Cottage Living magazine, now defunct, has a lot of photos up on the web. Some of their articles may apply to your situation; I remember seeing some houses featured that had elements of yours, and the makeovers were done in a classic way. They'll have some exterior inspiration photos, while I'm not sure you'll find much exterior stuff at houzz.com, the other site I'd recommend, since it focuses on interiors. And if you want to do anything to your kitchen, browse the kitchens forum here on gardenweb and post some questions. There are some dedicated and talented posters over there that will love to read about your kitchen dreams and get you pointed in the right direction. Looking at your pictures, I think your house is lovely. Being in the great plains, the absence of tall trees in the neighborhood throws me off. Is there anything that gets tall that you can plant on your lot, maybe twin sentinels in your front yard? Ask liriodendron on this forum, he/she might have some good suggestions for trees that are appropriate for your area. I like cottonwoods (I remember seeing a lot when I worked in IA and SD) but I believe they prefer to be along a river. I like that it has substantial windows and roof pitch; so many later ranches had anemic or too strongly horizontal windows and a shallow pitch, for my taste. The red brick and white trim look is classic. Other colors would also complement the brick, but unless you hate the white I'd put painting pretty far down the list. The white gable on the left is begging for something, perhaps a demilune vent like the other gable has, or even a window. But I would be careful to keep it smallish and not too ornate; you want it to blend in with the house and break up that large gable, but not become a focal point in itself. Here is a link that might be useful: Photos from Cottage Living

1950s? I'm not the most knowledgable, but I have never seen this type of sewing table before. In particular the carving on the front bottom edge makes me want to date it earlier, maybe to a Sheraton or revival? It seems to have the simple lines of Sheraton style, with the carving instead of inlays. Does it seem to have had a bag or box attached under the drawers at some point?

Ghost chair.

I am not an expert but I don't think it is a valuable antique. Squeeze behind it and look and see if there is any writing or labelling in the back, and take out all the drawers and look at the bottom of them and do the same. If you have someone to help you (don't hurt yourself!) turn it sideways (with a sheet and padding on the floor) and look on the bottom and see if anything is written on the bottom. If this is not a valuable piece, go right ahead and paint it any wonderful color you like. Invite Beth H into the thread, she knows all about this stuff and paints furniture.