The white cedar single stains described in this thread are mostly applied by dipping the shingles in stain at the factory which provides the best protection. Weatherwash is a brand of interior furniture stain that can be used on exterior wood with a protective coating of Weatherwash's Exterior Water Sealer. That seems like additional expense for less protection.

You all are so wonderful! Below are answers to specific questions some of you raised..... staceyneil-Love the brackets! Never ever would have thought of that. That could be perfect! Also, you asked about location....we're in NJ so we'd want a Nantucket look, I think. debelli -You asked about the age of our house and also about what other homes in the neighborhood look like. Our house was built in the 50's and had some renovation done in the early 70's. As for the neighborhood, it's a mix of older homes (mostly Capes and Colonials) that in recent years have been replaced brand new, much much larger homes. The "building" on the left you ask about is one of the new homes. Its three floors dwarfs our little place. arcy-our budget right now is pretty low as home improvement budgets go...a few thousand dollars at most right now and that has to include replacing the entry door (which is badly warped). We are hoping, though, if we finalize our vision of what we want the whole thing to ultimately look like we can work toward it in various stages. A lot of you have asked about the gravel driveway (actually it's river rock...a little nicer looking as rocks go). We do need to keep it to park the cars, so other than possibly pulling it back off of the house a bit, we're going to have to work with it for now. Thanks again to everyone for all of the fantastic feedback!!

weedyacres Yes, you are right about measuring wants vs needs. I no longer watch those tv shows! The roof is a priority and should be done before long for both the house and garage. I was asking the question about what would be best to do for the sake of both time and money. idk i was just asking, trying to get a feel for where to start. Everyone has their own advice to give so it seems a matter of deciding what priorities we have then going down the list. I do not have an unlimited budget. Hubby wants to fix the roof, power wash then fill in and paint the house, put new fencing from painted corrugated metal then call it a day. So our compromise is the roof first, NOTHING gets done before then. Refinish wood floors floors 2nd (4 bedrooms and hallway). Remove tiles in the only tiny bathroom and in the current kitchen. Remove these tiles from the livingroom and sun room floors as well. Lighting next - ceiling and wall sconces & put electric lines in for where new kitchen will be and update the lines in current kitchen to fit where the master bedroom will be. Put heated floors down in old bathroom, living room, sun room, and current kitchen but to fit the new master bathroom. The sun room is my DIY off the grid experiment for a bathroom. I am deciding on what toilet to get, the incino or the sunmar composting? When we are in Haiti there is much less to go than when we're in Costa Rica but the idea is still the same, off grid and it works just fine. I already have the barrels and a stand hubby built for the rain water, filters, solar panels and hose, gravity pump? But this is definitely an extra, non necessity but it does seem the easiest and cheapest. Just needs some paint and some modification to the bay window sill. I'm thinking a space for a trundle unit under there or drawers or storage. Again, this is a BONUS project that shouldn't take much of the budget I have for the other updates. After the heated floors are down for the old bathroom, the old kitchen, the living room and sun room (guest room) then we're off to the next project which should put me on my way to a new kitchen, master bath and guest bathroom. Hubby can do plumbing and electrical but we will hire out for the electrical. Plumbing for new kitchen sink and hookup for ice maker/refrigeration. I can't decide if I want a sink in the island or a regular hookup and do the cook top in the island or just a plain island!!! After all of this, there's just paint and some other decorative touches: stencil, embossed wall paper, wainscoting, tiling, crown molding. We have cleared out the lower cabinets in the kitchen already. There are a slew of lumbar yards in my area and in southern Georgia and I've already picked up pieces for the current bathroom. Pricing and styles are doable. My idea of beams does not fit into the budget or timetable so that can always be added later. I had wanted a skylight over the master bathroom but hubby explained the energy loss and its a no. :0( Thank you for all your input it has whipped me into a realistic DIY and project manager. Looks like we will tear floors/tiles out ourselves. vanity, counter top, cabinets then resurface them in a color and finish with hardware updates - OURSELVES. My master bathroom may have a incino/composting toilet too for now idk. All the plumbing is available for a shower/bath and sink, I just want to minimize all the extras if we don't have to do it. What do you think of this idea? Hubby says we can revisit that at a later time and we really do want to be a bit more eco friendly like when we're camping in Adirondacks or the Hamptons or Costa Rica, Trinidad or Haiti. We have electric for cooking. I do miss the gas from up north but it will do. Baking and grilling is the majority of our meals here with a teenager in the house. She cooks A LOT! H B Thank you for the heads up. This need is what played a major role in my decision to scale back on my grandiose desires. That darn house flipper really messed me up with full home renovations at 20k to 45k! Someone pointed out there's a lot of cost not included but I didn't know and that's why I asked. I couldn't find any reputable businesses here in Jacksonville who could match those prices, notice I said reputable. Yes I am ALWAYS looking for a break, a deal, a savings but not shoddy work or cheap materials or low quality labor. I now see this is a DIY project with hired inspectors and specialty for electricity and laying the colored cement floor. Later down the line, I'd like to update the windows and put some rubber pour down for the play space for my children. I scored a new pool in the box off of Craig's list for free but some parts were missing when i hired a assemble man to put it together. I have a deck builder, materials and labor for a good price but now that's on hold too. We need to hire someone to level out the backyard but its kind of tight to get equipment back there with all the trees we cut in preparation for the new roof. I will make a grill out of an old oil barrel and use a gas cook top with tanks... I can't wait to see some progress and imagine that will be after the roof and gutters are laid then the off grid system goes up immediately! After we fog the attic for mold, encapsulate/paint/ insulate. Then its the old bathroom which has to be torn down to studs, there's some rotted wood in the wall. We have a idea of what order to go in so we will try to stick to that plan. Thank you again for your guidance, its much appreciated.

I will hand draw the rough floor plans and elevations so that I will not violate the contract. It will take a while and might not be to the exact true scale of it, but hopefully is close enough. I love the floor plan, it was made with a lot of our feedbacks, but hate the curves put in the master bathroom - seems pointless and expensive. I deeply dislike the exterior and interior detailing (not just cost matter, I feel it was pushed on us against our interests), and I also am feeling very unsure about our roof line and gables (can it be simpler or fewer? does it matter to reduce cost?). I am annoyed that we have to spend almost 30K on a fake chimney. We don't want to trigger structural review if possible (6 months delay + 20K structural eng fees), but given how bad I feel about it, we are discussing that maybe it is not too bad if we delay the project for a year while trying to fix the design issues and looking at the housing market for alternatives. And who knows, if we are ok with triggering structural review, the additional saving could be substantial that we care less about the 20K structural redesigning fees. We started the design process years ago when we were of more limited means. Ours is a building designer, not an architect. cpartist, I do think the yellow house look like a farm house. Our started out as a Tudor, and we keep most of it when the city wanted craftsman instead. I think it only look like a forced G&G, and the only thing that might fool some people into thinking it's G&G is the brick/rock work and excessive detailing. But then again, reasonable G&G homes I look at have much quieter exterior. The house on the left of our lot is "supposedly" a craftsman, but doesn't look like it at all. I think the city wants the craftsman "flavor". We are not purist, I don't mind some modifications to craftsman, but don't want a loud expensive exterior and interior. Thanks to the veteran architects in this thread, I am learning a lot from you.