We bought our house 2 years ago and have been renovating the inside off and on since. I am very happy with the inside, so now I want to move to the outside. It definitely does not reflect the same feel as the inside does now. Just for an example... here was our living room/kitchen before: Side note... wish I had taken my own before photos, but I didn't, so I have to resort to using the only photos I have from Zillow :)

Living/Kitchen before:

Here it is today ... much lighter and updated:

Pretty amazing what paint can do right? Well ... we did renovate the kitchen island, but otherwise used existing cabinets and painted them. In any case ... our whole house sort of reflects the renovation picture. We lightened everything up, updated hardware and just gave it an overall refresh.

So now to the outside... A little background before I dive in ... the original house on this lot was 1904. In 2005, the couple we bought it from essentially took down the original house but left the original front door and side doors. Nostalgia? History preservation? Whatever the case may be... The doors had been repaired time and time again and they would not shut properly. This is the house before (remember I do not have photos of my own):

So we started looking for options and ultimately decide on steel. Mainly because we love the look of steel and due to the custom size, pretty much anything wasn't going to be cheap. So now we have steel doors that I do indeed love, but they do not go with the rest of the exterior.

Here is our house today: (please disregard the beds of dirt in front... new bushes that are much smaller than original are going in next week)

The trim is a dingy, creamy white and the windows have wood trim around them. I have not been able to find this combo as most stucco homes have recessed windows and the stucco acts as the trim or the windows have a stucco trim/ledge or some type of cast stone trim. Then theres the Juliette Balconies... could leave them and have the intricate scrolls on top removed or take them off all together. My main issues are I would like to paint the stucco, but we have spent so much already, can I get a fresher look by painting the windows and trim? I would like to paint the window casings the same color as my steel doors to make them appear steel, but what to do with those wood window frames? Should I paint the wood frames the same color as the stucco? And then there is the overhang...

Moving to the back.... This is the back of the house originally: (again a bad photo)

We are currently having the columns replaced with cedar because they were rotting. I plan to have the cedar stained a darker gray like my cedar fence in the back. Here it is as of today with a big mess on the back porch and columns being installed.

It looked like this just yesterday .... aghhhhhhh :0 Oh well ... will be better without rotted wood :)

So whatever I do to the front needs to be mimicked in the back ... so the long row of windows??? What to do ... I am afraid of them looking choppy if I go dark on the casings and lighter on the frames here. Thoughts? I also have to address those stained doors and bead board underneath the porch.

So I guess to sum things up, what would you do? I know the stucco would look better painted a lighter color such as a good, not so bright, white … but can I pull this off without having to spend even more money? Any help, ideas, tips that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. I think I am just renovated out at this point and my brain is shutting down :) Thanks in advance!