Do you like the brick? It looks like tans and copper colors, which with a gray roof, will present a problem finding coordinating colors. If you are keeping the field color, I would paint the garage the same color. The shutters would look better if they were appropriately sized for the windows, when closed they would cover the glass. This is especially true of the shutters on the big window. They look way too narrow for the size of the window.

I would like to see if someone jumps in to use Photoshop to change the color of the shutters. But without seeing the new door and roof color and a close up of the brick, it is hard to pick a color for trim and shutters. Can you take another picture?
Diane

Diane thank you for replying.

We were planning on keeping the brick and the field color for that matter.

I agree with the shutter sizes being too small for the windows.

I will get a additional pictures that show the new front door and roof. BTW the grey roof was a mistake and a lesson learned. The shingle color looked much more brown on the sample, but the angle of the roof seemed to have changed the appearance)

I apologize in advance; I'm getting opinionated in my old age.

There's no rhyme or reason to the architecture. Simplify and tie things together. Replacing the brown shingles with grey was the first thing that came to my mind, but then, I just don't like brown. To my mind, the variegated brick has got to go - I'd paint it, the foundation below the windows on the left, the retaining wall to the right and the garage door all the same color, which would tie the house to the landscape. Speaking of landscape, cut down the three pom-poms shrubs left of the front door and the large bush to the right - in their place, maybe creeping juniper to the left, something low to the right. Get rid of the carriage light and replace it with a short "pathway" light surrounded by a group of shrubs to give the yard some depth. The fan-top front door does not work with the house; rework it as time and money allows; in the meantime, paint the bronze strips around the sidelights so they match the door.

If I could do only one thing to improve the look of this house, I would install a piece of trim that would visually extend the line of the fascia/gutter on across the bottom of the gable on the left. As it is, the siding goes right on up and makes what could be a really nice architectural detail into a blank expanse.

I hope I don't come across as mean-spirited. I like the house. It's a diamond in the rough, but someone went out of their way to make it dowdy. A very little effort would make a huge difference.

Congrats on your new house, looks spacious with lots of yard :)

Wow, what a difference adding the fascia board makes! I added it at the bottom, too, for visual support. If the garage door is the same color as the siding, it will look more like part of the house. Paint the carriage light the same color, too. And how about some gabled overhang to protect the front entry?

In this one, I enlarged the shutters and colored them, well, supposed to be a darkish grey-blue, to tie in with the roof. The color isn't quite right, though. This is very traditional, looks like a colonial.

This one, on the other hand, has no shutters, but the window is trimmed twice: once with a narrow band of white, then a substantial band of the siding color. A bit more contemporary, calmer perhaps?

In my neighborhood, there is a trend toward painting the brick the same color as the siding, especially on varied-color-brick. It solves a problem, but it all depends on your taste.

About the fascia and the gutters: I have seen many homes with odd colored roofs benefit from painting the fascia and gutters a darker color than the field color of the house. Something that marries the two, like dark blue in this case?

Mag77 has offered some very good ideas for you to mull over.
Diane

Window boxes, a gable over the garage (if you can bring it out a bit, it makes a nice overhang, protect the garage door a bit), and of course a Lamborghini for that little extra flair.

And here's the one without the shutters, but with a wider overhang over the door, and with a gable over the garage. Also evened out the slope to the left of the front stoop. I happen to like carriage lights, myself, so I kept it. The Lamborghini drove off to the country club.

You'd have to check whether the house is already at the front buildable line; any protrusions might require a variance. Sorry, I can't do landscaping yet! Photoshoppers?

You house suffers from what every split level/split foyer suffers from, those wide gutters of empty space that is what everyone seems to notice first. Except for the person who buys the house. Ask me how I know this? Lucky you, you have two of them. Personally I don't think your house is bad looking at all. But I like the idea of changing up the shutters and a gabled roof over the front door. The gabled porch is something I've thought of for my own home. New porches could be the savior of all Splits in existence! There is a document out there on the web called 'Split Visions" that has some great ideas too.

Add a curved walkway from the bottom of the steps to further down the driveway. I'd keep the one the goes straight across, but another that sweeps down makes for a more graceful approach to the Lamborghini. I wouldn't take it directly to the sidewalk, though; going to the driveway will be easier for car visitors, and no harder for people approaching from the sidewalk/street.

You can do a nice little planting in between the two walks, or move t he carriage light to that spot. I wouldn't plant anything big and bushy to the left of the garage, though, for this practical reason: you have a retaining wall on the right. When you clear snow, you won't be throwing it up over that wall, it needs to go to the left. I speak from experience.