What Would You Do?

In the spirit of Julia at Hooked on Houses, I decided to post this photo of a house in our neighborhood.  It has been on the market quite a while, and finally dropped to a price worthy of the required renovations.  The house was built in the 1940's.  I think it is adorable.  My husband thinks it looks like a never-ending-money-pit of a headache.  "No," we are not thinking about buying it.  (or at least, my husband isn't.  And, actually, we have too much work left on our 1850's home to even think about selling it, right now.) 

What would you do to update the front of this house?

Any ideas? 

I found these two similar cottages while surfing to avoid doing something worthwhile.

Cherish Toronto

They both have dormers.  The cute house down the street does not.  (and it looks like the roof pitch needs to change to add them to that house.)

The cute house down the street has a horrible floor plan and is quite small inside.  The realtor's site only included the front facade, but I have been in the home for an estate sale.  The front door opens into a large room that runs almost the entire width of the house.  You have to walk around furniture to get to the kitchen or bedroom doors (no hall and no clear path the the other rooms in the home.) 

(I have my own ideas about updating the facade in my little fantasy world.  -I think the new owners with the money tree should put cedar-shake or slate on the roof and paint the brick.   And what about the windows?   The uneven window sizes would probably bug my husband to death (he has a symmetry fetish). I sort of think they add character. maybe. Come to think of it, I may have a symmetry fetish, too.)

I played around with Paint and here is all I could do:

Would love to hear your ideas (and then I can picture the changes each day as I walk past this house!)

Have a great day!