yes, paint them black.

I think would look better.

I don't agree with black. It is to much contrast for my eye. Something closer to the main color would unify rather than highlight.

I like the look of black for window but when they are narrower. yours will look too thick.

The stucco surround is 6”, fiberglass frame is 1”. My drawing did make it clubby. i’ve had climbers around the windows for 22 years and it looks nude!

Yes to the 6" surround being painted and the 1" fiberglass staying white. You might consider thinning the foundation plants to expose more of the charcoal stone and matching your trim to that color.

Before you paint them (if you paint them), be sure you check with Milgard to be sure that painting them does not void the warranty.

I feel like black will tie in the front entry better. Having the entry match will look super classy.

I’ve sent a query to Milgard. From the warranties online, it looks like the warranty could be void. I can;t even imagine what it would cost to replace the 6 3’x7’ windows they replaced last week. Thank you for reminding me!

Most of the obscuring plantings are the climbers laying in wait for me to decide what I’m going to do. This year after all the rain, my mantra is “weed, thin, edit, repeat, repeat, repeat.” This photo is how it generally looked at the end of the season before trimming. Since this photo, we’ve replaced our roof; it is now black

A lovely setting! I think if you paint the stucco surround as I suggested above and leave the actual windows the current white, your warranty should remain intact. For the same reason, you can't add window films either to prevent glare or sun fade. Looks like you may not have issues with that if most of the trees remain.

No to black

Sun is an issue on this South side. I made sliding interior sun panels that do a good job, but not as cooling as the climbers.

Hi Maggie! I know I'm late to the game so curious what you decided!?! :) I think black would have looked great but not sure it's worth voiding the warranty like you said. Question - I love your black Fascia. Can you tell me what material was used / where you found it? I'm trying to find some for my remodel but it seems to be sold out everywhere so I'm considering paint but..... thanks! :)

Hi Tessa, at our house the game is always on, so you can never be too late. We left the fiberglass window frame alone and painted the 6” stucco surround using Sherwin Williams Black Fox (my new favorite color.)

Thank you for asking about the facia. Let me digress for a moment… I designed and we physically built the house before homeowners had easy access to the materials available to contractors. So. I’d say, our dilemma and yours today are similar. Home Depot was going to open it’s first Oregon store, This Old House was our main resource and the using the internet for research just mocked us.

We needed a 16” facia and ended cutting them out of medium-density overlay (MDO) plywood. (Home Depot, Lowes, your local lumber yard.) Outside signs are made of. MDO. It’s smooth surface is waterproof resin-impregnated fiber. Not having the knowledge/resources, I pressed Bondo into the edges and that seems to have lasted all these years. With the internet and your Houzz community, you could find a better solution. I used a good bonding primer before painting with a UV resistant paint. We have had no failures except those caused by a demon woodpecker. Next spring, I’ll give it a good cleaning and a refresher coat. Not bad!

You may want to look into finger jointed cypress. It comes in long boards of varying widths. Most have a smooth and a rough side. If the smooth side will be high, you won’t be able to see the various grains telegraph through to the finished surface. I tend to use the rough surface where it can be easily seen. I used the smooth side on my garden She’d and the rough side to trim an outdoor room. Both shown here. Cypress generally come primed, but I use a bonding primer before painting.

wow @Maggie V - thank you so much for taking the time to explain :) I totally get the game always being on, lol. Fortunately I haven't had to deal with any demon woodpeckers but I will definitely look into the UV Resistant paint! Thanks again :)

I love the concept of the "demon woodpecker" as we had one a couple years ago that attacked new construction. None since. Really???!!! On brand new construction?!

Have you a picture of your final choice from the same perspective as your original post?

Maggie, I have no advice, but I love your house and landscaping…..looove the PNW! I know they can be naughty, but please be kind to your woodpeckers!! 🙏🏻

If it’s not the woodpeckers, it’s the beavers, or the deer, or the raccoons, or the fox, or the coyotes, or elk, or the bats, or the plethora of fowl, or the… We really are blessed to watch their comings and goings. Sometimes I feel like I’m gardening to just for them. This year, I was ready to pick the grapes and Italian plums only find nothing.

I admit to yelling at the the demon woodpecker when it wakes me at 4:30 am; I don’t reign in my language or tone. We have six wildlife trees farther from the house, but they seem to like the resonance of the facia — makes a better mating call.

K.L. Here’s a picture after painting the stucco trim. Thank you everyone for your input.

Wow, Maggie, that's so beautiful! I love the black and white with the grey. Thanks so much for an after picture. I love the Norway spruce trees.

Actually, I look closer and see you used several shades of grey. So clever!

@Maggie V New to your post but wanted to say what a beautiful home and property you have. @kl23 If you’re admiring those large weeping trees in foreground, I’m pretty sure they’re actually Weeping Alaskan Cedars. Weeping & Cedar for sure anyway 😉

Great job on the painting. It all looks absolutely beautiful! Congratulations on your lovely home!

Could it be a weeping atlas cedar?🤔

@coray Definitely not, I’m sure! That’s a weeping blue atlas cedar you’re thinking of I’m pretty sure . Those don’t have a tall pyramid type form - they’re sprawling type. I’m no tree expert but do live in PNW too as OP does. I’m assuming we’re all looking at the tall weepers behind the black arch in the pic that Maggie posted a couple hours ago.

No idea…it just looks a lot like my dad’s. I am certainly no weeping tree expert!

No one wanted this property. It had been a mid-century impromptu garbage dump. The cedars and pines were all diseased, there was flooding and their was no visible building site. We looked at it for 2 years and finally made a low-ball offer, which the seller took. The land just kept on giving from that point on. Removing twenty eight dump trucks of garbage uncovered a 1/2 acre pond; blackberry removal uncovered a hillside of 3-6 ton boulders that we used throughout the property; diseased trees still had some merch (timber lingo for value.) Every plant and tree started out in one gallon or smaller container, was unwanted by someone, or was a throw away from a nursery.

The trees in the foreground started out as two of three throw-always. Yes, KW, they are cedars. — Chamaecyparis Nootkatensis Pendula Weeping Alaska Cedars. K.L. I’ll take a picture of a beautiful Picea abies ‘Pendula’ Norway Spruce tomorrow that started out as a seedling. You must love trees too.

@Maggie V Wow, your home and its story just gets better and better the more we hear from you! Thank you especially for the tree story bits! My vice is digging in the soil and I’m easily overcome by beautiful landscapes which include conifers

KW I understand your vice; I get lost in digging in soil. My husband say’s the only reason I garden is to play in the dirt. Please indulge me for sharing this story I wrote when we planted my dad’s commemorative cedar.

Dad simply loved trees. He was happiest when in the woods or camping or when story-telling. A particular Ol’ Ma Cedar, located on the Olympic Peninsula, was his connection to source. (The Washington Coastal people call cedars the Tree of Life.) Dad would ‘recharge his batteries’ by sitting against Ol’ Ma’s mossy trunk. She would heal his heart ache after his long weeks of measuring the devastation left behind by disrespectful logging operations. Ol’ Ma reminded him to keep faith with her life-giving purpose.

Then loggers fell her with no signs of propitiations or apparent noble benediction. In her fall, she rolled into a ravine and her impact weight drove her sides deep into hundreds of years of humus-rich soil. The logging company deemed her as ‘not worth the time.’

When Dad found her, he had no words for the terrible emptiness. In his postmortem, he noted remnants of the hundreds of years of plant and animal life Ol’ Ma had sustained. He noted the human and animal markings. He drew in a quick breath when he saw his own axed cruiser mark from several decades past. He’d blocked out what he did before he listened to trees and learned their wisdom.

He asked her forgiveness. Remembering Ol’ Ma’s purpose, he noted the life she still sustained lying there in a giant’s grave among her many decomposers.

By his next visit, a burn had wiped away all visible signs of life. Saddened, he spoke the truth of her magnificence. He removed debris from ground beside the strongest part of her charred remains, dug in living soil found deep under her grave then planted a seedling close to her protection. She still had purpose. He forgave himself before offering clean gratitude. “Thank you Ol’ Ma.”

Thank you tree lovers and creative souls for letting me share.

@Maggie V Truly a heartbreakingly beautiful story. Thank you for sharing.

Kathy

The PNW grows such beautiful trees. I don't know the cedars, and the only similar tree I know is the Norway spruce. Thanks for correcting me by adding to my short list of known trees with this architecture. I love the pendulous branches! 

And I am a fellow tree-hugger. I noted upon first visiting there, that all the tree species I knew (or thought I knew) looked so much happier there than anywhere else I had traveled. It takes only seconds to destroy something that took decades to build. I'm touched by your dad's devotion to trees. 

I also am impressed that you have taken a discarded peice of land and given it so much love that you transformed it into a beautiful haven. I wish more people felt more of a responsibility towards the pieces of land they temporarily have and would do what is best for the property instead of just dumping on it and leaving it. Yet it takes time for each of us humans to mature and grow into that realization. And so many of us spend every day so traumatized that we can't ever get there. Thank you so much for caring for you but in such an inspirational way.

I meant: Thank you for caring for your bit of land in such an inspirational way.

@KW I loved telling this bit of my dad’s story and that you connected with it

@K L You don’t need to know the names of trees to KNOW trees. Here is the picture of the two beautiful Spruce trees I mentioned along with the empty space where a beaver took out 17conifers in less than two weeks. They had plenty of maples and river birch, so it’s surprising they went for the conifers. After I cried, I just sat in the dirt asking what this hillside garden wanted to be. I’ll finish planning over the winter and get to planting in spring.

I love hearing how people connect to source. Appreciation, and gratitude, and taking responsibility, as you expressed, elludes some And that is why we are here sharing…a simple tahnk you for reminding me.

Oh my goodness! Beavers! Well I know it was heartbreaking. I get upset with the deer and their ravenous appetites. Bunnies, even squirrels can eat what I wish they wouldn't. I'm thinking of closing off the back yard visually and growing a mix of un-mown grass and clover and letting the deer eat that, and hopefully not eating the flowers the books and web sites say they don't like. Think it will work? Probably not. Just makes me feel stupid.

We know, if you plant it, they will like it regardless of all the sage advice! Maybe you should open a new discussion, ”Help! The critters are eating me out of yard and garden. How ’bout you and what di you do?” Here‘s my first post!

I like the "racoons privy" text. Well, we like watching the critters, eh? I find deer don't eat mints much, and, if they do, the mints rebound two-fold. I've just learned the same is true of asters. I really could learn a lot by learning to punch back.

I like that you ended up going with some contrast for the window frames. Looks great