Oh my gosh, I just talked to this guy today. You should call him. He totally gets color!!! His name is Michael Kornell, VP Sales & Marketing of Eco-Wares, 866-874-8070 Â Toll Free, 703-425-0439 Â Direct Line. Eco-Wares offers Trojan Masonry Sealer that leaves no trace, but they also have a TINTED one called Color Sealer. He's sending me the color chart of 36 colors. Yes, 36 colors! According to Michael, TCS dramatically changes the color of your brick without making it shiny, it's matte, it is permanent, and waterbased. It's a green product ta boot. Coolest stuff I've come across in a long time. Really excited about it. If you call him, get info, or use it, definitely post back. I don't have the color chart, so I can't make a guess at what might work to bring some harmony to your exterior, but honestly it doesn't sound like it would be that difficult to pull together a good exterior color combo. Here is a link that might be useful: CHANGE THE COLOR OF YOUR BRICK!

I like the idea of adding some wood trim to frame out the front door. The only problem is that you have the same problem with your ranch home that I have with my two - no room at the top! The traditional-looking trim with the large capital (I think the top trim is called) does not work because your roof is right above your door. In the long run, when you redo the roof, you can consider making a little peak above your front door to bring attention to it and give room above it for trim and to distinguish the front door from the rest of the roof line, but for now, most of the more traditional trim options are out. Really, all I can imagine you doing is just putting some wooden or vinyl trim that you like better than what you have next to the front door. Try out designs until you find one you like. There is fluted molding, plain flat molding, or you could have squares of picture-frame molding - options are endless with wood and more limited with your vinyl products. Figure out what product you are using and then you will know what your options are. As for the blank areas of wall space between the windows and doors, I think that your landscaping plan will need to address them. The little sidewalk being so close to the house is limiting you there. Are you able to take it out and put in a curvaceous path to the door that allows for space to plant taller plants in those empty wall spaces? I hear your frustration with fixing poor construction practices of past builders! I have "saved" both of my ranch homes from ills caused by poor construction or bad luck. We are still paying off foundation repairs on the house we now live in, and had to put a new roof in with no extra to put toward nice updates because of the bad timing. I am already planning the new bathroom we will need because of a rotted floor, but can't do it for three years because we are paying off the foundation and roof. This is being a homeowner!

Any change will be permanent. You will have to repaint the brick like you do with the trim and siding because paint breaks down over time. Paint also obscures the texture of brick. Judging from the palm trees you are in a warm climate. If you had cold winters, painting brick would be a bad idea. The paint traps moisture in the brick. The moisture freezes and damages the brick. To stain brick you have to make sure the brick is not sealed. Splash some water on the brick. If it beads up and runs off you will need to remove the sealer before staining. The first brick stain I ever heard about is Dyebrick intended for the DIYer. It's shipped from England to both Canada and the U.S. Permatint is made in Canada with a New York office. Recently, however, I've seen blogs that talk about using concrete dyes on brick. HERE is one easy-to-use brand, but you would need to contact them for comment on suitability. Of course, you should test any product before committing to the project. There are many brands of concrete dye available at building centers. Changing the Mortar Color can also change the look of brick; this is really helpful when brick has been re-pointed and you end up with two colors of mortar.

Would do either brick or stone over the foundation only and siding above that. Use only one kind of material in the gables -- perhaps horizontal siding the rather than vertical. Would not put any hip roof on any part of the house. Stay with gables and steep slopes with straight edges at the bottom of the slopes all around for your gutter. Would change the roof to have one and only one ridge line height -- the higher height -- and decrease the number of gables to be one facing the left end of your home, one facing right end of your home and one facing the end of the angle of the garage -- not over where the garage doors are now shown . Would not cut corners in the cost to cut corners and create angles in the garage. Would keep the walls leading from the home to the outer left edge of the garage straight all the way to the end and would seriously consider putting two garage doors the same size in that angled end of the garage even if that means adding and additional few feet to the garage length -- definitely would not pour the front yard in concrete for a driveway. Extend the width of the forward facing gable over the front entry to cover both the front entry and those two larger longer/taller windows to the right of it. Extend the depth of the forward facing gable to cover a porch at least 6' deep. Where you currently have windows in the upstairs in gables, the slopes of which will take away room from your upstairs rooms, add dormers there rather than full gables enabling you to have more/larger windows and more room / headroom in the upstairs rooms. There are different kinds of dormers with different shaped roofs. https://www.google.com/search?q=dormers&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiHsdacuJPlAhVJmuAKHZ9AB4sQ_AUIESgB&biw=1328&bih=617#spf=1570770556130