Here's a vote for NOT doing the railing in white or any color other than black. Keep it traditional! There's nothing like beautiful black railings, not to mention, regardless of what you do with your house's colors in the future, black railings will work. On to the steps: first thing is make sure you understand your city's codes and regs. You might not be permitted to reduce the height of the risers, as some have suggested, and I suppose it's possible that a deck-type construction in the place of the top step might not be allowed either. (It's really amazing the number of things covered by codes.) With regs on the depth of treads and height of risers, doing any kind of deck or landing will require that the steps be extended, at least by the depth of a full riser to replace that bit in front of the door. (I think that's correct.) In that case, I think you'll have to go down sideways and then right angle straight down toward the street -- there isn't room to go all the way down because you'll cut into the sidewalk. And that's probably against code as well, not to mention displeasing aesthetically. We had a very similar situation here with our back steps, the ones we use all the time: door to a mudroom, with concrete steps going sideways (but each was as long as the mudroom!) from a concrete landing (equally long, or wide if you will -- the whole thing looked like some kind of loading dock!) We now have: a small covered porch in front of the door, about 3 feet by 7 feet; one step going down sideways along the side of the house onto a landing that is about 4 feet by 4 feet; then right angle down straight 3 more steps. The porch, landing and treads are native bluestone; the sides of the whole thing look like dry-laid stone but are in fact cemented in; but the inside consists of the broken-up concrete. The railings are black. They are hand-forged in a design of the fabricator's making, and look 18th century. They had to be done according to code, i.e., a certain height, a certain distance between each spindle or whatever it's called, all around the porch,and then down from the landing to the last tread. Not cheap, unfortunately, but when the building inspector came by to check on the finished work, he didn't even get out of the car....took one look, said they were among the most beautiful he'd ever seen, gave us his blessing, and left. I got the idea for stone steps and iron railings after dealing with always-rotting wood and/or always-deteriorating paint at our former house. I was so sick of having to paint at least every other year! Our stone steps and iron look gorgeous, and they are virtually maintenance free, so I suppose the cost is something I no longer think about! And in fact, given the cost of wood and the labor cost in doing the construction, it's not clear what the marginal increase in cost of stone/iron over wood actually was. which leads, in a rambling way to this: what direction does your weather come from? Our wood steps at the old house were directly in the line of storms, and snow would collect and sit on them. Hence the rot and peeling paint. If you decide to go with wooden steps, I strongly urge you to use the absolute best paint you can. Something like Fine Paints of Europe. I finally used FPE on the wood porch railing at the old place, but never used anything but Benjamin Moore on the landing and treads. Year after year, the latter had to be redone while the former looked as good as when I first painted. Sorry for the ramble today....many things going on around me!

hey... moving along with all the projects ... same as always... foundation planting are planted to hide the foundation ... NOT ON THE FOUNDATION ... to get the height you need.. and to be planted the proper distance from the house/stairs.. you need to come out into the lawn ... and plant a nice shrub that will mature at the 5 foot level ... and make your perspective from the street ... where the pic was taken .. not standing up close ... at one vantage point you need a 3 footer.. at the closer range.. you might need 5 or 6.. and that wont look good ... ken

@3onthetree thank you so much for taking the time to clarify the dip. I've checked and I think it's ok (at least from my non-expert viewpoint!). I don't see it or don't feel it when I walk. The concrete is still drying so I'm hoping/guessing it's the photo. Thank you for sharing that it's ok to allow aesthetics to supercede function sometimes. I was beginning to think I was crazy for doing this but I really love this look. I knew going into this that we would lose some function and I also know the gravel will spill out and will probably be somewhat annoying. But I'm willing to live with this as I really wanted this aesthetic. I suppose I just wish I'd taken the separation into account more for the step down from the porch (not just the stride), and then I would have focused more on the step height issue prior to pouring. Lesson learned for next time :-) Thank you again.

!. Your downspout needs to drain onto the driveway, not into the dirt next to the house. If budget permits, use asphalt to match the driveway where the old planter was. IN the meantime, use bark to cover the dirt. Two or three large pots with flowers would be decorative statements. 2. The house is contemporary, not modern farmhouse. If you want the black and white sparkle, paint the siding white. If you want a more natural look, have the siding cleaned and treated with a transparent finish recommended by experts for the type of wood siding you have (cedar? redwood?). The columns can be covered in new brick, new siding, or other easy changes. 3. If driving in and out of the garage is a problem, consider changing the step to the front porch to a much narrower step, say 12 inches or so, still running the length of the porch. The area opposite the garage could be added to the driveway as a place to back up. In the long term cycle of car replacement, smaller cars are much easier to maneuver.