Love your house, Have you considered scraping some of the paint off? Something like this instead? https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3394703

Then pretty up the rest so folks know the brick look is intentional and not poor care :)

Will you be doing landscaping or working on the walkway?

Great thoughts and I would have done that but that is the actual color of the brick in the picture (no paint is on it yet). I think we may remove the walkway and yes work on the landscaping for sure.

So it’s actually a white brick house? And it’s been like this since the 1800s? ETA: If that’s the case, I wonder if staining the mortar a white color would work and thus obviate any upkeep issues with painted brick.

The very original house is a red brick and in the 1950s they installed 'brickote' over the original brick. Brickote is a 1'' thick brick/stucco type material

Bummer about the brickote. Must have served a purpose i guess.

I like the cream idea.

I can tell you that the only kind of shutters you should have are ones that are truly functional and I can’t tell from your pictures.

Have you thought about navy blue for the shutters? Or a lovely plum color for the door? So many options with cream walls. What paint brands are you looking at?

Check out the purple and blue doors with the cream trim to give you an idea. Knowing what you’re looking for is key. Sophisticated? Charming? Cute? Classic? Eclectic? Where is the house located and what kind of homes or neighborhoods are nearby? Are you isolated and thus feel like you can do whatever you want?

http://www.mariakillam.com/ten-best-front-door-colours-for-your-house/

We are going for something that is classic/traditional/'estately'. Our house is the original home of the family that owned about 350 acres back in the day, the area is now developed with several developments around us

Then i vote for cream color with glossy black shutters and whatever front door color floats your boat.

look at these: https://www.google.com/search?q=cream+house+with+black+shutters&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

Too bad too bad about the brick veneer. I bet it is beautiful underneath. Lovely home, regardless. Painted brick is a beast as it is meant to breathe and it chips horribly over time and then is hard to prep for new paint job. It would look nice painted cream, but would a power washing do? Anna those doors and colors were Beautiful! Plum door w navy shutters-yeah!

Thanks! Yes I did try power washing a section of it to see if that would do but it just doesn't get as fresh/crisp as I would like unfortunately.

I truly love your farmhouse. Brickote - Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, right? I was looking for some off white that would work with your light gray roof and not come off a dingy. By the time I came back to your post, I saw that the brick had been stuccoed. Never heard of Brickote, but they've been around awhile. You should contact them to find out how to best clean the surface before you paint. (You might not even have to paint after it is clean!) At any rate, it is always best practice to clean before painting, but it must be done with care.

Getting back to colors. I found a color I used on my house once called Lancaster White - oh, the coincidence. (Lancaster, PA.) It goes well with gray according to Benjamin Moore. So then I looked for Forest Green sample to see how that would work. It looks great. I thought though that is was a little blue, so I checked out Hunter Green and I like that, as well. One of the shades of Hunter Green is Fiddlehead. Same family, just a bit lighter and, I think, a little more relaxed, less formal. I like all three of these combinations.

You know your stuff, yep we are in the Lehigh Valley! Great combos, I do like the Hunter Green best of those as well. The painter I use would be using Sherwin Williams products

Make sure you follow the recommendations for correct paint application. Brick is paintable, if done right. Find out what kind of paint the company recommends.

navy shutters https://www.pinterest.com/pin/99149629279891683/

Actually, I have a question about the roof. Is it the same gray all around or is there a darker roof on the front of the house?

3/4 of it is a slate roof and yes the front roof is a bit darker and shingle

lol I just noticed the walkway/plank to nowhere. Or tongue lolling out of the house's mouth. Definitely set aside some cash for hardscaping!!

I wouldn't paint the brick itself, whether structural or overlay, as the paint will not last like the underlying masonry. Agree with a classical color treatment for shutters et al.

I have had about 3 different painting companies out to look at the job and all said using Loxon Primer from SW would do the job of avoiding paint chipping for several years

Yeah but after several years?? Nightmare. I prepped and painted a chipping storefront in college. Horrible. What about staining?

i did not know you could stain brick haha

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/dyeing-with-dyebrick-dsvw-vd~5437369[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/dyeing-with-dyebrick-dsvw-vd~5437369)

Also, you can try staining the mortar (same company has mortar stain) but it would be tedious.

And see if this helps you: http://www.landmarkservices.com/blog/bid/31885/Paint-Color-Do-s-and-Dont-s-for-Historic-Houses

And old house guy’s Website too,

Thank you everyone for the input, it seems the painting is a riskier idea then I expected!

Here is a mock up with your colors. I personally love it. To me is speaks farmhouse. I would do the front door white (not off white) , because I think it looks good and your full door storm is white. I would also do the window trim white. It will look real crisp against the off white.

I would have a serious talk with a professional from Brickote from the perspective that you want to preserve what is there. First, how to best to clean it? As I said before, if it is cleaned, you might not have to paint and if you do paint, you want to clean it first without damaging the surface. Then ask them what are the steps or any special materials to paint it.

As to the question of shutters. Definitely keep them. First of all they are sized perfectly for the windows. They were installed with care on hinges. The first story are raised panel and the upper story are louvered. Exactly the style they should be. Hopefully they are in good condition. Make sure the painters repair any weak joints.

Thanks! Other possible ideas if we save $$ on not painting the entire house would be somehow accenting the front room that is currently white vinyl or somehow making the chimney stand out??

The paint companies really all have the same colors, might go by a different name. I sample Benjamin Moore because it is local and the paint I have always used. Grew up in Harrisburg, so knew Lehigh Valley right away.

One thing leads to another. Your house is a farmhouse. A grand one, but a farmhouse none the less. I personally would not spend a penny adding stone (if that had crossed your mind) to the fireplace chimney. I don't think it ever was stone, was always brick. So don't add a veneer. There are other places to do that. Starting at the front door if it is vinyl. Yuk! Are there salvage places around? Maybe you can source a old wood door.

You know that there is a problem with the front eave, right? I suspect that when they replaced the slate in the front, there was some water damage happening. So it is hanging down in one section. It probably is a metal or vinyl covering. Have you looked at that?

You wrote "front room" - I jumped to front door in my head when I read it. You mean that room on the side of the house?

Yea sorry it is confusing because what looks like the front door and is the 'original' front door is no longer the front of the house. The garage side of the house is the one that actually faces the street. Way back the roads used to be different which is why things are crossed up now

That deck could be worked on. I would get rid of it and put a small one just to transition down to a paver area at ground level. Is the problem that the front of the house no longer faces the street and the it is the side of the house that everyone sees and that is where everyone goes to? If you had a birds eye view of the house, where do you want to have family and friends space and where, ideally would you want to have public space?

So I was typing when you were answering. So do you want that to be the new front of the house? The new focal point?

this should help. unfortunately the 'original front' that no longer faces the road is beautiful but no one ever sees it much. Yes the side porch could really use some work.

Oooooooooh. Well, then I would definitely try to save some moola and skip the painting and just work on the side everyone uses/sees. I would still make the front as lovely as you can. What a shame, I had my heart set on a cream colored house with navy or black shutters with a red or plum colored door. Sigh.

What if you just took care of the front door and shutters for now? Work on the other side by the garage and then when you had saved some cash, come back and paint or stain the house?

Then again, I think shutter, door and landscaping could take you very far without having to paint or even stain the brickote. You may find you don't need to do anything beyond those three items to improve the look.

So is the interior of the vinyl room situated to act as a main entry area? Usually there is a formal entry, which you have but no practical way to get to it, and a side area where family come and go, but that is the vinyl room. It doesn't seem to make sense that they added that big deck in the front and they have a really large pool in the back.

Does anyone know of brick staining products with a good reputation?

I gave you a link above. You are welcome to read DyeBrick’s testimonies. I believe there is also Masonry Cosmetics.

https://www.redfin.com/PA/Allentown/222-Bastian-Ln-18104/home/59192870

Your house looks beautiful. I am glad you didnt have to paint it. It is far less maintenance to power wash when it needs it, than to paint the house, since that is a huge house. Enjoy your new home.

Thanks for the update. The house looks great.

Nice outcome.

So glad to hear brick was not painted! The issue with using ordinary house paint is not so much paint chipping off, but that over time the brick itself becomes damaged by moisture trapped behind the paint film. Either a breathable masonry stain or mineral (aka potassium silicate) paint is about all that should be used, But better yet is jjust leaving it and being able to enjoy its original beauty.

As your neighbor in Lancaster County, you did good! Looks just like a beautiful Lancaster County farmhouse. Enjoy!