I think the roof is the only thing that needs painted, and then put shrubs and flowers down the side of the house.

No matter what painted design you add to the house, it will still look too bold and stark without some plantings. What about growing a little garden there and add a trellis for a colorful vine?

OMG punamytsike, you're now in Central Am.!? Talk about a change in location!

Sorry, can't help much with the colors but I really like your idea and the addition of the stripe. For someone of their income level I'm sure anything is really appreciated.

So......you have any projects of your own going on??

Thank you oakleyok and annz.

My Spanish is not good enough yet to convey the garden idea plus now starts the dry season, so not a good time to try to establish a garden. Bold colors are the name of the game here, so yeah, a little different than we, norte americanos, are used to :)
We are in planning stages of building here as well, thanks for asking, annz. We need to get a road built first and also environmental agency approval for our plans, it is in protected area. No big houses this time, little huts for different activities, little like "Eat, pray, love" Bali compound.

I think that a teal or turquoise, or even an orange would look fantastic with the pink.

Love the purple accents. Obviously I live in the wrong country...I'd love to live where houses were more colorful.

Heh, heh, I'd love to submit this house to my HOA as a 'plan' idea for a building in my backyard. Somebody would have a heart attack. GRIN

Ann Arbor Michigan has a lot of colorful houses like that, I would love it! Who ever thought of making an entire subdivision different shades of brown and gray should be shot.

Do you think they will want to paint their house with your ideas? I am not quite clear how/why you are taking on a project like this without having even spoken to the person who owns the house...

I like the stripe with the window grates painted. I also like the turquoise idea. The purple looks too sharp to me. Kind of sets my teeth on edge. Good luck with the communication challenge. It will be interesting to see if she is responsive to decorating with more color. I'm glad some folks helped her with her home.

Wow! Central America! that is exciting.so you will be living there for a good while if you are building. So will we get a play by play of your new construction and decorating? I hope.

Cool! Where in Central America? Costa Rica? Belize?
Anyway I vote turquoise subject to homeowner's approval.:)

Here are the other colors suggested:

Runninginplace � I am not taking on a project, I am spending 30 � 60 min playing around on my computer ;) Then I will show some ideas to my friends here in the village, who can tell me if it is appropriate to share my ideas with my neighbors. And if, how. I honestly do not see any downside with this little exercises of mine.

Cooperbailey � Yes, we are here for good ï How much I will share, I am not sure yet. I am flattered that some are interested. It will be very different, we will have no A/C or heating, no windows, everything is very open, so I am not sure I am tough enough to take the inevitable comments of in the line of you must be nuts LOL. I will be asking some kitchen design help soon, as we need to finalize that part of the plan soon as well. But the kitchen will have no cabinets, all open shelves, counter with different depths depending what activity is going on, so again very very different, but the kitchen forum folks get some different stuff, so I hope they will be receptive and I will get some good advice.

sheilaaus122 � I will not be sharing as much personal information as I once was. I have been attacked here in GardenWeb, based on where I lived and that person making assumptions not based on what I wrote but my locations, so I am more careful now. It is not the people that contribute that are the problem but some lurkers that come out of dark and bite, so I need to be mindful of that. So please forgive me, if I am not more specific.

Terriks � am trying your suggestions, lets see which one wins the consensus here.

Happyintexas - the purple is still favorite of mine

Sashasmommy � cannot agree more ïÂÂ

katrina_ellen � It will be interesting for us as well. We are trying to create goowill here, as we intend to live among these people a long time. So we are trying to be helpful but sensitive at the same time. And in general, the more colorful, the more locals seem to like it. We will see and I will let you know how this progresses here.

Thanks for all the comments and taking the time to do so.

Well as long as you have the internet its all good!
I am always interested about the expats in other countries. How exotic and daring it sounds. I was just wondering how you decided to move to another country and what age bracket are you in?
very exciting!

What a wonderful change for you; enjoy your new country!

On my monitor, the first one of the last three you posted I think is teal. Photoshop has the purple bleeding through, sort of ragged effect, and that looks delightful.

I too would love to see a vegetable garden, maybe an orange tree, dwarf bananas, etc. -- something that will add beauty and nutrition once the dry season ends.

What a cool idea! I love the turquoise and pink together, and would like to see it taken up another notch with the diamond patterns in the windows painted a sunshiny yellow (but keeping the "frame" turquoise).

My favorite is the orange and pink. Sorry you got smacked with the ugly side of the internet...I always enjoyed your posts over on the design board. Didn't you do thehouse with the great stained concrete? Or am I misrembering?

I hope I wasn't one of the offenders.

Well, there's no doubt you're living a different lifestyle in a country that is totally opposite of your previous location. My hat is off to you to embrace such an experience.
Sorry, but I didn't realize you'd had a bad experience from showing your beautiful home and all the work YOU did on it. Some people just can't be happy for others!

Anyway, I vote for the purple and pink, two colors that are perfect together!

auntjen - thanks for the additional idea, so I mocked up all 4 with the additional yellow. It is fun to play on computer :)

oh and on another not, also for good will, we have made some improvements in our rental house (with the owners approval and blessing, of cause).

Here are the before and after for shower area -

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Little paint, new concrete shower floor that I stained, some wall hangings and live plants, and voila, new usable shower :)

Wow! What an amazing transformation on that shower! You truly have the magic touch! As for the pink house, I love the introduction of the yellow accents in the windows. My favorite is the pink/turquoise/yellow combination (second pic in your latest mockups). I think I recall where you were moving to (but I won't say!) and it looks like you've settled in nicely. Are you absolutely loving it there? I hope so!

I absolutely love the yellow on the house!

May I ask you a question? Why no windows in your new house? When you say the house is "open" you don't mean no front or back doors, do you?

I understand not having a/c, but I was just wondering why no windows.

BTW, I think what you're doing is wonderful! I hope the H.O. likes your idea. Good luck!

Ooh, I like the yellow diamonds in the windows. I am partial to the turquoise/yellow/pink combination.

AJ hit it with the addition of yellow. If the lady is amenable, maybe her family could vote on which of the last 4 mock-ups they like best.

Great job on the shower BTW.

Auntjen � thanks and your suggestion really made a difference, what ever color schema they will choose, if any.
And yes, we do love it here very much. The nature, the lifestyle, all are amazing.

Oakleyok � We need some way of cooling the house, as most of the time the temperature are in high eighties or nineties during the day. In our current rental house, there is open area with half walls and rest screened. This is our favorite place to hang out all day long. That's where the idea of the design came from. I have attached a very rough sketch of one of the huts. All the open areas will be screened. All the open areas have views like the photo below.

{{!gwi}}

Terriks & abundantblessings, the yellow is the best :)

Here is a link that might be useful: One concept hut in early design stage

gorgeous country! Wonderful pink house. I've been to countries that love primary and secondary colors. The best looking houses have 2 sympathetic colors and one opposite color. On that principle I vote for the pink with the yellow and orange. Personally I'd like the light pink with a dark pink (fushia) and a opposite the color wheel.....yellow or orange. I think that would look wonderful. The stripe is neat and would look even better in a simple outline of the windows as well to draw attention to the brickwork even more.
As for plantings I noticed in tropical areas that very few non-food/ornamentals were grown due to fear of harboring vermin and or snakes. That's what I understood anyway. Thanks for posting this!

Oh wow, that view!! That view is amazing!!! I am so envious! Do you by any chance do any bird watching? That is the first thing I could think of when you said you were in Central America....I was thinking, wow....I bet you see some amazing birds there!

As for the neighbor's house across the street...how wonderful for the lady that the villagers stuccoed and painted it for her!!!! And I think it's terrific that you are trying to think of ways to "pretty" it up, I am sure that she will be very grateful. I personally like the blue/green color w/ the yellow diamonds in the windows. I think a colorful planting bed would be wonderful also.

Enjoy your new home and surroundings and please post lots of pictures (especially of the birds..lol!)

what about using a navy blue stripe and frame and perhaps the yellow or turquois on the diamonds I would also paint a larger frame around the windows.

and just now after looking at my ice cream I am liking using a lighter shade of pink and brown (fudge)

What a sweet neighbor you are! Always so generous and thinking of others. I love what you've done with your shower stall, and I'm sure your landlord does too. You are so clever with concrete stain. Are those orchids on the wall? It will be magnificent when they bloom and they should love the steamy environment, right?

I hope you really love your new country and your new home. Um... are you serious about no windows? You mean the house is wide open for burglars when you're not home? Not sure I can picture that.

Thanks for (another) very interesting -- and surprising -- thread from you. Your last home was scrumptious thanks to all your clever decorating ideas and hard work. I hope we'll get to see more pictures of your new one. I'm so sorry someone was mean to you. Shame on them! You've always been so kind and helpful to everyone here, and a real inspiration to us all. I hope you can just ignore the bad guys, but I understand if you don't want to share personal things.

The concept hut reminded me of the movie Cross Creek, the story of Marjorie Rawlings. I fell in love with the house and on one trip to Fla visited.It is a park now and has been preserved much as it was when she lived there.
It is very much like your concept hut with screens. I absolutely loved it. Maybe you could google the house on line to see some compatible ideas?
The cross creek house would be my ideal house if I were to live in central Fla or similar.
The photos of the house I lived in as a toddler on the Indian reservation in AZ oh those many years ago, is similar as well!

Pjtexgirl - thanks for your ideas. As for update, nothing has happened to the pink house yet. It took them years to get it stuccoed and painted, who knows how long to make it prettier LOL
Jiggreen - we are in an official nature preserve area, so I know there are protected birds and animals living here. I have not seen much yet, as we are always on mission on getting something done. Once we live up there, I am planning to take lots of photos and will sure share some.
jea2007 - it sure is fun to play with other people houses LOL
oceanna - what a sweet post, thanks. There will be no windows, but there will be lots of wrought iron grills and screens to keep bugs and creatures out. In fact, I am planning to add master wrought iron specialist to my skill list. Looks like it will be from the scratch job, starting by making hand made scrolls. I am planning to make my own wrought iron lanterns for lighting as well.
Cooperbailey - I tired to look up the house you mentioned but did not have much luck. If you have time, can you see if you find some links. I am very interested to seeing others doing similar what I am thinking of doing.

Nature reserve? I have four parrots and SA is filled with gorgeous parrots. I hope you put out a back yard bird feeder and keep your camera handy. Neat!

Oh, I see about the windows, thanks for explaining.

Oh my gosh you're going to learn to do wrought iron? You are an amazing woman. I know if you do you're going to create gorgeous things. You're a marvel and I can't wait to see what you do next. I spent hours pouring over the pictures of your last home and thinking about how you did it all. I hope you'll share pix! I can't wait to see what you do. You're an amazing inspiration for all of us. I wish you lived next door, we'd have such fun.

Yep, we do have lots of parrots. Some in endangered list, we have not seen yet, but have found feathers, so we know they are around.

I will share, it will just take some time before there is anything to share, although, I am itching to make the first lantern to see how it comes out. If it comes out half way decent, I will share that as well. I am excited and having so much fun.

Oh, and as long as you do not have temps in 80s year round, you need to come and visit me, I do not like cold weather anymore ;)