Hey Everyone, Thanks, again. I have more comments/questions throughout at ***** and at the end based on your latest round of discussion. lpinkmountain Thanks for the article. I hate for that tree to go, but think that it would look betterand I could replace it w/ something else like a cute red bud tree Ive heard about that newspaper planting. It sounds too good to be true! But, heck, maybe Ill try it. The ground in Tn is so hardso much clay! BarefootinCT. I love, love, love your house/garden. ***Do you have other photos I could look at? (Yellow is sort of my "dream" color. They always look happy to me and if I had my druthersor money, more correctlyI would redo this house.) Is there a path between the foundation plantings and this welcome garden? You said it spilled out of the foundation, but I cant quite imagine it. Ive attempted my first Paint drawing of what Im thinkingbutis the bed by the stone path a bedor just plantings? I dont want it to look like an island in the middle of the yard. *****Can you (or anyone) think of another thing we could do to simulate sidelights or add interest/width? Im just thinking that a new door/cutting the house wider is a bigger task than I want to take on(Im having a hard time getting hand people/builders here!!!) Some people have door frames hereand I have about 10 inches on each sidebut I guess it would look weird to only frame part of it. I mean, the purpose of the sidelight is to add more width and give the door more presence and visually shift it closer to center, right? Can you keep the door and just buy a sidelight thing? Saypoint Thanks for those links. I have spent a lot of time looking for plants. Its the deciding that kills me. Or deciding and then not finding it. I plan to go to the nursery today and just see whats thereand see what they might get in (Its hard for me, too, to be patient because Im a teacher and once school hits my life is pretty much over. I am trying to work less, however, but you knowyouth of the nation and all thatpretty important and hard to say "no" to!) *****You said.."A common mistake when putting in paths or walks is to put them so close to the house that you can't plant anything more than a couple feet wide in the pocket that remains, so keep that in mind." Sorry Could you clarify? The pocket that remains? Does the drawing I attempted work in this regard? *******For nowuntil I see plant availI am thinking of 5 or 6 shrubs that are evergreen and have structure (e.g., yew, laurel), a large holly for the corner of the house (or something else green and tall, but that doesnt need loads of light) and some little annuals. Not sure what would go between the yew/Laurel and annuals maybe something like Nandina which does well here, but Im not sure those colors of yellow/red would do well with the house and other colors. On the tiny welcome plot by the walkway, Im thinking just things like daisies and some little grasses, maybe bulbs in the winter/spring and pansies in the winter. Would it be better to have something more substantial but compact like heather or compact laurel? I prefer not to use annuals if I cantoo much work, reallybut I do like the punch of color they bring! Chelone Thanks for the encouragement. If you look at my photobucket links, you can get a sense of things inside the house. The house is smalland if we move the door to the side, people would walk in and have to take a sharp left as theyd "hit" the dining room table. Currently, you walk in the front and have an open path by the table. (I would add that I just knocked down a kitchen wall to open the sight line when you walk in the current door. We closed off the side door to create a galley kitchen insideor we willif any construction person ever calls me back.) See the photos at: http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/andi956/ As far as using a front porch, I doubt we wouldand I dont feel the need for privacy really as we pretty much live in the large, fenced back yard. The street is nothing to look at, you see. Make sense? Karinl- Keeping me on task, are you? LOL. Thanks. I appreciate being reminded to slow down. Ive been thinking about all this for so long that it makes me nutsand I want to have it now. YesI dream of some kind of flagstone pathcottagey. (When I knock down the sealed up chimney that just into the kitchen the space will be used to house the fridge which opens up space for a row of cabinets opposite.)Its likely that I could use the chimney brick for a "grilling station" in the back.) ****What color stone would be best with my house/plant colors? I tend to like the sandy colorslight brownsmaybe with some gray, but all gray feels a bit cold to me. Yet, maybe thats better? Lazygardens Well, it looks weird on my house, but is common in my neighborhood. For some houses it looks ok, cute even. I just cant figure out why mine doesnt seem so cute. Hopefully the landscaping will help. And we may build a mud room or something onto the left side of the houseone daybut its low priority, mostly due to money and because we need a bath on the *other* side of the house first. (In fact, its possible well move!) OK would you all indulge me in a few more thoughts: 1. We are now feeling like the tree will goand perhaps, in its place, well plant a red bud tree. 2. I am thinking of the best path to the front door. Many people park in front of the house, some park in the driveway. I had put this little bed by the side fence because the concrete/blacktop there was so patchyand its not a dream, obviously. Maybe next year I can add lots of flowers (e.g., daisies, purple cone flowersomething that can stand being next to the blacktop but its tricky because then it will grow into the driveway In fact, I wish the fence line were set in a bit more!). Now Im thinking that it might make sense to take off one the far left section of the fence to widen that space so you dont have to zig zag around it to get to the steps. Maybe Id hang a bucket of flowers right thereor something to designate the entrance. 3. Can folks recommend colors for house trim and why certain colors would "work" or not. The blue is sort of happy to me, reallybut is bright, I admit. I thought about something that would match the siding, but I hate the house color, soo Out by the fence in frontIm not sure how I would mulch on the slight slopemaybe try those plastic edging things that hammer into the ground to keep the mulch in its place? 5. Final votes on porch shape? A small gable or a flat but wider porchand why? Gonna try to add a link, but here's the photobucket page in case http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/andi956/ Thanks, everyone!

Hi, Congrats n the great house. I have lots of idea�s that may work for you. We recently "updated" the look of our house by adding Stone-like Keystones to the trim around the windows and above the garage door. Just Google Keystones, you�ll see lots f sites and style to pick from. These days these architectural components are made out of non-wood products so stay looking great for years. Also, If you have a Lowes nearby, go check their section of non- wood trims. We purchased the base boards which are about 8" tall, turned them upside down and used them like a crown molding. That would look really great in the two spaces above your garage doors. Another suggestion, you could add shutters around the windows on the first floor. Also, Consider buying a few year round material style Urns for the 3 corners of the garage, and for either side of the front door. You could plant a nice combination of flowers and evergreens to give you color, and height. We have 1 with a rose tree which blooms all summer, at eth base we added begonias and two tone Ivy, one has a rounded shaped evergreen shrub, with impatient at the base, our last one has a topiary evergreen, about 3 feet tall, with the 3 ball shapes. We got all this done for under $1,000 and eth neighbors all love what we have done. I suggest also adding lower potted plants to your entry way as well. If you stay with the "stone looking" pots on posts and you should get some high impact. You can usually find those year round pots really inexpensively at stores like, TK Maxx, Marshalls, Ross and Tuesday Morning. Good luck and best wishes. Maria

"Obviously if there were other homes better suited to my tastes I wouldn't even ask, I would buy the other home! Only house for sale in subdivision!" "Did I mention limited budget?" The answer is really, No, you can't make changes to this house to make it more traditional looking or appealing to your taste at a limited budget. The limited budget answers are 1) wait until something more to your liking comes up in the subdivision, 2) look in a different nearby subdivision. If you had a high budget and could afford to either pay for the house, then tear it down and pay to build another, or you had several hundred thousand dollars in addition to the purchase price to substantially alter it, then sure, you could substantially alter it. (While you were living in another house because it would probably be uninhabitable during most of the renovation), then the answer is yes, you could do anything you want with enough money. It rarely makes sense to tear down a house unless it is really unsuitable to the lot, or the neighborhood in terms of surrounding houses and values, or for some reason it is uninhabitable or condemned. This usually only makes sense in densely populated areas where land values are very high, or there is something extra special about the property, such as being oceanfront. I live in an area where property values are very high. They recently tore down a commercial building and built 6 houses on the parcel. Each house is twice to 2.5 as large as the houses in the surrounding neighborhood. Each house is being sold for at least 4 times the typical selling price of the surrounding neighborhood. My neighborhood can support such variances in value, although Most people who already live here have said they would not spend nearly that much to live in this neighborhood. Can you afford to spend $200K (a 1700 sq foot house at $117/ft.) and then spend another $250K (a ballpark estimate based upon a more typical larger house at the same price/ft), for a total of $450K? Could you Sell a $450K house in that subdivision? Is that a limited budget to you? That's a serious question, because to some people a limited budget is $1M. If your limited budget is $100K in addition to the purchase price, I would say in no way could you change the character of the house And make other renovations like kitchens and baths.

I'm one that believes that a real budget needs to be allocated for garage doors that are a large part of your facade. We have a front facing garage and a detached rear garage. We did custom Spanish wood garage doors for our spanish style house. People would stop their cars and comment that they couldn't believe new garage doors could make such a change in the look of a house. We used Ranch House Doors, linked below, and they have lots of photos on their site that might spark some ideas. Here is a link that might be useful: Ranch House garage doors