I love all the trees around your home! Have you thought about adding shutters to the ground floor windows? I think wrapping your porch all the way around the house would also add a nice dimension to the ground floor. You could do a lot of things with paint, but maybe going simple would be best. If the siding is a bright white and you contrast this with black shutters and adding a heavier molding around all the windows (also in black) it would give the whole home a crisp look. It would also be nice to add flowers all the way up the driveway.

Thank you so much for your comments. I think shutters are a great idea! I also have never thought about getting the porch wrapped around the front of the house but I think this is a great idea too, it is just a pricier project than the funds I have now. What flowers would you suggest for lining the drive?

I definitely will stain the back decks to match and work on cleaning up the vegetation. If I was to redesign the back deck, what suggestions would you have?

I will upload another picture for the siding. It is a dark brown at the moment.

Many Thanks!!!

Painting the garage door to match the house will make a huge difference.

The porches are great.

I can see that front one with big hanging plants and big pots of flowers.

Do you enjoy gardening?

I love gardening! I do think big hanging plants are a great idea for the front. As for the back deck I agree that our structure cuts down on visibility. I was also considering having the enclosed back deck be taller so that increases visibility as well.

If I was to change the siding completely, what suggestions of siding would any of you have? Would a vertical siding be better for this house?

A few thoughts, if I may.

The driveway pavement needs definition, where is the edge of pavement and where is the edge of the lawn - that will look neater and more welcome.

See the double trunk tree in front of the brick wall in the top picture, place a paved turnaround/parking space the tree and the wall for your guests. 22'deep from the drive and 12' wide for one car, 20' for two, with radius corners to the driveway.

Your guests can arrive there and venture forth to the front door.

I would recommend that you take them through a welcoming space with plants and furniture, some smaller horizontally branched trees for pedestrian scale, like flowering dogwood, and then up the far stairs to the entry, and only use the long covered walk when it is raining, maybe put a gate at the end. Get some lights out there and music or bird feeders - make it a happy place. Good place for child play too, if viewed from the kitchen or office.

I do not recommend lining anything with flowers, especially the driveway.

cascio.offsite@gmail.com

You will need a light post or two for your guests as well, and this turnaround/parking spot will mean you never have to back out the driveway again. You could put another turnaround down by the garage, as well.

Enjoy!

cascio.offsite@gmail.com

Hello Cascio. Thank you so much for the great, extensive advice. Is this something you had in mind? I am having a hard time picturing exactly what two turn around would look like.

Here's a converse view - you are one of the few people who have a great color on your siding because it is as deep a tone as your brick . . or nearly, and the cocoa works well with the woodland setting / bronze windows and headers. Your windows are very contemporary as is the box / structure on the back of the house . . so I wouldn't try to do shutters - they have to be very wide and I don't see them fitting in proportion well . . do paint your garage door a tone even darker than your siding . . equestrian gray from bm comes to mind as a good choice. The only place that I would consider changing the siding is on the area beneath the upper deck / the only ground floor area apparently that isn't wrapped in brick - that would be neat done in a staggered shingle siding . . paint it the same, but that is going to give it the same visual busyness of the brick for the ground floor - just that box though . if there are other incidental areas on the ground floor, leave them the horizontal siding. .

Consider in the planter bed between the drive and sidewalk and the house, planting some taller clump grasses in rows . . so they fill and are feathery . . carex usually has near natives in each area . . .ask your nursery man . . .let them just be ornamental . . . ..

Unless you have a problem parking people, I would not add more parking area in the tree lawn but I do think you could cut another 5' wide this side of the path to the front door and lay river rock pebbles in the three feet adjacent to the concrete, then put flowering groundcover on the street side / tree side of that . . maybe use that groundcover and pebble approach all down the side of the driveway to make a rustic / organic kind of curvy side to what you have . .

I would like to see you plant a hedgerow even with the front /end gable of your house, just immediately to the left of the driveway as you "enter" the area beside the house but in front of the garage . . something columnar that grows fast and is evergreen in your area . . you want to get that to a bout 7-8 feet and carry it to the left nearly to the property line . . or at least as wide as the house front is . . - it signals that the area behind is private / people will see the garage door . that is your garage court and it will also allow you to make a proper utility yard / add a potting shed / move the storage unit/ screen the trash barrel and basketball hoop . . it will help direct people to the right . . it just deemphasizes the driveway area / makes that semi private and leads people to the entry . .

I would buy house numbers in bronze a bit oversize . . . kind of a modern font and put them underneath the entry gable area . . where they are to enter the porch to get to the front door - expand / repour those steps so they are as wide as the porch is deep, perhaps in a half circle / curved step formation to signal that this is the special main entry . . you might tile the steps and the front porch only with something like slate . . .