Our dark bronze gutters (seen from above at bottom of photo) match our roof perfectly. We sprung for gutter covers, a good idea given the myriad large trees surrounding our property. Rachael was squeamish about the idea of Justin having to clean the second-story gutters each year.
Three of the four downspouts empty on to the East side (i.e. front) of our property. Our plan is excavate a large portion of the sidewalk-less easement in order to create a natural bioswale into which the stormwater can flow. We've already begun to collect water-loving plants to install in this wetlands-like natural drainage and filtering system. The city offers tax credits for this sort of project due to the prevalence of wintertime Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). These occur due to Portland's antiquated sewer system; All gray and black water (household water waste) is combined with the runoff from houses and streets into one large system. When the system reaches maximum capacity, surplus is dumped into the Willamette River. This means that, in the rainy months, biological and chemical waste enters the river nearly daily. Diverting the rainwater to permeable locations such as a bioswale helps to reduce the amount of water entering our pipes and, thus, the frequency of CSOs.
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