Thanks for the rendering Nancy. Interesting idea - I hadn’t thought to stone that area.

JudyG - you are right - it’s a garage there. That wall is really helpful for storage and organizing...otherwise windows would be great. And I think it definitely does need some height with plants to hide the plainness of an all stucco wall! Great ideas.

Really nice house and lot. Like the cedar trellis decoration idea.

Is anyone in your home interested in gardening or DIY projects?

If you've ever wanted to build more storage space or work space in the garage, now could be the time to do that by cutting a doorway in the middle of that space currently without siding and adding a slide/barn door that leads to the new space.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/88101736443381440/

You could add clear green house shed sloped roofing with wall to wall base cabinets along the new outside wall and with storage above a work counter.

If you want a larger space,

You could build the space with a flat roof -- and, perhaps, a faux balcony above; or

You could make the roof over the new space a smaller forward facing gable.

The new siding could be any siding you like with the current exterior walls of your home and, importantly, you could add windows to any kind of small addition, adding light to the garage when the connecting door is opened.

I like the idea of stone but one problem is that it is always going to look newer than the original stone since the mortar will be new and the stone will not have weathered. I would either stucco these areas or replace with some horizontal siding. I agree that the current color is too yellow (I can see where they picked up some of those tones in the stone). I would pick something more tan or taupe. I you're interested in seeing some virtual make overs check out my web site, Creative Visual Concepts.

Another inexpensive update would be to replace the more colonial looking lighting with something cleaner and more modern. Some selective pruning/removal of landscaping would also help.

I would replace the siding with vertical siding. I show a cedar and two shades of gray/brown. I painted the stucco a cream that tilts more toward a red undertone than yellow, replaced the exterior wall lights, and found some fabulous vintage escutcheons for your entry handles. Just opening up the front will go a long way to showing off this great house.

Mid Century Front Door Hardware Sources | Suburban Pop · More Info

I think I'd paint the fascia and gutters to match the siding:

Kevin - good point about the stones. I tried to click on your link but got a "oops, your site is not published." Let me know if you get that fixed...I'm interested to check it out. About the horizontal siding - I was thinking since it's such a wide short house that vertical might help give visual height...any reason to lean towards horizontal? Thank you so much for your thoughts. I really appreciate it.

groveraxle - Thanks for your input! Definitely should replace the lights...hadn't thought of that. the colors look good in the first two. and I love the escutcheons... going to check into something like that. I do like the front doors but really could use light in the entry way. I was thinking to either replace doors or add glass inserts if that's possible on wood doors. So far I've only found companies that do glass inserts for steel doors. Do you like either of these for front doors? keeping in mind that they are double doors. if I did inserts in my current doors, they would be long narrow like the first door below.

Pelabell, Kevin's site is here: http://creativevisualconcepts.yolasite.com/

Somehow the url got mistyped.

Take a look at this page of modern doors. Looks like you can configure them however you want. If you did the glass, you wouldn't need the escutcheons. I just used them to add some interest to your blank doors.

Modern, Contemporary & Mid Century Front Entry Wood Doors · More Info

With glass doors: