lovemyhouse said:dirtdorpins, you are doing a great thing in putting the house back to itself. I had noticed the siding and cringed a bit. Was rude to say anything, but now that I know YOU didn't do it... 
OMG --Yeah, I know.
Original plan was to restore the stucco as soon as possible, but after replacing the roof twice, the ceiling once (still need to replace it again) and the other interior renovations --just to move in all the house plants--it didn't happen. Then when the big pine tree fell into the street, it became apparent that the aluminum showing thru all the missing white paint was just not gonna cut it for me. At the time, my disposable income was committed to the cypress tree (and the ginkgo, beech, cherry, and ironwood trees) coming in and the logistics of getting them in (stump and root removal to 6' x 9', concrete/rock removal, soil prep, and a crane -because the cypress was no baby tree!). Honestly, I was too afraid to rip off the siding and deal with the disaster underneath. So I painted it a funky color, ...and bought some more plants.
Actually--the first color I tried totally looked like the bottom of a swimming pool--and made me want to vomit--so I ended up with this with this one ...and I like it, which is key. Furthermore, people don't call it the 'toilet house', so much, anymore.
Odd thing--sometimes I drive too much for my job--and I've been driving around all day looking at and thinking about house colors against the snow, which is not normal for me. I decided that I prefer the reddish brick homes in the winter landscape, which is a good chunk of our year here. But I'm not gonna paint it red, or purple (my favorite color), or coffee or india pale ale or avocado or cheese or bacon (arguably my favorite consumables) and I got to thinking that restoring the white stucco would necessarily demand more evergreens and then I got to thinking about one of the white stucco masterpieces up the street that is completely engulfed by a Dr. Seuss conglomeration of juniper and thuja...and then I became very bothered by the whole thing. When I came home, though, and saw my little 'castle' of weirdness up the hill, I still liked it, thankfully, and that was really my whole point. The color of my house and the fact that I feel compelled to junk up my yard with whatever cool plants and rocks in odd arrangements that suites me is really all about me having fun with it (life) when I'm home. I used to live on a hobby farm in the middle of nowhere, nearest neighbor some miles away, and didn't worry too much about whether anyone liked my yard sculptures or not --or the resale value. I enjoy creating that kind of selfish-art so much that I have to keep doing it. Fortunately, the thing about buying a dump--in my case--and fixing it up some, even with a few obvious eccentricities in the color scheme and yard, is that it is still an improvement in almost everyone's eyes--if that's the issue.
Frillylily--sage green is a wonderful color and I hope you go with whatever color you want on those shutters. If you don't like it--you can change it;)
David--cheesecake is also a wonderful color and I hope that you tell Frillylily where she can get some shutters like yours because they really are cool and would look good on her house in some nicely contrasting color of her fancy.
and here is my baby bristlecone pine, in the snow, in my new rock garden
edited to specify that I am NOT calling anyone's house a dump, except my own!!
