hardie board siding with the stone front. I like the first house exterior but the siding looks like vinyl which horrifies me. I love the wrap around porch but something about the shutters looks strange to me. I like this siding with the stone trim in the same place as the first picture. I also like the way the windows are extended out about a foot in the below photo. flat fronts are boring to me.
{{!gwi}}

We also can't decide if we should/shouldn't use shutters...

Our house is already started, so we can't really change too much about the plan, just the outside...

I love the pic you posted, looks so cozy.

Not sure exactly what type of help you're looking for or style you're after, but I took the challenge and was playing around with a combination of the two a bit :) This leans more towards a farmhouse style. Didn't catch the b&b shutters from your initial post the first time through, though.

My thoughts would be to simplify the porch by removing some of the columns. I used the wider ones and don't know just how many are actually needed to support the roof -- but now I see that little white thing I erased is actually a corner and there's a setback on the porch, which is why there were so many supports! Here the porch is one full wrap and has the peak eliminated. The headers between the columns, as well as the gutter line, has been made more substantial also. The wider gutters should handle some of the water runoff, but I'm no roofing technician!

Although I love shutters and they don't have to be functional in form to please my eye, they do look much too narrow, so I've widened them. The window headers have been bulked up a bit and the capping beneath them narrowed. The middle and left windows have been opened up by not including the wide capping beneath them, which goes to the roofline in your pics. This looks much better, imo.

Definitely opt for Hardiplank over vinyl. It will last a lifetime and is repaintable in the future. I believe it has a transferrable warranty too. Much better resale appeal, imo, too.

I don't care for those roofy things in the peak corners. If the roofing design can handle it, I'd remove those as well as the stretch on the left and just put corner details in, but not long and roofed as they have them.

I also changed the coloring of the stone to include a lot of gray, as it seems to flow better. If it's concrete blocks they've used, I'd use a field stone face (not ledge style) instead.

HTH! 'Tis a beautiful home whatever you do!

Hmm. I thought you'd get more help on this. I'd love to see what others think about your problem. Sadly I can't be of any help.

I really like what squirrel did with the porch. I agree that less is better concerning the columns.
If you go with the stone, I would just put it on the porch area and not go above the roof, like the picture msjay posted. It looks more authentic, to me. Like something that would have been built quite a while ago. I don't care for the stone going up above the roof in just that one spot. Also, a whole bunch of houses will have that same design element, executed in the same way. It kind of takes away the specialness of the stone work.
I don't care for the colored shutters. I might be plain when it comes to this, but I like them to be the trim color on a non-white house. I think it beefs up the moulding already there and gives them more presence, again like the house msjay posted. Actually, I don't think I'd do them at all. I'd use really wide trim to bring attention to the windows.
Definitely hardiplank instead of vinyl.

It's going to be a really cute house, whatever you choose.

I didn't answer over on building because I was going to try and photoshop something but didn't get around to it. I like the stone in the middle like your first example and then I like board and batten for the rest of the house. I also love shingles like in MsJay's example. We have all three on our house and love it. I'm not a big fan of siding. But I'm not sure it's the style you're after....?

Here is a photo of my old house. We used real natural stone, Hardy Board - in a shaker style and stucco. My original plan did call for more columns, however we decided to cut back on the number and add to the width of each. Like squirrellhaven suggested...less is more and you save money!

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Thank you to those who replied :)

Wow...I love newhomebuilder's old house. That is a great look!

Beautiful homes!! Newhomebuilder,if that's your old home,what does your new one look like??That old one if Fabulous !!!
Kathi

I finally found this forum again to see what was happening. Squirrelhaven once again you did a great job. I do like the porch with less colums and that roof peak design removed. Alex9179 I also like your idea about the wider trim around the windows. Perhaps with a wider trim the shutters might fit in a little better. I also agree if the shutters must be there maybe the same color would work better? Squirrelhaven how about photoshopping that idea? [wider trim with and without shutters]. and maybe stone trim on the front by the doors but not extending to the roofline? LOL putting you to work.

Something about that shaker style siding looks really exciting to me. newhomebuilder I like your old home too.

A few years ago I was really in love with the stone fronts but if I built a home from the ground up in a subdivision I probably would not use the stone unless most of the houses did not have it. It was at one time something very different but when I go through subs now with stone trimmed houses they put so many of them that it loses its appeal.

Liptonjl what did you decide to do? Have we helped you to make any decisions or did we confuse you more? LOL sometimes that happens on here. So many good ideas it is even harder to choose. I went to your photo album and your lot looks nice. Lots of shade!

I think 'we' may have scared her off. Don't think she's comin' back again :)

You lose this forum ?!? Yikes! I probably did too when I first came here, lol. There's so much stuff around the net I love to just wander. I save a lot of sites, but usually just go to my favorites list when I can't remember or find them with the search engine.

LIPTOOOOON, where are you? I was out in Lowes shopping today and I found something for you!!!

Well it is not going to help you with your home design problem BUT it will help with your landscaping. There is a magazine called Great Gardens and it has LOTS of information on foundation plantings that shout WOW.
The magazine was a little pricey at 9.00 but it will be well worth it. here is a shot of the cover,
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and the tableof contents if you can read it

{{!gwi}}

That looks like a special edition of Garden Gate. I pick up the monthly magazine (used to have a subscription) alot. It is a great magazine.

Thanks! I loved that house, but a major housing project was to begin behind our house and we decided to sell. We also needed to downsize a bit.

Bought our current house while it was under construction. We made many changes to the house, including going to brick instead of the faux stone that the contractor had planned to put on. He would not switch to real stone like we had on our previous house. While we love the area (on golf course), we are not 100% crazy about the house. If the market ever improves, we will build again near-by.

So sorry for being such a slacker!!! I didn't think I'd get so many replies! THank you!

You defintely did not confuse me more and ABSOLUTELY helped!

mrsjay2u - my MIL actually bought me that magazine between the time i posted this and now when I checked it! Like you said - no help right now but SO MANY good ideas for once we're finished.

SO here's where we are: We are using vinyl even though I know many people are horrified by it. We live in Northeast PA and it's very common here and easy to maintain! Plus we are only in our late 20's and we're either going to live here forever - so we'll change stuff out for better stuff down the road when we can afford it... OR we'll build again and get all the up up grades then.

Looks like it will be Certainteed's Carolina Beaded siding (little thicker with a decorative edge) on the back and sides. It will also go on the front (bottom part of garage) and by the foyer window.

We will use the Certainteed vinyl cedar impressions siding in the 2 closed off peaks (near attic window) and over garage. We're going to use the same color as the Carolina beaded siding above (natural clay) but it will appear a little darker because of the ridges in the shakes. Here's a sample of a different color:

Then we will use cultured stone ONLY around the entry way.

The big question is - what to do with the front porch by the windows. Not sure if I should keep the stone all the way across or do Carolina beaded or cedar shakes there.

Here's the most current pic of our house:

Ok so now that I've totally confused YOU... What do you think? LOL