For the particular example you included, I would suggest lowering the exposure by 1 stop or so. The "big white sky", also known as blown out, is because the exposure for that part of the scene is too high. But most of the details in the rest of the image, while not overexposed per se, are bright enough that they won't suffer if the total image exposure is reduced. The fence and house walls, in particular, are quite bright.

The risk, of course, is possibly losing some details in the darker regions. The storm cloud in particular will look a lot more menacing; the tall tree in the middle might have less leaf detail.

Counterintuitively to beginners, midday lighting is often very difficult to work with — shadows are hard; the dynamic range of the scene is very high, with lots of dark and bright regions and relatively little in between; and subjects tend to appear to have less "texture" or depth to them. If you can, choose days to shoot when the sky is partially overcast, or at least during times when the sun is blocked by more diffuse clouds. This will soften the lighting on the subjects, as well as reduce the difference between the lightest and darkest parts of the sky.