Whatever you decide, please don’t add shutters to the triple window. I’d skip the window boxes too since they can be a pain to maintain and can leak. Also, it looks like you may have eliminated the stair railings in your rendering. That is not safe and will most likely not meet code.

I kind of feel like the Permastone has a certain vintage charm, but if you want to remove it I would invest the budget and grow it so you can afford to remove it all and in the mean time if you want to paint the rest of the stucco white paint the stone white too.

Right now it sounds like the house has two materials, stucco and the stone face. You are upping that to four which I think most of the time is two too many. (Stucco, stone, board and batten and shingles --too much crammed onto a relatively small area.)
In the interim before removing the stone later It would look something like this. I'd also think about doing something with the porch roof.

The route you plan to take will take your home from fairly maintenance fee to lots more maintenance - and if you aren't handy, it might make sense to rethink your options.

Here's an idea...Replace the roof with something in the deeper brown/grey family, paint your stucco the color of the grout, get a fabulous front door and new stair railings, recreate a sidewalk with pavers that blend with your new roof, and accent the home with the wooden planters and window boxes.

@flopsycat1 thanks for the feedback! i didn’t realize that about window boxes. Is there another way to incorporate in some wood element to cozy it up besides shutters or windows boxes? And yes, the railings will stay - that was a photoshop error! :)

I think your house would possibly have a more interesting look, overall, if you kept the stone (faux or not) and went darker on the trim and door. Also, simplifying and modernizing the landscaping could also potentially do a lot for the house.

@palimpsest thank you! I tend to like the mix and match of textures in other areas of line like clothing, but this house is way smaller than our last one in the suburbs, so I see what you mean that it might get too busy! 😆 Also yes, on the roof, I forgot to mention we were thinking about painting that front section black until we can afford to replace the whole roof in a few years? Good idea?

@palimpsest do you have any thoughts on where we might be able to add some wood elements to make it look more warm? we love the look of white and wood together…

I think your house already has more charm that what I can see of the houses on either side of it, as it currently is. It has a softer look. The dark grey green may look more up to date, but I think it's a bit too high contrast.

I would paint it as on palimpsest rendering.

Again, I would wait until you had the budget to reface the front, and then you can explore the options of wood shingles on the upper gable or the upper gable and porch.

@Sammie J when you say a lot more maintenance - are you thinking because we’d have to repaint often? We haven’t had experience with how often you’d have to repaint white - we had Hardie board on our last house and never repainted - it started very bright periwinkle blue and faded to soft blue - for some mysterious reason our HOA never asked us to repaint! 😂

I think it's that you would have to repaint at all vs. never having to repaint the permastone or possibly not the stucco. I have a stucco house and it is painted on the front, but I don't think the back of the house has ever been painted since built, it's just the color of the stucco as applied (Row house so it's not the same color front and back).

I don't dislike the stone. How about opening up the porch? I think a brown roof would look much better with the stone.

@housegal200 Thanks! Do you know if it’s high maintenance to paint the trim? do you have to repaint it often?

Some option to not paint faux stones, pick some color from stones for trim,

or

I tried this, not knowing what the materials were around the windows. I tried the brown around the door and windows in the gable but it looked heavy to me

@Celery. Visualization, Rendering images @palimpsest thank you so much! So helpful to see options!!

Another maintenance item might be the planters and planter boxes - if you decide to go that route, check out wood-look low maintenance options.

Good thoughts @Sammie J - thanks! :)