I've hired really good painters who scrap, sand and prime any problem areas. They will be brushing all of the trim, windows, shutters and doors, rolling the porte cochere ceiling and spraying the screened porch ceiling. The stucco walls don't need to be painted now. I thought the standing rule was: no latex on oil, although now there appear to be ways to prime oil base paint so that it can be covered with latex. Thanks for the responses. I'd still love to hear more feedback about brands and finishes!

I am no landscaping expert, but even something like this makes your entry more important. I'm sure that someone else will have some better ideas on how to improve this area and make it more welcoming. OK just saw the entrance image. Are we going for a contemporary home or an olde tyme cottage home?????? Have their been some changes to the original building?? The reason I ask is that I was getting ready to propose a contemporary garage door to go with your boulder stones. Which was do you want to go???

Curious as to what you ended up doing if you happen to see this comment. I am in the same situation except my door is in front and I’m not on a lake. I also have 1/2 of my house front entrance to huge garage that wont be moved. Thanks for answering if you see this and have time.

Thanks very much! I accidentally included pictures that showed the front of the house before we replaced the kitchen window and added a window to the left of the front door. The quick background is we renovated the kitchen during quarantine (because that is a fun project to take on with working remotely full time in IT and having kids at home 24/7 :)) and as part of that project we replaced the double casement kitchen window with one that has a larger, fixed center flanked by casement windows on each side. We took the old kitchen window and added it to the bedroom that is to the left of the front door. Previously, there was no window on that wall. This seemed like a no brainer at the time because the wall to the left of the door was begging for a window. We also ended up adding a 4 ft. by 5 ft. double casement window to a wall in the master bedroom that looks out onto the backyard. Against my better judgement I ordered the same window for a smaller bedroom that has the same orientation to the backyard as the master bedroom. My hesitation in ordering it was that this bedroom is smaller and has french doors that open onto our back patio, and I suspected the window was going to be too large for the room. Once it arrived, it was clear that I had made a mistake. However, I had an aha moment when I realized it would be perfect in the front bedroom (to the left of the front door). If you are reading along at home and shaking your head, I UNDERSTAND! SO! The window by the front door will be replaced with the new window. May I claim quarantine craziness?! I swear I'm usually much better at executing on projects.