I agree that wood steps could be a mistake, but for a reason in addition to being slippery. Our previous house, a Victorian built in the late 1870s, had a wooden porch and steps. These lay in the direction of weather, and rain, snow, and ice would directly hit them and/or accumulate on them. The paint job never looked good for more than several months; it began to fade fairly quickly, or worse: peeling and bubbling on the treads. Perhaps I should have used the very highest-quality paint; perhaps that might have done the trick -- I don't know. Suffice to say that, in this house, for both front and back entrances, we had a stone porch and stone steps put by our contractor, whose area of expertise is masonry. It was expensive, but probably not much more, if any, than having custom wood. But any cost difference more than made up for by the low, low maintenance. A walkway of stone might be the most authentic, but I think you could get away with concrete, too. Is there any reason why you're not going to keep the iron railings that you have? We had to replace rotted wood railings, and we chose iron. They are beautiful, look authentic, and we love them, but there were quite expensive. I wish there had been decent iron railings there to begin with, even if the style had been less interesting.

Thank you for sharing the pic Pennie. I like that look and those colors! The flower boxes are charming. The transition with my house is a problem for me, seems choppy. The pic you posted the roof is pitched different too and makes the house seem taller. It looks like my house has two very short stories. My brick is a nicer brick (colonial) than the picture I posted depicts but unless I go with a color to match the brick like Bossyvossy said, then the house will always looked chopped up. To me it looks like a faux colonial this way. I thought painting it one color would make it look more authentic. Thanks for posting!

Beautiful home. Budget and building codes permitting, consider first changing what you can for actual wood with wood finish: first your front door; then shutters; and then your garage door. Wood with natural finish (rather than paint) can go a long way toward transforming the look of a home. IF you are going to repaint what is painted ... and this is a matter of personal opinion, of course -- putting off whites with white can make the off whites seem dingy by comparison. If you don't want true white (trim and fascia and shutters porches, etc.), you could choose a truly dark brown or, at the very least, if you choose an "off white" by any name, use the same off white color for all those painted parts of your home. Exception: Black shutters could also work with a brick home with a brown roof and white elsewhere. Just a note: If you're considering changing the landscaping, that usually has the potential to make a lot of difference toward curb appeal. One issue to consider is how much maintenance are you willing to do (or have done) and how much maintenance would any changes contemplated require.

Big props to Flo! Those colors look great. You will be very disappointed if you do white. The weathered wood roof seems like a safe choice, and you really don't want to worry about a leaky roof. Depending on what those big shrubs are, you may be able to severely prune them, but not right before winter, or the new growth won't have time to harden off. Fall is a great time for new plantings, so their roots can grow over the winter.