What a cute house! I'm sure you will love it. What are you looking for? Curb appeal? If so, it's hard to say with all the "devil's dandruff" (never heard that phrase before, love it).

Yes, this is my house. We've gotten 3 1/2 feet so far. Grrr! I would love to have more natural light in the house. I want to do something with the house itself. I'm open to any ideas.

For more natural light, you need bigger windows or a skylight. Is there a room that you are thinking about in particular, that is darker than you like? Which way does the house, and the room, face?

What style of house attracts you? If you add some to your idea books, it would help us. Maybe search Houzz for some smaller ranch homes that you like, and save them in an idea book.

What is your ballpark budget for this? There's no sense for us to suggest expensive structural changes when the budget is more about painting and maybe a larger window.

Tracy, what color is the roof? What color do you like on a house? I see that one house next door is light yellow or I’d suggest that! (I’m biased.)

My house has windows facing east and west, and none facing south. In the mid-winter, we don't get much direct sun in the house.

One good thing I have done is to move some furniture around so that we are taking advantage of the sun that does come into the house. We have a spot to eat breakfast and read the paper, where the east morning sun comes in. And we have moved some seating to take advantage of the late day west sun too.

I wish I could rotate my house LOL.

I would match all the trim to white like around the garage door and all of your white windows. You can paint the body of the house the same white or a version of your favorite color that works with the roof. Then pop the front door with some contrast for interest. What's the landscaping like?

Start by painting all the trim work and underside of eaves white. Then we can pick a house color and deck color when the snow is gone.

I am guessing anything other than white will work well, otherwise you may not be able to find your home.

My house faces east where the dining room is, and west where the living room is. The living room is the darkest room in the house. You are looking into the living room in the picture. I would like some smaller structural ideas, but I may just change cosmetics. The roof is a darker brownish grayish color and only 8 years old. I'm not going to worry so much about landscaping just yet. Maybe when the dandruff melts.

I like earthy tones, usually darker. But I seriously love gold pops of color.

Maybe about $3000? My husband would do the labor as he's a licensed contractor.

We also plan to make the attached garage into a room with main floor laundry. I'd like to make it into living space. Just don't know exactly what to do with it.

in snow country, i would really try to keep the garage as a garage.
your home is quite pretty. nice balance.
hang in there ... soring is around the corner.

About renovating the garage, I forgot to mention we have a 2 1/2 stall behind the house.

For just to people I'd leave the garage as a garage for sure. They don't help resale and can actually hurt it. I for one wouldnt buy a house with a converted garage and I'm not like a high dollar person.