MSH2000, I know how hard it is to choose colors especially for first time home buyers and builders such as my wife and I. A year ago our builder gave us the daunting task of choosing the main exterior color and trim and personally I found it the hardest part of the entire home building process. The mechanical, architectural, and systems aspects seemed easier to me- just read a lot and the answers are there; but house colors forget it! We also have a red roof such as yours and this makes color choices a little more restrictive. Our first color choice was bold and bright, and after the house was painted I knew we might have not made the "best" choice given our neighborhood. So we changed it. My wife and I promised ourselves that we will be true to ourselves and neither of us are scared of colors- thus the red roof, bronze windows- colors you don't find in our neighborhood. Everyone went for the pastels, washed out sandy light colored roofs, and the pastel Key West look. Well, our house is Mediterranean themed, not Key West so we both felt our house should not be a replica of everyone elses in the neighborhood, but it had to fit in. My advice, and something I wish I had done PRIOR to letting my painter put one brush stroke on my home, is for you to get a sample jar of the paints you are planning to go with and try it on the house our on poster board and see how it all blends together. We told our builder that we wanted to change colors and I wanted to provide the painter with my own paint. (in other words- not contractor paint) They obliged and I went with California Paints flat velvet base. The main color is "Wooly Thyme" and trim color is "chic magnet". See for yourself how it turned out in the link below. Keep in mind the original color was almost school bus yellow, while it might have looked nice in another neighborhood it didn't jive with some of my neighbors as the President of the HOA let me know in a nice way. Again, we're not scared of colors but we wanted our house colors to have character and warmth and I think we were able to capture this with our colors. A few things I learned about colors and some suggestions. Lighter colors on a tall/large house will stand out much more than lighter colors on a less tall one story home such as yours, but keep in mind that with a red roof, light colors might make your roof look "top heavy". The trick might be to choose a lighter earth toned color that's a few shades lighter than the one we chose, but not so bright that it makes your home look top heavy. Also remember the quality of the paint itself makes a difference in terms of how close the color matches in terms of sheen/shade/luster to the swatch- at least that's what I'm finding out. Here is a link that might be useful: Andyk's build 08/19/07

Two coats of interior paint done and so far so good, we need to wait at least a week before the color settles in, this one surprisingly takes a week to mature and lighten up. Boy, am I glad I did not attempt to do 90+ gallons of wall paint myself. Interior ceilings will commence on Monday followed by exterior paint, trim, gutter boards, etc., these guys are going to be around a while even though the weather is cooperating this week. Our entry door was delivered yesterday and unloaded without a scratch, phew! Took a quick couple of pics while they were bringing the frame and each door into center garage. It was scary when they had to tilt the huge frame to get it through the 8' tall garage door, the frame is taller. Pic of frame and one of two doors. They covered it all with heavy plastic sheeting before they left. I think we'll install it the following week when I'm working from home. They also left cans of door paint and threshold stain. Really pleased with the results and looking forward to seeing it on the home.

Looks beautiful! Did you paint them yourself? Were they sprayed or brushed? I'm thinking about painting ours but it seems daunting since we have a large kitchen like yours.

Thank you for all of your advice. I talked to my husband and we are going to look into having the hardwood extended through out the house. There is a small toilet closet off the remodeled kitchen, but we will just leave the old tile alone in that room (obviously it has a door because it is a toilet room). That way that room does not have to be part of the renovation. The contractor told me that I did not have to pick the backsplash until after the cabinets and countertop are in; we will have a better idea of all the tones for the paint and backsplash and don't have to worry about a clashing floor tile. I had wanted tile for the spills, and the combination of wanting the right look and being concerned about how the tiles would affect my bad feet (and the fact that it seems like tile patterns become dated much more quickly than wood floors) all seemed to push me to hardwood. I don't want this blue on the walls but I do think that countertop, floors and cabinets work on this kitchen: [houzz=https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-traditional-kitchen-dc-metro-phvw-vp~87227] I thought this backsplash really complemented the blue pearl: [houzz=https://www.houzz.com/photos/kitchen-webster-traditional-kitchen-new-york-phvw-vp~2370442] I think this may be too modern, but if the marble is not the right thing after it is installed this frosted icicle tile also linked stunning with the countertop sample: https://www.msistone.com/glass-tiles-8mm/frosted-icicle-glass-subway-tile-3x9/