New windows and an exterior renovation design for our humble abode

I'm so excited to share this post with you guys today.  For 15 years I've been patiently moaning and groaning about wanting new windows and replacing the glass in the front door sidelites.  This house had triple pane pain windows - we're talking six panes of glass per window people!  Always such a joy dreaded event to clean.  To top it off they were aluminum sliders and during our brutal Canadian winters, forget about getting any fresh air because those babies were frozen solid.

At long last my wish has come true and we got those New Windows and a Front Door - no more sliders! Instead we have vinyl crank outs with "real" triple pane glass. The basement windows are sliders but they actually open without Herculean effort. It's hard to tell in the picture but the wide reed sidelite glass has been replaced with Rain glass and the front door with a Cheyenne Chamber Top Plank style and factory painted in Slate - love it!

AFTER

Wish I would have taken close-up photos of our old windows.  I only had 15 years for crying out loud!

BEFORE

I'm told by Mr. Frugalista that I'm no longer allowed to hang wreaths on the door.  Excuse e moi?  Thats like wearing a little black dress without the pearls...I don't think so!

BACK - BEFORE
Wondering what those swirly marks are on the siding above the basement windows?  In his teenage years our son decided a great way to get rid of mosquitoes was to spray OFF onto the house!  

 BACK - AFTER

We had both the kitchen and bedroom windows enlarged and I love how they add symmetry to the back of the house. The piece de resistance is that I can lay on the bed now with an unobstructed view of our back yard. As for the bay window - I don't know how I lived without it all these years!
We have big plans for the interior finishing around both of these windows but more about that in a future post.

Now lets talk about that ugly mint green siding shall we...

The new windows make it look even worse. If we had the budget the siding would have been replaced with the windows. Unfortunately the reality is that we don't so we'll have to patiently count the sleeps until the Summer of 2015.

That gives us time to come up with an exterior renovation plan for our humble abode.  Mr. Frugalista and I would love to be living on the Canadian West Coast.  We both enjoy being near the water and living in landlocked Alberta is challenging killing our spirits - okay so I'm being over dramatic.  Moving isn't going to happen anytime soon so we decided if we can't live on the coast then we'll bring the coast to us!  

Inspired by homes we saw during a recent visit to Vancouver Island, we've come up with some ideas to incorporate coastal elements into the plan.

Being a visual person I needed to see our ideas in living color so I came up with a few design plans.

Design Plan Side View
To break up the large span of siding on each side of the house we are thinking about adding cedar shakes to the upper portion of the gables. The perspective in this picture is a little wonky but you can get a good idea of what we're thinking about doing.  The color of the shakes in the picture are Slate to match the front door.

Design Plan #1 in Beechwood siding and Mountain Shadow dry stack stone.

Design Plan #2 in Autumn Gray

Design Plan #3 in Driftwood Gray

Design Plan #4 in Rocky Gray

Design Plan #5 in Corundum

Design Plan #6 in Cape Cod Taupe

Design Plan #7 in Chocolate with Carolina Coco Dry Stack Stone

Design Plan #8 in Chocolate with dry stack stone above the door as well and white shutters.

Design Plan #9 in Beechwood with dry stack stone above the door.

Design Plan #10 in Beechwood with Mountain Shadow stone, Slate hardy board around the windows, and a diamond shaped window above the door.

Design Plan #11 in Cypress Earth with Carolina Coco ledge stone, Slate hardy board around the windows, and a diamond shaped window above the door.

There are too many options available and I'm feeling overwhelmed with the possibilities. If this were a client's house I'd come up with a design board lickity split but because it's my own home I'm loosing all objectivity.

If it were your house which design plan would you choose?

What do you think about the addition of a round port hole window above the door?

What do you think of adding stone above the door?

Do you have any other suggestions?

I would love to get your feedback so don't be shy!  Any suggestions you can throw into the mix would be much appreciated.