This is my 'inspiration structure'... yep.
This is it. A fancy ‘garage’ attached to an historic house in my neighborhood. I’m drawn to it. I like the white-tan-gray stone foundation – I like the gray – almost gray-blue color of the structure. I like how crisp the white window frames look against the solid gray clapboard siding. Look – there’s even a transom window over the door on the top left. Cool. I like how the basement is clearly a usable space as told by the windows and covered doorway. It looks like it was built to have snow on top of it… doesn’t it?
I don’t know how many times I’ve hoofed it around my neighborhood in seek of inspiration for the exterior of my home. Many of the houses have stone integrated into them in some way – limestone to be specific – it’s locally quarried around here. I’m not sure what sort of stone is on the base of my inspiration structure… I can’t get close enough to tell – it doesn’t look like a local rock to me, but I’m hoping that I’m wrong 
Maybe I’ll unearth something similar in my own yard (crossing my fingers!).
Based on my neighborhood findings, here’s what I envision (still in negotiations with Eric) for the exterior of my home… stone around the foundation, gray clapboard-like siding, white trim, wooden garage door, copper (or some sort of metal roofing) over the front porch and the bay window. I’d love to put a metal roof on the rest of the house – but that’s the dream scenario… the scenario that I get my geothermal system. Time (& money) will tell.
We did the same thing in Houston.
We biked around our old neighborhood in search of exterior paint colors that we liked. In fact, we found our inspiration house pretty quickly – and made a point to drive by it ~ once a week… took pictures of it… come to think of it, we probably just should’ve knocked on their door and introduced ourselves – lest they thought we were planning something sinister against them. (And, in retrospect, we could’ve just asked them what their exterior colors were called – instead of spending the ~$120 on paint samples to try to get it right – see mistakes below).
We used the shed in the backyard to figure out our paint colors.
This shed, by the way, was painstakingly taken apart – piece-by-numbered-piece, and re-assembled in the backyard of one of our neighbors. I’m sure it has a nice new freshly painted life now.
This was our inspiration house in Houston…
And here’s what we ended up with… wasn’t exactly the same, but it turned out great! Brown on most of the house, a color called Juniper Berry on the peaks, dark dark brown on the door and screens, and white on the window frames.
The above photo was taken right after the place was painted – before the deck was even finished (note the decking hanging off the side of the porch). And of course, I then tried my hand at gardening around it…
But I digress Garden inspiration is a topic for another day – and probably another day very soon – as I’m sooooooo ready to play in my yard.
What have you mined from your neighborhood for use on your home?
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Oh – I like it! Has a lot of VT lines to it – something about the combination of the pediments over the windows, the narrow clapboards, the laterns and the stone work. Check out Hubbardton Forge lights made here in VT – we have the item # 305892 at our front and back doors. http://www.vtforge.com/
Didn’t know you were so into green architecture and beyond from your other blog posts – such a focus here in Middlebury – sitting in my LEED platinum office building as I write…
Hey – thanks for the link Di! Yep – I’m super interested in making our place green… both for green-ness and healthiness… and for resale… more and more green certified structures stand out from the pack.
I ogled that building every time I drove by! I can’t recall now for sure, but I am pretty sure it is new construction, not a remodel. It was done during our time living there. Good luck!