The current windows make the door look small. My first thought is to paint the door a grayish color to blend withe the windows but that might not apply to lighting conditions throughout the day.

I will always advocate to not paint brick, but what color schemes do you like as you drive around looking at other houses?

IMO the brick is the best part of the house and painting brick instantly devalues your home no matter what joanna Gaines says. I do agree those support columns are all wrong for the house and IMO so is the white trim for the windows. Landscaping would do more for the exterior than paint ever will The house is quite elegant so redo the pillrs to be the same styleas the house .Something like this for instance

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6348558/exterior-of-home-help-needed

Agree that the brick is not the problem. Changing the roof overhang would be the biggest improvement, but you need to do that in conjunction with a roof replacement, and that would surely blow your budget. So as Hallett said, change the pillars and look into flattening the bays into groups of single or double hung windows that look like the windows on the second floor. Choose a color from the brick for the front door, but darker. Can you post a closer up picture of your brick, and a picture that shows the roof color over the garage better? It looks brown, so If you must paint the brick, taupe, blue or green with white pillars and windows would look nice. Don't use too dark a color, but enough for some contrast with the pillars.

My brick is pink and white was added over the brick years ago to take away from the bright pink. Wish we’d just painted them then.

Patricia Colwell is showing the design inspiration for your house when it was built, then it was filtered through a 1960's ranch, then some misguided wood columns... What I was suggesting was something like this where it has a roof between the first and second floors to hide how different the fenestration is between the floors

At this point with the color I agree 'paint' is the best option, make sure to use a mineral paint not latex...

Your home is not as unappealing as you think it is. And if you are balking at paying $16k for windows, you should know your home resale price is going to drop at least that much if you paint the brick -- because people factor in the cost of painting a home every xx years when they buy it. If you are not moving immediately, please also remember that painting the brick now is not a one-time cost. You will have to pay painting your big house again (and again).

If it were my house I would replace the windows and the front door. I would want a solid natural wood unpainted dark finish set of double doors. Maybe something like this. Maybe something plainer but this dark.

I'd get rid of those benches, get a much wider dark welcome mat, and paint the porch "ceiling" the paiest of pale blues.

I'm not sure what I would want for new downstairs windows. But what you have now is not really right for the otherwise squared off facade of your house. Your door should be eye riveting and your windows should recede. So I would certainly try to make them boxy and flat.

PS; I suspect that what was once inside those barn columns was plain white posts that somebody thought looked too skimpy, so they beefed them up with cladding and molding and more wood at the top. I would remove the Y's and just leave the straight column, maybe put some inches of crown molding where the column meets the roofline, to fit with the base of the column, paint it to match. It seems silly to rebuilld them in brick and then paint them.

Something like this with far less paneling on the bottom -- just enough to echo the base of the columns -- and painted something other than stark white

and solid doors, no little windows or sidelights

I like the columns, I'd paint the door to match. Do your windows really need to be replaced? I have the original windows on my 100 year old house.

Back to the brick. If you want a lower maintenance (but better) covering of the brick, look into Romabio. It is a smear, can be colored whatever you want and lasts longer than paint. It also doesn’t suffocate the brick. I understand wanting to change the exterior, but do a longer-lasting, better product. Look into this.

For the windows, shop something flat. It does sound like $8,000 per window is very high. By simplifying the style, the number should come down. What are the dimensions of these windows? Definitely shop those. Some full service hardware stores sell windows and may not be as pricey as the “name” ones.

A friend just redid the outside of her house (roof and siding) and changed out a large living room picture window. The window is about 65x55 and cost $800. Installation was approximately another $800. She lives in Cleveland. I hope this information helps you when window shopping.

After reading and looking at these ideas I think I agree with painting or doing Romabio as RedRyder suggests. I would remove the “Y” pieces on the columns. I would paint them to contrast with the house. If you choose white for the house, then I would go with black, dark gray, deep forest green or other for the columns. I think they should stand out as an architectural feature.

I like your bay windows but think painting them the color you choose for the color of the columns is the way to go. Do the bay windows have a copper top? Just wondering. I also would add shutters to the second story windows to give them more definition and paint them the color of the columns as well. I would also paint the porch floor a paler color of the column/ window color. For instance if you choose black, then I would paint the floor pale gray. I think it will recede somewhat without disappearing.

Your door is lovely. If you keep your color scheme as I suggested, then you have the option of painting the door in very different color to make a statement if you like.

One more thing, I am wondering why you want to redo your landscaping. What you have now is certainly fine. But you don’t have to do it now. Get your house changes done and think about landscaping later, perhaps in spring. Good luck and please keep us posted.

debra

No bows or bays for the front windows. All the windows on the house should be of similar design (not necessarily size) but the casements with the double hung windows don’t complement one another. You could select fake French doors on the first floor and casements for the second floor windows.

Limewash the house. No paint unless you want to deal with peeling paint.

The brackets on the columns don't fit the style of your home.

I think @BeverlyFLADeziner just gave you a great "blueprint" for your house. Again, do not PAINT the house - look into lime wash options. It will upscale the look of your home immediately.

Windows are important. Take your time finding what will be more consistent with your house's style. Agree that the ones Beverly posted are much, much prettier than the ones you inherited.

Beverly’s idea is great, except the fake French doors are much narrower than the bays you have now.To me it seems that would mean adding brick to fill in the gaps that would be around the new doors. Then you would have to paint to cover the mismatch.

I understand people saying that painting the house devalues it, but doesn’t a rather unattractive brick devalue a house as well? Besides, unless you are in the market to sell soon, what’s the point? I don’t know your age and family size, but this looks like the kind of house families grow up in for many years. If you’re close to retirement and planning to move in a year or two, these decisions may be much more important. Perhaps getting a couple of quotes from realtors and discussing the painting issue will help make a decision.

In the beginning of your post you said, “what I do know for sure is that we will be painting the house.”
Seem to me that decision has been made. Once again, GOOD LUCK and keep us posted.

debra

I've painted two brick (one was brick and concrete block) buildings (house and office building). I properly prepped the buildings (power-washed, primer, and paint that is designed for brick), and there has been no paint peeling at all (year 5 or 6 for 1 building, year 3 or 4 for house). Do what the experts at the Sherwin Williams store tell you to do and don't cheap out.

If you brick is already failing (spalling), then painting it is only putting lipstick on a pig. I think buildings with spalling brick that were painted may be what the others below have seen and might be confusing the spalling problem with painting.

To save $$$ you could select casements instead of faux french doors. Just make them taller than those on the second floor.

Fill in with missing brick and then limewash all the brick so it matched.

It's ridicoulous to put all those colonial doors and windows on a Italianate Renaissance Revival house. Along the way your house took detours and got some English Georgian and American neo-Palladian twists, but you haven't got a wood colonial

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/hajj-article

You need a dark heavy door to create a line of perspective and establish the core of the house. Or live with the muddle. It's no big deal now. things have gone so far astray.

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/roots-of-style-your-home-may-have-a-renaissance-classical-past-stsetivw-vs~12761125

It's fantastic we can now all use photoshop to re-imagine all structure as little neat boxes ignoring reality -- oh how American decorators love making boxes! -- but the fact is those invented photoshopped wiindows don't match the real world space that actually exists, neither the windows or the doors.

History is fascinating

Even had Italian urns at the door at one point

I thought it might help everyone to see the progression of the house up to now ... how the brick looked before, the original columns, etc:

2017

2017

2017

2020

2022

2022

2022

Christy, what did you use on the bricks?

mytwo cents, I had to repost — I was trying to add a photo and lost my whole @#$& post that would’ve been in between yours. :D

Interesting evolution, Jilly. Good sleuthing.

I think I posted on one or two of them.

I really think Christy should hire a local pro for a consultation. There has to be someone(s).

It would help with design ideas, cost ideas, what can and can’t be done, etc.

Piecemeal, crowdsourced work and/or internet photoshopping is obviously not cutting it for this house and could lead to an expensive disaster. There needs to be an all-over plan to work towards, even if it can’t all be done right now, and by a qualified person(s) seeing it in person.

ETA: I like the bay windows and think they fit the house and add interest. The interior needs to be taken into consideration, too … what rooms they are and how removing them would affect the spaces. Again, why someone needs to advise in person.