Congratulations on finding a new residence!

Like the idea of painting the siding white, and would look into options for painting the windows. Although we don't deal with vinyl windows for our projects, there do seem to be some online resources which discuss that option. If you can find out who the manufacturer is, the best option will be to call them and find out if they approve of painting the vinyl.

As far as the bricks are concerned, from the picture it appears as thought the brick areas create a nice overall composition of the facade with the siding. The first inclination would be to see if the limewash/whitewash option looks good with the variation in the brick colors, or if paint is your best bet. As the limewash/whitewash will read differently than the siding, it will help to provide some visual texture on the facade, which might be nice.

I'd:

-leave the brick alone

-take down the shutters(which is on your list anyway)

-change the door-different design, no glass..either warm wood or color depending on what the siding would be

-I like your siding color on pic 1, understand your desire to change on pic 2..makes me realize very well I can't judge what the real color is)) sort of gray or greige would work well with the brick though. I can't see the windows well..if almond indeed, I'd go with warmer grays. You'll need to sample of course..colors change with light, and sometimes what we envision doesn't work, and something we didn't have on our mind, is suddenly "eureka!"

-I think it's a nice house. Maybe it's not what you'd ideally want it to be, but it's quite nice. Landscaping will make you even happier. Wait with the decision on doors, unless you're bothered with divided lites and don't think it'll ever change.

@Zone4 yeah, I think I'm starting to realize that the brick probably helps break up the facade and keep it interesting. I'm starting to be really intrigued with the limewashing idea. If it turns out we could paint the windows, would you do black or white? I like the idea of a black/charcoal, but have also heard that is the worst color on vinyl windows.

@aprilneverends it has been hard to really get the colors across from the listing pics. Basically it is 50 shades of unappealing (to me at least) tan inside and out. So I want a dramatic change, but I know people are really torn about changing brick, so I'll probably have my husband mockup a version with the brick and a dark greige paint to see how that looks alongside a limewashed version.

Front door, yes, that thing has a big stain glass Texas star that doesn't help anything. I was thinking one of the modern doors with 3-5 satin horizontal lites to keep some light coming in from the door, then finding a complimentary garage door. For the French doors, I definitely won't change my mind on the divided lites - however they are just an overlay on top of a solid piece of glass, so one of the contractors said you could just pop them off. One set of doors needs a new handle, the other needs about $300 in repair work and weatherproofing, so that is why I'm debating whether or not to rehab these versus put in new ones. And if we replace, I don't know if sliding glass doors that let in tons of light or new French doors with the thinnest frame possible would look best.

I know landscaping will have a huge impact too, and could really turn this into a more modern looking house. The bones are certainly good, and it is plain enough that we can subtly take it in a couple directions, just trying to narrow down what will look best while also being somewhat our style.

Dark colors on vinyl can be problematic, will fade/chalk more quickly, and would stay with white. On the photo of the back of the house, I see that the doors have white muntin bars, although I can't tell if they are inside the glazing or outside, so there is that.

Didn't mention it in the last comment, but changing the front door to something with more visual impact would be nice. For that element, you could go with black (although it might get a little lost in the shade), or do a light colored wood door to create a unique focal point on the facade. Whether you put glass in it is a personal preference decision, but if you do would suggest frosting it for privacy.

Agree that from the pictures, it appears to have a good framework to improve the aesthetics and have some fun with the traditional ranch style design.

Get rid of the brick colored rocks in the front yard. They blah the whole thing out. A little paint (not brick!!) and landscaping and you've got a pretty nice looking house.

First off, I agree with losing the shutters. As far as your brick goes I think there are some tones in there that you can work with. Plus, I never recommend painting brick as you take a zero maintenance product and turn it into a long term maintenance issue.

It looks like the tan that is on the painted surfaces has some yellow in it, which I don't see in the brick. A warm gray would work well with the brick. Since the front door is recessed I would look at changing it if your budget allows or at least painting it a brighter color to make it stand out and draw the eye to the entrance.

If you're interested in seeing some virtual makeovers check out my web site, Creative Visual Concepts.

@fori great point on the rocks, I don't think I realized how much that color was hurting the situation. We were going to replace them anyway, but there have been so many comments on landscaping that we may try to move up that project.

@cat_ky so many people recommending we don't touch the brick! We'll definitely mock it up with gray and untouched brick. In addition to the undertones, I'm thinking we need to make sure we don't go too light.

@kevin yes, the door definitely need to get brightened up! If we left the brick and painted the siding a warm gray, what color door would you recommend? I love teal/blue/turquoise, so that would be my dream door color. I suppose we could also go with a warm wood, and match the garage door to that. I've also seen some cool recessed doorways around down that have colored ceilings if we decided on a wood door.

I'm pretty moved off of fully painting the brick at this point. I think we still want to consider limewashing, but understand that is still a big decision with maintenance implications, and would make a point of not rushing into it. Thanks for all the feedback!

I like the brick as it is.

Did you end up limewashing ?! we are in the process of limewashing our (similar looking) home and im curious how yours turned out!