Not having gutters is extremely common around here in New England, particularly in older houses. Our house doesn't have gutters, it has tilted concrete or granite (for the nicer houses) splashblocks in the ground around the perimeter of the house, where the rain running off the roof would hit. Of course they are tilted so the water runs away from the house, or they're supposed to be. We had horrible snow loads and tons of rain this past fall-winter and our cellar stayed dry as a bone. There's a small addition that needs to have a gutter put up though, because the water pours off the roof onto the back deck; the other side of the addition is getting splashblocks like the rest of the house has. I agree 110% about just hiring the job done if you aren't going to get up there and mess around with the gutters - I'm terrified of heights too. In the old house (1 story on the front, 3 on the back due to the steep slope!) it cost us about $150 because of the weird design of the house and for us it was a bargain. You can have a couple of companies come out and help you figure out what's wrong; most gutter-cleaning companies offer free inspection and estimates. A gutter-cleaner-outer can also go up with a bucket of water or a hose to see where there might be a clog in the downspout (which can often cause water to back up into the gutter and overflow) or a dip or twist in the gutter itself caused by snow/ice loads.

Thanks live_wire_oak - I find myself agreeing with nearly all of your style points. I don't think we realized how prominent the roof was until we really spent some time looking at it from the street. I don't think changing the roof is in the budget now (it's pretty new), but we'll definitely keep that in mind. We're both really intrigued by the suggestion of a slab door - what is that? We picked up some paint samples yesterday. Old gutters are down and the house is already looking cleaner, even without the new ones up. We picked a gutter color that is called 'wicker', and had SW mix paint to match. Here's a pic of the samples we put up. It's dim - by the time the paint had dried, this area (east facing, under covered patio) is shaded - but you see the colors we're talking about, over the green and next to the brick. Trim/gutters - light tan (color matched wicker metal gutters) Front Door - BM Currant Red (1323) Shutters (if we do -- causing marital strife) - SW Umber Brick (more marital strife - not painting though!) - 6140 Moderate White. I like the green but we compromised and are currently planning on going with the tan color -- which we color matched from the gutter color we're putting up. That will be all the trim. The dark brown we were thinking for shutters, but if we don't do shutters... Clearly we won't use it :) Would you consider using that brown to paint the aluminum visible in the picture of the front? We'll replace the windows -- they're 1966 single pane glass -- but not sure when, and we don't like the aluminum lines.(could be usable) I like your suggestion on the planters and I'll consider today a success if I can get them dug up before the Rangers game :) Melanie, I believe, on the landscape forum, suggested creeping thyme -- I think we'll do something like that to try and break the planter box line. I also like the idea of semi-circle as landscape bed. My kids aren't playing out there - too close to the busy street - and having something to break up the monotony and add curves would be great. Melanie -- thank you for explaining! I'm looking at his books on ebay now. Thank you SO much for your help here and on the other forum! You've made us like our house a lot more. Summary on what we're going to do this week: Gutters (wicker above unless someone can talk me out of it in the next day) installed, trim/fascia/sofits painted to match. Paint front door Remove boxwood in planter boxes up front Pause and evaluate.... To sum up questions: If we don't do the shutters in Umber -- which my wife wants to do, and my painter assured her it was easy to shave the raised brick to install them, what else can we do in the brown to pop? The window frames? We had a decorator come to help with color selection, and she was a strong advocate of both shutters and painted brick. My wife is still on board with leaving the brick unpainted for now, but the shutters idea has come back with a vengeance. For what it's worth, most house in the neighborhood do ... But, this decorator also suggested we call a Realtor and ask for advice, which is exactly what I DON'T want to do. I want it to look good and not offend those that know what they're looking at! We were going to paint the windows in the white color, but would the brown pop? Give us some color without having to throw up fake shutters? VERY interested in learning more about doing a copper door. We're going to paint the door and frame in that red color above - more of a magenta. Finally, what are you guys thinking about the below picture? Dim again - my photo skills aren't the best - but this is an angle shot of my back patio. Same brick, which you can see. To the left is another bay window just like the ones out front, this one into the breakfast room/kitchen. The ceiling you'll see the drywall portion is white -- and then the wood portion turns to the trim color. The decorator we had suggested we paint the same color, the moderate white, so there's not a line -- opening the space up. But the problem is, if I paint that white, I think I have to carry the white all the way around the house under the roof, meaning the wood on the underside of the roof would be white, the rest of the trim tan. (We're thinking the white above) Or -- can I just tape off a logical line somewhere and transition from white to the trim color? Or .. I can just paint the ceiling the trim color, but then it all kinda blends in. THANK YOU!

Measure the length of your roof line, count the down spouts and then call some local gutter businesses for estimates. DS had new gutters installed last year on a 2600 sq ft, 2 story house. Cost was around $1500. Finding someone to do the gutters is something you can handle. Just call out a few companies and talk to them. They give fee estimates and they'll handle install. DS's house also gets very few leaves so after extensive research on my part of the cost and effectiveness of gutter guards, we chose not to add any. No difference in cost for colors. I'd cancel the install tomorrow. An increase of $2000 is suspicious, but he may have added the most expensive gutter guards!

This was yesterday when I took a final look at some samples. On the right, supported by the window box brackets, is the Atlas Hickory, with the sample panel hanging below it. On the left is Landmark Burnt Sienna. On the ground, on the left is 1 shingle of the Burnt Sienna, and next to it are 2 Owens Corning Brownwood. I think all these shingles would work. So why pick Atlas Hickory? Although I think Landmark makes some of the nicest looking roofs, the basic Landmark only has a 10 year algae staining warranty, and I am getting feedback that it is staining years before that. The Owens Corning Brownwood also only has 10 year on algae staining, there is much to much color variation and tab width variation and the sample on the roof looked like an ocelot. The light tabs are way too light. And this is actually still my mother's house and she hated it. I have been told numerous times that the Atlas (along with a West Coast brand Malarkey) are the shingles with the best algae resistance. Atlas is really pushing this with a lifetime warranty for algae staining. I was trying to get a sample of the Landmark Pro Burnt Sienna, which offers 15 years on the algae resistance, but it would be a special order and although I think I would find this shingle very attractive, I think it has the same problem as the Owens, with too much color variation. These were the 2 Timberline shingles we originally looked at because all the roofers around here seem to use Timberline and that's all I knew about. I stared at these 2 on the roof for weeks, never liking them. On the left is Barkwood, the right is Hickory. On some houses the barkwood is very nice, always seemed like the colors were perfect for our house, but on our roof in the front it looked pale and peachy. No brown to be found. This is the Timberline samples on the roof. I also never liked the spottiness and the way they do their shading. But, on the right house it looks good and it's grown on me. But, another thing about them, and this is what drew my attention to the algae problems. The following photos are from the south side and the north side of a local church. The roof is less than 10 years old and look at the algae staining on the north side. This is the Timberline Barkwood - pretty in the right place, but I still think too spotty and light and peachy on our roof. And now for the algae staining.... you would think it's a black roof up there. Pretty awful, huh. So, I decided that I would go with the shingle that is offering the best technology, reputation and warranty for algae staining, which is the Atlas, and that left me with the choices in the photo I originally posted with the 4 samples on the roof. I moved some samples of it to the east facing side of the house as well, and I think it'll be ok. But, I still don't know why there are so few options for good brown colors in this style shingle. I see a whole lot more in high end styles, but if I had that much money to spend on a roof, I'd be putting on a metal roof.