Hi All, thank you so much for the fabulous ideas. Wanted to share some before/after photos. We ended up doing three things:
1) Painted the whole house and trim. Siding is SW Belvedere Tan, Trim is SW Porcelain, Deck is SW Buckthorn, and we have a few accent doors in SW Wild Currant (I think??). Absolutely thrilled with it! There's no more yellow tinge, which looked very dated. Cost ~$7000 and it took the painters 5 days to finish.
2) Added trim boards to the garage. Kind of a craftsman pattern, but purposely decided NOT to put on decorative hardware to keep with the contemporary feel of the rest of the house. Boards are lightweight cedar (ended up doing knotty cedar at ~$1.30LF instead of clear cedar at ~$3.50LF -- since the knots are covered up by solid stain anyway). This was an incredibly tedious project -- cuts have to be super accurate and there are plenty to make, including several precise angles. Also spent lots of time plotting out the dimensions and design so everything would look proportional(like an nice coachman style door. In the end, we spent around $200 and maybe 15-20 hrs. on this garage treatment. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I should also point out that we hired a garage door company to come out and replace our springs and some hardware, ensuring that the door could safetly handle the extra weight (~65lbs.) of the boards. The new springs cost $600. We needed them anyway, the old ones were on their last legs. If you have questions on how we did this, email me at amyfinch5 at gmail
3) Did a bunch of landscaping work. My husband tapped into our sprinkler system and added some tubing that connects to our annual pots so they get a steady stream of water every day. Makes a big difference. Cost was really cheap - a few bucks I believe.
(Also) A few years ago, we replaced our crumbling, narrow concrete walkway with a nicer one -- stone pavers, pretty border, small column/wall, and also moved the walkway a few feet further away from the house so it didn't feel as cramped walking to the front door. Looks fabulous! You can see the old walkway in some of the "before" photos I'll post.
Ps. I really liked the idea that BLDG Workshop suggested of a Japanese Maple behind our column, but after visiting a few nurseries, determined that it wouldn't work in that area.
SIDE BEFORE (even before we did the new walkway)
SIDE AFTER
FRONT BEFORE (before new walkway)
FRONT AFTER
SHED AFTER (no before pic, sorry!)
MID-WAY THROUGH PAINTING (yucky yellow vs. pretty Belvedere Tan)
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stairs
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