Depending on where you are with the purchase decision, get a book on home inspections, which will list all potential issues and how you can spot possible problems. Bring along a friend or family member with experience. Once you've decided to buy, get a good inspector and spring for any extras he recommends. (We were recommended to get someone to send video up the chimneys, which turned out to be unlined and not particularly safe). We bought a house in good shape, but thanks to our inspection report, negotiated down the price based on a number of items that needed to be fixed that we didn't see, but our inspector did. For stuff like the chimneys, which didn't get negotiated down, we had an estimate. Many things will be clues as to how well the house has been maintained and upgraded over the years. Have the electrics been redone? When? What about the heating? Or the roof? The house looks pristine, but you want to know if the house has been care fully and lovingly maintained over the years, or just recently painted for resale. The bath shower arrangement, for example, is strange. What happened to the shower curtain rod? Was there a miserable moldy -- or worse yet, rotting --- bathroom that got fixed up and they didn't put the curtain rod back because a quick sale was more important than doing a good job. It's great if someone else took care of headaches so you don't have to, but make sure they did a good job. Ask questions about the history of the house and its updates. Unless there's another serious buyer who sounds like he'll buy at the asking price now, honest sellers will be happy to answer questions.

Mine are 5 years old, get cleaned once a year and still look good. They do age into a mellow white which I can live with.

To answer your question I would paint the body of the house blue, all trim white, and then the "fringe" which I think ties into your porch decking, I would paint it the gray. It is a good "grounding" color for your home. Sherwin Williams has a cool web tool. Take a pic of your house and load it onto their site. You can "color" away on your house. When I painted my house for the first time, I did not want the garage door to stick out, wanted it to blend into the house. Everyone said it would look weird, needed to be painted the same as the trim. Used the Sherwin Williams site and realized want I visioned looked good. I have neighbors of dubious design skills! Ha! Ha!

Hi, love that you love bold colors and patterns. I think a rug that will help to highlight what you've started in your space without competing with it would be beautiful. Because most of your patterns are medium to large in size, I would probably recommend a rug that has some black in it and even with a pattern but with a different scale pattern (much larger or smaller/more subtle) than what is shown in your pillows, chair and lamp. Here are some examples.... Mostly of rooms with bolder (black and white) patterns and the rugs that were used with them. In pic 3, a rug with a larger scale pattern was used in combination with pillows, drapes with smaller or no pattern (and with black/white contrasts). Your space would be the reverse application I think....like in pic 4. I also love the idea of a bolder, more contrasting in color (like the colors of your pillows, etc.) of a cowhide rug. Perhaps even a hair on hide rug.