Peanut I am in Idaho to and we have had our first and second third frosts so the trees are turning fast . I totally understand the brown leaves. Our true front of th house faces side way like yours is. What is the front really is the end. I am wondering how much set back you might have left to play with on that end of your house with missing window? I do know some times you might get your hand slapped for changing structure as in adding a window in a manufactured home. Be sure to check before you do it. I was kind of thinking if you had room for a little covered porch on the end.Might help the blank look. We have a blank spot on our true front side because I had them move the master bedroom windows to the gable end of the house. Idaho has many growing zones. We are in Midvale so zone 4 but sometimes zone five. I have several trees here and the Scotch Pines grow really fast and are kind of wild and pretty. Not sure if you have room. Can you get a picture further back from your house? Might be easier to give you ideas if more could be seen. Chris

A pergola is lovely in a place with lots and lots of sun. Elsewhere, it can get dark and dank in the winter. I'd make a path to your door. Much of it can be part of your driveway. Just replace with brick or pavers or something visual that you can still drive on. Then, I'd clear out the shrubs along the side of the house with the door. I'd turn the bed by the right front of the house into a semi-circle no larger than the width of the house and have a variety of plants and heights instead of that yew hedge. (Not sure it's yew, but it looks like it). Window boxes are hard to keep looking nice. They don't have a huge amount of space for roots, keeping them watered enough but not soggy can be a challenge. This is why you see a lot more window boxes in carefully staged Houzz photos than in real life.

I like the white in the inspiration, but our current vinyl is so cheap looking. Would you stick with clapboard look, or would shingles work too? The exposure on the inspiration picture is 6-7" I think, whereas we would only be able to do 4". Also, the back side of our house is really reflective and creates a lot of glare right now. I feel like that would be better if the house was a different color. Would it reflect less if it had the Cedar Impressions given that the surface would have a grain to it? Finally, Anglophilia, this has been a VERY long process already. We hired an architect three years ago, went through lots and lots of drawings, only to get to the end and realize the project was completely overbuilt and over budget (check my posts to see some of the previous plans). The new plan, which is just to dormer and finish the back half of the attic, is still stretching our budget once we add in residing the whole house, but I want to make sure we still end up with the curb appeal and character that I hope for. We are no longer working with an architect, as I trust my builder completely, but I do need to provide good inspiration for him to work from.

While they are different pictures, they are not better pictures. You've also got to take them when an important part of the house is not in deep shade. (The entrance and foundation area look like a black shadow.) And the camera is too far away. It should be on the city sidewalk. It should be at the left side of the drive. It must stay at the same position for all three pictures (merely pivoting.) First and last picture should capture the front left and right corners of the yard.