Thank you so much for your comment after all this time. The colour you have suggested brightens the front door area beautifully and if the two red pots were painted in a tone to match, we think it would look great. Not sure if you can get Crestview doors in New Zealand but there must be something similar. We like the idea of going away from another cedar door - mainly because it would stand out too much while it was weathering. I don't know whether we would have been that brave but the tangerine works so well with the jade green of the joinery. I have re-laid all the stones and put a new wider front step in. The timber colour will soften down in time. I put a big pot in the garden to draw visitors to the front door and have added some colourful bromeliads to the garden alongside the house to make the area a bit more cheerful. We can't make a decision about what to do with a larger 'overhang' to protect the front porch yet - it is a project in progress. Thanks again for your post.

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.

As hatetoshop suggests, paint the front doors in both entryways. Here are examples of some blue doors that look good with tan siding. Agree that it's worth enclosing your garbage cans somehow in your other entrance. Replace your entry light fixture with something modern along the lines of the light shown below. Find a nice large indoor/outdoor rug mats that coordinate with the painted doors--tan and blue for both entryways. Try Overstock.com Get some big pots in the door color and coordinating colors and line the entryway fence with some tall plants suitable for your climate to break up the wall of white. Can't tell if you've got any soil in front of the wall where you could put in some plants instead. Inside your fence, clean up the yard then plan some landscaping. So that you have something nice to look at from your kitchen, hang some plants in colorful containers from the fence. If you really want to get fancy, paint some simple wooden window boxes in the blue door color, hang them across the kitchen window, and fill them with herbs and/or flowers if you get enough sun. Or do the same with large planters below your kitchen windows. Put a small colorful bistro table and chairs back there.

My ex-husband and I had an issue with a large window that looked out over a sidewalk where people were constantly walking by and looking directly into our living room. We solved the problem by using window film that was one-way so we could see out but it was like a mirror if anyone tried to look in. There are other varieties as well. We still got all the sunshine and light but didn't need to worry about whether or not the neighbors could see me watching tv in my nightie on a sick day...It also meant the door to door salesmen couldn't look in and see that I was home when I didn't answer the door. http://www.gilafilms.com/en/privacy-window-film.aspx#.VOuUBS5vksQ