Thanks, teacats. If I go with a more casual style door, can I get away with only replacing the door and leaving the sidelights/transom as is? (except no storm door)? If its only the door, I can probably afford a nicer, heavier weight door, perhaps even with some wrough iron "hinges" and or clavos, etc. But will it look OK with the white trim sidelights? Or, would it be worth giving up the nicer quality door (but still more relaxed style than current)and replace the sidelights/transom to have the same wood look as the door? In other words, it would look more like one "unit" rather than door with sidelight/transom trim? If we go with the 2nd option we would have to put a fair amount of $ with the insurane money b/c the insurane company only pays enough to replace in the style we currently have, plus there was a deductible. I love the idea of window box on garage (and address numbers on house near front door), however, the house is dryvit and I really don't think there is a way for it to support the weight of a window box. Wah! And the main color is going to have to stay the light tan...no $$ to repaint all the dryvit and we just had all the wood parts (window trim, bay, soffits, etc painted white last year. My concern with painting the garage doors the same tan color, is that its going to be even more bland than what it is now and since its dryvit I don't have many option for jazzing it up with window box, etc. Any thoughts on painting the garage faux wood?? Big change, but with a new richer looking door and the brown of the copper roofs on the main part of the house, might this actually help the garage tie into the rest of the house...rather than something I try not to look at?! LOL example door, except this one has matching sidelights. If I go with a door this 'fancy" not sure I can affort to also replace the sidelights. Door itself might have to be downgraded

Oly - Don't mind sharing at all... Its 3100 sq/ft, 4 br and 3.5 baths. The balcony area is off the bonus room and not the master. Here are some pictures from soon after we moved in so it looks a little bare but truth be told we are still trying to get the place properly decorated! Maggie - thank you very much... I was just trying to find out what company did the shutters so I could find the exact color but wasn't able to get that info. It was one of the color options from the shutter manufacturer so we didn't pick out the paint at home depot or whatever. I'll dig around some more and hopefully get the color name to you. We were looking for that french blue look and think we found just that so we were very pleased.

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.

Finished! I really like the way it turned out. I painted the down spouts as suggested, painted the front patio and walkway a darker green (with sand for traction), of course I removed the shutters, replaced the 4-panel hideous front entry door with a two-panel door, added a Baldwin solid brass/polished nickel door knocker (very heavy) that was ridiculously over-priced at $80, added a Baldwin Evolve handleset (embarrassed at its cost)—same finish, Baldwin calls it “lifetime brass”. Removed the ceiling fan and replaced with matching porch lights controlled with Alexa and Smarthings, painted the garage door the same color as the siding, repainted the garage lights and decorative “A”, touched up and repaired where necessary..Wa-la! Real proud, thx all!