Thank you, all! I agree about the shutters. I was just trying to think of an example of something small I could afford to add. I’m interested to read that I should go with a paint color similar to the brick tone. My first thought was, “white!!”. So glad I asked! What about building out a frame around the windows? Or adding peaks or rounded tops? Similar to the home Denita shared?

the purpose of the soffit ceiling is to carry mechanical. As someone pointed out you have a very good chance of being able to vent straight to an exterior wall. We were able to do this in our last house with an island rangetop. The above island hood looked great and worked much better than the downdraft we replaced. In our new house they also had an island cooktop, which we removed to put a range along a wall. We also are venting straight to the outside and not through the attic. Here is the type of cooking that made messes where we really wanted a wall 1) searing steaks where they are smoking like crazy 2) cooking bacon - tons of grease splatters 3) deep frying in a pot - oil splatters 4) high temp wok cooking - oil splatters With regards to prep, most of our prep involves washing and cutting which happens right near the sink, not the stove.

I would give thought to removing the balcony/deck and wood porch. That looks like an add on. It appears to be too small to do any living on the balcony/deck and what else are they for? I'm guessing access to that balcony is through a bedroom and that's not really convenient for guests. If you remove all that from the front, your home might look like this. If you really want to entertain off the front of the home, I would recommend expanding the front entrance porch and adding a pergola over a patio pad. I love the stone of the house and would do some careful searching to find a material other than asphalt shingles to replace the mansard roof material. This material shown below is perhaps a faux slate material.

Maybe it's because I l'm so used to seeing dark Mansard roofs, but I like them better than the light ones on your home. I set off to find some pics of light roofs with darker siding, but found nothing worth showing. I did, however, find a few light roofs with light siding - more of a monochromatic look that I think looks good. However, it doesn't read ski-resort home to me. same house with 2 different color roofs (or at least the photos make them look different). If you're keeping the yellow, I'd probably go with a paler gray. Not a mansard, but with a light roof, I think this combo is stunning...