Thanks to all the wonderful feedback I understand clearly the Southwest Exterior paint concepts... The Quandary: One of the posts suggested the architectural features are 'not so much Southwest Design, but Craftsman Design' ...resulting in a uniquely blended-Hybrid home with Southwest Architectural features (Adobe/Stucco) 'and' with Craftsman Architectural features.... hmmmm... I have been strictly focusing on the Exterior being painted on what I thought was a traditional Southwest home; thus all the wonderful suggestions from previous posts... My question now is: Since the home is 'Not' Southwest in architectural design, but more Craftsman as one of the posts brought to light... 1. Is it appropriate to use the Southwest Exterior Color Schemes on this Hybrid house that has been identified architecturally as a Craftsman home, but the building material is Stucco-Adobe typically used in the traditional Southwest architecture?? 2. How do I proceed with the Exterior Color Scheme of this Hybrid (Southwest-Craftsman) home? Do I have to commit to 'either' Southwest Exterior Colors or to Traditional Craftsman Exterior Colors for this home to look authentic? Or can the styles be blended in some way to honor 'both' the Adobe-Stucco Southwest 'and' the Craftsman architectural aspects of this unique hybrid home?? That is what I meant in the previous post: Southwest vs Craftsman... Thank you for your patience... The home has historical value to the local community so I wish to 'honor' the essence of the home as the many pioneering families over a 100+ years as this house evolved into this unique hybrid of Southwest & Craftsman features. Thanks again for everyone's patience and time... 1113fortstockton

The new colors sound nice. A lighter door surround will do wonders--Colonial Revival ones never look right painted black. How old is your house? It looks to me like it dates to around 1910-1930. Are you sure the old windows are beyond repair? Usually even the most horrible of windows can be repaired and have exterior or interior storms added to nearly equal new window efficiency, and old growth wood is better quality than new. John Leeke at Historic Homeworks and the Craftsman Blog have good info on fixing and weahterstripping old windows, and Bob Yapp has a good article on the subject as well. DIY interior storms can be nearly invisible and are easy to change out in the summer--there are kits available online for the plexiglass and magnetic strip type and inexpensive wood frame and plastic ones directions are available at Mother Earth News and other sources. They also can be ordered. Usually this is a longer-lasting and less expensive solution, although I applaud you for going with wood rather than vinyl windows. Aluminum covered wood windows do have some problems, mostly with moisture trapped beneath the aluminum eventually rotting the wood, and by the time you notice, they are shot. And modern glass inserts can fail in wood windows, just as they do in vinyl, and so forth, and then the entire insert has to be replaced. The old glazing putty and glass can be fixed over and over again, and with care the windows can last hundreds of years. Plus if done right, the air gap between a storm and the single pane glass is the near equivalent to factory sealed glass because the air gap is greater. Fancy argon gas filled units eventually leak out the gas in about 10-15 years, even if the seals don't fail, so aren't really worth the extra expense.

Tammy, Correct they can apply another "Color layer" but, there is only about 1/4" of window reveal left, at best, some place less. The new layer will take 1/8" of that. So, windows will barely stick out from wall and in some places be almost flush. Kyla, glad you didn't paint. This home is "Cool" colors not, warm colors. The roof is charcoal gray color Spanish tile and the cast stone is a cool gray. So cream stucco clashes. That's is why we wanted white. It's a transitional home. It's so weird.....In full sunlight it looks cream and in overcast skies its looks lite gray. Word to the wise.....Put up a stucco sample on an entire wall (do not use little sample boards) and check it all day long and in in climate conditions like party cloudy and overcast skies. Just like you sample paint on interior. do this for days BEFORE they start the color layer. Grrrrr....It's going to cost a lot of money to fix this issue as I just cannot live with painted stucco.I am sick about it.

We bought a modest house with red brick that we are not planning to paint, a prominent roof and wood siding just last fall. So if it ever stops raining around here, I'll run out and post a current picture for you. We needed a new roof and went with a weathered wood colored shingles (ours were Certianteed landmark if you want to Google the color). We got gutters to match the roof they called it terratone (a mid-tone brown with no red undertones. We matched the window trim to the gutters. We painted the wood siding and front door Benjamin Moore Mediterranean Olive. The tiny porch ceiling Benjamin Moore Yolk, which really brightens things up when we leave the front door open on a rainy day.