Congrats on your new home! It will be charming. I think the awning spoils the lines of the house, and doesn't let you see the interesting angles of the brickwork. I would take it down. However, if you think it is really of benefit and you want to keep it, I would paint it the same color as the siding OR the same color as the roof. I would also paint the brown wood the siding color - it makes the front windows feel like they are sitting in a hole, and doesn't really do anything special for the house. I would also love to see you take out those bushes in front of the porch. They really date the house, and exposing that brick and stone would give the front porch more substance. A wider, curved bed in front of that with low plantings would be nice, and then perhaps a larger evergreen on the left corner of the porch. A second curved out bed in front of the left half of the house, perhaps a birdbath in the middle of the bed, and then a small tree of some kind on the left outside corner of the house, but a bit away and in the final curved planting area out even a bit more into the yard there. The ironwork is also a dated look, but I don't know if you want to replace that right now. Personally, I might take out the pieces in between the vertical posts, and open up the front porch even more. I think I would leave it white, like the rest of the trim on the house. Finally, I would think about a strong accent color for the front door. A rich navy would be very pretty, and a good transition between the cool grey tones in the roof and the warmer yellows and oranges of the brick and siding.

So many good suggestions! Unfortunately we live in West Texas, so not the greatest climate for living things outside of desert plants. I probably won't be doing any climbing plants just based on our severe water restrictions and and my lack of a green thumb. Plus we have some heavy dust storms most of the year that sand blasts anything too delicate. I tend to let the lawn do it's thing and keep it cut and edged. Lavender_Lass: I absolutely love the idea of a little seating area out there! I would go with a concrete bench and small table (things tend to walk away here). I hadn't ever thought of this.. but sometimes I do loiter out front waiting for guests to arrive for dinner parties. Kippy: Possibly a small flowering tree to cover some of the area from heat? It gets extremely hot there in the middle of the day. annkh: my handy man skills probably lack too much to remove my covered area, but I'm thinking I could replace that column with something not so... terrible. I absolutely hate that thing! Do you have any thoughts on what I can do to keep it and pretty it up some? We do get some pretty heavy storms sometimes. Any suggestions on paint color ideas for that siding? I have a feeling that's really going to help out alot, but I'm not sure what colors to go with to modernize it all (gonna paint before I plant/landscape). I've attached a full photo of the house, plus a photo of inside so you can all see that I have at least done some nice remodeling in there at least. And we had a nice hail storm yesterday evening so I am getting a new roof!! No more brown orange roof! woohoo!!

Thanks to all gene….it is a quandary…looks or convenience…my storm door which is wooden is problematic..am thinking of seeing what Classic Craft for styles……..to localeater…the biggest concern is the almost never ending cold winter wind that whipping around the porch…and the wooden front door I would love to put in…… think I'll do even more research….I did speak with the owner of the home with the door….a cape similar to mine without the weather exposure…she hadn't noticed any problem…but it has only been a few months with the new door unit….. I have some good thoughts…..take care and thanks again

Azan, no offense to others expressing their opinions, this is where you really do need the service of a competent designer, who truly understands what constitutes good design which you will NOT get from the contractor who's giving you a quote that covers design, materials & labor, or friends, family or neighbors. Speaking of which, do you live in an HOA? If you do, get a copy of the design standards or architectural guidelines and find out what you have to do to get your proposed alteration through the review committee. You may well be stuck. You currently have a modern builder's silly notion of what constitutes a "colonial". I am so sorry to say, again no offense to others who think it's a beautiful colonial house, it isn't. And there are probably another 20 down the street from you, with minor variations, all designs that would have given colonial era master builders (where design and construction are combined) a convulsion. There are all kinds of things wrong with the facade composition, like 3 different window proportions and shapes, which no amount of landscaping will solve and you are absolutely right that the porch is a problem, but it's not about brick vs stone. Changing a consistent material on a house is the last thing you should do to "improve" the look. When I was in graduate school, a one-off course was offered on "facade composition" one summer. Finally, a professor teaching us aspiring architects how to design a facade, rather than all that nonsense about "form-making"! I stayed just to benefit from his wisdom. Guess what, there were 30 plus grad students taking this course, and the historic preservation expert told us, we will team up in pairs, analyze historic facades, and we'll talk about it. Really, that's the class? Yes indeed, it's called a graduate seminar. Imagine that happening in med or law school! (Hey, I may be the professor but I am not a practitioner, why don't we just get together and learn from one another?) He didn't teach us the principles and theories of facade composition, though here and there he offered some useful observations. Undergrad & grad arch'l school, not one professor taught us anything about facade composition. Not one. Imagine! So I went to the library, dug up old architectural magazines, from the early 1900s, and taught myself, by analyzing facade compositions I admire. You can do the same. Get a couple books on historic colonial architecture, or better yet on your next getaway, go visit historic places filled with colonial architecture, like Colonial Williamburg, Annapolis or Alexadria (if you live in VA). Not everyone can design well or cook well, but everyone can learn to appreciate good design or good cooking.