I am confused. Is the long side with brick facing the street, the long side with siding facing the street, or the short end with the garage doors facing the street? Well, obviously the garage side is connected somehow to the street, but you know what I mean. Anyhow, the thing I have to add is that I ran into a problem with my decorative full-view screen door when it was a few years old. The big screen frame would not stay stuck into the channels of the door any longer. It was as if all those times I opened the screen door with my body up against the screen, instead of my hand on the frame, came back and bit me in the butt. Looking at it, though, I could see that there was room for a lot more than just the spline that was supposed to be holding the screen in place in that slot with the screen. That gave me an idea. So I measured the width of the screen and went to Lowes and got a piece of plexiglass that was wide enough to fit into the screen door opening and partway into the slot on each side. I got it a couple of feet shorter than the screen panel, however. When I got it home, it snapped right in with the screen into that slot. It snugged the screen up tight again, too. I left a foot of screen open below the plexiglass and a foot of screen open above the plexiglass. That creates a chimney effect, drawing cool air into the space between the doors and up and out of the space at the top. Ta Da! No more saggy screen frame, a strong surface to lean against when I enter and exit with full arms as I did everyday for work, and an air-cooled front door. Since I put the plexiglass on the inside of the screen, you can't even see it until you are right up near it. This is the solution I found for using the Full View storm door with a nice fiberglass or steel front door. I got the strength of having the glass panel in place during the hot part of the year when I could not use the glass but had to use the screen insert in the storm door.

I think a marine blue for the front door would look good with the brick and roof. Then, can your window frames be painted? maybe navy there, or dark green, or dark butterscotch. Paint the gutter across the front the same color. I think certain shades of red would work with that brick too This doesn't strike me as a house style for shutters, but maybe a bit of slim wood trim around the windows and a bit more around the door -- the door seems kind of lost in the façade, added trim would make it have more presence. Something simple and fairly plain, though. This isn't a fussy house. You could hang a piece of wall pottery on the wall on the right of the door. Get pretty, good sized pots to place on either side of the steps to make them seem more anchored and generous (or, rebuild the steps a bit wider) Is there a porch across the front or is it just a planter ( can't tell)? I'd replace the metal post with a more substantial square pillar and maybe build up the edge of the porch to make it stand out more. I would repeat the lines of it on the other side of the house with a new planter wall, but build it a little deeper to the house to introduce some balanced asymmetry and have room for a small tree. I think repeating the straight lines in that way will work, but I would also like to see a slightly curvier, ground level bed in front of the planter -- that would be a nice spot for bulbs and ground coverplants/stone and some things like bird's nest spruce, coneflowers, hostas and heuchera. Have those beds meet the sidewalk a foot or two ahead of the steps. BTW after the first year or two, once the plants fill in and if the beds and planters are kept mulched there should be almost no weeding needed. In those planters I would rip out the current shrubs and put a mix of textures, heights and colors -- say if it is pretty shady (and depending on your location) maybe a couple of threadleaf cypress, large hosta, a small to mid sized grass, ferns, liriope -- just to name a few possibilities. Perhaps a narrower growing boxwood at the corners. Rhododendron? Nothing that will grow very tall in front of the windows. A Japanese maple, or a simply framed trellis with a rose or clematis, to soften the corner to the right of the door and fill the large blank gap. But overall not too crowded with plants, because you want to maintain a bit of a sense of simplicity even as you use the plants to soften and add interest. To dress up the sidewalk you could line it with some pavers, maybe a mix of squares and rectangles, and plant some small ground creeping plants alongside. I think this house has the potential to look really good! Hopefully someone can sketch some of the various ideas for you.

Thanks for the comments and questions. This house is certainly unusual. While the photos I posted show the entrance , it's not obvious in the photos or in real life. The entrance to the house on the upper level is by wood stairs against the left side of the house, leading up to a small deck on the left side (south end) and the door into the mudroom. My intent is to make the entry more inviting with new granite steps leading up to wider stairs, maybe with an arbor at the bottom. There is no hiding the big doors; it's what you see as you pull in. My thought is to just accept that and make it look more like a "carriage house" by replacing the cheap 1970 doors with more stylish ones. I like the idea of a wood arbor as that's something I have the skills to build. Tom

The roof is going to be a lot more expensive proposition than an arbor. It will require permits and inspections and possibly support posts because of snow load. The support posts will require footers to be dug to support the roof. It will have to be tied in to the header over the garage, wherever that happens to fall. Even if you could do it with brackets, you wouldn't have any support in the center because of the double wide door. You would need something like this instead. You would also need to add some kind of gutters because the smaller roof is going to drop rain onto the garage roof and it has to be carried away somewhere. You would be going from a small project to a much more extensive one.