I can't wait to see it finished!

Have you been under a rock ;-)... Search painted brick on Houzz. They are some of the most lean and timelessly elegant. The nicest areas of nearly EVERY major city is full of them.

Yup, plenty of people that have no idea what they are doing. Take something thats virtually maintenance free and paint it. You might as well paint the roof and the windows while your at it. Its just as ridiculous.

I actually wonder how old you must be. Some of us have the $ and are adult enough to do whatever we want. Only an adult with no life is this consumed with the decisions of other grown people. You might also hate our collection of inefficient Italian exotic cars that cost 10x the average car but can still only get from point a to be at the speed limit. But we enjoy them and so do MOST people. This is a hobby, not that serious. So please get off of my thread and go whatever it is you like to do for yourself.

Look whos the one bragging. I to have a collection in my 3 1/2 car garage and 2 more in my other house. But your right I shouldn't care how people spend their money. So I apologize.

Looks like we would argue about cars also. lol I see a lambo in your picture (looks like a diablo). I'm more of a ferrari guy lol. But I like lambos to. I think the diablo was the last awesome one built. Now Audi owns lambo and you see it in their designs.

I thank Pennie and you both for the encouragement. It is definitely daunting. But I agree that natural and low maintenance doesn't always look best. Or sometimes you just want change. For example, we also painted our stained office. The wood was beautiful. But we had enjoyed wood stained walls in other houses and wanted to try something new. Was scary as painting wood to many (us included) was a bit taboo since there is so many non-stain quality wood in so much new construction. It turned out great and gave the house a traditional yet chic feel.

I live in the chicagoland area and I do see brick painted all the time. But its usually really ugly and somewhat destroyed and discolored, and over 100 years old. As a builder I laugh at houses that are fully built with just siding (the cheapest, so cheap you can punch through it) and brick on the front just for look. A full brick house like this is highly desirable, and this brick is nice visually and cosmetically (as far as I can tell in the pictures) She could have easily updated this house just by repainting the white and changing the color of the window shutters and doors. All while keeping a virtually maintenance free exterior. Im just trying to help. Sorry if my criticism comes off as negative but a lot of what I'm saying is true.

We did initially just paint the siding bits. We also replaced all aging wood with hardie board. There was nothing wrong with the brick. We simply think painted looks cleaner and better to our eyes. This is not universally our opinion but usually when we see apples to apples the painted Colonial, English Tudor or french home looks nicer to our eyes. Has nothing to do with maintenance. Its pure aesthetic preference. Below are some pics...

We bought a lovely house that already had painted brick. The former owners left us before and after photos so we could see it before as well. For our house, it looked much, much better painted.

anymac Those photos are beautiful and I can see why they inspired you to paint your home. Please post photos of your house when its done, and if you need some design ideas, you can check out my projects or idea books. I'm pretty well versed in design and construction as well!

What a lovely house!

Love the brick!

Very aesthetic

Thank you guys. This house has been a labor of love. We re-did all the flooring in the house. It had tile, carpet and 3/4 inch hardwood covering beautiful (well at least WE would make it beautiful) 2x5" pine tongue and groove under every square foot - the house is pier and beam. We had to search high and low to find a company willing to refinish them as they would have to nail each nail deeper to avoid damaging sander.

Then we did all lighting, interior paint, kitchen, gameroom and theater, fence and added pool, cabana, firepit and sportcourt. Below are some more pics. Pls excuse the sparse landscaping out back. That is next...

A few more...

You do have a nice house. I like the basement a lot. Has that kind of high end pub feeling as it should if you have a pool table and bar. I don't like the black and white tiles though. To me that looks more like it belongs in a garage not the entry. Oh and that last picture of the back. That looks so awesome, it looks so grand. I still cant believe its painted but whats done is done. Overall nice house though.

The gameroom is upstairs. There is no basement. The gameroom flanks the theater. which is behind that red curtain in the gameroom. Both are on teh 2nd level.

Regarding the checker entry and you saying it looks more like a garage! I'm starting to really wonder if you're pulling our leg about being a builder. How could a builder NOT know that checker marble is one of the most ubiquitously regal and formal design cues there could be. These are used in everything from personal residences to palaces and governors mansions!

You called it worthy of a garage! I'm rolling on the floor laughing. So that is the 2nd thing that MOST people love that you seemed completely unaware that tons of people really love. I sure hope if you are a builder that you only build spec houses because you don't seem very in tune enough or flexible enough with people's taste to do truly custom homes...

Thank you for the feedback nonetheless! For your edification below are some checker entries. The last one looks similar to mine but entry is smaller and staircase doesn't flare out.

I've just seen many garage's with those kind of floors. After all, that is the iconic finish racing flag.

My garage is just tan stained concrete with rubber diamond plate around the boarder.

How many square feet is your house if you dont mind me asking?

House is 5300 sqf.

Very impressive home - elegant and grand!

lovely!