You need to make the steps safe and up to code. It will not be a cheap project. Easy fix would be to paint the garage door again. It has too much presence and the door and a porch is where you want the focus to go. If your hubby isn't afraid of hard labor, he can demolish the railing and stoop. I would pour a concrete porch all the way across the front left side. If he can handle the equipment, rent a stump grinder and eliminate that eyesore.

Yes I think he can stump grind it but we have to dig around it first to lay it flat. Concrete is expensive so that's why I thought a small wooden deck would be cheaper. What color garage door do you think I should go with? Shouldn't it match the shutters? I thought a nice deep blue for the siding but then I can't imagine white shutters and garage door! :>

It looks like a pretty small stump. You can probably dig it out without too much difficulty.

Your house is really cute and your post is entertaining :)

decoenthusiaste is absolutely right, getting that stoop fixed it your top priority. You'll need some fill and need to know how to make proper footings. A simple porch is your best bet for now--a pergola like you show won't add to the curb appeal since it doesn't suit the style of your home. Your home is honest and open: she is who she is and she's OK with that! (Yes, I personify buildings. Not ashamed of that!)

When you side, I think grey or taupe to match the mortar is your best bet (again with the honest and open house). It will always go well, won't have the problem of fading that blue might. You can then add different accent colours as the decades go by in new shutter colours, trim colours, etc. Match the garage door to the siding or a darker shade of the same.

Reseed the lawn when the cement is gone. Create a landscape plan for under that window. A simple border garden should do nicely. There are lots of plans available online and you can even buy packages from seed companies that give you every thing you need to create the exact plan they have put together. Often they send out each part at the exact right time for planting, though you pay for it all at once.

Those are the three biggest challenges and when they are accomplished the rest should fall into place fairly easily.

Thank you!! I already like the thought of taupe siding with matching garage door. Can I paint my door black and keep the dark grey shutter color I have if I do that? After I remove the stump I wanted to enlarge the driveway for 2 cars which is why I wanted the sideways stairs. What do you think about a porch with side steps? I don't mind ditching the pergola by the way, I felt it was too cutesy for my house too. I also have to remove that monster GE industrial lamp above my garage. The previous homeowner was a handyman ... ugh

I'm not entirely sure what you are envisioning with "sideways" steps. Do you mean they face the driveway and are sideways to the door, or that they face the same direction as the door and are sideways to the driveway? Where I'm from it's really normal to have a pathway run from the end-ish of the driveway parallel to the street, with stairs that face the street. Where I live now it is more common to have the path run perpendicular to the driveway and the stairs face the driveway. Take a look at homes in your neighborhood and see how other porch steps are oriented with regard to the street and door.

So like the picture of the pergola. The porch (no pergola now), with the steps running up from the driveway, because I want to park the 2nd car right up to the porch. eh? yes? pretty please

OK, fine...

No but seriously, that would be fine. Nice in fact.

You need to make a 5 year plan for this project. Each item you need done is a major investment and jumping from project to project without a plan is going cost you money. This can be a really nice looking house if you plan carefully. First I would clean up junk in the yard so that it is neater. Then I would find a landscape architect to help with the plan. This will cost a little up front but you may be able to execute the plan yourselves. Please do not widen the driveway to the left when facing house. Widen it towards the right of garage, that's what we did, no one wants a car parked that close to the front door. Here where I live because we have no side walks most homes have the walk like yours is now, off the driveway. I like it. I would price out wood as opposed to concrete, pressure treated wood might be cheaper but it also looks cheap. I would say you need to plan the driveway and porch/steps first. Steps are dangerous now and driveway is inconvenient. Those 2 things will make life easier. While you are saving for those 2 things work on removing the stump and the lawn. Get rid of the shutters they are too small.

Really? I had no idea they were too small! lol what size should they be? oh my goodness. OK so what happened is that most of my neighbors widened their driveway like I want to do and of course that's why I want it! I might need to sneak a few pictures to show you. But my only concern is that my neighbor might not like that I'm crouching in on her little grass patch between our houses. Also the lip on the sidewalk is off so that the driveway really should have been closer to the other side.. ah c'est la vie!

In the meantime, how about composite decking wood? A little more than wood but no maintenance! I think I could get hubby to get rid of the stump and concrete with a jack hammer? :>

The recommendation for shutters is they are wide enough so that if they were closed, they would cover the window. Yours are fine until you do the siding I think. Removing them now would require painting the siding, as there would be shutter ghosts next to the window above the garage. Shudders!!

I thought you needed the extra driveway space. If you don't, don't bother widening it. Certainly don't encroach on the property line. Better a narrower-than-the-neighbors driveway than a p'd-off neighbor!!!

OK I need to do some online window I mean shutter shopping! :> Yes I may need to give up on my dream of having my own spot.. But hubby doesn't want a tree out front and the ugly shrub we have left is ugly. The boards holding up a little dirt next to the stairs is rotting. It's so sad.. I don't like that front mound with the stump... it's messing up my whole life! just kidding

Widening the driveway is a great "someday" goal. You have enough on your plate for the next couple of years at least, more if you need to brake and save $ between projects.

Slowly, slowly my friend :-) Take time to have your plan in place.

And fix that porch pronto!

ok ok.. I wish you could see me trying to type this through my fog filled eyes brimming with tears. :<<< I guess you are all correct. I need to get rid of the steps and tree stump and then it will look a million times better. Of course I want to do it myself. ha just kidding. :>

I can't tell if you really are kidding...

Is everything OK?

Yes, I'm so kidding. I'm a joker. :> see I'm smiling.

Sorry I was just playing around. I do wish to have a 2 car driveway and pretty pergola but we will just have to wait.

OK then :) Have fun :-D

Thank you so much! I totally see it now :> still smiling!

If you're replacing the siding, don't do vinyl. Do Hardie plank or some kind of cementitious siding that you can paint later on down the road.

If you can get the old steps out, you can build your own front porch. It's not that hard. You can probably google instructions for installing a ledger board and joists and pouring footings, but I built a deck off the back of my house by myself except for the cheap labor I hired to lift the bags of concrete mix that were too heavy for me.

Order of projects:

--Steps and landing since they're a safety issue. Put your $$$ into making the steps safe and attractive. Don't do wood--cheap looking, and you'll need a do-over in the future.

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--Pick out the "greige" from the brick mortar and paint the siding and garage door that color. Don't beat yourself up about the garage door.

--Paint the front door and shutters black. Don't worry about the shutter size right now. Instead get some black window boxes and put one under each downstairs window. Garden away in the window boxes.

--Grind the stump.

Just these things will make you feel much, much better. Then you can plan further landscaping, the double driveway, etc. and spread out the money and effort over time.

Use a site like Home Advisor and plug in:

How much would it cost to______ and start by pricing everything out that way.

I did that as my pre-budget and it wasn't all that far off.

My siding is Certainteed Oxford blue and my shutters and door are black with white windows and a white storm door. I like the final look. I tried white shutters as a sample and had everybody vote and nobody liked it.

My siding cost $7000 installed, but you would use less siding than I did, because of all that brick.

Cost to tear out and replace steps would be about $2200 or so, plus dumpster costs, in my zip code. Yours would be different.

Cost to build a deck and pergola with the fancy stuff might not cost that much different from the concrete steps, if you are including taking the steps out.

My driveway is about the same length as yours and it cost me about $5000.

Stump removal of something that size, might be $100 if you have it removed.

Personally, I did have mine removed. That expense wasn't nearly as much as what I spent on roof, siding, windows, etc.

I have a ranch, which is slightly wider than your house and it doesn't have any brick.

Wow you all are so awesome. groveraxle, housegal200 and D.L.!! you ROCK! I don't know why I couldn't respond to each of you separately....so:

Groveraxle: I will certainly look into doing the porch ourselves. Now why not the vinyl? I want it to be maintenance free. Our siding needs to be repainted if we were to keep it and that's not cheap. One of my crazy old neighbor/painter gave me an estimate for $6K just for the trim! I was like um, hold on I'm choking in confusion since I didn't even know we had any trim! LOL

Housegal200: You should be Housegal 2000! I LOVE those steps with the stone in front!!! and I agree the black doors and shutters will look better. I don't need to match that monstrous garage door. forget her.. we'll pretend she's shy.

D.L: I would love to see your siding, etc. I want to get someone to jack hammer those steps outta here and if I fail at DIYing them then I'll have a backup for the porch. Hubby is going to have to stump grind it being that he started this whole mess by removing the tree in the first place. That led me to think I should remove the ugly old pavers with weeds all over it, and then BOOM we were staring at the sunny rotten stairs and rail, and hideous metal railing with attached wrench lest we forget our previous homeowner who also liked wheelbarrows and old GE lights. I wish I had HGTV do my house as a pet project. :>

To stretch your budget, if your siding is in reasonable shape, consider painting the asbestos siding instead of replacing it. http://www.asbestossiding.org/painting-asbestos-siding/

I don't have a good photo of my house, but I can show you the color with black shutters on-line.

http://www.helderbergsidingandwindows.com/before-and-after-2013/lansingburgh-dutch-colonial

Here's your house with a kind of taupe-y gray siding and garage and a cedar deck. I didn't add the steps because, frankly, I was pooped, but I did properly size your shutters...and then I removed them.

I agree, much better with the shutters. I think darker trim at the roofline and a dark course-line between siding and brick would look great.

Also must once again comment on groveraxle's mad skills...

With steps.

Thanks, lindsey. BTW, I quite like the blue shutters with your roof. Maybe paint the door blue instead of black.

groveraxle, what a transformation!

Grover, that is the bomb! Love it. I didn't know the roof was navy, so navy and taupe are the way to go instead of black. Hope it all comes together.

When a wheelchair became necessary, my relatives had a wooden porch and ramp installed over the existing concrete stoop and stairs. Check at your nearest fire station, many of "the guys" do small projects like yours.

Grover has MAD SKILLS, both in computer rendering and vision!!!

OK WE LOVE GROVERAXLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it!!! he he!!! of course hubby is scared to DIY because he's overwhelmed by the BEAUTY OF YOUR DESIGN. He's stinky. Navy and taupe is awesome, but matching downspout?! you are sick and I mean that in the best way!! Can I BEG YOU TO recolor the siding in a matching blue? I'm just curious if it would work.. but no worries I am so grateful that you did that for little ol me. :>

So skmom and chiflipper we are so into burning down that sucker too!! so much more fun and causing a little commotion while we're at it those firemen will be visiting me before you know it!

Now Partim, some of the siding has the bottom shingles with a lot of chips so I wonder if I could replace them if they even still make them.. doubt it. The previous homeowner left me a few green ones and left the sample ON THE FRONT of the house as a reminder. :> so I'll see if I can slip them on the worst ones.

emailjayne i love that user id. how can you forget it? mine is a close second. it's dear...first name! like you know in the old days when we wrote letters. :> anyway, I am so going to shop that store! I love thrifting and stopped after I had a hoarder intervention, BUT NOW I have a good excuse oops I mean reason to stalk I mean shop for this major project. I am going to visit Home Depot until folks think I work there so I can get an employee discount. :>

Now indsey, you know me and you go way back and my house would not be the same without the darker trim that you mentioned. I know it will make a big drama difference. I can FEEL IT!!

I am so grateful to you all. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. Finally my little house will be just as cute on the outside as she is on the inside. hip hip hooray!!! Plus the best part of this is that I think I can manage most of it now.

We need emojis on Houzz sometimes but oh well, carrionr your post made me legit laugh out loud.

I am to please my friend. :>

Is there room to park your car to the left of the proposed deck/porch?

yes I would have to drive over the mound but that's a neat idea! i like it ! actually the previous homeowners parked their RV there! I have a 3 step drop from top of mound to driveway level.

It occurs to me that with the front deck, you might leave the garage doors their current color:

@julicun, I use Photoshop Elements. It's Photoshop's skinnier, cheaper cousin.

In my city you would need a permit to redo the porch. Check on this BEFORE you start and make sure yours will meet codes.

Wow adding a front porch really is a gamechanger! Looks amazing. Simply tidying up the front yard and removing the junk will go a very long way in upping your curb appeal. For a very low cost you could paint the garage door white to match the siding and I really think adding two window boxes, one on the window above the garage and the other to left of the front door could make a big difference. Fresh flowers at least show the neighborhood you are trying. Also, a really pretty wreath on your front door will add some personality to the home.

Thanks for illustrating that, grover! I can see it and suggest it, but you're the top illustrator here!