aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh (restful sigh) finally got the little one to sleep :) Patser, thanks for the link. I like 5 the best. Stucco is tricky. I think stucco looks best in stone like colors. I chose this green because it looks gray and green in different light ... stone with a little something extra. It's funny you mention terra cotta - last year I was certain I wanted a terra cotta house with green trim. I don't know what changed my mind, but it's like my tastes changed. Lindy ... THANK YOU!!! I always wondered if I should add shutters. I like the look. I got some samples and will try to get some paint on those walls this weekend. DH is happy the fence is back - HA!! We needed to put it in the front yard. I always miss being able to see the porch when driving by. But with a 4 year old and a busy major road and the dog ... it just had to be done. After seeing the pics I found ... do you think this color scheme could work on my house, or is the general feeling my house is too simple? Thanks again for all your input!! I am excited :)

I'm still at it ya'll. My GC just met with a second painting contractor today, so I expect we'll get a quote soon. (Just in time for me to go out of town for a bit too.) I've acquired a truly absurd number of paint samples, and now possess both sherwin williams and ben moore fan decks:) I would have done better to just choose from the limited Hardie colors. (tone is hard to convey on the internet, this is all in good humor, with me more or less mocking myself). The good news is, I know what I want to do! (hurrah!) I found a new inspiration picture, and both DH and I went "aha, that's it." The previous photos are fine, but this is the one we both definitely like the best: there are a bunch more photos of this house here - http://www.houzz.com/projects/1042760/burwood-custom-home-grand-rapids-mi I didn't think I wanted to go dark with our black metal roof, but there it is, the first color scheme we're both happy about. I think there will still be enough contrast. They claim the color above is Ben Moore Kitty Gray 1589. So, here are some samples: Sorry about the mud splash, should probably clean that off. From left to right: 1) SW dovetail 7018 2) SW gauntlet gray 7019 3) BM Kitty Gray 1589 *- the one in the insp photo above 4) BM quarry rock 1568 5) BM knoxville gray HC-160 So, internet house color support group, what say you? Kitty gray does not look as vibrant (dark, saturated?) to me in real life or in the photos as it does in the inspiration picture. It looks more gray, as opposed to having some dark blue/green. However, I think I'm just going to stop thumb sucking and pick this color. quarry rock has more green knoxville gray is fairly saturated in real life. it really might be dark teal. maybe that's good, I dunno. Then I have to decide a trim color, whether to paint a contrasting trim around the windows, and what color to paint the garage doors. Whew! getting closer:)

Grover any chance you can show me what it would look like with no railing and pulling the left side of the steps a bit more to the left (towards the end of the window) i was just looking at greige color schemes and I’m feeling super over whelmed. looks like a darker warm brown with a light grey compliments and contrasts with each (went through your color schemes) so now im thinking... the silver traverntine for the top of the steps and the top of the porch with a more brown stack stone color for the pillar, and light post? Or should I reverse it? Make a darker slate for the top of the porch/steps and a lighter grey with warm tones for the stack stone? God... I’m going crazy

@Sarah, Thanks so much! It actually turned out better than we expected. Yes, It's El Dorado Grand Banks Limestone. When the pieces arrived I thought they made an accident and we received the wrong product, they looked like cheap granite. I wasn't very excited with the wall until our happy accident of over-grouting. We knew we wanted a soft white grout color but didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on pre-colored grout so we played with adding different amounts of brown permacolor grout to white mortar. We'd put some on a stone and let it dry overnight. We came to the ratio of 1/2 cup Laticrete Permacolor grout in Tawny for each 44 lb bag of Mapei White Keraflex SG Mortar. We mixed the dry mixture fully to avoid color pockets before adding water. We piped the mortar in and when it was still a bit soft we wiped it with a wet sponge allowing some of the residue to settle on top of the stones.