We have a house in the family we are considering that has the same weird front door on the side arrangement and garage door in front (city lot, no other place for a garage) and our plan if we redo the house is a garage door that blends with the house and then spruce up the front and the walkway to the front as much as possible. (We are wondering even about putting some kind of porch over the front door so that there is some front-facing structure that can say ‘hello, front door here!’ but we haven’t quite decided what form that would take yet.) Otherwise people see the garage door and get confused about a lack of front door.

If you make the other changes as suggested, I don't think you'll feel the need to paint the brick. There's no sense creating a maintenance issue where there is none now. The house has the potential to be very handsome. Some pretty pots with flowers on either side of your door will add some color as well. Don't forget that nothing looks pretty this time of year when trees are bare and lawns are brown.

Terratone looks like a nice color with the brick. Something similar for the windows, front door, and sofiits/facia would be nice but sounds like you can't get that. You mentioned about having the clay color inside - are you getting vinyl windows? I think clay windows inside with clay (or similar) or white fascia and soffit could work well Could you also get clay for the garage and front door? White can also work as long as it can "pop" from the brick. The picture below represents the "pop", not necessarily the colors we are talking about. Dark trim at fascia and soffit can still be used: Selecting Terratone for the garage door would work best if the fascia and soffits are of similar color. See if you can get color samples of the various materials (roofing, soffits/fascia, doors, windows) and then play mix and match together outside so you get outdoor light, if you have not already done this. Let me know if any of this helps.

Thank you Patrcia! The landscaping does need some work and the rosebushes have taken off this year which might be some of the problem. I had questioned the shutters on that window as well and wondered if installing a window box there would be a better idea as the house is so plain. My initial thought was to paint close to the brick color or a little darker, but I've already gone through a few paint samples and nothing looks good to me. Do you have any suggestions on a BM or SW paint that would look good? The reason I thought the black garage door would be a good ideas is because it may modernize the house a bit. Anyway, thank you again! Sandy