I would do concrete. Consider a step down from the front door, so there is not issue with water or melting snow against the door. Have lower risers and more steps with a generous pad. Use brick if you can the replicate the original sides with iron railings.

Brick to match the Chimney

I like Yardvaark's rendition. I wish you could use brick somehow, I would certainly try. And by the way, your house is simply beautiful.

Darling home. Yardvaark has nailed it. Concrete for durability.

Isn‘t there a uniform code to NOT have an immediate step down from the door? Someone suggested that in a comment above. I thought you had to have a level landing outside exterior doors.

Another vote for Yardvaark’s idea. Concrete can unify the whole first impression. Brick is vulnerable in colder areas due to the ice/snow/melting.

Little Bug, you are quite right, having a step at the door would be very dangerous.

Better to have a large "landing pad" for the first step out, level with the door.

I agree concrete to match the walk and widening the walk way would be great .Yes to the larger landing too. I love yardvarks idea and IMO you will not find brick to match the chimney so just forget the brick. BTW the concrete will be much easier to shovel too.

Thank you all so so much! I had envied concrete steps with the angled buttress like Yardvaark has shown, but wasn't sure if I was giving up too soon on the idea of matching the chimney brick. Unfortunately, my budget is not unlimited for this project (I'm sure COVID-19 has messed with a lot of us), so I will have to see about re-grading and/or extending the width of the whole sidewalk. It is lovely though!

I'm curious how to add railings without making the whole thing seem too busy. Would the railings go on top of the concrete buttresses, or inside of them?

And as far as brick goes, I have talked with a contractor who is able to mix his brick lots to come reeeeeeally close to matching the chimney brick assortment. Unfortunately, he does not work at all with concrete, and he also refuses to work on angled buttresses (and I don't blame him - that does add a lot of complexity). I actually like the lightness of the concrete vs. the brick, so I may just stick with that. Thank you all again!

Concrete can be beautiful, too, as there are many treatments it can be endowed with. However, they all make it cost more. Plain concrete can be beautiful.too. It usually comes down to the basic design detailing and the installer's expertise in finishing.

To those talking about a step-down from the doorway to stairs, older house design is grandfathered. Local government won't make one change stairs when a house is sold. However, when repairing said stairs, the job may be required to meet current codes, and would probably require a landing. It depends on how much of the original structure is retained. Nonetheless, in areas that regularly receive snow a step-down of at least 4" is required. Only where an entry is covered extensively by a roof should the porch floor be close to level with the interior floor. Even then, the porch floor should be lower than the threshold, not even with it.

Perhaps you could use concrete for the main portion of the stairs but edge them with brick to tie into the chimney.

My last house in a similar climate (Iowa) had the combination of concrete and brick as described by kat. It looked great and from 2003-2017. I had absolutely no issues.

Your extreme temps dictate concrete but it doesn't have to only be concrete. See how this bungalow was remodeled.

It seems backwards to be working with a contractor who neither works with concrete or who can't make cheekwalls ("buttresses") the way one wants them ... like using a hairstylist who refuses to use scissors.

Yardvaark is right. Don’t bend your design to the contractor’s lack of skills. Pick your design and find the right company to complete it. This is a huge, permanent addition to your home.

A true mason can; remove the existing brick (set aside), order the new pre-cast concrete steps, and use the old brick to construct pillars to which the new wrought-iron railings attach. While Yardvaark's rendition is lovely, the "proportion" seems to overwhelm your lovely Storybook style home.

@chiflipper ... the proportion looks so funky because the drawing was pasted from a drawing done from a completely different camera viewpoint. I wasn't going to redraw it and took the easy way out by stretching the image to fit. Trouble is, when one thing fits (porch to house) another thing (steps at walk) might look out of whack. I have to go with the most reasonable fit and figure that people are able to get the general idea, and know in real life it would look proportional to their actual site. To boot, stretching and shrinking in the Paint program is destructive to the image being stretched. So there's only so much one can get away with before they are forced to redraw the whole thing or scrap the process.

Thanks Yardvaark for the explanation. SO wish I had even minimal skills / understanding of manipulative programs. PS Your landscaping renditions are marvelous.

Thanks for pitching in, everyone! I'm going to contact some more contractors over the next couple of weeks to get some more options and estimates on the table. I really appreciate the ideas and different perspectives!

You are going about the process backwards, and the usual result of that is overwhelming confusion. You need to commit a practical design and its details to paper, so that every contractor can see what you want him to build. Then you'd be comparing apples to apples. If you expect every new contractor to come up with ideas (half-baked designs in his head which you will never know what you're getting until after it is built) then every price you get cannot be compared to any other. This usually ends in some form of disappointment because, well, it's a surprise until the end.

Yardvaark - You are absolutely correct. I had originally gone through that process with every intention of rebuilding the steps as they were (depending on the contractor, that meant brick + concrete, or brick + stone since the original steps were not 100% reproducible). I decided on a brick contractor due to his ability to source matching bricks, and also his incredibly fair price. It hasn't been until recently that I've re-opened the can of worms of whether or not I really want the front to be rebuilt to match the original, rather than using this opportunity to make some changes.

Another reason for not committing to a design before a contractor is because, for me, budget will always be a factor in whether or not a design element is worth it. I don't know how much a design detail will affect the overall cost until I talk with the contractor, and that often affects whether or not it becomes part of the final plan. In the case of the brick contractor, the difference between having a contractor willing to work with angled buttresses vs. not was $15,000 vs. $5,500. Since I don't plan on living in this house forever, I'm more concerned about ROI in the long run vs. having something built to perfectly fit my personal preferences. I respect that everyone has a different threshold for different design decisions, and I love getting to see the results of that!

Pound for pound, formed concrete work is generally cheaper than brick laying. If you can't do ($) sloped cheekwalls, make them straight sided. If you can't do straight sided, eliminate them. Still, whatever IS in the budget needs to be committed to paper. It's a starting point. You can ask every contractor what he would eliminate to make it more cost effective.

Sometimes, when adding something to the plan seems to cause a disproportionately radical increase in price, it's because the contractor really doesn't want to do it. It may be out of his skill set.

Concrete steps will last longer and stamped concrete steps can be really attractive.

Would completely remove both steps and sidewalk and create at least a 6''x6' landing before the steps. Also, would make more steps -- dig down to continue the steps until your sidewalk needs to be only slightly sloped, creating a curb on each side of the steps.

If possible, extend the forward facing gable to cover the stoop as well.