Darling cottage flgargoyle. Love all the charming angles on the roof. Would be a nightmare here with the snow but it is cute to look at. Thanks for the picture! When I was a little girl living in Brooklyn we took vacations in Connecticut and would spend a week or two in a little cottage. Was on the beach. Do not remember the town it was in. I think we also called it camp. I fell in love with that little house. It was small. Two bedrooms one bath the old knotty pine red counter tops. It was in the 50's and it was not new. My Grandmother also lived in a darling cottage in Long Beach,Ca. Another dream home of mine. Years later when we were house hunting we found the EXACT house as my grandmothers in Halfway Oregon and I wanted it so bad. Hubby said it was really too much work to bring it back. It had not had the care my grandmothers house had had. The remodel job they did on it sort of ruined the charm by opening the glassed sun room to the living room. Made a nice large living room but the glass sun room was so cute as it was. Was sort of nostalgic as soon as I walked in the front door and recognized the house I could almost hear the glass doors at my Grandmothers house on the sun room opening, smell her pies. I know the house we have is a manufactured home but I am calling it Canary Cottage and will make a sign for it when I have time. There was a tiny house here years ago and I keep finding bits of china and glass from it as we create the new yard. I will incorporate that old glass and china with some new for the mosaic sign. Can't wait, just need the time. Come on winter!!! It might not be a real cottage but I hope to make it look as much like a cottage as I can. Chris

Vinyl, clad wood, aluminum, and fiberglass are the four main types of materials used for windows. Vinyl and aluminum tend to be the least costly (but not always). Clad wood windows tend to cost the most and fiberglass is somewhere between the wood and vinyl price. For performance, wood, vinyl and fiberglass are all over 1,000 times a better insulator than aluminum. For durability, vinyl is often the shortest lived, but decent vinyl windows can last 40 years or more. Wood windows can last a long time if they're clad but I have seen clad windows that have rotted. For durability in your application I would think fiberglass might be a nice solution. In order of preference for your garage, I'd probably choose fiberglass-vinyl-wood clad-aluminum. However, if you're trying to get a certain look (since you said "dressing it up"), wood clad or a woodgrained vinyl might be the "look" you're looking for.

So I like the idea of getting rid of the vinyl siding and adding lots of wide white trim boards. Found this pic of doing a two-toned treatment using shakes. Thank goodness they have it in vinyl now. I like the look of the prairie style windows and the dark stain on the deck. I’d get rid of the lattice and do a square lattice but create panels so it is broken up. Since you have a white railing, I would do the frame of the panel white and then either stain the lattice to match you deck and steps or the lower house color. Or just all white but I think that may be too much. Also notice how the panels are lined up with the deck posts.

Oh, how I wish you had posted before you installed the windows. Your home has a Storybook Style vibe (chimney / curved walk). Suggest you Google "storybook style homes", study their color schemes, and go from there.