Thanks for all your input! Our cedar shakes are 40 years old and need to be replaced. I have decided to use fiber cement board and started asking for suggestions on the smaller homes forum. One of the suggestions I got was to get rid of the stone - which I agree is the nicest feature of the house. Having said that, I agree that it looks disjointed and was starting to second guess myself. We will do the landscaping once the hardiboard (fiber cement by James Hardi) is installed. There is no stone behind the shutters, so even with wide trim, we'd have a gap on the stone facade. I don't see any alternative but to put up new shutters in a different style and color. I agree that the chocolate brown garage door needs to go. We'll replace with one that has windows and matches the new color of the house. I love sage but the James Hardi sage looks too dark. I'm thinking of monterrey taupe or some other neutral color. The windows are vinyl so I can not paint the trim. I'm stuck with the white which makes me wonder if I should just pick one main color and use white as the trim. The roof is new but is not light gray (as it appears in the pics) I think it was just getting the sunlight. It's actually brown, with taupe and dark grey accents. I'll try to get a piece to photograph for my next post. Lastly, I agree with spring-meadow and have already called for an appointment with an architect who is coming on Thursday to help me sort this out. Thanks to all for your suggestions!

Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments about the fireplace - maybe it's not so bad after all! Ha! Rugknots - you're probably right that I've gotten so used to it that I'm just thinking it looks dated. But we'll see what it looks like after the repainting. You've all got me thinking now about moving forward with getting rid of the entertainment center before I was really planning to! Perhaps I should really move THAT to Phase 1 and move the new furniture to Phase 2! Hmmm! tylerandabby - I never THOUGHT about taking off the side pieces! I know they are screwed into the main center piece (because I remember the RACKET the screwdriver made when the installer screwed them together!) But the top piece is connected to the bottom piece so I'm not sure I can take it apart. Something to investigate though. Thanks for the idea!

I'd have to see more of the space, but my general advice would be: Don't mount a TV over a fireplace.

If you can take out the mirrors, do so. Paint the woodwork (semi-gloss) to match the walls (matte) and match (or complement) to whatever lime wash shade you’ll use on the bricks. What direction do the windows face? Is the sun very strong through the windows — will you use drapes? You could either go dark or keep it light — depends on when you use it the most.