Personally I think the fence is too modern for a craftsman.

I'm not crazy about that fence, but if you're leaving it then get rid of that gold! I would paint the gold a brick red with the current window trim.

The original windows ARE a good selling point - they strongly improve curb appeal with the dimensionality of the true divided lights and cohesion with the rest of the house, and if you ever want to sell, the type of buyers drawn to century-old houses will really appreciate them. Have a wood window/millwork guy come assess the windows. If you really do need to replace some of them, replace with custom wood windows that match the original ones (custom is the only way to get non-garbage windows for old houses, it seems). There's a good chance that most of them just need some TLC (stripped and repainted, new sash cords, minor repairs,etc). Old wood windows were built to last and be repaired over time, and were made out of high quality old growth wood you can't get anymore. Restore, don't replace. If you want better energy efficiency, get some storm panes (much better ROI than costly new not-as-pretty windows anyway).

My husband and I recently bought a Victorian with a bunch of vinyl replacement windows and they look absolutely disgusting. Even the fancy (probably custom) Pella window in the dining room looks bad, and looks super gross from the outside. Embarking on a long, expensive project to rebuild all the windows in wood in original period designs because the replacement windows are THAT ugly and incongruous.

Also, that fence has me scratching my head. Makes no sense at all. Looks nice and would be great around a modern house, but not a Craftsman. I'd do a picket fence in front, if you need a fence (lots of old photos of then-new bungalows show no fencing at all).

As for paint color schemes, there are lots of online resources for historically appropriate color schemes. You don't HAVE to do a historically accurate color scheme, but it does help the house have character and curb appeal. And at the end of the day, you can't go wrong with [house color you like] + white trim. Oh! Since you have original wood windows, you can paint them whatever color you want while not having glaring white plastic windows cramping your style (like they do on my house). One popular Bungalow color scheme is a sort of gray-green, cream/off-white trim, and ox blood red accents and window sashes. There's a Craftsman painted up like that in my neighborhood and it looks fantastic.

I love your house, but I don't love the fence. It reminds me of a horse corral. Picket fence would be so much more in keeping with the home.

Fence is totally wrong for your house... the best thing to do would remove it & repaint the house is a warm, earthier color appropriate for a Craftsman, that and tweaking the landscaping.

Here is another website that has good information too on selecting colors appropriate for your Craftsman home. http://www.oldhouseguy.com/

We manufacture aluminum windows that come in a variety of RAL shades and wood grain finishes. If you do decide to replace the windows, aluminum is easy to maintain and you will be bound to find a shade that suits your lovely home! Take a look here: http://bit.ly/Origin-aluminum-windows

Best of luck.

Denita, I was just coming back to link some window articles from that website. Really good resource. In addition to great articles on windows, he writes about oft-overlooked aspects of older houses like porch skirts (and now I can't unsee that my house is the only one on the block with its original porch skirt).

I'm so glad I'm not the only one proselytizing the virtues of keeping the original windows - sometimes I feel like a crazy Luddite because seemingly everyone else has been caught up by the "energy efficiency" promise of modern windows. But if you think about it, what are you really accomplishing? The new windows typically cost more than what you'll save in energy spending over their limited lifetime, they're made out of petrochemcials and lots of energy is used to manufacture and transport them.

I talked to my local wood window guy and asked about doing double panes for the new windows we need for our house (to replace the vinyl ones), and he actually recommended against it - the double pane seal has a shelf life and WILL fail after a couple decades and are way more expensive for them to build than the plain old fashioned single pane windows (which will last a century with regular maintenance), so they won't pay for themselves. Better to do storm panes.

I greatly appreciate everyone's input!

Re: windows - My husband was already leaning toward repairing, not replacing, so now we're reassured :) Thank you for all the great advice.

Re: fence - While we agree that the fence does not match the style of the house and are not huge fans of it in general, we do need to keep it for security purposes. Replacing the entire fence with something more aesthetically pleasing would be ideal but for right now, we need to focus on cosmetic fixes - paint the wood panels or strip the paint and try to stain them?

Leave the fence as is and down the road replace it. It's not ideal, but when you get a new house you can't do everything at once and sometimes shouldn't until you've settled in. Good luck!

I'm going to admit I didn't read the comments. I have a 1910 craftsman and replaced all my windows about 10 years ago. Marvin made replacement windows to match the originals. I couldn't be happier. The only way you can't tell they're not original is the glass isn't wavy.