RENOVATION PORTFOLIO

I'm starting to put our "Renovation Portfolio" together for the yellow cottage.  The three major improvements will be..1) Replacing cedar shakes and any other improvements that is necessary on the body of  cottage.  2) Deciding on a new color stain, once the cedar shakes are finished.  3) A new roof                                        
                         

Hubby and I have narrowed it down to 2 paint/stain colors......I would like my blogger friends to give me some of their thoughts!
Here are some things to consider..............

                                     The cottage was built in 1929-1930
                                     It is on an acre lot with lots of older trees
                                     There is NO lake,pond near or on the property
                                     You can't see it from the pic, but the front door is original.  Heavy and dark but
                                      unique with old door knocker.  It looks like something out of a castle or a Hansel
                                      and Gretel cottage
                                      It had original diamond grids in the front windows, but the owner replaced the
                                      windows and did keep the diamond grids

Now considering the surroundings, here are the 2 colors we are thinking about. ( I know these houses do not look like this cottage....but I'm looking at the color.

                                                                  pinterest
                                  A deep brown stain/paint with the white accents

                                                         pinterest
                        This cottage has the gray roof.......and the brown shingle

          Here is a better look at a gray/brown roof with the dark brown cedar and white trim

                                                                       pinterest
                           This cottage is smaller like ours.  This has a light gray roof

                                                        pinterest

Now here is a GRAY stain we are considering.  This cottage has the diamond grids also.  For some reason, I feel a gray cottage belongs near water....more light and airy.  But I do LIKE the color GRAY the best...but I don't know about it on a treed lot........My hubby likes the earthy tone of brown with the treed lot and that does make sense to me!

                                                         pinterest

And also, we will be putting up a PERGOLA in the front of the house.  It will be to the right of the front door......and go across past the corner of the house approx. 3-4 ft.  It will be painted white.
This pic gives you an idea of what we are wanting.......
                           

So this is just the start............the flag pole will be removed and placed elsewhere.  The white fence will come down once the pergola is put in (that probably won't happen until next spring).  We are thinking about  "boosting" up the area above the door....maybe making it more prominent.  Can you vision the white pergola?  I plan on making that a quaint area to sit with a beautiful flowering vine and gardens around it curving to the right side of the house.  I could go on and on...........
Anyway, I hope to get more "before" pics soon...........and plan on reporting at least twice a month on our progress once we can get started.
In the meantime, I will post a few other pics of my kitchen and bath ideas too!  Be Blessed~~~Roxie