Any suggestions about door paint colors, given the existing other colors? I think a black door can look super elegant in many cases, but maybe wouldn't work as well with my shutters which are dark brown. Interesting about not installing new plants when a house is on market. My thought was that filling in a blank space (within reason) might look better. My market is probably first time home buyers. Younger people who aren't yet gardeners may not see the value/ potential of a blank slate. Indoors, my realtor and a friend have said my minimalist furnishings are cold looking and need some strategic items to make rooms more inviting. Considering that, I was thinking a couple bigger plants would make the outdoors -- by magic! -- more inviting. I take your points about the addition of permanent plants not being 100 percent called for in home selling. I'm probably dreaming outside of my budget anyway. To answer publickman, storm doors insulate the primary door against winter cold air/ summer hot air, and protect the primary door from driving rain. Maybe storm doors were first developed for entrances that don't have a porch or other roof. Also many storm doors have screens for summer use. Thanks again everyone.

Thanks live_wire_oak - I find myself agreeing with nearly all of your style points. I don't think we realized how prominent the roof was until we really spent some time looking at it from the street. I don't think changing the roof is in the budget now (it's pretty new), but we'll definitely keep that in mind. We're both really intrigued by the suggestion of a slab door - what is that? We picked up some paint samples yesterday. Old gutters are down and the house is already looking cleaner, even without the new ones up. We picked a gutter color that is called 'wicker', and had SW mix paint to match. Here's a pic of the samples we put up. It's dim - by the time the paint had dried, this area (east facing, under covered patio) is shaded - but you see the colors we're talking about, over the green and next to the brick. Trim/gutters - light tan (color matched wicker metal gutters) Front Door - BM Currant Red (1323) Shutters (if we do -- causing marital strife) - SW Umber Brick (more marital strife - not painting though!) - 6140 Moderate White. I like the green but we compromised and are currently planning on going with the tan color -- which we color matched from the gutter color we're putting up. That will be all the trim. The dark brown we were thinking for shutters, but if we don't do shutters... Clearly we won't use it :) Would you consider using that brown to paint the aluminum visible in the picture of the front? We'll replace the windows -- they're 1966 single pane glass -- but not sure when, and we don't like the aluminum lines.(could be usable) I like your suggestion on the planters and I'll consider today a success if I can get them dug up before the Rangers game :) Melanie, I believe, on the landscape forum, suggested creeping thyme -- I think we'll do something like that to try and break the planter box line. I also like the idea of semi-circle as landscape bed. My kids aren't playing out there - too close to the busy street - and having something to break up the monotony and add curves would be great. Melanie -- thank you for explaining! I'm looking at his books on ebay now. Thank you SO much for your help here and on the other forum! You've made us like our house a lot more. Summary on what we're going to do this week: Gutters (wicker above unless someone can talk me out of it in the next day) installed, trim/fascia/sofits painted to match. Paint front door Remove boxwood in planter boxes up front Pause and evaluate.... To sum up questions: If we don't do the shutters in Umber -- which my wife wants to do, and my painter assured her it was easy to shave the raised brick to install them, what else can we do in the brown to pop? The window frames? We had a decorator come to help with color selection, and she was a strong advocate of both shutters and painted brick. My wife is still on board with leaving the brick unpainted for now, but the shutters idea has come back with a vengeance. For what it's worth, most house in the neighborhood do ... But, this decorator also suggested we call a Realtor and ask for advice, which is exactly what I DON'T want to do. I want it to look good and not offend those that know what they're looking at! We were going to paint the windows in the white color, but would the brown pop? Give us some color without having to throw up fake shutters? VERY interested in learning more about doing a copper door. We're going to paint the door and frame in that red color above - more of a magenta. Finally, what are you guys thinking about the below picture? Dim again - my photo skills aren't the best - but this is an angle shot of my back patio. Same brick, which you can see. To the left is another bay window just like the ones out front, this one into the breakfast room/kitchen. The ceiling you'll see the drywall portion is white -- and then the wood portion turns to the trim color. The decorator we had suggested we paint the same color, the moderate white, so there's not a line -- opening the space up. But the problem is, if I paint that white, I think I have to carry the white all the way around the house under the roof, meaning the wood on the underside of the roof would be white, the rest of the trim tan. (We're thinking the white above) Or -- can I just tape off a logical line somewhere and transition from white to the trim color? Or .. I can just paint the ceiling the trim color, but then it all kinda blends in. THANK YOU!

I'm not suggesting what plants you use, or their character, but just a simple way of arranging them in order to create more interest. In addition to plants, in order to make the distant entrance seem more inviting, you'll need to make the path to it more prominent and better laid out (so as to allow proper space for a foundation planting. The last place I would place a tree would be at the central area near the window, as it does zero there for "framing" the house. A better spot would be between the two houses, near the lot line (off of the right house corner at a diagonal. A tree is also needed at the left side of the house, but there is no room for it.) I think you'll need to replace the top panel of the garage door with one that has a bank of windows so as to add more interest. Presently, it's too prominent and dull.

Fixing the overly-busy area around the left side windows will make a big difference, and so will landscaping. One of the reasons that your eye is focused on the left side of the house is there are too many finishes and different coloured details. There is also no landscaping to draw the eye across the house to the right side. If those 2 things are improved, the house will be more balanced and the roof line will not be the thing that holds your attention. Changing the roof line will be relatively expensive and you will get a much better bang for your buck elsewhere. And the house still won't look good if you only change the roof line. Just paint the side pieces the same as the rest of the shingled area and they will virtually disappear. I like that your house has a little personality and isn't a cookie cutter. If siding and brick are the same colour, you could achieve an attractive result like this.