Gorgeous building. What a great investment if you can deal with taxes.

I like your green steps with your building. What about using the same color for the windows? Seems to work nicely with the accent brick/terracotta???

Hi Beverly, thank you for the feedback. I actually, am not in love with the green and was thinking of maybe a dark grey, but not sure it would work well. Yes, taxes are always challenging in OP, but this property was not horrible, as we saw with a few other properties.

Hi Marci, thank you. Yes the landscape is a disaster and will be working on it this spring. I thought about removing the hedges to show the wrought iron fence. It is not in great shape and I have been considering how much work it would take to restore it (from what I can see it has rusted very badly). I like the idea of enclosing the iron columns.

The idea of green is interesting. I wonder how a dark green, like a british racing green (black tones) would look against the yellow accent brick?

LL you can test the colors, but the British Racing Green has blue and the green you currently have is more yellow. IMO more complementary to the Ochre accent tile/brick.

What a beautiful building!

Regardless of whether the fence is salvageable (hopefully it is), the frontmost hedge is a mess. You can try pruning to ground level to see if it will regrow since many shrubby plants will return from a good root system in better shape than before, or remove it. Do read up on proper pruning techniques (slightly wider at bottom than the top rather than straight so that all parts of the shrubs get good sun). You may want to take some good photos of both kinds and have them IDed on the Name that Plant forum along with the plants by the porch and the taller plant to the left so you know what to expect and how to care for them.

Name that Plant

Often hedges like this have woody weed species that have established themselves within the hedge, plants such as Chinese elm or Norway maple. Be sure to remove these by cutting them to ground level and painting the cut stump with a brush killer.

I would also want an arborist to evaluate the trees since it looks like one may have lost large limbs and you want them to be safe and not doing damage to the building or its residents.

At some point consider widening the walk to the width of the steps or at least to that of the public sidewalk with a wider landing at the base of the steps. Right now it looks too narrow for two folks to walk abreast or even pass comfortably.

I see a door onto the porch roof, and if residents have access to that, you will want a railing that will match the porch rail.

I don’t have a problem with the metal porch supports since they are unobtrusive. Casing them will make them more of a feature and may require replacing the porch rail.

Make all the trim one color rather than the current mix of yellow, cream and white. I prefer a light color to contrast with the brick. A light sage might be nice or offwhite, but I am not fond of brick and gray.

I think I'd paint the window trim black. Cut back the hedge in front of the windows and add window flower boxes under the four windows closest to the street.

Good ideas above. A couple large pots of annual flowers on the front porch would be a good addition. Also have the trees professionally pruned at the right time of year- remove branches that are growing over the roof and gutters.

A current photo would help show the tree branch structure.

I am n the same page as Sabrina interiors To consider black. If you print a picture or a few pictures of the house, then color in the trim in different colors to see what suits you.

i think black or white/cream are the best choices. Black is very elegant, white safe and traditional. Not a fan at all of green..

I vote with Sabrina and Sandra on the black. Lived in OP for over 20 years, looks like you can walk to the Buzz, yay! I was on East, between OPRF and Fenwick

Unless there is automatic watering or the owner lives in the building, pots and window boxes aren’t a good idea.

I like this combination so much I have used it three times... Muddy olive trim with a deep purple on the door.

Planters at an entrance gate in the FLW style could be a nice addition. Just keep in mind that because of snow on sidewalks, I would consider setting any fence back a few feet from the sidewalk so there is a place to pile shoveled snow.

Big Doug Designs, thank you so much for the renderings!! They are amazing.

Sabrina, thank you. I love the idea of black trim, my husband and I discussed that and it seems like a few others like this idea as well.

Sandra, I love the idea of printing out the photo and coloring the area to see what works.

Zibbe, you are right, we are less than 2 blocks from Buzz Cafe and close to the Conservatory and the park.

Beverly, thank you for all of your ideas and photos. I love the planters and FLW style.

I will definitely incorporate a lot of the ideas that you all have shared. I appreciate everyone's feedback and ideas.