Like the changes already! How about moving the address to the R of the window? And the flag doesn't do anything for me--it says "soccer mom" rather than "French," no matter how tasteful the flag, though I totally understand why you felt you needed something to take up the space. :-) I'd put in a wrought iron trellis next to the "closed" shutters and grow an antique rose up it. ("New Dawn" would almost certainly be too much of a thug. Someone who knows more about roses than I could give you a better cultivar.) That's a house begging for lavender, too--and some small, well-kempt, carefully pruned (not usually a fan of shaping heavily, but the house calls for it, and with the lot size, it'll be very manageable to maintain) evergreens to ground it. Maybe dwarf boxwood? Topiaries by the door or leading up to it? Carefully shaped dwarf fruit trees? I'm thinking rosemary and irises, too. I like the window box, but it should be larger. Geraniums are popular for window boxes in that part of the world and look great, but you can make it more modern by adding something that spills, too. These are just a few thrown-out-there thoughts, not a design yet. :-) But here's some eye-candy for inspiration. Here is a link that might be useful: French Gardens

I can totally relate to your situation. We bought a retirement home five years ago, just one month before the real estate market started to collapse. We still had our other home and thought we would have no problem selling it. We were anxious to get all the "equity" we had in the first house. Now we can't sell either home. We don't want to get into the "renting" business either, but we have no choice. My suggestions to you is forget any flowers since you live out of state and can't take care of them. I would paint the front door a "brick red", almost like a burgundy. I would not paint the garage doors, take down any shutters or do any more work. If that is grime on the siding, I would get the house pressure washed. Anyone that buys it will know it is a fixer upper. I know from personal experience, as we sunk a lot of money into our first house ...new stove, new countertops, new cabinet hardware, had the entire house painted, had the porch steps ripped out and redone...believe me, any $$$ you spend (except getting rid of the pink door, lol) is going to be a waste of time and money. The market is bad and no amount of expensive repairs, color changes, is going to change that. It's definitely a buyer's market, not a seller's market. Chispa is right on the money! What WILL change it is lowering the price. We chose not to lower our price because the house we moved out of is a better house than the one we moved too. We couldn't get anymore for it than what we pay for the "downsized" house. It's really sad the market is so bad, but if you and your husband don't mind waiting, you may be able to get a little closer to the price you want, but don't count on it. By the way, our first house we tried to sell is on three beautiful acres, close to shopping, close to the interstate...none of that accounts for anything in a bad market. I wish you the best of luck!

I like the white in the inspiration, but our current vinyl is so cheap looking. Would you stick with clapboard look, or would shingles work too? The exposure on the inspiration picture is 6-7" I think, whereas we would only be able to do 4". Also, the back side of our house is really reflective and creates a lot of glare right now. I feel like that would be better if the house was a different color. Would it reflect less if it had the Cedar Impressions given that the surface would have a grain to it? Finally, Anglophilia, this has been a VERY long process already. We hired an architect three years ago, went through lots and lots of drawings, only to get to the end and realize the project was completely overbuilt and over budget (check my posts to see some of the previous plans). The new plan, which is just to dormer and finish the back half of the attic, is still stretching our budget once we add in residing the whole house, but I want to make sure we still end up with the curb appeal and character that I hope for. We are no longer working with an architect, as I trust my builder completely, but I do need to provide good inspiration for him to work from.

@Denita I haven't considered a door with sidelights before and my first reaction to that was that I like having the option to open both doors but I did a quick search and I agree that it would probably look 10x better. Thank you so much for the inspo pics! I was thinking blue siding too but I am a GB Packers fan so I can always get down on the green and gold ;) Thank you all so much for feasible suggestions! @Yardvaark I'll try and get a pic tonight/this weekend. I'm at work right now. If we do the front patio would you go with putting it in the same spot as my original pic drawing or extend it longer/deeper? Retangle round?