Is your roof a red brown?

Yes, but it will probably get replaced in the next couple of years. At that point we can change the color.

Hi Cassie, Where do you live?
What is your budget?
Do you have a local place to purchase shutters? unpainted would be good.
I would like to know your favorite colors?

In some areas the homes receive the paint from the town or city for specific areas.
Do you ?

My first suggestion is a good start, but it is without feedback.

Front of Home.

I live in the Upper Midwest. At this point, we are planning on painting ourselves - so we don't have a large budget. I don't know of a local place to buy shutters, but it's been something I've wanted to look into. I don't think I live in an area that would provide paint.

As for my favorite colors - blues, greens and purples I guess. But I'm not sure if I'd want the whole house any of those colors - unless it was very muted.

White makes your home look its largest. Here is some ideas. There are alot online. It's all about what you love...https://www.thisoldhouse.com/ideas/picking-perfect-exterior-paint-colors

Butter yellow would make your house happy with green working shutters, only on windows where they will fit. Your double and triple windows should not have shutters.

Hi Cassie,

My suggestions are most likely not what anyone wants to hear. However, I believe it is the important part before you paint.

Generally, we paint the house, we paint a room etc. What we do not do is plant the entire home from roof to entry.

I think the house is big, but is is missing a style. It can be anything you want right now.

Perhaps you do a wall with stone or part of the wall in stone, and the rest in paint.

It may take longer, but you will never paint again.

I am suggesting you find a local architect to help you go through the steps and design it all now, it is a blank slating waiting for a crayon.

There are other areas you should check prior to painting.

How is the foundation and the lower level - it is below ground and I do not know if water can get in or has gotten in.

I would do two things.

Hire a very good engineer to walk the entire home, and make sure all areas are secure from the future snows, rain, mud season, and summer.

ADT and other suppliers have a bug water device. This unit sits on the wall or in an area where is it dry, but might have had a leak previously. Approximately 18" off the ground. If the connection is hit with water it will break and alert you.

In a home I worked on in the mid-west we had to take care of the foundation and the cold weather first.

The little water bug is good to announce that water has arrived. The person you hire, might tell you, that you are great or you have areas that should be addressed.

I have found doing this first is generally the best way, since painting the home and then having a bit of water, it means you are now diverted to another area.

Not painting, but repair

Repair is always more expensive than, making sure you do not have a problem. And, they might arrive and say you are 100% perfect.

I think the bottom portion of the home would look great with a stone wall wrapped around it. The midwest has many homes with this and the look is not only grand, but not expensive to achieve.

And, you will never paint again.

Getting a pro to come out and do a concept of what you might do as you go along will give you the following:

1. On site advice and information. We are not there. Helping with drapes, wallpaper that is ok on line, but the real stuff you need a person to see what is there.

2. Planning now how you want the home to look and what you need inside and out is a great way to budget how you spend your funds.

3. Adding an entry that is substantial with a two door entry is a good idea for your area. It get's cold and one door with no outside door will let the cold into the home

Picture walking up a set of steps 2 - the area is 10 feet wide, and you open a double door, 72". Step inside and on the right and left you can have a bench on one side, a 30" tall unit on the otherside. The tall unit can hold, boots, shoes, wood, items you might use outside. And a place for umbrellas, a place to put packages etc.

You could heat the floor here and leave boots and shoes under the bench. The snow ill melt off and the inside stays clean.

This newly added front I have at 10 feet wide x 12 feet deep. Now you come to the door into the home, it can be one door with glass above and door below or all glass etc. Folks leave their boots and come on in.

The next area is the welcome hello and we have not seen the inside, but here you can tie the look from outside to in.

So, if you did add stone, and the upper portion had a color, I would pick perhaps a deep slate grey. Adding shutters is great and they could be in Navy with a white trim on the window.

So the color scheme is stone, maybe local. Grey (slate medium tone) , white trim and Navy for the shutters.

The alternate flavor is not stone, all paint, big house for all paint. I would try and cut it in two, Perhaps a large wrap of ledge stone to designate 1st floor to 2nd floor.

The first color should be a lighter color, pale yellow, and the upper color could be the cornflower yellow that is in so many flowers in the midwest.

I would pull all my colors based on the area and what Nature has given you.

The colors for the first section is as follows:

Benjamin Moore Historical Color Hale Navy, Grey - Cement (horrible name great clean clear color, no blue in the grey just grey); the ledge stone is thick about 2" and is pure chalk white, the white is Behr Ultra White.

I hope this helps, it is a start. My final words in this very lengthy e mail is houses take a lot of work, but planning ad doing small bites makes it easier. The other part is when you have planned it out - things become simpler.

You know that in 2020 you will add in that big fireplace and the interior some. Or in four years it will be kitchen time and kitchens change so much just designation of space may be all you need.

I hope this helps. It is not your standard answer. Houzz has many people available in your area, Cassie I hope you give it a try. One visit is a good place to start.

Thank you for sharing your project, I wish you the best.

A

Coco

I will drop in photos next.

Pls dont gussy it up with shutters or a bunch of extraneous gack - the solidness and simplicity of your house is its charm and it has plenty of architectural interest in the original wood siding and trim - with the right color choices these can be brought out more. I love houses with that big solid Midwestern four-square look - keep it simple!

The only thing missing is that Im not seeing a proper front porch or entry - it looks like what might have been that porch was closed in (if that is it on the right of pic #2 ) and if so you should think about restoring to a porch or at least adding windows to that space - could we see the house from the front (or what was designed to be the front)?

If you can, try to determine the original paint colors (first layer) - not that youd have to recreate that but it can give you a starting point to begin thinking what direction you want to take it.

These pics show how good color choices can bring out the architectural detail that is already there :

http://www.oldhouseguy.com/exterior-paint-colors/

http://www.landmarkservices.com/blog/bid/31885/Paint-Color-Do-s-and-Dont-s-for-Historic-Houses

I agree with you
.



I agree with you. I added the stone, because if you look at the ground and foundation it is vulnerable.
I have worked on many restorations and lovely and charming you must keep putting capital in, therefore the suggestion for a local to visit.
Many homes had no gutters, land was against the house to push the rain snow water out tdnd away from the home.

Most sat up a bit higher or we perceived they did, but the earth was helpful in keeping water out. The way the land was it assisted the home in structure and from the elements and added a landscape surround. The photos are lovely.
If you look at all the. photos the landscape is quite different.
I like the ones you sent and think they are perfect.
However some of the newer products help us keep our homes looking great and lower the cost to maintain.

Not being there is hard, I believe the concept of a few hours with a professional would be worthwhile
This is an interesting home and if a restoration qualifies they could apply for funding.
Cassie, do you have the year the home was built? Is this an older district? Do you have a National Register Certificate?
If you do and if the home has some features you may qualify for some help.
There are pros and cons. The information is on line
Take a look and see. However read what you will have to do.
An example You must keep the windows the same., If you have a broken window, you must replace with antique glass. This can get very expensive. The pane is not very much more, but it does take time and sometimes install is more.
I have restored 4 homes and it is expensive. I had the feeling you wanted to paint and doing it yourself is a giant job. So you only want to do this every 5-7 years.
I think you have lots of feedback and enough to make some choices.
Thank you A