 4-5", when I do as I am not a fan of weeding! I use Cypress as it has a better tendency to keep bugs away, as does cedar. So there you have way more advice than you asked for, but you can have the cutest, prettiest house on the block if you so wish! Good luck with your painting and maybe gardening, I hope to see before and after pictures some day.

You didn't say if the windows are already installed or not. Since painting PVC requires cleaning, sanding, taping and spray primer and finish coats, it makes a big difference where they are. Its usually better to replace existing windows. The best approach is to order new windows in white with the exterior of the sash in black. That may not be available for vinyl windows but it is for most clad wood windows like Marvin and Andersen. The savings from not painting should greatly offset the higher cost of clad wood windows and you won't need to paint them again. All black windows look like black holes. I predict the fad won't last much longer.