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Barnhart Gallery Hope all are okay! Can you show us a view of the entire front of the home? Hoping we can help put your insurance dollars to their best use.

(Had a friend who did this in college -- actually got out of the car and tried to tell the homeowner it was the other guy's fault -- ?)

mcbrwn Okay; this is it w/the temporary plywood.

mcbrwn sorry it's not bigger; was in a hurry have to go to work!

feeny I'm so sorry! That actually happened to us twice (!) when I was growing up. Cars parked on the hill above us would forget to put on their emergency brake, and by the time they returned the car had careened through the empty lot next door and into our house!

But here's my question. Are you positive you can't get a match with the brick? I was surprised, when we built an addition to our 1920's brick house, that the GC was able to get a very convincing (not perfect, but really close) match to our brick for the (visible) foundation. It took awhile, and he came to us with various samples, but eventually he found one that worked. So even though your brick isn't made any more, sometimes it is possible to find a very close facsimile from another company.

Revolutionary Gardens Like feeny said, check with your local brickyards. We did a job on an old home and in taking samples to brickyards we found a guy who had been in the industry so long he could look at a brick, know who originally made it, who bought that plant in the 70s, and what they were now calling that brick. You may not get as lucky but it's worth a shot.

Barnhart Gallery Hi mcbrwn -- I hope your insurance company is taking good care of you, in the sense that not being able to match what was there opens a bit of a can of worms in recreating a continuous facade.

If they're not, one of my first suggestions anyway would be to come as close as you can to the texture of the brick and then paint the entire house. I would think they would have to at least agree to that.

If you paint, my suggestion would be to lessen the contrast between the long body of the house and it's peak in front. In fact, to strengthen the verticality of that section, I brought your peak color down onto the front porch and steps.

In this example, I took your yellow in the direction of a cream, and paired it with a gray in a similar hue, slightly darker for shutters, and yellower for the door with a pewter door knocker and hardware. (That'll be my new word of the day, "yellower.")

With such a small shaded photo, I admit I got a bit confused whether shutters would fit around the missing window, but I imagine you'll know based on how that worked before. Maybe there was only one in between, looking at the photo with the car?

Barnhart Gallery Hi again mcbrwn -- Hope you don't mind I'm referring another poster to your thread since your homes are similar -- here's their question:
http://www.houzz.com/discussions/406189/Help-with-plain-brick-house
Also, my cream above still looks a little too yellow, although I like it on the door.

CMR Interiors & Design Consultations Inc. Just do clapboard. The old brick to me dated the house. You want to make the house look larger and fresh and paint it something that will look great with the roof color-which is staying.

mcbrwn Thanks to everyone for the suggestions! Barnhart Gallery: funny how you are showing grey w/yellow (although it was meant to be cream) because my master bedroom is grey and yellow!

kitasei Consider leaving the car in situ as a feature, like Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch.

mcbrwn Insurance adjustor came out today, so it will depend on what they think the damage is worth. One lucky thing from the crash: my two old retro yard chairs on the porch weren't touched! My son had owned the house previously, and when they tried for an addition, the contractors couldn't locate the brick. We believe that in the settlement, we may be able to get the entire front (but not sides and back) done; our area is really rural TN, so not a lot of options for brick here......thank goodness I hadn't started my landscaping yet, just had the initial beds cleaned out!

mcbrwn kitasei: car is gone....have too many grandchildren to leave it as a feature! :) Also, husband just a bit clumsy and I know he'd trip on it every time, no matter how big it is!

yeboyes Personally, I am in love with stucco. You can have the whole front stuccoed or just the side of the house that was damaged, they can match it with the bricks. This might also be an opportunity to make your front porch wider before you repair those brick steps and your landscaping!

mcbrwn If the money is enough, yeboyes, stucco and a larger porch would be great!