Thanks for your post :-) I guess I referred to it as "cottage" because it backs up to a river and was used through the years as a cottage. Regardless, I would like to add some color and would greatly appreciate ideas. I was thinking of enclosing the carport because the house is located in Michigan where winters can be really cold and windy.

Completely agree with bepsf. This is a great example of mid-century modern architecture. I also would not touch the carport. I would just update the landscaping with some color, sorry I don't know a lot about plants for your zone. The carport is a hallmark of this architecture, I think it is a great house.
Hope this helps you. Charmean Neithart

I completely agree with bepsf and Charmean. You have beautiful trees, lawn and lighting out there, I would add more shrubs, some flowering plantings but keep everything in the same "lines" as your home, its long and angular. You might not want to go with anything in a circular design as it would clash with the lines of the house.

Great house! I agree with others - don't cover up the carport. I'd use the area for outdoor entertaining and use colorful, 50's style furniture. Consider painting the front door to match.

When I was a boy in the 1970's, my family and I lived near Sault Ste Marie, Michigan for 6 years - so I know cold, as I had to walk to school on top of the snowdrifts looking into the neighbor's 2nd story windows!

Nobody in our neighborhood had garages, and we all did just fine - Having no garages actually made plowing the driveways easier as there was nothing to prevent the local guy in his PowerRam w/ snow blade from pushing the snow to the back of the house.

Add color with flowering shrubbery - the stems will look great in the wintertime as "icy sculpture"...
...and paint your front door a bright color - Aqua, Red, or Orange would look great on your house (and be easy to see in the dead of Winter)

Great house, now that we've established that is mid century in style, I would pursue that track. The hallmark of the mid century ranch style is low slung and for the structure to become apart of the landscape. Right off the bat I think the color on the siding is good, although the exterior window trim should be painted a more naturally occuring color, along the muted greens and browns.
Think horizontal, like adding an exterior stone band in natural stone, not river rock, but horizontal, broken edge limestone. If you run it up to the base of the front windows, it would be too high unless you also add some mounding to the front landscaping and plantings more in line with native species. Think gentle rolling plains with grasses and wild flowers. Almost no maintenance...
But the boat under the carport has to go. Instead of investing in the cost to enclose the period correct carport, create a run along the right side of the house to store "hide" the boat.
Then with less grass to care for you could spend more time on the water enjoying that boat.

Great visual James and great idea with the run on the side of the house for the boat. I also like the idea of painting the door a bright color, would love to see orange.

I love the mid- century house you have and yes , they mostly had open carports but there was also some of these houses that were designed with closed garages because of where they are located. Look up some of the web sites devoted to that style of house. Google MCM homes and also YouTube.com is a good source. I love this realtor web site -- it has lots of examples for MCM homes in 4 season climates (Seatlle area) Portland also has lots of MCM houses. ( Seattlemodern.com ) So I think if you did some home work and consulted with an architect that works on those kind of houses - You can have your garage. Don't forget Houzz is also a good source - Just use the search at the top. Let me know how you do !

what state do you live in, I need this info before i can describe a foundation for you.

Great house! Add a punch of color by painting the front door. Move the boat?? Keep it simple but adding landscaping with color . . . .

SEvans

Thanks to all for your great responses. Rusty, I live in Michigan. Will definitely add some color and new plantings. The boat is gone...so no need to worry about storing any longer lol. Will also do some research on mid-century ranch styles. If anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear from you. Thanks again. CJ

I agree with all of the above comments. Although Hydrangeas aren't very mid-century in feel, they certainly add color. The bluish purple color would pop nicely against the current color of the house. I have family in MI and the hydrangea's do really well there because of all the humidity. Not so much in CA.

Still thinking about an orange door. Try Orange Burst 2015-20 by Benjamin Moore. Have fun!

CJ., In Michigan the footing frost line is 42”. Which means you should have a footing under every exterior wall. If not the wall will raise and fall along with the freeze cycles and therefore self destruct. I noticed that the roof over the garage and walkway is sitting on post, which looks to be steel columns. These posts are probably sitting on a frost footing, otherwise over the years the roof system would be quite a mess. A wall system can be attached to the post and be cost effective. You need to contact your local building inspector and find a good contractor, both of these people can make life easier. If I can help on the construction I will and I’ll leave the design Ideas to the pros.

Love your house and the MCM style. I also live in Michigan and agree hydrangeas do well in our climate, but not so much for MCM. I'd add a Japanese Maple and a ceramic water feature near the front entrance and absolutely go bold on the front door.

You could add some stone and stained wood to warm it up. I would keep the plantings simple in keeping with the mid century modern aesthetic.

Wow ej610! Thank you so much for the design ideas. I love them both. The only thing I would do I think is add windows to the garage as I love light spaces. Definitely something to ponder on.

nice job ej610

I actually had windows in the original design, but I forgot to include them in the final layout.

I though some long window along the top of the stone wall would look nice and bring some light in to the garage.

I like it...nice job. Thank you!

ej610, I love the stone idea and the photoshop job for the visual.

CJ Jesnek, If you're considering adding stone to the home and are worried about the issues of added weight you could always go the simulated route for the stone accents. Then you could also worry less about expansion/contraction from the weather and possible cracking or splitting a few years down the road.

That makes good sense. It is unfortunate, but "old man winter" in Michigan is not too kind to anything that is stone, cement or brick. Most gets in and cracks it. Plus, I'll bet the cost would be less too :-)

Being based in the North East, we can understand how messy and annoying winters can be (though I'm certain nothing like Michigan gets). It's unfortunate that real stone looks so great but doesn't always hold up to the freeze-thaw cycle of the year in some places.

There are a number of eCommerce companies that offer simulated stone, brick, rock, etc. if you wanted to shop around for the best alternative to real stone. In case you're wondering how weatherproof our products are, here's a link to a blog post on some testing we had done: http://www.fauxpanels.com/blog/weatherproof-stone-veneer

I too think painting the front door a pop of color would help. Additionally, a geometrical trellis, planted in the ground on the left side of your house, would help fill that blank void. Get something that is in keeping the with the style of your house and that has some substance so it's interesting in the winter, when it's not covered in flowers.

I think you can also do some plantings and add a hedge. In your picture it looks like a table and chairs are in front of the carport. Do you like to sit there? If so, I would maybe enlarge this area slightly (keeping a square/rectangular shape) and put a low hedge in front of it. If you did something like a yew hedge, you could put annuals in front of that to give you a pop of color. I might also pull some of the plants away from the front door to give a nice, geometric landing area in front of it to draw attention to the door. Again, a low hedge (maybe of spirea) to repeat the lines of the house. I would probably put an ornamental tree at the corner of the house - like a Japanese maple - to add a little interest and soften the corner. You can also find books that have preset garden designs to copy - check out the library. Good luck - of course you do live on water so you must be lucky. (PS I've lived on water in Michigan)

Consult an Architect........

yep looks mid century or california contempory but is really nice .You could find books on the styles and it will give you ideas and pics .Most of them seem to have an Asian look

CJ - I can only give you some generic advice, because I'm in Phoenix but ...

Go draw a detailed measured site plan - just like you would for your living room. Mark the location of all the trees and major planting areas. Measure out the outdoor entertaining areas.

Live with the place for a full year, identifying things as they bloom, and fall comes. That meek little green shrub might be flaming orange in fall, or have great branch structure in winter. If something is annoying you, make a note of it - maybe a walkway is too narrow, or there is a tricxky spot where ice builds up ... whatever.

On the site plan, identify where you have great views and where you need to hide things. A couple of evergreen shrubs in the right spot can make the neighbor's trashcans vanish. Frame the good views by pruning up branches and thinning out bushes.

Get a good book of what grows in your area. We westerners have the Sunset Western Gardens book ... you might have something similar. Check with local botanic gardens to see what things look like at various seasons of the year.

Then sit back with all kinds of shelter magazines and sites and collect a passel of ideas - note what you like about each.

FINALLY ... figure out what you need and where for 4-season outdoor interest and maybe 3-season outdoor living. I've been in Chicago in winter ... it's a great time to sit inside and admire the pretty red stems on the bushes and watch birds eating berries.

use google sketchup it is free

Here is a chart of some MC Ranch paint colors. 'New Wave' would be perfect for your front door.
BTW I love, love, love the suggestions ej610 made.

Beautiful MCM house. Using plantings that are native to the area can create a lovely low maintenance and sustainable landscape design. I would suggest because of the era of the house to stay away from fussy cottage designs and work with masses of grasses-In full sun, Prairie Dropseed and Little Bluestem create beautiful seasonal interest. For shrubs, red twig, yellow twig dogwoods would add interest in the winter. Japanese maples can be "iffy' for zone 5. Some evergreen interest --creeping junipers would create 4 seasons of interest. A low dry-stack seating wall at the front could repeat the strong horizontal lines of the house and also deal with the issues of frost heave by being mortarless, and could enclose a small entry seating area.

Replace the bushes with flowering ones like hydrangea. Otherwise I don't mind how it looks now.