I won't bother with lattice, barrels are partially obscured from the street by fencing and if I put it up I would have to work around the lattice in order to turn the valves for water. If I can just make better use of collected water I'll be happy. We are at the end of our growing season so I should be cleaning up the garden and putting it to bed for the winter, just can't seem to get motivated. We had our first frost last week. Usually, our average early frost date is 1 November. I got almost no produce from garden this year, but there is always next year. Chookchook2 I've seen some of those decorative metal panels and they are gorgeous, sure hope your budget will allow you to get some before too long. Most of our state has been on fire for a good part of the summer. The closest is across the river from us and they have been battling it for almost a month. Some friends have had to evacuate repeatedly. We've only been concerned once, a small grass fire on our side of the river on a day we had wind gusts up to 65mph. Fortunately, it was put out quickly. Australia and New Zealand have both sent firefighters to help with the blazes. I can't begin to tell you how appreciative we are. The closest fire was fought for almost a week by local volunteers only as there were no other resources available. They were all on other fires. The Army National Guard (reserve troops) were called out to help with support duties and for the first time ever the federal Department of Natural Resources (DNR) asked for civilian volunteers to help with non firefighting tasks, cutting fire breaks, moving supplies etc.

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!

Thanks for the replies! My wife suggested we talk to a local real estate agent, so i think that is a good idea... just that Im not sure how helpful they are likely to be if we arent selling yet :) As for saving for our dream house, I dont disagree, however if doing this up nicely over the next ~5 years or so while we live here nets us some extra in the eventual sale, then that of course will help us as well. Interesting thing happened today actually. I got a knock on the door and one of the older neighbours asked if he could take some lemons from the tree. I of course said yes. Anyway he was telling me he had lived in the street for 40 years. I asked him if the house had always looked like this, and he said no that ~30 years ago the old old owner did a massive renovation and pulled off the timber and put up the bricks and gutted the inside of the house. Interesting stuff!

Like your house! I think the verticals in the window on the left are vertical blinds - get rid of these - they are very dating. Paint the horizontal safety bars to match your other window frames. I think the house just lacks privacy - and this then necessitates curtains and blinds at all the windows, giving the house a closed off look. I would get rid of all the very solid and 60s era conifer shrubs and replace with softer planting and one or two taller trees. Perhaps a fence or hedge to provide privacy so those windows could be opened up to the sun and garden. Or you could plant a row of spaced standard trees (fluffy heads on trimmed trunks) (eg robinia, or a weeping standard poplar or willow) you'd only need about 5 along the street frontage, creeper round that letterbox, a few pretty plants next the house. Then open the blinds and curtains. You could add a screened courtyard outside the glazed area on the left. Talk to your local garden shop for ideas. I cant tell whether the walls are brown brick or brown Summerhill stone (thats those rough concrete bricks, also very 60s). My house is Summerhill stone and has been painted cream - looks fine and certainly removes the 60s look. Hope this gives you some ideas - good luck with your new house.