I wish I had a picture of a house painted this way, I feel like I saw one in Southern Living a long time ago....but I would actually paint the brick a light taupe color, and get some nice, real shutters (the kind that have hinges and are actually operable, rather than just stuck on the house) and paint them a darker shade of taupe. I think that, combined with a nice landscaping plan, complete with large stone containers with topiaries near the front door would be lovely!

First of all, congratulations! And welcome! You'll find lots of good ideas here.

My initial question is about curb appeal... um.... where exactly IS the curb?

Is this the front of the house? In other words, when you drive by the house, is this the view you get?

Is that a sidewalk? Why does it seem to end in the middle of the lawn? IS that a lawn?

I think your house has lots of potential.

Thank you! lol, well I guess there really is no curb :/ it goes straight from grass to street. Yes this is the front of the house and the garage is located on the side of the house. Im just as confused about that walkway in the middle of the lawn as you are haha...I got some major work to do! We will also have to put up a fence as it doesn't already have one. Any suggestions are more than welcome, as I am lost and don't even know where to start! Here is a better pic of where the lawn ends to the street.{{!gwi}}

Also here is the side of the house where the garage is located.{{!gwi}}

I am lol that 1960 is an old house - mine was built in 1758.;)

That's a nice tree in front. You'll need to to some plantings, green things up in front. Make the walkway make sense somehow. ;)

Paint the door and window trim a nice color, maybe add windowboxEs and/or shutters? Nice planters/pots flanking the entry.

I like the pp's idea of painting the house but not sure if that's in your budget - there's a lot of stuff you can do, but you can tackle it one part at a time so just keep with it!

Congratulations and welcome!

Ha ha ha ha....

I suppose I should have asked ... what's your budget?

Thanks for answering my question about the walkway. You'll want to relocate it, right?

Curb appeal usually is what it says... making your house inviting. Create the urge to visit.

So... Who uses the walkway and how is it used? Will people park in the driveway and then walk to your front door? Or...?

I would continue the walk to the driveway, put in nice new green lawn, some landscaping, later nice brighter shutters and paint the door . maybe a berm, island of planting out front other side of walkway..

I don't think your house is ugly at all, but then I love ranch houses. Here is a picture of ours. It doesn't show the whole house. I will try to download two pictures, but I may not be able to do it. If not a will post a second showing our front walk. I would extend and widen your walk. I would also add a curve to it. If you like a more formal look though, keep it straight all the way to the street. Then, I would add beds on either side of the walk when you get around to it. The first thing I would do after the walk and before the walkway beds is to plant more trees. I love the one you have, but more trees will certainly improve the look. You seem to have plenty of room so maybe a couple of large trees (at least 15-20 feet from the house) and smaller, flowering trees would be lovely. Then, you can add shrubs and last the perennials, annuals, etc. You don't have to do this all at once. Take time to explore the garden forums (Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Cottage Gardens, etc.). There are lots of pictures. There is also a design forum with some knowledgeable people as well. Here is ours:

we have an island bed between two large old oaks. The walkway is to the left. I will post another picture that shows more of the house and the walkway. Just ignore the weeds you see!

Budget is going to help us make suggestions that will work for you. But I have to say that I'm amused by the builder's decision to take the walkway and the driveway to a random point in the yard and then stop. What are you supposed to do with that? Of course, I was built in 1965 and I don't know what I'm supposed to do with some parts of me, so maybe its indicative of the era.

I'm thinking you do away with the walkway to nowhere entirely. Just bust it up and haul it off. No one is going to come in that way, anyway, right? Aren't they all going to park in the driveway -- or at least on the side street -- and walk around the front? If so, I'd make a nice walkway from the driveway to the front doot instead. In fact, you could possibly use the busted up walkway to extend the driveway, sort of like random-sized flagstones.

I like the idea of painting it, but if that isn't in the budget right now, then landscaping is the key.

Okay, one more shot:

You can't quite see, but our walkway is a serpentine shape. I just walked it off to decide how I wanted it to look. I agree you could curve around to your driveway, but be sure you don't interfere with the tree if you do-give it plenty of space.

Wow, you have a different definition of ugly than me! I think it is a very nice looking house and that tree is fabulous.
Is it possible the walkway ends at the county/city road right of way? Your driveway ends the same way, paved part way, then becomes gravel. I'd check where the right of way is and where your line is before proceeding.

If that is where the property line is, then your fence would be there, too. I'd think about taking out the lawn from the edge of the right of way to the paved road and gravel it for parking and to have the fence make more sense. If your property line is at the edge of the street where the lawn ends, then you have more options.

About the walkway: We bought a house built in 1964 which also had a walkway to nowhere just like yours, straight and narrow. After we moved in we found out from the neighbors there had been a grove of ornamental trees there but they had all died and been dug up because the owner just previous to us didn't water them. Would have been easier to water than to pay to have them removed, for Pete's sake. Anyway, almost 50 years ago your walk could have had almost any purpose, I'd think.

I too do not think your home is at all ugly. There are so many possibilities, seems to me. I'll leave it to those more knowledgeable than me to make suggestions, though.

I think your home is lovely. My first thought is to have your tree trimmed. That's one of those expenses that's kind of a bummer, but the tree will look nicer in the spring if it's trimmed. My second thought is that gravel is relatively inexpensive. You could use gravel to define the expand the walkway a little more, and perhaps create a square or rectangular landing for your guests when they park in front of the house. I wish I knew how to draw that on your photo. If you had a little more $ to spend, you can set large concrete (poured on-site) stepping stones in the gravel. I'll see if I cant find some photos to post that would show what I'm attempting to describe.

Thank you all for your suggestions and ideas! Keep them coming please its really helping me out. Love pictures also as Im more of a visual person so if you have any post away!

Congratulations on the house. Wonderful tree.

I'd start with a plan that emphasizes the tree and lays out other structure. Since you mentioned a fence... maybe a gate or trellis passage where the walkway dies off? Drop in some stepping stones between there and the road. Just to make the walkway ending like that be more sensible.

I've seen it where there is just a bit of fence either side of the entry gate/trellis, but that partial fence relates to fencing on the side or in back.

With back/side fence, tree, walkway and gate/trellis as the structure, coax grass along and plan out a few beds. Just a few to start. (We just pick a spot and lay a tarp down untill the grass dies off). Then dig in. Flats of annuals drop steeply in price partway into summer and will last a long time where you are. Snap up perrenials and other plantings when you can - ask friends and family if they need anything dug up and divided.

Your tree deserves a wide circle of mulch (less grass to tend and makes the tree happy and healthy.) Our town has free mulch at the 'recycling center' aka the dump.

I like someone's earlier idea of continuing the walkway around to the driveway too though....

hmmm. You may find it easier to tackle removing part of that 'walk to nowhere' than trying to work with it. A walk, even gravel, curving by the tree could be very nice.

Maybe it's the camera angle, but the tree looks huge. The big open yard and giant tree make the house look too small.

I liked the idea of trimming the tree back to size and having a fence where the walk ends. Or maybe a low stone wall. You have a lot of open land to use, so that is good, just needs to be organized into sections.

Most likely the walk ends like that because that is where an easement starts or where the actual property line is.

It isn't uncommon in TX for roads to have easements on a property or the property along the road not belonging to the house and thus there is a gap. I'm guessing the homeowners that had the walkway put in didn't want to put something costly and permanenent on an easement or that part doesn't belong to the property and they legally couldn't pull the walkway to the road.

Cute house!

I found this link when did a google image search for 50's ranch house.

Congrats on your new home!
Just wanted to comment on "trimming a tree" back. Not sure what scarlett means by that, but leave the tree alone. Trees may be limbed up but never trimmed.

And a "ring" of mulch can be iffy for a tree so don't do that either.
You have a lot before you but I would work on the house first.
Landscaping should have definite plans and not something to take lightly.
You may end up removing the walkway totally for something with better lines, for instance. Really all depends on your budget and how much time you want to put in to it.

i would go to a nursery and get advice on new foundation plantings that are hardy in your area and won't get ridiculously overgrown or that can stand up to heavy pruning. I'd put in sorta roundish beds with some type of stone border to hold mulch or even better a dense ground-cover.

Then, keep existing walkway for now, but put in a walkway in stone or pavers or something going along the beds toward the driveway. Eventually, you can replace the existing walkway with the same stone. (Or maybe you just dig it all up and have no walk going to the front?)

If existing walkway is staying, then add some raised beds at the end with some pretty flowering bush, then just add a few stones spaced out going to the road... it could kinda drift off that way and still look intentional.

{{!gwi}}

Another idea would be to ad some larger bushes along the driveway to camouflage the parked cars.

{{!gwi}}

I can't really see the front door and steps, so not sure what to do there. Is adding a front porch an option? that might be nice.

this is kinda what I had in mind.

Something planted around the base of the tree would look pretty too.

Congratulations! Lovely house. Lots of potential.

First, there are gardening forums on here devoted to specific regions of the country. You might want to check out the TX one for specific plant suggestions. Best to get what thrives in your conditions. Native TX plants, for instance.

If it was me, I'd paint the bricks ivory. But that's my personal taste. I like a modern slant for a mid-60's ranch. Something like this:

If you keep it natural brick, a good old Texas star somewhere on the front is always nice! :)

Enjoy decorating your new home!

First off, the home's not ugly, the picture probably doesn't do it justice because of the time of the year it was taken.
A few black shutters or landscaping to soften the straight lines would go a long way. A seating area out in front would make it more inviting. Love Froofycat's diagram/pic and the 2nd pic posted by biochem101.

You still haven't told us what your budget is...

Before we start adding gold-plated shutters and diamond-studded doorknobs, lol...

Yes, budget is most important! All that lovely, green grass comes via sprinkler systems and mostly likely, sod, so if you only have nothing except manpower supplied by you and your partner, then let us know!