Brick Choice

Although you've seen many details about the interior of the house - you haven't seen any exterior.  This is a rendering:  

Because we were one of the first in our area of the neighborhood, we had choice of any of the brick/stone options they had available.  Some elevations are more expensive than others - based on the materials, etc.

Here are a few images of a few of our choices:

Although I loved the little porch on this one... the lines of the roof seemed boring, and the overhang looks low, and... meh...

I really preferred the look of this elevation with the larger front window, arches over the garage, and arched entry way.  

The Husband and I were not sold on the stone/brick combo.  We found that this style is very popular in our neighborhood - so we drove around trying to visualize 'our house' with different stone/brick colors.  Some were absolute "no way, no how's" and others were "eh, that would be okay".

After a lot of slow rolling through the neighborhood, while making note of every.single.house's brick, stone, motor and trim colors, we decided we're not brick/stone combo people.  We love the look of a stone house.  We love the look of a brick house.  Paired, they are just not quite right for us.  We are also concerned that the stone/brick combo is a passing fad and will eventually date our house (ohemghee... that house is soooooo 'twenty-eleven'.)

We do realize that with 85% of our neighbors going for this look - the neighborhood will have that 'vibe', but we don't care.  We're going with 100% brick on all four sides.   Decision Made.

Brick color:  Santa Fe Trail

Motor Color:  Tan

Trim Color/Paint/Garage Door Color:  Land Lover

Here is a home with the combo we choice.  (Different floor plan, windows, and totally different house - so just look at the brick/motor/trim colors).  Not sure why this photo is so crooked. 

Closer view of the brick and trim.  You can see their garage on the left - our house will have the same brick detail on the tops.  

Here is a "real" photo of the front of a house of our same floor plan.  We obviously made different choices for brick/trim.   They also have a second story addition that we won't have (you can see right above the garage), and a 2.5 car garage that we won't.  Our garage will also be "split" with a row of brick between the two stalls.  Oh, and we will have a larger glass door.  So, I guess it's not really like our house at all... but if you squint and imagine more red in the brick... it's close. :)