apologize for the late response as i didnt realize this formum doesnt send out notifications for new replies,,,that or i just dont have the right settings for my account. i appreciate all the responses and like the corbell or trellis idea to add some dimension to a rather flat facade. also a round accent, which can be used as a roof vent would be a nice touch. to answer some of the questions: 1. yes the right side of the garage was raised to accommodate a van. i recently spoke to a garage installer and the plan was to raise the left to match the right. i do like the idea of widening the trim but this will require some modifications to the vinyl to bring in the lip. i have planned on going with a 2 panel door with square window accents on the top in white. i played around with door colors like going brown but it brought way too much attn to the garage doors. 2. i decided to hold off on the garage doors for a few months since the priority shifted towards fixing our leaking roof, which will be started in a couple weeks. the color of choice i have debating on for weeks to the point where i now drive around town looking at roofs and gutter colors/styles. we narrowed the choices down to going with a slate or charcoal since the ultimate goal is to do less w/ the red/tannish accents. i decided on a GAF timerbline charcoal color with matching 5-6" gutters or even a white gutter. still TBD on those choices. 3. windows: the brown is actually the metal frame for the window. the red is a metal trim that was part of the vinyl siding install. im considering painting the red to white...adding some interior white shutters. i just hope the brown doesnt clash too much w/ the white. wondering if painting the brown is a bad idea im terrible at photoshop(actually ms paint) but at least this gives a decent idea of how it might look. appreciate all the input... stage 1: replace roof shingles, add the circular vent trim accent stage 2: garage doors stage 3: shutters, lights, window trim, maybe the trellis or corbell stage 4(my dream) paver stones in the driveway and add brick/stone facade accents, redo the brick steps on the left and right side. this style home is typical to a certain area in the SF bay area. houses are packed together on small lots with very little to no side yard. rather ugly to say the least so im trying to do the best w/ the limitations we have.

I do like yellow houses, but think it makes this one looks insubstantial. I think also that the brick tones should play some role in determining the color of the house. A true taupe, with no pink undertones, would be nice for this house. In fact, I really like the darker color for the siding. Painting a house a dark color can make it look smaller. That problem can be mitigated by painting all the trim pieces a lighter color----- not white or cream, but a much, much lighter shade of the color of the siding itself. As for the foundation, I think they have done the color scheme backwards.....you don't want three great dark holes. I would paint the arches themselves (stucco or drywall or whatever it is) the same color as the house. I would add trim pieces to the outline of the arches, molding that isn't a super fancy profile, but substantial, and paint the molding the trim color they use up top (the lighter taupe). The lattice I would leave in place and paint a lighter color still....not white, but the lightest taupe compared with the siding (darkest color on the house) and trim (much lighter taupe than siding). The shutters would be the same lightest hue as the lattice. That would unify the very disparate elements and colors going on. If they replace the railing--- and I would--- I'd use simple square railings the trim color (not the lightest, but the middle color in this palette). The door would be something entirely different--- perhaps a green or even a light coral. It's a pretty house with lots of curb appeal!

Wow, thank you all so much. Lavendar_lass thank you for posting that layout, I really am liking it (thank you Buehl as well, yes I have two growing sons and a huge husband, never thought of leg room!). Rebunky thanks for posting the pics I'll have more to say on that later because I love love love that buttery black counter with those pretty white counters and am guessing you are deciding backsplash? :) I am dying to see your kitchen. Excuse my absence, we've been in heavy duty talks. Thanks to the so many of you that posted, each and every one of you has given me something to consider, that's what I was looking for. I was dragging my feet on ordering cabinets (which is about to delay us), and I realized it was just that I wasn't really happy with the kitchen layout, but couldn't figure out why. I am really starting to get a better grip on the issues, challenges, and space requirements. I am embarrassed to admit we just didn't re-visit the issue of expansion of living space vs. screened porch, and I think this has to do to the evolution of our project. Which has been less than ideal. We spent months and months thinking based on one contractor) that it was out of reach. I think we just let that dream go, and didn't go back to it. DH who I thought might kill me, based on yet another design change, just loved it. Of course it comes down to numbers, for my interior contractor, I'm approved. I need to verify with the framers the true cost difference. He was talking additional baffles (?) and flooring framing (it's not over heated living space) however we wonder if treated vs. untreated wood and some other things may just really offset it. We will see. This has gotten me actually excited about the kitchen. Finally. This is the whole reason I love to have other eyes on a project, sometimes you just really gain a fresh perspective that shakes you up and lets you think out of the box. I'm notorious for getting stuck in that box, so I try to compensate. Main Line, I appreciate your opinion, I agree that professionals make a difference. I did go to a professional for the original design. She did know my thoughts, and designed accordingly without critique, so I see the downfall. We did buy our bath vanity from them ( it fell in budget). There were a few bath drawings with all this extra cabinetry. My husband said from the start, her job is to sell cabinetry of course she is going to add additional pieces in. Hmm, never thought of that. Good point DH. I certainly thank you Main Line for the point that this could've been designed in a similar but more efficient and more inexpensive way. Perhaps I got a bum designer. That's a shame, I really like working with her. But, I wouldn't know, unless I went on a board like this. As I said, I like to have FRESH eyes. I'm trying to learn A LOT to be an educated consumer, in a short period of time. This board has been truly sanity saving in the amount of generous people willing to share. Some of the best features in our previous home, and this current home, have been due to our own design work. Now there are code and clearance issues, as seen in this kitchen example, that we aren't educated in. And I did have a professional KD. So I like to get more than one opinion. I have more to say on this, but I won't here. I am going to post some pics, which show our floorplan. Again, we hired a designer, but honestly I gave him our window dimensions, and I don't think he drew them correctly (even after a prelim revision). Whole point was to see how the big windows would look placed in the space. This was an expert recommended by a neighbor who used him on numerous home flips and had known him for years, and I had visited her home he designed. So I'm sorry Main Line, maybe I've had some bad luck, but when I base work off of recommendations and it doesn't work out, well there's problems. And I'm the one stuck, so I prefer more than one recommendation on design. Thanks to you all, pics in follow post.

When we were building, we put our house on the market and sold it the first week. The buyers needed to close within 90 days or lose their quoted mortgage rate so we closed in September although our house wasn’t going to be ready until January. We rented our house back from them but here’s the deal with that. Unlike a normal renter/tenant agreement, we would have been responsible if anything broke, such as furnace, stove, etc. When January came, our new house was not even close to being ready but the owners wanted their house. It was hard to find housing for less than a year lease but we were lucky our builder had another development of apartments that we rented for five months until our house was ready. The stress was incredible, moving twice during that time and we had to put most of our furniture in storage. This time, we just bought a condo and now have to list our home. I’m not sure which is more stressful. I wish you luck on your move.