Thanks live_wire_oak - I find myself agreeing with nearly all of your style points. I don't think we realized how prominent the roof was until we really spent some time looking at it from the street. I don't think changing the roof is in the budget now (it's pretty new), but we'll definitely keep that in mind. We're both really intrigued by the suggestion of a slab door - what is that? We picked up some paint samples yesterday. Old gutters are down and the house is already looking cleaner, even without the new ones up. We picked a gutter color that is called 'wicker', and had SW mix paint to match. Here's a pic of the samples we put up. It's dim - by the time the paint had dried, this area (east facing, under covered patio) is shaded - but you see the colors we're talking about, over the green and next to the brick. Trim/gutters - light tan (color matched wicker metal gutters) Front Door - BM Currant Red (1323) Shutters (if we do -- causing marital strife) - SW Umber Brick (more marital strife - not painting though!) - 6140 Moderate White. I like the green but we compromised and are currently planning on going with the tan color -- which we color matched from the gutter color we're putting up. That will be all the trim. The dark brown we were thinking for shutters, but if we don't do shutters... Clearly we won't use it :) Would you consider using that brown to paint the aluminum visible in the picture of the front? We'll replace the windows -- they're 1966 single pane glass -- but not sure when, and we don't like the aluminum lines.(could be usable) I like your suggestion on the planters and I'll consider today a success if I can get them dug up before the Rangers game :) Melanie, I believe, on the landscape forum, suggested creeping thyme -- I think we'll do something like that to try and break the planter box line. I also like the idea of semi-circle as landscape bed. My kids aren't playing out there - too close to the busy street - and having something to break up the monotony and add curves would be great. Melanie -- thank you for explaining! I'm looking at his books on ebay now. Thank you SO much for your help here and on the other forum! You've made us like our house a lot more. Summary on what we're going to do this week: Gutters (wicker above unless someone can talk me out of it in the next day) installed, trim/fascia/sofits painted to match. Paint front door Remove boxwood in planter boxes up front Pause and evaluate.... To sum up questions: If we don't do the shutters in Umber -- which my wife wants to do, and my painter assured her it was easy to shave the raised brick to install them, what else can we do in the brown to pop? The window frames? We had a decorator come to help with color selection, and she was a strong advocate of both shutters and painted brick. My wife is still on board with leaving the brick unpainted for now, but the shutters idea has come back with a vengeance. For what it's worth, most house in the neighborhood do ... But, this decorator also suggested we call a Realtor and ask for advice, which is exactly what I DON'T want to do. I want it to look good and not offend those that know what they're looking at! We were going to paint the windows in the white color, but would the brown pop? Give us some color without having to throw up fake shutters? VERY interested in learning more about doing a copper door. We're going to paint the door and frame in that red color above - more of a magenta. Finally, what are you guys thinking about the below picture? Dim again - my photo skills aren't the best - but this is an angle shot of my back patio. Same brick, which you can see. To the left is another bay window just like the ones out front, this one into the breakfast room/kitchen. The ceiling you'll see the drywall portion is white -- and then the wood portion turns to the trim color. The decorator we had suggested we paint the same color, the moderate white, so there's not a line -- opening the space up. But the problem is, if I paint that white, I think I have to carry the white all the way around the house under the roof, meaning the wood on the underside of the roof would be white, the rest of the trim tan. (We're thinking the white above) Or -- can I just tape off a logical line somewhere and transition from white to the trim color? Or .. I can just paint the ceiling the trim color, but then it all kinda blends in. THANK YOU!

Thank you again Lori! I actually answered this last comment of yours with a longer reply but then edited it to correct a hanging parenthesis. Poof! I did everything all right, but the whole thing disappeared anyway. My laptop is in need of a tune up and it's getting a bit glitchy! I wanted you to know I deeply appreciate your thoughtful replies though, so I'm re-writing it (and the boiled down version, here, is more brief--so that's better). Replying to you helped me to ferret out my own thinking process and formulate a plan. I learned something by asking you about the gloss (that it tends to dissipate over time) but I agree...I don't really like "glossy" on the exterior. (And even if it dissipates, there would be areas which could be seen but would be a little more protected from weather and those would stay glossy.) I've realized, without rationalization nor denial, that the difference is only slight in color. I know myself very well: My brain is wired to first and foremost see discrepancies. It sees discrepancies as severely different at first. Yes, it tends to make me a discriminating (okay, "very picky") person (LOL) but over time my brain adjusts and I see more factually how much of a differential really exists. (Being able to see discrepancies so clearly makes me good at analyzing things, so it has its helpful uses!) Knowing this about myself, I placed the samples at a spot in my home which I walk past multiple times per hour so I'd see the samples suddenly and without thinking about them first. Thinking about other things as I went about my day, my eyes landed on the samples without anticipation of seeing them, and my brain told me they are the same color. This happened 3 times. Only upon closer, conscious glances did my brain say, "Oh, those are slightly different." So, perhaps I could live with the color and, as you say, move on! :) I appreciate the comments and, folks, please keep 'em coming if you have something helpful to add. There may be a new idea out there that can re-shape my thinking and help me to distill my best solution. On Monday, I'm going to call and ask some questions: 1. Can the gutter company provide the COLOR of the High Gloss White in a low gloss finish? 2. If not, can the gutter company factory-paint with my paint selections from Benjamin Moore's Aura line, perhaps with an additive to harden the paint? ...and also... 3. Can we identify places on my home where downspouts cross over the body of the house, if any, and have the gutter company paint those pieces of the gutter system a second color, to match the body of the house? Thank you Lori and everybody. I really appreciate your time!

OMG, I love the way those bushes on the side of the house look! Don't know why I haven't considered that - but that is exactly why this forum exists! Now I will try to find some plants a) grow big, fast, b) are not a primary deer diet staple. In regards to a trim - I am really lost with that, because I feel like those side windows need SOMETHING, but I can't come across too many photos of examples. I have seen some horizontal trim in Europe but didn't take any photos - it was a trim that went around the window but extended about a foot below the window with a "dead space" cutout so the siding was showing through. Say, like if the window is square, but you frame it with a vertical rectangle. Hard to explain. I'm afraid to experiment with it and make this simple "little box" house look like too much was done to it.

"So what you'd need to do is remove the bushes and then take a completely new, updated set of pictures that pan across the yard, from lot line to lot line -- where the photographer is lined up with the front door and is no more than about 25' or 30' away from the house. It will probably be better to hold the camera in the vertical format so we can see some of the tree canopy." Lined up with front door means looking straight at it, not aligned with a walk that goes radically toward the side. Panning from lot line to lot line means that the camera stays at one location and pivots, showing the entire width of the yard in a series of slightly overlapping pictures ... not just to the edge of the house, but includes the space that surrounds the ends of the house. Vertical format means hold the camera to use it in the "portrait" mode. No more than 25' or 30' feet away means check your distance with a tape measure.