lindybarts, would you consider offering a color suggestion for the house we are building. The house was selected to fit on a 10 acre property with an existing white garage for two cars, a garage for mowing equipment, and a small two bedroom house (1930 or so) that we are currently remodeling. With that all said, we had to pick a house that fit the property. The house dates itself somewhat because it is an older plan. We are considering Hardy plank/board. What color suggestions do you have. Also, I hate the bedroom window on the second floor...any suggestions? Thanks, I really admire your talents with decorating. The house is located at www.hgtv.houseplans.com and is plan DW-2112. Here is a link that might be useful: Our House Plan

Dark Desire is in its first year of sales in USA. It just won a German ADR this last September - should require no effort to prevent black spot. We put it into trials 2 years ago in the deep south and it is happy and grows well in the south without fungicides. Size wise this is a big rose 4' x 4' easy and perhaps reaching 5 feet in height. It likes suns and while I have not done any trials in shade but does seem to tolerate afternoon shade in my trial garden. Repeat blooming and fragrant. The foliage is a very dark green with purplish new leaves and the new stems are a mahogany color which you may want to consider in the design. Polar Express is a tall rose reaching 5'. It won an ADR back in 2007 and is quite disease resistant. Good reports on performance in Texas. It blooms recurrently with very heavy flushes of flowers. Shiny bright foliage. Probably best in the background of your rose garden. Lions is a great choice. It tends to be much wider than tall. The number of blooms can be heavy enough to be a bit overhanging. Excellent on disease. Sunbeam Veranda is a compact Floribunda. Bright yellow bloom fading to a mi- range yellow open flower. It is easy to maintain it at about 3' tall and 2'wide. It is good on disease but not as good as some of the other Kordes roses - probably as good as Sun Sprite. Wow you are going to have an amazing rose garden!

Keep the stucco, definitely - yeah it does require some occasional maintenance every ... oh, half a century or so... but it really is a quality item. Either patch and repaint, but make it an earthier color that realates better to roof and brick chimney - eg if green, a browner/richer/earthier shade of green. Or if you are resurfacing entire house, they can color the stucco itself to leave you with a more maintenance free surface that has a more of a natural masonry pebbly surface that can be VERY attractive. Im curious do you know what the original color or finish was? Not that you have to replicate it, but it can be helpful to inform you what the original intention was and look up pictures of other stucco houses of that era - could be Im way off about my inclination toward earthier colors for stucco. Your houses era/style, midcentury modern, is very fashionable these days and in fact a lot of contemporary architecture and home furnishings replicate or are inspired by that era.... so you really cant go wrong by remaining true to that style. You say "modernize" but IMHO, getting houses back to their roots and making changes that are harmonious with and true to the original design esthetic is usually the best choice. That in itself will make your house look totally refreshed and "new." Actually I cant see any sign of swirl marks in the photo - I don't think changing that would have nearly as much impact as repairing the surface & refreshing the color. BTW, I do agree with above posters that it is a very attractive house as is!

Thank you all for your input! I didn't love the shutters either! Wanted to add other sparks of wood though! I am open to other ideas for doors, these two are not necessarily my only options. I want with glass though to bring in sunlight. Also would love to hear input about the white brick; I don't want to bring another color in, therefore chose this. But I am thinking if I should just do siding all the way down and and just have the white brick on the front porch? and does anyone have other inexpensive design additions here?