Hey everyone, here are some pics of my stairs (please excuse the mess in the first pic, it was Christmas morning a few years ago, I was taking my daughter to see all of her presents and my parent's were up visiting) the second photo is of the wall next to the stairs in my living and the 3rd one is my son standing in front of the stairs last Halloween. The other set of stairs are in the kitchen. I would love to be able to be able to cut into the wall between the stairs and open it up a bit with a nice banister and some railings because we are also going to convert our garage into another room as well so I would really like everything to flow together better, but I know that is a lot easier said than done. I would also like to do something on the side of the stairs with the closet next to it. Any ideas on a way I can update them? I can post some pics of both sets of the stairs later without anything if front of them but at the moment there are a lot of big toys in my living room.

I think Hale Navy would look nice. It's a cute home. The shutters, however, need to go, or bring in some made of wood (think cedar). the wood w/the Hale color and the brick would look nice. Hale navy would look similar to this. if getting new windows, then do something like shown here^, or look at some of the pics below. Since you have the gray roof, you can do other combos too. I like the Urbane bronze on the siding, fired brick for the door, and a soft gray or white for the trim If Grover comes along, maybe she can photoshop a new color and new shutters for you here are some similar homes just to give you ideas when you're ready I love this dark gray w/the brick. but the black trim around the windows (without shutters!) and darker garage door, really make this stand out. (I could do w/o the orange door though) this is more of a teal, but gives you an idea of how it looks w/those white shutters. I don't particularly care for this tone. the white is way too stark against the siding tone w/that brick. This would look better w/painted brick, or diff trim color. diff gray tones on siding

suezbell - some great ideas, thank you ! I really like the idea of extending the breezway back to make a foyer and covered porch on top. I love porches ! One thing though - the top of the floor of the breezeway is at grade whereas the top of the floor of the house lower level is about 2 feet below grade. It doesn't look like I would have room for a porch above, plus stairs would be required to access the porch from the living room. Also, I don't think we have the budget for anything additional to what's proposed. So, you think the garage with the shed roof looks ok with the breezeway & addition ? Definitely will consider a single door w/ sidelights at the breezeway entrance. Makes perfect sense. Still on the fence with windows at the front of the addition. See post above this one that shows possible window scheme. I'm not so keen on octagonal windows. The upper level full bath is existing. My design can keep it exactly the same except for the door. I could have the entry to the bathroom placed in the media room if I moved the bathroom sink across the room to where the proposed door will be. I know that it seems a little strange to go through a pantry. But it could be interesting. The pantry won't be a typical pantry - but more like a provisions store/ apothecary / elixir bar sort of thing. We are a bit unconventional. I agree that the living room is a bit long at 23'. based on this feedback, I moved the fireplace and sofa/sitting area towards the stairs by a few feet. The idea of a partition and closet is a good one- very practical. Something to consider, but I'm guessing my better half will want the expansiveness and view of the two story stairwell. I did manage to squeeze in an 18' long closet on the lower level at the front of the addition. You can see this in the renderings just above this post. What do you think of this closet ? Your idea of accessing the pantry/ storage from area near the stairwell is a good one. Something to look at further. As you mentioned, maybe split up the pantry into two seperate rooms. I would probably still want to access the pantry from the kitchen, but at the same time, I could get another 8' high wall cabinet in the kitchen. It would also give the kitchen a even more refined look. Below is a rendering of the kitchen as it is proposed now ( with the entry into the pantry). Again, thank you for all of the feedback. Very good information and much appreciated. I will take a closer look at your ideas and see what I can do. Mike

Our neighbors have a large house with similar siding amd when they moved in they painted the siding white and the trim a soft black, kind of like what housaon posted. It took a few days to get used to since it is a very large house but it looks great now, very fresh and current and certainly less expensive than replacing perfectly good siding. they also refreshed all the exterior light fixtures to modern black fixtures which added to the overall modern effect. i think a simialr treatment would work well on your house. And I agree the shutters should go.