I am going to try my best to answer any questions this evening and tomorrow. Life is a little hectic this weekend and next week, as I'm preparing for surgery on Monday with an overnight stay.

All brick. I'd eliminate the roof flair at the eave, do an all hip roof with a lower pitch, all brick columns.

Brick at the base. Don't short change the garage door design.

I would do mostly brick or the brick wainscoting. The second option pulls too much focus away from the front door. The all brick option could also work.

Mostly brick or mostly wainscoting. The second one is too busy.

@PPF.

Thank you so much for your drawings! I will show my husband what it could look like without the faux dormer. There's going to be a bonus room on top of the double garage, so we can't lose the gable. I truly appreciate you taking the time to show other options!

All brick or no brick.

@BeverlyFLADeziner

Should we go with a garage door the same color as the stained posts and open gable? And should we stain the shakes or paint?

I was playing with it: (except faux dormer will be board and batten not shakes)

@calidesign @Kendrah

I agree! After I did 'brick front,' I thought,"ugh, no, that's not right at all."

@User

What's your reasoning against having board and batten only under the porch?

I can't find the logic of the house massing and therefore I can't find a way to reinforce it with materials.

If the elevations are taken from a 3D model you should show some 3D views especially from the air looking down on the complex intersections of the roof. I find the bend in the house problematic.

Historically, houses made of multiple parts got that way from multiple additions which created a kind of hierarchy of forms. That is entirely missing here. Random massing of parts appears to have led to random material placement, which I guess, is a strange kind of consistency. Its a trend in house design that I'm still struggling to understand.

PPF has been able to reduce the randomness with his 3D models but I would need to see the model in a 3D view to be sure it works.

In general, I prefer the "Mostly Brick" option. However there are a few objections. Unless you are using all brick, then I would suggest that the premium materials be oriented around the front entry. Secondary and cost-effective materials should find their place on remote and less important architectural elements.

Also, make every effort to change materials at inside corners and never on outside corners. Not only is the appearance an awkward one, but the detailing can be problematic and invite water intrusion. You most often see this happening for homes sold, based on their front elevation.

I do like the "swooped" roof eave, though it is easy to lose this effect, especially when viewed from low angles (ie the ground.) For this to be perceived you have to exaggerate the proportions. This has to be balanced so as not to go overboard. Its best to consider this through the use of 3D design. Architectural elevations, while accurate, obscure the real-life experience of the detail.

This also has to be integrated into the eave design as it affects the framing of the wall/roof/ceiling intersection. Simply building-up, or "faking" the swoop tends to bulk up construction and lose the elegance intended.

I tried to model your roof as drawn but could not figure out this area -- how the roof planes all come together.

Not suggesting these colors, just wanted to show something not white.

Thank you for the models @PPF.!! @User I don't have a 3D model but here are the ceiling joists and roof lay out:

Side and back elevations: https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/new-build-pj-vj~5812877

Higher brick and a different way to handle the garage.

Depending on your climate, these are areas that could be potential problem areas.

The designer solved the problem of 4 roof planes meeting at a point by raising the porch roof a couple of feet but decided to tempt fate by adding a flare at the eaves. This will only work in a very dry and warm climate.

Sorry for the delayed response! I had an unexpected 2 day hospital stay instead of one,

Thank you for pointing out areas of concern! We are in the Houston area: hot, sometimes rainy, light snow every 10 years.

sometimes rainy

I recall reading Houston is the 8th rainiest place in the country. I grew up there and remember never feeling dry.

From Houston, rains all the time, all through the year.

I, too, grew up around here and have lived here all my life. Annual rainfall is about 1/3 of the year which is why I described it as sometimes. Our area just got out of a burn ban. Sometimes it seems the rain will never stop and a lot of the times we are praying for rain to end the dry spell and get rid of the burn ban (it never fails that a cigarette will start a fire by the highway during the dry spells). Every other summer we have to lower our water consumption or pay a fine for running sprinklers.

Once in a few years we get a burn ban for a short duration, but I never had to reduce my water consumption...we get average of 52 inches rain a year. I dont need to run sprinkers as its rare not to get rain in a two week period, maybe july and August i run them a handful of times. I mostly look into it from a gardening perspective, but compared to most of the other parts of the country, we are a lot wetter. I have no idea how it affects rooflines etc though. Did not mean to contradict you, but when people from different parts of the country are commenting, they have different views on what a rainy area or dry area, cold/hot etc is.

No worries! It just shows how crazy Texas weather can differ within an hour drives radius! Our area has burn bans at least 3 or 4 times a year!

Either way as noted the roof will be a problem.

Would do either brick or stone over the foundation only and siding above that. Use only one kind of material in the gables -- perhaps horizontal siding the rather than vertical.

Would not put any hip roof on any part of the house. Stay with gables and steep slopes with straight edges at the bottom of the slopes all around for your gutter.

Would change the roof to have one and only one ridge line height -- the higher height -- and decrease the number of gables to be one facing the left end of your home, one facing right end of your home and one facing the end of the angle of the garage -- not over where the garage doors are now shown .

Would not cut corners in the cost to cut corners and create angles in the garage. Would keep the walls leading from the home to the outer left edge of the garage straight all the way to the end and would seriously consider putting two garage doors the same size in that angled end of the garage even if that means adding and additional few feet to the garage length -- definitely would not pour the front yard in concrete for a driveway.

Extend the width of the forward facing gable over the front entry to cover both the front entry and those two larger longer/taller windows to the right of it.

Extend the depth of the forward facing gable to cover a porch at least 6' deep.

Where you currently have windows in the upstairs in gables, the slopes of which will take away room from your upstairs rooms, add dormers there rather than full gables enabling you to have more/larger windows and more room / headroom in the upstairs rooms.

There are different kinds of dormers with different shaped roofs.

https://www.google.com/search?q=dormers&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiHsdacuJPlAhVJmuAKHZ9AB4sQ_AUIESgB&biw=1328&bih=617#spf=1570770556130