Not a fan at all of painted brick but those bricked to match siding do unify the look beautifully. I would first try just painting the garage door a few shades darker green than siding or that cedar stain which picks up the warmth of the brick. Much easier than brick painting, and plain white needs to go away even if you paint the brick.

If they have no purpose are they just there for show? Is that your idea of good architecture ... giant fake brackets? The cantilevered rafters appear to be I-Joists with no lateral bracing of the bottom chords so they are going to deflect and that will load the brackets and the brackets will load the wall horizontally. If there is nothing inside to resist this load, the wall may eventually bow. Any change should be reviewed by the structural engineer of record. If the original design was not done by an engineer, you should have that corrected immediately. This is not a design for an amateur.

I would keep it all dark and moody. Didn't know Hardie made a stucco looking siding. You should check that out. I'm not a fan of the plops of stone in the stucco, and don't like the siding you have already either. I'd want to go for a more authentic reno and maybe the Hardie product would do it. Here's one that reminds me of a mystery novel with its brooding appearance. That's what I'd go for myself.

@lisedv Would you be able to tell me how you created the rendering of my beach home? I love the idea of a white house with our light blue front door and would really like to see it with some natural/stained wood elements (California Coastal)…We’d like to replace the glass block window with a window of the same size with some type of privacy glass (perhaps framed with a light stained wood trim). And I like the idea of a wood planter box with beach grass or a similar low maintenance plant (probably 24” wide or so and fairly tall (32” or so) to the right of the front door. If we did something like this, would you also recommend trimming the front door in natural wood to match the window trim and planter box, or would you leave the trim white? And lastly, I love the idea of resurfacing the driveway, but I don’t think pavers would be approved by our HOA (no other units have them). Perhaps an epoxy or granite stone coating?