Some quick updates a month later: The buyers on our current home should be closing as I type this. Our closing is scheduled for Wednesday, then we move everything in between then and Saturday, when the professionals are scheduled to move the big items over. At the same time all of the carpet in the house is getting pulled and everything is being given a good cleaning. The most uncertain part of the move-in so far is that we need to have various locks repaired and re-keyed. That's going to be essential to the move-in since the front door is currently locked with no key and the back door is currently unlockable and secured only with a padlock. We have to trust our locksmiths have ordered the correct cylinders to get both doors working again. Finding parts for 100 year old locks was definitely one of the unanticipated challenges in buying a historic home. Luckily no part of the actual mortise locks seem to be damaged, but they are of a size that has made ordering replacement parts difficult, total hardware replacement is basically impossible without making major modifications to the door.Here's our back door. This lock set is completely functional except that the city tried drilling into the cylinder before finding they couldn't break a mortise lock that way and kicked in the door. What's especially frustrating, is just finding people who can and will do the work. Many declined the job knowing that mortise locks or old doors were involved without even seeing pictures. And several times in the process we've been told that we are better off just replacing the door, even when we were just looking for someone to replace or repair the door frame. I suspect this will be a reoccurring theme as we continue to work on the house. On the subject of trim, while repairing the aforementioned door jamb (a project that we've started before closing knowing that we need to get the doors locked right away), the casing that was pulled off is most definitely walnut. Since this was in the service stairs down to the basement, I can only assume that all of the woodwork in the house is walnut, with the exception of the front door, which appears to be quarter sawn white oak, I presume chosen for it's ability to stand up to the exterior elements. When I get a chance I still want to make a post on the research that I've done so far on this house, and what I've found about it's style and potential architect. Someone that we ran across who knew about the house had the same suggestion that we create a blog on our work and experiences.

Update: We painted the gutters and soffits Benjamin Moore Dragon's Breath and the columns and windows the same color, but desaturated. Changed out the lights, updated furniture, removed shutters and added horizontal fence/gate. We ripped up the hedges in our beds and planted birds of paradise, gingers, a banana tree and vincas. Over time they will fill nicely. Our beautiful oak tree's roots are right below the walkway, and we decided it wasn't wise to mess with it. The week we finished, our dream home down the block went up for sale, and we made an offer. Thankfully since we have invested so much time and love into our home (with a lot of guidance from Houzz) and it sold within 24 hours. So we passed the "finish line" for our current home, and will thankfully we able to admire her beauty when walking the neighborhood. Thanks everyone for your input, and I hope the pictures help others looking to update a side century ranch home!

I don't like the dark paint. With your light roof and light stone it looks like someone tied a dark green ribbon around the top of your house. A lighter color would be an improvement. I dislike the planters and would remove them if possible. I would remove the rail if it is not needed for safety. It is probably original but it makes the door seem inaccessible You can buy a full view storm door and paint it and the house door the same color. I love your lamp post. Do you have a porch light? I made an amateurish image of a lighter house with no planters. Do you think the stone is original?

@bpath For the closet system, take an inventory of the things you keep stored in the bedroom and closets, and how you store them. You won’t have a dresser so anything you keep ”out” now has to go somewhere. Does an open PAX door allow the neighboring doors to open 90° or more, too? -- We'll definitely need to look into this more closely to make sure the closets are functional for us. But I figure we can do that later, it's not on the critical path to getting the plans in for permitting. Good point about PAX doors, I think if you open two adjacent doors that are hinged next to each other, the handles will hit. We have them in our current bathroom, and the door hinges are staggered to avoid that.