You're looking at it raw without landscaping and a garage door. Your plans look fantastic. Don't worry about it. Once you get a lovely front garden bed there after construction is done, you'll wonder why you worried about the stone.

Slight P.S. but an expensive one: you could change out the white garage door to a cedar wood door to go with your proposed front door. And add a pergola over it. Or just keep it white and ignore this photo:

Lake Washington Residence · More Info

If I were you I’d look at old houses that were made of stone and copy the details as much as possible. Having said that, if this is more about the complexity of the father-contractor/daughter-client relationship and that’s why you’re having issues with a difficult contractor, that’s a different story! I’m assuming you’re paying him like you would any general contractor, btw.

I believe it's the stone on the foundation of the house that is the problem.

You now have 2 competing stones. The upper looks fine, but the lower - I would paint it grey.

You might also want to ask your contractor if the housewrap is being installed as required, because that’s a BIG deal. Per DuPont:

“Water-Resistive Barrier (WRB) Code Requirements

The 2015 International Residential Code (Section R703.1.1 Water Resistance) requires that “the exterior wall envelope shall be designed and constructed in a manner that prevents the accumulation of water within the wall assembly by providing a water- resistant barrier behind the exterior veneer as required by Section R703.2 and a means of draining to the exterior water that enters the assembly.” Section R703.2 (Water- resistive barrier) states that “one layer of No. 15 asphalt felt, free from holes and breaks, complying with ASTM D 226 for Type 1 felt or other approved water-resistive barrier shall be applied over studs or sheathing of all exterior walls. Such felt or material shall be applied horizontally, with the upper layer lapped over the lower layer not less than 2 inches (51 mm). Where joints occur, felt shall be lapped not less than 6 inches (152 mm). The felt or other approved material shall be continuous to the top of walls and terminated at penetrations and building appendages in a manner to meet the requirements of the exterior wall envelope as described in Section R703.1.””

FWIW: Whoever cut and laid the stone did do a nice job; it looks like a much better job than what was done by the dingbats who built my house!

I kind of agree with the contractor about the trim, but with the stone can you do a darker grout? I think the section that’s not grouted looks better than the section that is.

In your mock-up, some of the disconnect in the final look ma be that the stone and roof have a bit more brown in them than your gray shingles.

What do you think of putting the white border around the garage?? Will it ruin the stone? I'd go ahead and do it. Not that I think it's the best solution but given that this is a retro solution in the context of costs, I think it's the best way to go.

One reason is it will visually reinforce the openings but the bigger reason it will make the stone look more authentic. The way it's put up now, there's no stone "lintel" giving the whole thing a glued on look (which ironically, it actually is!).

And garage doors are a funny thing. Folks will gleefully spend $4K on an upgraded granite in a master bath because it has "these little blue specks" or what not but then go with the cheapest door that going to be seen by anybody driving up to the house!

Agree - grey grouting would look better. Maybe you should wait and see how the finished product is before doing anything else. Once you add the porch railing and stair railing(s), landscape etc. it will look totally different.

I don’t think trim would help. What seems to be missing are lintels at the top of the openings. The stone appears to be floating.