Landscaping can do so much to improve the exterior of old houses and it doesn't have to cost alot if you plan well and do it in small steps.

We have a nice row of lilies in front of the house. They are all blooming right now and look great. I also put roses along side of the house where the front door and walkway are. The house intself looks so sad though. The landscaping helped but during the winter when we have 2-3 ft of snow you can't see it!!
-renee

I'd love to see your house. I might be able to give you some suggestions after seeing it.

Landscaping well means finding shrubs, trees and even a few structures like arbors that will provide you with a good look year long.
Adding in a stone wall or fencing can take the ordinary and make it stand out.
Try some flower boxes on the front windows. In the spring and summer they can hold flowers, in the winter pine branches or fruit.
Maybe shutters can help. They don't have to be fancy to add charcater. I've seen some that were nothing but wide boards cut to the length of the windows and painted a nice backround color and then someone did some stenciling or handpainting to give them that extra special touch.
You might even consider adding some container plants to your landscape, they too can hold pines in the winter time to give you home interest.

Thanks, I will try to post a picture later.
We have shutters. I pondered adding window boxes however I am nervous about poking holes in my siding. Our winters here are bad and I did have some ever-greens in the front that were there when we purchased the house, however they were squished and looked very bad due to our snow. So if I put ever greens in I think I would have to protect them and then that would look just as bad.
We would love a stone wall, however due to the expense of that I think we are going to wait.
i think I will talk to my husband about window boxes again. See if he can think of a way to put them up by poking the least about of holes into the house.
also how do I post a picture here? I am not sure how to do it
Thanks!
-renee

The easiest way to post pictures is to put them up on one of the free photo galleries on the web, and then enter the URL in the box below the follow-up form. There are other ways, but this is really easiest. Make sure that you make your gallery publicly available; the gallery documentation should tell you how to do that.

What kind of budget and time frame are you thinking of? If you want something cheap and quick, you'll get different recommendations than if you want something that you can spend, say, $200 every two months for two years on. Are you or your spouse handy? Would you consider, for example, new framing for your windows and doors, or is that a lot more complicated than you want? Give us an idea of the kind of improvement that you're interested in.

Draping grapevine over your front door is always a good look, and you can add artificial flowers and leaves according to the season. Now's the time to forage for wild-growing vines. You'll have to drape them while they're pliable over something that will give them the right shape while they dry. I found that making a chicken-wire frame for the arch over the door makes that task easier, makes mounting easier and gives the dry vine some strength in higher winds.

If you don't want to harvest wild grapevines, you can buy grapevine garland here and here. A Google search will turn up many more possibilities.

We are very handy.
I am not sure what you mean by framing our windows.
We are thinking of something more architectual, like moldings or outside decorations. I have done alot of improvements on the landscaping but the house is still a big box.
I think under 1000 dollars would be good. I did try to look up pics of houses that look like ours. I did find some..now don't laugh!!!
http://www.chuckstarck.com/screens/sky/winter2002-bw-farmhouse.jpg

this actually has the same shape as our house. Our porch is enclosed (and not falling down!) so you can see how boxy it is and why I am having a problem!
here is a model that shows the shape also,
http://www.aristocraft.com/catalog/buildings/images/ART-7203%20yellow%20farmhouse.jpg
http://railroad.union.rpi.edu/images/structures/Other-kits/F/Faller-Farmhouse-1.jpg
Now the porch used to be the best feature but now it is a box with windows and that is where our front door is now.
I really love the mudroom on the inside, but it sure looks like an ugly box on the outside.
sighh. I just don't know how to fix it!
-renee

By "framing" I was thinking of adding some architectural interest to the outside windows. Take a look at the thread Hi, Here Is My House by Steph_IL. Her house sounds similar to yours, but the "eyebrows" on her windows keep the facade from looking bland.

Oh, Yah! I did see those pics and love that house! We have aluminum siding, and who knows, we may have pretty stuff under there. Right now we can't remove the siding. Maybe they make decorations like that for over the siding??? Have you ever seen that before?
That is a good idea and I really like the look AND it fits in with the age and style of the house.
-renee