Wow, so many responses so far. To answer a few questions: The front of the house faces north, the rear (with all of the awnings facing south. The awnings that exist today are actually all black. The green awnings must be a slightly older generation of photos. The garage door is black too. Possible the current owners were starting to tweak the color scheme before they moved. The shingles and trim are all wood. the windows are all steel except for the big window in the front (far right) that we think actually filled in the original one stall garage, which is vinyl or aluminum clad. Since that window is brown, we would be inclined to keep the windows brown and work it into the color scheme. I made the assumption that the tree in front is a crab apple based on the fruit observed last time we were there, but I could be wrong since it hasn't leafed out yet. I'm pretty sure that the trees out at the street are Bradford pear. Those would definitely stay one way or another. Not visible in any picture, and kind of swallowed up by landscaping, but the bottom of the chimney is rough stacked limestone with a slate roof in dark green, dark red, and blue-black that may have once been on the entire house. We thought we might use those two elements and the brick as a foundation to construct a better color scheme. Emmarene, I'm curious what type of awning you would recommend as more appropriate? Other than what is there and a dome shape, I'm not sure what else is possible. ptreckle, we haven't seen any plaster issues in the house to date except some bubbly paint in the basement (near the center of the house). The plaster in that area at the front of the house has heavy trowling that we are pretty sure is original, so we don't think anything has been patched over either. When these photos had been taken at listing, we had just gotten 1.5' of snow in 2 days. Everyone's house had massive icicles on them like that including our own. But it's something we will definitely be keeping in mind going into the house inspection.

We have a four-square house built in 1920 and have been researching how to improve curb appeal also! Glad I found this thread. My thoughts regarding the house you're considering would be to extend the roof of the front right sunroom to a full front porch. That would present a symmetrical appearance on the street side. We actually have a defined side entrance and a front porch with the main entrance, but the driveway goes to the side door. The builder of the home was a doctor, and he used the side entrance for patients. There was also a back door to the house, and an exterior door to the kitchen (the kitchen was built as a separate building that abuts the back of the house).

Its a very cute house. Congratulations on your new home. I dont blame you though, I would be wanting to paint too. That blue doesnt go with one darn thing. i do really like your brick, and it looks like it belongs on your house, please dont paint it. I would look really close at the brick, and the color of the mortar and pick a color of either the mortar or a color in the brick itself ad repaint that blue really fast. I would paint the window trim white, which is probably the way it was when the house was built. I cant tell exactly what color that foundation is, except that it is way too light. It makes the house look like its sitting on a big box on a green yard. Try and pick a color really close to the brick, or a darker gray or brown (I cant tell the color of your roof for sure) so that it looks grounded.

Thanks for everyone’s feedback. We are leaning towards doing a darker colour and I have ordered a few test pots. I have added painting the storm door to the list as well, great feedback and helpful to have other sets of eyes. Question - Should we paint the soffit and gutters as well? If so, same colour? Thank you.