Designing Our House's Exterior (in my dreams)

This is what I do when we have absolutely no budget, but I am desperate to work on improving the house. I used to have to do this all in my head, or with magazine clippings, or my very poor sketches. Now I have the wonder of the internet and my own little blog to work things out! If I could just find the time to learn a bit of Photoshop or Google Sketch, I'd really go to town!
This is my recent doodling on Crestview Door's website. If you compare it to the earlier one I did last winter, you may notice that I sized the door better and did a lot of whacking back of the front shrubbery. In fact, the juniper bush on the right is no more; just trying to open up the porch a bit more. I also started taking off some of the badly peeling paint on the chimney in a fit of energy one day when the guys had a ladder going up to the roof. Anyone have a sandblaster and would like to finish it for me??

One of the first things I'd like to do to the front is add a sort of shutter. I know we can do this ourselves, because we did it before, and I don't think it would cost much. Later, a new paint scheme, restoring the brick chimney and possibly reworking the approach to the front door (which is now from the right side, via the driveway). Here are some ideas I've collected, and I need your opinions! I think fresh eyes will definitely help me. As you can see, I'm leaning toward having a door with diamond lites someday.
The first "shutter" idea that I saw that I thought would be good for our house was this:

Or a version like this privacy screen:

We really need new gate on each side, and I love these:


So, should the shutters carry on the diamond motif, or is this just getting to the point of overload? Should I think of mixing shapes (door, window detail, gates)?


Go ahead, jump right in with your opinion and tell me what to do! It's all fantasy at this point anyway!

Crestview Doors and Saving the Neighborhood

This is what our house could look like with a Crestview Door. They have the coolest thing on their site where you can preview doors on a photo of your house - Door-o-Vision! Of course, it would help if we didn't have a giant shrub blocking most of the door, but I'm not going to pull that out all by myself!

Crestview used to custom make the doors, but now they sell the doorlite kits as a way to have less impact on the environment and make their product more affordable. You can D-I-Y it, or have a local carpenter install their window lite kits on your existing door. They also have a very cool campaign:

The Save Your Neighborhood Campaign is an effort on behalf of Crestview Doors to promote awareness of mid-century modern residential architecture and to support efforts to preserve, protect or reinvent it. Won't you join us?

Are you noticing the homes in your neighborhood being gutted and rehabbed, outfitted with "updates" that destroy their original charm?

In March, 2008, Crestview Doors launched a campaign to protect and preserve not just the doors of the 1950's, but the character and charm of mid-century architecture which represented the hope, creativity, and idealism of a generation.

Now we are asking you to PLEDGE TO SAVE YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD by preserving or replacing at least one unique, period-appropriate feature of your home or neighborhood. Or use the links at the left to find other ways to get involved.

One of the links is Outreach Materials, where you can download an "Obey the Eichler" poster or a Door-o-Vision door hanger - swanky!

I'll leave you with a couple of shots of some houses in our neighborhood that are retaining their original charm, I think. I hope that as I get to know people better, I can encourage them to keep the 50s character of their homes!