Love everyone's comments! It seems like some 70's homes have more character than others. Mine is more on the "character" side. It has some architectural features that could enhance the whole place with the right decor. I'm still figuring out the last part about the "right" decor! Gscienceschick: RetroRenovation is fabulous! I checked out their 70's lighting catalogs. How come we had dreadful fake bronze/crackled smoky glass fixtures instead of those beauties? I have already replaced all the lighting because it was so dim. Palimpsest: Thank you for the historical perspective. It helps understand the context the houses were built in. I'm not American, so it is very educating for me. Funkyart: I wonder if you have a picture of your accent wall somewhere on this site? I'd love to see your creative solution. It appears that in the 70's the pendulum swung from the openness of the mid-century architecture toward a more cloistered and intimate feel. I do like an earthy palette and I think it can be done tastefully. The see-through mid-century modernist interiors are impressive but I never could picture myself living in such a place without putting ceiling-to-floor draperies over the window walls. I'd like to find a balance - having some airy and bright spaces together with a few cocoon-like rooms. Our house has a potential for it. We have a bright dining room (a slider to a 2nd story deck and a large window on the adjoining wall) and roomy kitchen facing south, and we like to have meals alfresco on our large 2nd story deck. At the same time our two downstairs rooms are dark, although the floors are only about a foot below grade. I'm toying with an idea of re-making the downstairs in an Art-Deco-ish style - cozy, cocoon-like and in a rich color palette. Speaking of an ultimate blank state for a home, the only examples I can think of are new construction condos in Moscow, Russia. Most of them are sold "bare bones" - no interior finishes, lighting, cabinets, floors, etc. The assumption is that the new owners would rip out the builder grade stuff anyway and redo the interiors to their taste. There's no landscape to influence the style either since those residences are in high-rise apartment blocks. There are all sorts of creative interior solutions, some interesting and some outlandish. Unlike in the U.S., the "resale value" concept hasn't taken a hold in Russia yet. For those who are curious, here's a link to a interior finish/remodel company in Moscow area that serves middle-class customers. The top video is the apartment at the time of purchase. The bottom video shows the work done by the company on it. These owners opted for a modernist design, but if you click on the links in the top section of the vertical bar on the left, you'll see other projects done in a more traditional style. Many of them are fairly pedestrian - recessed lights, IKEA bathrooms, etc, but I like browsing such portfolios for occasional novel ideas. One of the projects on this site features a bathroom with a plaid yellow/black floor tile. I have yet to find tile like that! Here is a link that might be useful: Interior Finish and Remodel Company in Moscow

In its own suburban way, that's what the PO did to this house, magnaverde. We've been spending a lot of time taking out white colonial Home Depot molding and putting in small simple molding (painted the same color as the room), taking out 6 panel fake wood hollowcore doors and replacing them with solid core slab doors or fir single-lite pocket doors...one eyesore I haven't been able to fix yet is in the double -height foyer where a massive foyer fixture once hung, the PO put a cr*ppy white HD fan with shiny fake brass trim...UGH UGH UGH. I actually found a rather tasteful 70s Fredrick Ramond fixture in LN condition at a Habitat store, which would be much closer to what should show in that tall window above the door, but it's *difficult* to get up there and change the fixture out. We've given away so much colonial molding and use the doors for work surfaces. This is no masterpiece house, but it felt like it was being suffocated in faux-colonial trim and we've resimplified it so it could be itself again. Which will probably go completely unappreciated in this neighborhood, but it passed the time. palimpsest, if you have a feeling that you shouldn't post, I completely respect that. Don't want to jinx anything. We'll just have to wait until you have found something and then settled on it and then we can celebrate with you! I have faith that you can do anything you want and will make whichever house (and cash IS king right now, so I understand the drive to underspend) into a photogenic and soul-nourishing home.

Since you already have a grey roof and new grey concrete, I would choose grey to match the existing colour of these two elements for garage doors and around the windows area. The gold windows trim looks good, so I would paint all trims and wooden elements of the house the same colour, including the garage beam and the garage frame (they are red-ish on my screen). I would put wood siding vertically above the garage beam to match the colour and stile of existing fence and trim (see pic). The same for the gable above the windows. It would give you more interesting look with additional texture. To enhance the contrast, I would change the lanterns to modern and black ones. The entrance might be stained or paint with fresh bright trim-fence stain/colour and the grey paint around.

I think split level/split foyer houses look better if the brick and siding colors are very close, so you're already there with the siding color. If it's not quite right I can't really tell from the pictures. That's something you have to judge in person. If the siding was darker it would make the house look top heavy and emphasize the different finishes. For me this isn't desirable, but maybe others like it. As the other commenters have said, the shutters are unnecessary and need to go. The garage doors could be darker, not white, and windows in garage doors always look better. An imitation natural wood color or something leaning brown would look nice with the brick and siding.