I would buy a vintage door and a vintage screen door and replace the secondary door, which then would look more like a back door, secondary door. To get a "cottage look" I would think you need to create a covered porch and extended deck over everything from at least the elevated roofline of the right section, and I think it would look best if it went all the way to where your antenna is. Are you permitted to add that much structure to the property?

You could paint the secondary door the same color as the siding so it doesn’t stand out as much as the main door (which I would paint an accent color to help it stand out).

One other thing that would change the look from pre-fab to antique is to make sure that there is no immediate step-down at the doors. Right now they look suspended like a trailer or recreational vehicle. The porch shoud be raised to be fairly level with the door.

Which door is the "secondary door"? To me the door on left was the original main door as it is next to windows that look to be the main living space. Looks like you already have "vintage cottage" style storm doors but the interior half glass doors with grilles doesn't match. The horizontal privacy fence is more modern than cottage style, Landscaping is the best thing to add curb appeal

A minor point - move or hide the bbq grill. I understand it needs to be accessible, but not RIGHT AT your front door! I can’t tell what’s off to the left. Can’t you make a home for it over there somewhere? Or at least wall up a spot for it (where there’s currently only a railing) so it’s not visible from the front.

And I agree about raising the deck level to match the house. As is, it gives the house a modular look.

Thanks everyone. Yes we can do structural work to the cottage and that is what we are looking to do. Maybe not huge changes, but some additions or something. Anything to make it not look like a mini-home. Also, yes the main door is the one closest to the stairs coming up to the deck.

Oh also, yes when we bought the cottage in December we knew that the step down out of the cottage was odd. I think the previous owners cheaped out and did not want to have a permit to build the deck. This will be fixed because the deck is getting ripe and will need to be replaced all together. Good eye!

paint the two doors (one to match siding, and the other for accent) and then focus on landscaping. maybe get a new lantern porch light. it will all be very cute!

acm - that is exactly what I am going to do this year into spring next year, but when we are ready to do - maybe a sun porch as suggested by mytwo cents already hopefully all that will tie in too. Love the work you put in to show me. THANK YOU! :)

We are currently building a garage on the left side with the new siding, so I will post pictures when it is done, so you can get a better sense as the siding on the cottage needs to go as it was not done well.

The shakes and stone will be nice and definitely enhance the cottage feel. Sounds like you have a good plan. Structural stuff can wait a bit.

If it were me, I would orient the front view of the house towards the part with the higher eave. Maybe build a chunky pergola spanning a deck that runs the length of just this section. Center the steps down to a front sidewalk in front of this section, and have some steps down to a stone patio on the side (the patio thus replacing much of where the current deck is below the lower eave, with stone/concrete steps up to the secondary door). Then use landscaping to create some more symmetry and screen some of the left side from view.

You also need to address the balance of windows in the house. To the right of the front door, in that blank span of empty space, I would install another window of the same proportions as the window directly to the right of your front door. That tall skinny window ITP left of front door should be replaced with something more square if going for cottage vibe.

P.D Schlitz - that is exactly it. As soon as I seen your vision with that long window in the hallway you are right it needs to match the one in the kitchen. Unfortunately, that blank space is where the fridge is and there is no where to move it as the kitchen is so tiny now, but I do see how balancing out the windows would make it so much better. I also love the pergola and how you described where that would go I had a similar idea to that, but couldn't place how it would look. Love it thanks!

I wanted to play around with the window idea just to see the more balanced effect and here it is. I do see because of the new part that the window is not going to be 100% balanced because the roof is about a foot lower, but I do see it is more pleasing to the eye to have a balanced window. I am wondering if we can get different grills for the current window so that it is more cottage-like. I think the prior owner found used windows because that window grill does not match any of the other windows at all. There are very old slider windows on the side you cannot see facing the driveway and we will replace those with cottage-style windows.

Playing around again with the new cedar siding and shutters. Any feedback is appreciated. I am still amazed at how the balancing of the windows makes it better.

This is our color palette on the inside so I pulled the blue colors outside. Just didn't know if darker (Manitou Blue) or lighter (Meander Blue).

my twocents - Yes that was my thought as well. Have a covered porch as such. The portico would be a cheaper option, but I think we would get a lot more out of the covered porch and maybe have a screened-in room so we can live in the summer because the bugs are so bad here all year round near the lake.