I am going to get on my design high horse and probably offend some people who personalize discussions about design theory, because I am good at annoying people in this way. First, I think almost anybody who buys a post war house in almost any part of the country that was not built as a completely custom house is probably going to end up with a lot of choices in houses that include a patch of brick or stone on the front facade and plain siding or plainer brick on the rest. Almost anybody who builds a new house in a development or subdivision or home owner's association is not only going to face the same, thing, but in addition are not going to be allowed to leave the stone or brick accent off even if they want to. The element that was originally used as a budget cutting device is now "important" to the design and consistency of the entire development. The consistency of materials of the individual house is no longer important, but the inconsistency of materials and how they are used must be consistent throughout the neighborhood. The building a house forum is full of questions about how to tack the stone or brick onto the front of their houses even if they don't want it because the guidelines say the house must be 10% stone and 30% brick on the facade. Second, I don't think there is anything the matter with vinyl siding. I don't think there is anything the matter with any particular building material. Frank Lloyd Wright built beautiful houses out of concrete block. There's nothing the matter with building a plain rectangular house with plain modest materials that go all away around the house and calling it done. But as a culture we have been convinced that this is cheap looking somehow. But if its three sides of a rectangle with a convoluted elevation on the front including three or four different building materials, it's "pretty". Third, if you are building a custom or semi custom house, why not build something that you can afford to finish the same on all four sides? We are also in a culture where people are pressured into feeling it's necessary to take everything to a level that we can just barely afford it. And who is that impressing? Some random stranger may be impressed by your house driving by, but what about the people who get inside, and see that there's barely any furniture, and many of the rooms are cheaply detailed drywall boxes. I understand if you live in a HCOLA that it is easy to be house poor, but whats the point of a 4000 square foot house when you are entertaining people on card tables. Sheer volume isn't everything. Should you apologize to friends because the back of your house is vinyl? I dunno, but think about where you are putting friends and family. There is this fancy facade out front that no one ever spends any time in front of. They are escorted to the back yard. There are $1M townhouses here that have stone and brick facades with genuine copper bays and details on the front. The end unit has plain stucco on the side that faces a side streets. The backs are vinyl siding (you can easily see all three materials together.) So some stranger sees the fancy front of the house where the real friends are taken out back where they sit on crudely built pressure treated decks next to vinyl siding with all sorts of PVC pipes and vents and such sticking out all over with no concerns about esthetics, or quality, and it's all right at eye level. As a culture, maybe we should apologize.

Hmmm I think I need to learn how to do that (change colors in a pic). Could we see something darker/browner to better relate to brick and roof? By griege I was thinking something midway between gray & brown. The above looks very blue and reads almost as a white, at least on my monitor.... If you have a spare shingle OP just pull something out of that, or if you are reroofing then look at that in relation to your red brick. I too have a steep, very visible roof and Im telling ya, that really does play a major role in how your house looks. Jjust google "colors that go with red brick" - lots of possibilities out there.

I liked Celerygirl’s first and last color schemes from her Wednesday post. I wouldn’t remove the shutters since they are totally architecturally appropriate to these windows and this type home. I would most likely also add them to the second floor windows since that is the way this style house would have traditionally looked. I like the bed line Yardvaark sketched out which looks great with the classic architecture and doesn’t hide it. I wouldn’t put anything much above window sill height across the front of the house.

Thank you for the suggestions! I like the idea of removing the shutters to see what colors would match more appropriately. The roof has supposedly 30 years left on in but it is almost a black color. The siding is also newer. The trim is actually very dark brown at the moment. So we have black roof, off white siding, maroon shutters, orangey red door, and brown trim! I will have to play around with photoshop to try out a sage green - hadn’t thought of that color. Thanks! We’ll probably replace the door and sidelights soonwr than later. So many options though! How to choose?? We would probably have to replace the walkway at some point bc it is tilting the wrong way towards the house and the downspout does not extend beneath it. We have some temporary plastic extender tripping hazard at the moment. How much do walkways normally cost? We had some instant equity when buying (it was sold as-is at half the price of the average price of the neighborhood) but we’re looking to redo some bathrooms, do something about the kitchen eventually, fill in some voids beneath sections of the house, and install 100 ft of retaining wall too so this may have to wait. I love the idea of installing some curvy landscaping though but maybe we should wait until we replace the walkway at some point? I guess we could always just score a curvy border around it and plant some cheaper plants in the meantime. We also have a retaining wall at the side that is rotting (where there used to be a bunch of trees - they must have chopped them down prior to selling bc they are still there in these photos) and need to replace ASAP. There is one tree remaining on the “overgrown” tree side of the house that is a dogwood tree so I might see what it looks like in the spring before chopping some of it off. My husband wants to put in retaining wall at the back as well in order to bury an exposed pipe, provide a base for the AC unit, and address drainage issues. So it would be about 100 ft of retaining wall, along with regrading and pulling out leftover tree stumps. It’s likely a big expense unless anyone has any other ideas. The porch is actually sagging in the middle but are considering a polyeurethane injection to prop it back up as this seems to be much more cost effective than putting in a new one. My husband keeps going on about changing the porch floor - but what else goes with brick? The posts are gone though - they definitely need to be replaced ASAP. Any suggestions for what style and width? There are so many options!