Hello Houzz folks - wanted to give a quick update on our project and maybe ask for a little more advice. We put off our roofing project (yay 2020!) but are about to pick it up again. In the meantime we have made some other changes inspired in part by this very thread, so it only feels right to share! First, we painted our garage door Urbane Bronze as suggested by one of the commenters here. We LOVE what it does to ground the front facade of our ranch and it really brings up the darker brown and black in our brick. Please pardon the crappy photos (and the overgrowth!) in this picture, which was taken as the first coat of paint was drying. Looked even better after the second coat! (No idea why this picture keeps coming in sideways!) Next we tackled the front door situation. I'd always wanted a vintage solid wood MCM door to match the age of the house. A friend found a PERFECT fit at a local Restore several years ago, and I finally got around to rehabbing it. After many hours sending, several tubes of wood filler, new glass and some paint, we had a vintage deep blue 3 lite door with black hardware. I'll update with a picture of our finished product later, but the color we used was Salty Dog by Sherwin Williams, which looks absolutely beautiful against the brick and the bronze storm door. Here's the Salty Dog color: And our door is similar to this: So now we will finally get around to the roof to wrap this all up!

Adding to my original post - The first pics I included are of the House as it is now. It shows the reddish brownish creamish brick & shows how it looks in different light. The last pic is of the Estate Gray color roof we are having done. I will now post a pic of the cedar color we like for the stain on the replaced posts on the front porch, as well as the Sherwin Williams Mt. Etna color we were thinking of - but it might be too dark...

kitasei2, tozmo1 - Thank you for being so positive!! THANKS for the recommendations, your visualization and suggestions. These are very needed and appreciated, especially pictures!! Thanks for the info about Romabio Masonry Coating for future reference. This house is a 2-3 year address/investment for my son. He has been working on a big project in south FL, bought a house, made improvements, then sold the house and got all the money back that he paid out (including taxes, insurance, interest, improvements, lawn care, utility bills) plus $7500 when he sold it 2 years later. Now he's headed to Nashville, would like to do the same thing, but the projects requiring a contractor, like painting, roofing, plumbing were time consuming, messy and expensive. This time he's picked a well maintained house that needed a little curb appeal - landscaping, fencing, outdoor entertaining area. That's why he asked me to help, and I'm free. I'm just not secure in my choices of color or changes to the structure without a picture. Using all your suggestions, this is one of my feeble attempts at visualization. I was sticking to the traditional vibe of the neighborhood, and making impersonal classic updates. Let me know what you think.

jlcbm,,,i'd prob redo the garage area like this. (those clipped edges around the door and arched window are really dated) Doesn't this look better? square window in tihe black trim (this is if you go w/the dark trim option). the siding on the garage area is changed to a composite shingle/shake. new lights, and much better looking garage door. carriage hardware makes a big diff if you have a plain jane door like you have. on this one, a wood arbor buys up some of that huge space another door option w/the black hardware. you could also do the siding over here in a birck and batten panel, or vertical siding, or shake or both. across the middle below the window do a divider you could also do the siding over here in a birck and batten panel, or vertical siding, or shake or both. I love this one. see how they divided the gable portion w/vertical and horizontal? this is a grate, but you could square off your window. across the middle below the window do a divider. they did a thick white band above. smaller siding and composite shake. they have a small roof overhang, but you could do something diff These are the bronze colors. In any case, square off the clipped edges and do a diff window