The presentation from your architect is not well done. It suffers from stiff fussy computer fill patterns that obscure the nature of the house and distract your eye from the important issues. I never show a client a black & white computer elevation with all the materials shown. Cleaned up and noted they are useful to the builder. The roof of a house will not only appears shorter when viewed from the ground, it will appear to be a solid color with subtle texture rather than what is shown in these drawings. The roof is far less important in the elevation than the wall claddings. So tell your architect to delete the shingle pattern on the roof so you can see the wall cladding and to add some color even if the colors are not known; it doesn't matter. You need to clearly distinguish between the materials. And put a window of some kind in the blank gable pediments so they look tacked on. And make the corner boards and frieze board larger, and drop the high pants stone work down to the foundation where it can anchor the house to the ground instead of looking like the house is sinking into the foundation. Add a "water table" at the bottom of the siding to establish the floor line. This house has some classical elements so follow though with that theme and build a correct cornice return, omit returns at the stone element and offset the column capitals at the ends of the porch (the beam should align with the column below). The columns appear a bit spindly so try making them wider. They seem too short to be tapered. Reduce the number of window panes and use sub-sills under the windows instead of "picture frame" trim. The window in the stone wall should be recessed with brick molding trim and a masonry sill. Some kind of a lintel might help too. This is just a quick study of what an architect might use to show you the design of your house. If he/she prefers to draw with a computer and you are willing to pay for the extra time, a better program would be SketchUp. As for materials, I don't think a horizontal stone pattern is at all appropriate.

Groveraxle, thank you so much for making those different color combinations. Your work made me realize I don't like the initial color scheme I had in mind (navy and cedar and white). The funny thing is that the combo you made with green on top looks almost exactly like my house's neighborhood twin (it is located a mile or so from my house). I really like the gray combination you made. Thanks to other people's suggestions, I am starting to warm up to the idea of one color for the body of the house :) If anyone is interested, here are the house twins: My house is the one on the left.

Congratulations on your first home! Make sure you test colors on a movable board before you have the exterior painted - the colors look different from the monitor and will look different in various times of the day or evening. Blue is very hard to get right, but looks fabulous when it is done right. I will see if I can find a couple of blue siding homes as insp pics so you can have a place to start your color tests. One comment about your shutters: remove the shutters on the front right double window and add shutter hardware to the other two sets of shutters so they look functional even if they aren't, it will add lots of personality to your home. They need to be sized right (half the size of the window for each shutter). Here is a link to a brief article written by an architect for you Shutters vs Shudders ^See how the each shutter is half the size of the window in width and each has hinges and shutter dogs. I have no idea if these are functional or just look functional, and that is the point:)

I'm not a fan of painting brick as it turns a no maintenance product into a long term maintenance issue. The brick seems to have more browns than grays in it but the roof is gray. You need to find a color that marries the two. Something in the taupe family would work. Also, a couple of other things. If you plan on keeping shutters I would switch to a wider shutter that is correctly sized for you windows. The current ones are too narrow. Also, the area without a railing in front of the door needs to have one installed. Building codes require them if the change in elevation is more than 30", which yours definitely is. If you're interested in seeing some virtual makeovers of your house check out my website, Creative Visual Concepts.