Seriously? Nothing? I know the house is small and basic, but we are trying to make the most of it.

Hi
It's hard to see the house for the bushes lol! k bad joke sorry :s
But seriously I would clear away some of the greenery in front of the house. In fact I would clear it away entirely. Also there is too much colour going on here. Yes that may sound odd I know. The garage door is a different colour from the front door and the windows seem to be black, and then the siding is gray.
I am not sure what we are looking at in terms of budget but have you considered having someone come in and do stucco?
I would do a cream color of stucco and paint the garage door the same color as the windows. I would then paint the door red. Now I would add nice subtle (what i mean is nice little flowers not big huge bushes) but dramatic red, black, and white flowers to your landscaping. I would put some black mulch around it and white rocks.
Alternatively if there is a smaller budget I would paint the siding cream, do the same with the paint on the doors and follow through with the same idea with the garden.
In terms of clashing or matching with neighbours it sounds like they clash already :s Once they see how faboo your house looks they just may follow suit! :o)

Ooops, that should read "if budget was no object". Sorry, past my bed time.

Thanks, you two! I don't think we have the budget currently to do stucco or the entry porch (though I absolutely LOVE both ideas). However, those bushes are high on the list to eliminate; believe me, we are in absolute agreement with you about that. Actually, we are going to completely overhaul the landscaping in the near future too--the black mulch/white rock thing intrigues me.

The cream idea is something we hadn't considered and I like that as well. And i adore red doors - the cream would really make it pop. I guess a dark (black?) color shingle would be best with those color choices..? Thanks again!

Anyone else have thoughts?

hi,
Yes I like red doors as well. I'm an all around sucker for red. Here is a pic I did for curb appeal for a client who sold their house. I painted the front door and garage door, I put in white, and red begonias (which will live through almost anything), and black mulch in the garden, bought a black pot and put red, black and white flowers. I spray painted the light fixtures, mailbox, and house numbers black. It costed me all of 70 dollars, and it looked like she had new everything!

oh and i forgot to add that a week later her neighbours on either side of her painted their doors and fixtures, mailbox etc the same colour!

Hah! Hilarious. The house looks beautiful. I love the way all the brick colors complement the shade of red you picked. Brava.

Thanks!
I LOVE being able to do something that costs next to nothing but has a big impact. You don't necessarily need to spend a lot of money to have a beautiful home :o)

It looks to me as if you already have black or dark grey accents. I would paint the whole house a medium grey and use a red door. Be sure to paint the garage doors to match the house. The storm door should match the door. Alternative color schemes would be grey-blue with a yellow door, or sage green with a burgundy door. The color depends on your preference and how the landscaping/hardscaping blends (i.e. what color is the driveway or entrance path, are there bushes to keep and what do you plan?).

If you can afford shutters and feel that they are your style, they would help the facade.

Thanks, Yvonne! I really like your ideas as well. And we were actually playing around with the idea of shutters - what about vertical slat shutters? We thought that might work to "lengthen" the house.