I can totally relate to your situation. We bought a retirement home five years ago, just one month before the real estate market started to collapse. We still had our other home and thought we would have no problem selling it. We were anxious to get all the "equity" we had in the first house. Now we can't sell either home. We don't want to get into the "renting" business either, but we have no choice. My suggestions to you is forget any flowers since you live out of state and can't take care of them. I would paint the front door a "brick red", almost like a burgundy. I would not paint the garage doors, take down any shutters or do any more work. If that is grime on the siding, I would get the house pressure washed. Anyone that buys it will know it is a fixer upper. I know from personal experience, as we sunk a lot of money into our first house ...new stove, new countertops, new cabinet hardware, had the entire house painted, had the porch steps ripped out and redone...believe me, any $$$ you spend (except getting rid of the pink door, lol) is going to be a waste of time and money. The market is bad and no amount of expensive repairs, color changes, is going to change that. It's definitely a buyer's market, not a seller's market. Chispa is right on the money! What WILL change it is lowering the price. We chose not to lower our price because the house we moved out of is a better house than the one we moved too. We couldn't get anymore for it than what we pay for the "downsized" house. It's really sad the market is so bad, but if you and your husband don't mind waiting, you may be able to get a little closer to the price you want, but don't count on it. By the way, our first house we tried to sell is on three beautiful acres, close to shopping, close to the interstate...none of that accounts for anything in a bad market. I wish you the best of luck!

Please go to see your master gardeners in your area at your county extension office. Every county has one. Their advice is what you need. I was trying to find your weep holes but cannot and I would make sure from the contractor before doing any garden work that there are adequate weep holes and that they are not covered up so when your landscape materials are added, the weep holes are not covered up or you will have wet, molded floors and possibly house when you get a big rain. Many contractors are not putting downspouts on houses with roofs like yours nowadays but I would suggest you ask your contractor about that. We added downspouts to ours because the water dumped on our guests at the door based on the way the rain fell off the roof. Also, one neighbor had termites in her house between the seams when we had a big pouring rain over several days and the roof did not push it off quickly enough, so ask about that. Your best bet is to let the county extension and master gardeners help you. They can work with a good landscape gardening center in your area after the contractor has taken care of the above-noted items. Once they have tested your soil, they can make planting recommendations. As far as the house, I believe you have quoins and Greek keys. I do not have shutters on my house because it has Greek keys and qoins but I think it is fine to add shutters if you wish. I don't think I would paint anything lime green color. Your house has a classic look and it looks to me on my monitor as if your brick has some reddish brick and some bluish grey brick in it. I think I would choose colors in the brick for my paint colors. I do think vines are beautiful on houses like yours but if your husband is anything like mine, when the ivy started discoloring the brick, he cut it down. So, just get some professional advice from the county agent regarding soil. If he knows a person who is very experienced in landscaping who is also a master gardener, take his/her advice and always insist they work with a local nursery. Two local nurseries in my area have in-house landscape architects as assistant managers, so if you have a landscape architect, he will have worked with his college's architecture department and can blend the plantings with the architecture of your home. This post was edited by patricia43 on Fri, Jun 6, 14 at 11:42

I posted on your other thread, too. Glad you are tackling the windows! That little ankle-peek window is odd, as if the architect was trying to do something remarkable rather than memorable -- although it is hard to forget! It serves no obvious good purpose. If you are contemplating changing or getting rid of it, consider moving it up to just under the eaves. I asked on the other thread if you are replacing the amber glass panes. They are true to the age and character of the house, but limit your color choices both inside and out, and make it look like the house is inhabited by heavy smokers. (Is it obvious I don't like it?) A clear watered or plain glass would be better and simpler, and detract less from the lines of the house. A simple pergola all the way down the side of the garage would make a stunning entry way and set off the front door nicely. If you extend it four feet beyond the front of the garage, even better. Do you have enough privacy that you could put in full-glass front doors?

What about a pergola extending from the left side of the house to the second floor bump out on the right? The section above the door could have a solid roof for weather protection, while the rest is open to allow light into the window. Or you could make a gable portico over the door and extend the pergola to the left off of that. You could do one over the garage as well but that might be too much, and to me adding dimension on the left is important. Properly sized shutters would actually work quite nicely here Someday :) With the style of the new garage door that would push your house a bit toward farmhouse.