Leave the deck as is. Paint garage doors shiny black or darker colour and add shutters or awning in same colour to the upper windows to pull the look together. Beautiful first home!

Isn't it great? On a lake too, but they work hard and deserve it. She really wanted brand new until she saw what they were making these days. I was playing around with the thought of possibly doing a texture of some sort on the upper level or around the garage doors. Maybe stone or cedar shake?

White paint the verandah balustrade and railings to lift that area out of he dark, double the size of the little upstairs windows. Don't forget the elephant in the room....Lose the boat and the Basketball net !
I'd position three potted skinny pencil pines against the dividing walls each side of the garage doors, to break that space into three sections and to bring some greenery into what is much too much a gray / white plane. Post an 'after' pic, when you're done.

now since you showed me that pic I bet if you add in the hardware to the garage and add in a section of windows to the top row it would bring your eye down.....

the boat doesn't come with the house and they don't have kids yet so all of the kids stuff, nets, trampoline etc are going too. You are right about the plants. I think the builder needed to give some in and out depth to the garage, pull it forward or back....the plants may do that. They haven't closed on the house yet, we are just trying to figure out how to fix this since it bothers her so much.

Yes! your on the right track with the garage. Windows and hardware would help and of course plants.

what do you think about removing that pole that divides the steps up? So the upper level is the same size as the stair opening? Maybe some window boxes and shutters upstairs, wrought iron with a rounded bottom so things are not as square? Tall potted plants on either side of the garage. Paint the balustrade and decks and bright plants instead of green ones....

Cedar shakes would work on upper level, but definitely a bigger job than adding shutters. New exterior lighting fixtures will add character. And if she wants to paint door in a colour (red, or eggplant maybe), then add accents to match - couch cushions, rug, plants on porch, this will be lovely.

I think it looks ok. Maybe painting the trim and deck railing a contrasting color would help. I'm thinking a charcoal gray or dark blue. Another alternative is to paint the door and porch area a light yellow in addition to painting the railings gray. Make the door a brighter yellow than the rest of the porch area. You could even go with color blocks and also paint the dormer the yellow color. Maybe even add horizontal stained wood to the dormer and the porch area. You have a lot of options.

I think the garage doors would be best painted the same color as the siding and no contrasting trim.

The dark trim along the edge of the roofs will accent the long horizontal look and make the home feel contemporary. I wouldn't go with shutters they are not the style of the house.

I included a photo of the color combination I was thinking of.

Great house. I'd hate to see her pass on the deal because of this little detail. I think bigger windows and painting it the color of the roof to make it disappear might be all it needs.

a sky to the ceiling of the awning might cast more light on the porch too!
Then use orange, red and yellow throw pillows and cushions to light up the furniture

sorry, sky blue ceiling with the white porch ballisters and stained deck.

I got stumped on what sort of detail between the widows so forgive me there, but, maybe deepen the grey on the second story, add some sort of architectural detail between the windows, beef up the framing around them and add some window boxes. To bring your eyes down, freshen up the trim paint around the porch and paint or stain the porch floor with some color. Not necessarily the color I chose. :) Consider new garage doors, maybe windows, carriage or wooden.

Move the steps 6' to the left towards the center of the porch, then plant something like a clump of birch that will disguise the edges of the upper windows without being too obvious about it. I think it's a lovely house!

I would focus on making garage doors attractive.

Add on corbels a big white trim painted timber sized plant ledge under and across both windows added low enough for 1' high siding covered planter boxes to still sit a bit below windows and shutters and the whole ensemble will take up the space that you feel is so bare. Up so high use trailing silk variegated ivy and artificial red geranium flowers that you can reach through the windows and add real seasonally if you are a terrific gardener - the front proportions will shift completely and will have instant charm.

Don't know if you really have room for trellis across garage uppers, but carriage style doors that go with the front porch era will do nicely in white. [houzz=]

HoverGirl.. wondering what program your using for rendering and editing?? Thanks, great suggestions by the way.

Believe it or not I just use a very old photo editing program from, get this 1996 called iPhoto Plus. I've just been transferring it from computer to computer all this time because I'm comfortable with it.

Hover girl what does the house look like if you remove the pole in the center of stairs?

Libra design eye, we have those on the list already. Do you think in white or color them?

Did you mean with the other changes Generalslady?

Well what do you guys think?

Needs spiral topiary on either side of garage

I would use white garage doors, a white plant shelf, (since the windows are so high) and paint the planter boxes the same color as the shutters - if that is white, then, white.

Makes a huge difference to paint the garage doors and the porch. Thanks hoovergrl!

My pleasure.

Generalslady, you had such a good idea to remove the column in the stairwell that I wanted to see how it looked if I removed two more and beefed up the remaining. It would probably require reinforcing the header though, depending on how wide that expanse is. Also I changed the doors back to white as libradesigneye suggested. Anyway, here are some more options.

If your daughter decides to get the house, I'd love to see how she personalizes it!

Argh! I can't quit! lol One more, three beefed up columns.

^this and take down the ginormous tree on the left. Lovely~