Holy smokes! I LOVE THIS FORUM! You all are so great. mjsee, seems like you know a lot about plants. You'd be an excellent person to ask what kind of plants I actually have in the yard as I haven't a clue on most. We do have a japanese maple, is that the acer palmatum you're talking about? The front yard get lots of sun, pretty much all day long, especially morning and afternoon. It faces north, north east-ish. What I REALLLY want in a lilac tree. I'm from NH and I'm discovered a few in town, in very shaded areas. Any thoughts on best place to plant one? I know it won't thrive here like in colder zones but it's my fav. Goldie50, WOW!!! I love all the pictures you did, especially the one with the door panels taken off. Thank you for helping me to visualize this. You are very good! Justgottobeme, yes, that's what my mom said about looking for faded brick. Might be the deal breaker. Thanks for mentionning it. Oopsie, we live in North Carolina actually. Thanks again for your kind words. And I agree with you on removing the shutters from the door and picture window. For sure! Calirose, glad you liked the pictures. I personally love seeing everyone else's homes on here so that was my first sharing of mine. : ) Palimpset, yes, I agree that we should not emphasize the length. So to fill you in on how the house got so long...to the left in the picture was a porch that was walled in to make a mudroom. To the right an addition in the 90s of a master suite and home office. So not orignial to the house, but designed to "balance" each side. We have plenty of space out back so I'm not sure why they didn't add on that way. Thanks again for all of your insight into this. I really appreciate it. tryingtodecorate, (love the name, btw), yes, I agree the black shutters with a touch of brown will be the way to go if I do keep those 2 window shutters. And a red door is really exciting to me, though maybe not the best match. I can always change it down the road. I can't wait to paint it!

K Laurence - I agree, landscaping will make a big difference. I guess right now I’m hoping to make it as good as possible without doing any kind of landscaping, so it looks even better when I do. Not sure if that makes sense, but at least it will be easy to paint without trampling any plants. Gargamel - I thought about removing the shutters, as I’m not a big fan of purely decorative shutters either, but it almost looks unfinished. Below is a pic so you can see what I mean. Pennydesign - I’m interested in stain, but I feel like it might be strange if I just replace the flat pieces of wood with new flat pieces of wood, not sure if it needs an interesting grain or if that is worse- maybe I’m not thinking of the right material. Powermuffin - Got it, if I go with a grey exterior, would you go darker grey or black with the shutters - or something that would coordinate with the front door depending on that color? Emmarene - Good call on needing contrast with the roof and nice photoshop work! The left side of the house is definitely odd. After I paint the next step is landscaping (i.e. a big shrub). I am toying with the idea of removing the gable as well, but that wouldn’t be for a while as I’d be waiting until I got a new roof. I thought about making the cedar shakes level all the way across (pic below), but that looks odd to me as well - what do you think?

Your home isn't ugly. The flowering tree (tulip tree?) is especially lovely. While the rock probably wouldn't have been my first choice, neither would the pale blue/gray siding. If you're considering repainting anyway, do consider a darker gray for the siding and trim -- the darkest in the stone -- with a very dark gray or even black for the fascia.

NNo shutters and IMO no window boxes this is a contemporary don’t mess with the style . You have space bewtweeen the house and the drive way to landscape are those panels at the front in the garage area? This is one of my fave landscape ideas usually for a MCM house but I think it has great ideas for inspiration with your house. Since the windows need replacing I would do black ones and no grids