I agree 100% with Cheryl. Everything about this house is charming,especially the windows. Please do not think about changing them. I also do not understand the center post. Clean the stone and go with a dark brown that's compatible with the stone and a light trim. It could be white,but if so be sure to choose a warm white else it will make your stone look"dirty". Lastly, try to remove the paint from the cheekwalls from both the stone and concrete steps, and also atop the stone porch wall. I don't know why people paint these things. I'm sure it's limestone and even if concrete, it will look better natural. Also, if you have to keep the stair railing due to code, consider painting it a dark colour.

It doesn't look like it's in too bad condition. Why are you gutting it?

You can explore your color likes by looking at houses in Google Images, searching for various body and trim combinations. I'm partial to medium (neutral) shades of taupes & grays for the body color (Indiana limestone as a color would be an example), and clean white trim. Using a dark body color with white trim looks stark and harsh to me. Using a medium or light body color with dark trim looks harsh, stark or sometimes even wicked, to me. Presumably you'll clean the stonework. With that and a new paint job, this house will look sharp.

For landscape advice, you need to take pictures while standing with the camera between the two bushes at top of landscape steps. Pan from far left to far right (without moving camera location) so we can see the neighbor's houses/yards as background from this central point of view. Three sequential pictures (panning across the scene) should be enough to see the whole panoramic view. (Don't use a single panoramic picture, though, as it will be too small to show detail.)

While grass on the front slope LOOKS fine, mowing it has to be an unpleasant maintenance chore. I'd opt for groundcover here. What to use depends on where you are, but it should be something relatively low growing.

It is a Craftsman style home and traditional Craftsman color schemes tend to be based on earth tones, as Yardvaark indicated. But the base color can be quite dark, if that's what you prefer and with a lighter (but not stark white) trim.

FWIW, my favored color for this would be a sage green that you can contrast with either a lighter or darker trim or even a contrasting color. I have seen traditional Craftsman homes in sage with a deep brick-red orange trim paint - pretty stunning!!

And sage goes with any landscape design.....almost the perfect backdrop color for any plantings!!

Did he say why he put the center column in? It does have to go, and the house needs a good cleaning on the exterior, before you decide upon any colors. I love the house, and hope your remodeling is complimentary to what it should be. Lots of landscaping needed. It will be beautiful. You are also missing the original part above the window on upper level. I would see about having your contractor rebuild that part. Its a nice feature.

some ideas:

Definitely keep the windows - they help make the house. Replacing original windows in old houses with plastic ~*energy efficient*~ abominations is a good way to murder the house's soul and curb appeal in one fell swoop. I'm in the process of getting several new wood windows made for our Victorian because the vinyl replacements are ugly and make the house look cheap and dimished. Also the ones in our bedroom are still drafty. For energy conservation, look into insulated curtains and storm panes. These will give you a far better cost ROI, too. If the windows need work, talk to a local carpenter or millwork shop. Old windows are high quality, made from high quality wood, and are designed to be easily repairable.

On exterior color, I actually like the dark shingles and don't think they look too stark (would be a different story on a bigger/taller house). If you want to stay dark with white trim, I'd go with dark brown or navy/deep gray-blue for body color. Otherwise, sage or olive always works for Craftsmans. I think cobalt would be excellent as well.

I don't think I've ever read post with such excellent "sage" advice! ; ) Yes, to cleaning the stone before picking a paint colour as its undertones are what will determine the choices. We can all like a particular colour, but if it clashes with your stone, it won't be any better that the yellow. I imagine that owner liked yellow and thought it might cheer things up being a "clean" colour, when all it did was make it look grim. Sometimes a plummy brown also looks great with stone of this colour stone. Put your samples on large poster board leaving a white edge around the colour and observe it throughout the day. Great call on the window detailing. It would be wonderful to replace that detail.

Unless the photograph is trick photography, I don't think there's any question that the contractor surprised you with a center post on account of a sagging beam. Somehow, that will need to be taken care of if the post is removed.

yard

yard ctd

saving floors.and whatever else we can on the inside...minus the upstairs addition.

Beautiful what fun

What a gorgeous inside! It's worth while spending some time to get the colors right outside.

Its been badly neglected, so needs a lot of work, but, it has gorgeous woodwork, and is well worth redoing. Please post some pictures, when you get a room or two done. Its going to be beautiful.

The house has lots of promise.

The exterior photos look like the correct shots but, unfortunately, the lighting is bad making them unusable. If you can retake with good lighting/focus, we'll be able to see what you have.

Wow, this is a stunning house on a charming block. I look forward to following your progress.

yard again

more yard

more yard

I love the size of your front porch, what a great place for some really comfortable porch furniture.

Those are much better pictures!

This is not about specifics, but a general way of organizing the layout, especially bed lines. I'd begin with redoing/widening the walks. The front walk should be the width of the steps if you want to upgrade the whole house appearance. Using an upgraded material like brick or pavers would help, too. The side walk needs to be slightly forward, have a wider sweep and be at least 3' wide. (I would ditch the shrubs flanking the landscape steps. No need for them if you have groundcover on the slope.)

i love my porch

I love that paint! It's such a classic for porch although I am surprised to find it on one of that age. My house is from 1914 and it has a stained tongue and groove ceiling. Perhaps painted them at this lightly later date. Anyway it's very pretty and I love your porch too!

Looks good. Thanks for remembering to update us.

Coming together...six months late

grays harbor sw

It's going to be quite the palace when you are all finished.

So wonderful that you could save this house and make it lovable and loved again. Beautiful!

It looks great. Do you have plans to remove the paint from that gorgeous stone fireplace and mantel?