estreya- This is going to sound super stupid, but is the trellis the white structure outside the front door? If so, all of the houses in our developement have one and it is attached to the house and made of wood and painted white. I unfortunatly live in a cookie cutter community and ALL of the houses look the same in my development. I live in So Cal and this was supposed to just be a starter house but 7 yrs later with housing having gone up up up we could not afford to move and are still here. Hopefully with the market going down we can finally move to a larger home with an real driveway!! lindybarts- I really love the one with the choc. brown door! My fav so far!!

This may have been covered in earlier posts, but its all the structural / functional stuff that can eat up your whole budget. How old are the windows in the home, are they energy efficient, and if you end up needing to replace them its crazy expensive (we did, although our home was older when we purchased it). Ditto for doors. Examine carefully for interior signs of roof leaks, leaks in general and ice dam damage...age/condition of roof; age/condition/expected lifespan of heating, cooling systems, water heaters, etc. House that size probably has multiple of each. Put a stink-eye on how the overall home appears to have been cared for -- many people overextended in the past decade or so and then were not able/willing to maintain... our electrical panel work is a story in itself and kind of highlighted how many of the rest of the things in the home were done (we should have read the writing on the wall, so to speak, at that point). Our deck appeared spiffed up and on harder inspection was lacking joist hangers. All kinds of possibilities. Good luck.

So questions that I have with the replies here. Will painting the trim give this brick enough of a lift to make it less tired looking? I have really debated on painting the brick. If some of the bricks had not already been painted I wouldn't think about it as much. If this were you would you paint all that is currently white now cream and then leave the brick? I never thought about my inspiration colors as trim. I was just thinking of how to decorate the patio area, but if the trim in front could get the fresh uplift from the aqua paint then that kind of makes it fun to make it go with the back in some way. If you painted the brick what color would you paint it? And what color would you paint the foundation under the brick (since it is already painted)?

I've posted before, IMO, there is nothing "wrong" about painting brick, we've done it, we know many others who have and it works beautifully, without the upkeep and dreadful things others have warned (who perhaps have not done it themselves?). HOWEVER, with that said, easy does it. Why not paint the siding, live with it, and then make a decision re: painting the brick? Do it next year, giving yourself time to (a) look at other homes with similar situations where brick was painted and (b) look on Houzz for pics of painted brick homes and (c) do research on painting your particular type of brick. Different brick may call for different applications, painting, lime wash or color on front door or light fixtures to tie together as others suggested.