Is the house a duplex?

No, it is an addition. Familyroom over a 2 car garage

I don’t think it looks to be a major problem other than the landscaping.

When you redo the walkway, make it wider, and make the walk to the garage door narrower than the main walk to make it clear which way a new visitor should go. Depending on budget, I might see if I could configure the walkway to remove the dip to get rid of the front step so that someone with mobility issues can enter the house more easily. (I am of an age where this is an issue for our parents and this will be for us in the not so distant future.) This will likely also necessitate attention to the drainage in the front yard so that the walkway doesn’t create a dam.

Widen the front stoop so there is room for pots or your current seasonal decor without crowding the entry.

I would likely resurface the gable with something flat as it currently is or similar to the siding. It isn’t a spot you want to draw attention to. With the currently visible seams, I would be concerned about water intrusion, so include repairs for possible damage in the budget. Might you want to bring it out a bit to shelter the front entry, or is the front door so rarely used that it isn’t really an issue and not worth the expense?

I wouldn’t replace the shutters alongside the bay window since they are so tiny compared to the window that to my eye they look a bit silly. When you remove the shutters, live without them for a while to see how you like the house. I am not sure whether it might look better. There are those who feel strongly that all shutters need to be sized as though they might be functional and so need to be as wide as the window, but I think that you will need to decide based on your preferences.

As far as color, I rather like the current color as far as being a lovely background for plantings. But go to the Sherman Williams website where you can upload a photo of your home and try out different colors. Look at the window trim color as well if it is repaintable.

When you redo the landscaping, make all the beds deeper front to back. The current plantings are nice and enhance the house even now in midwinter, with some evergreen material and some interesting branch structure, and the bed depth allows for more than a single row of plants. So make your new beds 6’ deep or more.

Thanks for your ideas Babs, The budget is about 10k. That will just about cover doing the walk and paint, hopefully the landscape plants also. There will be no money left to rework the front architecture.

Here is a thought on paint color

The house looks like a duplex. I would eliminate the Y path. If those are pavers you could remove the right arm of the path and use the pavers to improve the path to the main door.

I suspect you park in the driveway and walk to the family room door. If that is so I would make a stepping stone path to that door.

The bay window should not have shutters.

I would use lap siding for the gable.

I like the current color on the house. I can see that if it is overdue for painting that you may want a change.

I would paint the family room door and it's trim the same color as the house. Don't draw attention to it.

I made an amateur image of where plants could go and the size and shape. The rest can be filled in with perennials and annuals. It depends on how much garden work you are willing to do.

I like what Yardvaark offered last time so I am posting it again.

I wouldn’t take out the plantings that are currently there. I think they function well as is to add year round interest and rather like how they minimize the secondary door. Without them, I think the plantings will have no maturity and will reduce much of what adds interest to the house. I am fine with various flowering shrubs and some perennials across the front, but would likely add a relatively small flowering tree off the left corner of the house. You will need to swing the bed wide enough out to allow for the tree’s size at maturity, not just at 5-10years, so check a botanical garden such as Missouri Botanical Garden‘s PlantFinder rather than just using nursery info.

Do you use the family room door at all? If not, replacing with stepping stones and using that material to widen the main path may work well. The pavers are nice looking to my eye. You will want to put down a full base and rebuild the path, however.

You now have two votes for not needing to change the house color if repainting isn’t needed. I do like the suggestion of painting the secondary door the same as the house, but if the path is narrower and the door hidden by the tree part of the year, keeking them the same color is fine as well. You just don’t want to send a mixed message as to which door visitors should approach. I would paint the downspouts to match the siding.

For paint ideas other than what you currently have, try Design Dilemma forum here on Houzz. It seems to be quite active.

Emma, I like the color also but it really needs repainting and you are right I want a change, darker I think. While I like Yardvaark ideas, my knees cannot do another large perennial garden across the front. I have a big perennial garden in the back a really want a a shrub garden with a few perennials for seasonal color. I am in New England and we have mud or snow 5 or 6 months of the year and like mostly evergreens in the front.

The walk was once nice now it is faded cracked and sunk it is going and will be wider. The door on the right is the main guest entrance. The left door opens into my hardwood floored living room. The right door opens into a tiled area in my family room. Nobody in my part of the world uses the front door! We enter from the garage under the house.

I agree that we need some hight in the plants to the left, maybe between the windows, it seems father apart in person.

Question about the down spouts: The soft is white and we were going to keep that way do we paint all the way up to the gutters or leave them white where they turn up?

It didn't seem this hard to decide when we bought this house 24 years ago, we just ripped stuff out replaced and thought it looked great!

I would change the downspout color at the same point the color changes on the house. I can’t really see where that is on your house from the photos as far as the soffit vs. the facia board vs. the gutter itself, but the goal is to make them largely disappear visually. Maybe wrap the top of the downspout in painted paper where you are wondering about to see what looks good from a distance as well as closer in. If still in doubt, paint it to the lowest point you are considering and then leave it for a bit to see if it bugs you. You can always add paint more easily than remove it.

If the secondary door is the front door, you might consider replacing the main walk so that it goes more directly to the door mostly used and branches off to the formal front door. Regardless, give the family room door a good-sized landing and be sure that it is well-lit so that visitors know which door to use.

I wouldn’t plant something high between the windows. You already have a plant with bulk in front of the family room and if you plant something tall in a similar spot on the other side it will make the house look barricaded, and if you add something skinny, it will look out of balance and silly. Add the height diagonally off the end to frame and ground the house and use plants that max out at the height that Yardvaark and emmarene indicated for under the left windows.

@ Yardvaark Love the posts!

Thank you all for your suggestions. Love the posts but the modifications they would entail are way out of budget. I will take yarvaarks drawing to the nursery when the time comes and try to incorporate her ideas with something that will work with our western exposure and winter climate. We have gotten quotes for paint and walk replacement and that will be where the bulk of our budget will go. The front gable will be resided in the same cedar shakes as the house and painted the same color as the body of the house. The shutters will be replaced with a panel style The house will be painted with SW Duration.

The tentative colors are:

The body of the house SW Hardware

The doors SW Copper Wire.

The trim white.

The shutters and black.

The walks will be Thechnobloc blue 60. Chaplain Grey

Yes we are keeping the shutters (but not on the bay window) the vast majority or houses similar to ours in our area have shutters and the house will bare without them.

I like the colors you have chosen.

I like the extended gable with posts and the time to do it would be when reroofing becomes necessary so perhaps you can plan that as a long range goal.

Please do post pictures of your improvements.

Thank you @emmarene9. My husband is on the fence about orange door. Is soon as it gets above 40-50 degrees for a while I am going to get some samples.

The stoops will not be modified, they were just redone two years ago. Also the over hand is not deep enough fro add pillars as Emma said they time to do it will be when the house is re-roofed.

I would start by addressing the double door issue by highlighting the main entry, perhaps with a gable roof portico extension or at minimum specimen shrub planting to draw attention. I'd widen the primary walk from the street to main entry to at least the width of the stoop (cladding the stoop?) and do my best to hide the walkway to the secondary entrance by pulling it closer and running it parallel to the home (leave enough room for foundation planting) and introducing a plant bed on the opposite side of the secondary walk as well. Good luck with your project!

I have to say the two doors have never been a big deal to us of our guests. I like the y in the walk I can stand at the right door and see my guests arriving. I and as far as strangers being confused we do not open our doors to uninvited strangers.