Your house is a gorgeous, classical, balanced, symetrical style, & I'd think it will look best with colors that are in keeping with that image...even if you have to think a while to figure out what to use! The brick & wrought iron & the very size of it give it weight, so you need colors with "weight" so that they look well-matched with the rest of the house, & since the brick has depth & texture, you want simplicity. Paint the downspouts as close to the brick color as possible to camouflage them. I like the way the house looks now, as far as matching & contrast, so I'd experiment with maybe charcoal gray or British racing green (deepest green in the universe, with a little black mixed in) for the shutters, & spanking white for columns & window trim. I like the red door, but if you want a change, maybe stain the door a walnut color & use the same color on the area above the porch. That combination might give the house a "lodge" kind of atmosphere... or you could go spanking white on everything but the door & use a deep Chinese laquer red on it. Whatever you do, it's a beautiful house, & you'll have a lot of fun working on it!

Pics are clearer but there still appears to be some dark gray in the (first) close-up of the front brick that isn't noticeable in the brick in the back or in the (second) full width pic. If you remove the current roof over your front stoop, you could add extend the high forward facing gable on the front supported by large wood posts and beams for a really good look: [https://www.houzz.com/photos/entrance-rustic-entry-minneapolis-phvw-vp~693855[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/entrance-rustic-entry-minneapolis-phvw-vp~693855) If you were to add water proofing to the area below floor level to the right of your front stoop and build a retaining wall (with steps leading downstairs within the wall) from that right front corner straight forward in a line with the right side of the house, you could level up your front yard and hide a significant part of the brick of which you're not so fond. Leveling up the yard would help you with landscaping as well. You and your husband could compromise: you could both keep the brick and yet hide part of it with shrubs -- even create a front yard patio.

I don't think a dark color is appropriate for this house. It reminds me of those Hollywood bungalows from the 30s, and those were always white with red clay roofs. I'd stick with warm whites, creams, light tans...

Remove the shutters. I am not a fan of painting brick, especially brick like yours which is attractive. I would focus on the landscaping. Get rid of the pompom bushes. Extend the plantings from the side of the garage to line part of the drive, but add more variety. Plant an ornamental tree out in the yard to frame the entry. Plant a hardwood on the right side of the property. Some plants I would look into are oak leaf and pee gee hydrangea, mountain laurel, red twig dogwood. I like ornamental trees like Eastern Redbud, crabapple, snowbell, Crepe Myrtle.