Paint below the chair rail a different/slightly darker color than above the chair rail, and paint the chair rail white. 

You mentioned to much shade plant blackberry bushes they grow out of control. and are super thorny. 

One more problem we found was that when we painted the house a darker blue, the siding actually started to melt and peel away from the house due to the sun.

I think a darker blue, or just black would be easier to see.

As weird as it sounds, the darker color can absorb more heat from the sun.  

I say some as we've used both the "bamboo"  and "maple" patterns/finishes and they are wearing well (three years worth of students later), but were less impressed with a darker (American walnut?)

My last buyer put 3% down and had a 648 FICO.... shades of 2006.  

Assuming a 5% vacancy and a shade over 500k as a sales price, I see that as around a 7% cap rate.

It isn't clearly labeled what Zone it's in, but it shows it's within the blue shaded region.

Thermostats are the most obvious and widely known but I would look into other things like automated shades, LED lights, etc as well.