apologize for the late response as i didnt realize this formum doesnt send out notifications for new replies,,,that or i just dont have the right settings for my account. i appreciate all the responses and like the corbell or trellis idea to add some dimension to a rather flat facade. also a round accent, which can be used as a roof vent would be a nice touch. to answer some of the questions: 1. yes the right side of the garage was raised to accommodate a van. i recently spoke to a garage installer and the plan was to raise the left to match the right. i do like the idea of widening the trim but this will require some modifications to the vinyl to bring in the lip. i have planned on going with a 2 panel door with square window accents on the top in white. i played around with door colors like going brown but it brought way too much attn to the garage doors. 2. i decided to hold off on the garage doors for a few months since the priority shifted towards fixing our leaking roof, which will be started in a couple weeks. the color of choice i have debating on for weeks to the point where i now drive around town looking at roofs and gutter colors/styles. we narrowed the choices down to going with a slate or charcoal since the ultimate goal is to do less w/ the red/tannish accents. i decided on a GAF timerbline charcoal color with matching 5-6" gutters or even a white gutter. still TBD on those choices. 3. windows: the brown is actually the metal frame for the window. the red is a metal trim that was part of the vinyl siding install. im considering painting the red to white...adding some interior white shutters. i just hope the brown doesnt clash too much w/ the white. wondering if painting the brown is a bad idea im terrible at photoshop(actually ms paint) but at least this gives a decent idea of how it might look. appreciate all the input... stage 1: replace roof shingles, add the circular vent trim accent stage 2: garage doors stage 3: shutters, lights, window trim, maybe the trellis or corbell stage 4(my dream) paver stones in the driveway and add brick/stone facade accents, redo the brick steps on the left and right side. this style home is typical to a certain area in the SF bay area. houses are packed together on small lots with very little to no side yard. rather ugly to say the least so im trying to do the best w/ the limitations we have.

A few years ago, my sister and I did the same thing: go through Mom's house after she passed on. Mother did not have much money and led a subsistance life. Her Social Security was her main income, therefore, there was not a lot of 'expensive' belongings. However, what she did have packed an emotional punch. It was things we had grown up with, for example, a large ice-tea pitcher from which we had refreshing drinks on hot summer days. A lot of ice-tea and kool aide had poured over its spout. We made a discovery we did not expect. We knew that she often made a quilt during winter so it was not surprising to find 3 of her latest ones we had never seen, bt the was something vaguely familar about the frabric - my sister spotted it. The pieces were from her dresses. She had been cutting up her dresses to make the quilt. Suddently, we realized why she had taken to wearing slacks the last 2 years of her life. We checked her closet - only one dress was there! How do you divide such a piece of handwork? Fortunately, Mom had the solution. There was not just one quilt, but two made fron her dresses. All in all, my sister and I divided up about 8 handmade new quilts. And then, there were the crocheted dolies, some very old that we used when we were home. My sister took most of these. We found my Dad's WW1 uniform that we did not know existed. It was made of wool. On the lapel was a sharpshooter pin. My sister was taking the pin off to give to me and I stopped her. It was my thought that the pin and the uniform should not be separated - I asked her to put it back. She has the uniform with pin. It was olny fitting that she should get something special since I had received a souple of years earlier some family documents during my genealogy search. I got our g-g-grandfather's muster roll from the Black Hawk War in 1832. Our g-g-grandfather was a Captain in that war and his copy of the muster roll was hand written by him. And so, the process continued. I already had many of the family photos. My sister got the sterograph and views. This set included view no.1: Mr. Sears of Sears and Roebuck at his desk. The date is around 1900. In the 1900s, my mother's family shopped from the Sears Catalog. The stero-optican views were premiums. a view was given per a set amount of purchase, say one view per each $10 of order. Mother's kitchen ware was not special, but we discoverd that she had left notes inside each piece as to whom she wished to gift to. It was shocking and sobering at the same time to realize that she had sensed her end and secretly made preparations. It made the job easier of dividing up her possessions, but sad as well, We were re-living our earlier life. Did I get everything I wanted? No, and neither did my sister. We learned all over how to share and be grateful. In the end, it did not matter who got what because either one of us can view the other's share. We only have to make the trip to do so. I inherited the Singer Sewing Machine but we stored it at my sister's house and she has made some clothing with it. In the end, what mattered the most was we being aware of the emotions and attachements of each other and acting accordingly. It 'twas better to forment good will than to be greedy.

Have peace Mary. Loosing a mother is not easy. My mom had a lot of clothes. She passed away in 1999. Last year I made a quilt for my father. I used a lot of fabrics from her clothes in the quilt. As I miss her alot, it was quite therapeudic (sp) to make the quilt. It was ohio stars pattern. As I didnt have enough matching fabrics, I had to add some from the fabric store. As we lived near trains growing up and my parents gardened, I used some fabrics with vegatable/fruit, garden theme and added train track fabric for a border. I really liked the finished quilt. I gave it to my dad for christmas. Around christmas, when I was at Dads house, I was looking thru some boxes of moms fabrics and found a partly finished tumbling blocks quilt top. Its about the side of a twin bed. It was both machine sewn and hand stitched. I think maybe my grandmother started it and then my mom worked on it...I'm not sure. Some of the fabrics are very old...some were in the box with the quilt and others I don't ever remember seeing before. I hung it up on the wall temporary to look at it so I can decide one day what I'm going to do to finish it. I don't think my daughter or sons will ever quilt, so if its going to be finished, its going to be me. Dad had told me he'd asked some ladies at the senior center a couple years ago if they wanted the boxes of old fabric...they said no..old fabric was not good for quilting....I'm so glad they thought that way or this wonderful quilt top would have been lost to me without me ever knowing about it! Take care.

I have shown homes where the doors and trim are dark and the walls are light and the home shows dark. It is generally the lights as many have pointed out above. Occasionally the buyer just doesn't want to have to go through the painting process to repaint the trim. What also contributes to that 'dark' comment is too much furniture/too cluttered. So really, without pics we can't comment on your specific rooms. Post a few for an idea of what can help you specifically.