This photo might help. The darker shutters and round windows add some dramatic style to an otherwise plain brick facade. Very dark green (almost black) shutters would look good too. Dormers help too. I believe the entrance vestibule was added to this house but it might have once been an open portico.

I suspect the typical real estate sales point-n-shoot wide angle photo makes the roof look small so get a better photo.

Yes, it is a bit odd looking, but could be a lot worse. I would darken the shutters and add a walkway from the drive. Dormers and a portico would also be nice but you may not want to spend that kind of money. But don't take out the walkway to the street: visitors might park there and walk up, or the mailman might use it. I always think houses without a walk to the street look unwelcoming.
It certainly does need some flower beds and/or shrubs but I wouldn't know what to suggest without seeing a better view of the street, and a view of the drive and neighbouring houses.

What an odd and pointlessly asymmetrical design. And what are those two rectanglular stones supposed to be? Definitely from the "I like it and who cares what you have to say" school of architecture. But it looks like a lovely neighbourhood.

Keep the sidewalk. Put in proper plantings. In any case, you spend most of your time indoors, not out front looking at your home. (Unless you use a pic of it as a screen saver.)

Any other thoughts from anyone else? I wasn't expecting such harsh replies, haha. Is it really that ugly? I don't know, it's growing on me I guess.

This is the only home like this on the street. The others are your classic 2 story, vinyl siding and brick with front porches, etc. There a a few split-levels as well.

I like the looks of the house (and the yard is way larger than anything we have here) and I don't think it looks ugly at all. I do think a portico would help a lot and probably not be too costly - especially in what it would add in aesthetics. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I would look at magazines. There is one that I looked at the other day at Target that was only about exteriors that I really liked. Unfortunately, being in CA, it wasn't helpful to our style of house, but the ideas in it could easily translate to your house. Also, you may want to post in the Home Decorating forum (if you have not already). It seems to have more traffic and some of the people there will have a lot of great ideas. HTH

One of the biggest things that would help out is putting a portico on the door/above the door...it would help *so* much. Also get rid of the white shutters, as other people on here said, too.

Because you don't have a sidewalk, the walkway to the door is pointless. You do want to see if the mailman uses it, though.

There is a lot you can do with landscaping to help matters. Hop on over to the landscape design forum for help with the actual landscaping to help the house.

There's nothing wrong with the outside. I don't particularly find it attractive, but it's certainly not bad. There are a lot of architectural and landscaping tricks you can use to spruce things up, especially if you are willing to pay someone to design them. To me, it kind of looks like one of those brick apartment units, nothing special about it right now, but it has potential.

I love the screened in porch in the back and the backyard!

I don't know if a portico would work really well since the front door isn't centered. I would maybe think about a porch or covering of some sort across the whole front of the house. I've always wants a front porch. I agree about adding a walk from the garage to front door. The walk that goes straight out, I would leave for now. Maybe do a bit of landscaping with some annuals about 10 feet out on both sides.

I do like the macv post with the deep reddish shutters, looks good with the brick.

Here is a link that might be useful: four square house

I don't think the house is horrible "as is". I would change the shutter color away from the red family though.

If you want a front porch, I'd play off the existing asymmetry and have the porch roof, likely a hip roof, go in one of two locations:

Have the porch roughly centered under the three round windows, with the porch footprint essentially encompassing the entry door and the two windows on ether side of the entry door. A hip roof there would fill the brick "void" below the three round windows.

That option has the door int eh center of the porch, smack in the middle of the porch floor space.

If you wanted to weight it to the side, consider having the porch in front of the door and the two windows to the right of the porch. Sort of roughly centered off the two dormers on the right side of the roof. That doesn't solve the main asymmetry problems, but it has the entry on the left third of the porch with seating area on the right two-thirds.

I'd keep the roof dormer colors as neutral as possible, as they are now, it helps them blend in with the roof color and hides the asymmetry a bit.

I'd re-pitch the gutter and get rid of the center downspout.

I don't think it's ugly - quite the opposite, it's a beautiful house. I think some taller, thin pine evergreens would be pretty on the left side of the house and keep the right side with shorter bushes. To me, this is a typical southern style home and wouldn't do anything except address the shrubbery in the front.

Not so bad..take your time..look for some landscaping books at the library...put in low maintenance...also trim back those trees so they are not touching the house.

Some of you must be looking at the wrong house. Select the link at the bottom of the original post.

forever

I think the home has plenty of potential for exterior charm

I would suggest:
Remove all the shutters they are just the wrong dimension for the windows, they appear to be cheap & poorly installed
as well
the first level has 3 arches above windows & door
perhaps an arched portico

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.finalarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/elegant-portico-with-brick-walk-up-porch.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.finalarchitecture.com/entranceway-design-collection-from-colonial-remodeling-project/elegant-portico-with-brick-walk-up-porch/&usg=__VUutID-HZcCjwrx5bsZK-sV3F-w=&h=319&w=500&sz=83&hl=en&start=0&sig2=x4xhpisErBFcIm6OscckQA&zoom=1&tbnid=tDPG5NJXxW1k7M:&tbnh=128&tbnw=178&ei=1KOHTNXpM8H6lwe8xrixDg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbrick%2Bcolonial%2Bwith%2Barched%2Bportico%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1016%26bih%3D509%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=695&vpy=82&dur=5603&hovh=179&hovw=281&tx=188&ty=126&oei=1KOHTNXpM8H6lwe8xrixDg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0

Another portico
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.redfin.com/washingtondc/files/2008/04/ramsgateroad.jpg&imgrefurl=http://factoidz.com/knowing-the-architectural-styles-for-remodeling-a-home/&usg=__znfWpicXIH5FcMQKQif8Qap8U2c=&h=300&w=400&sz=56&hl=en&start=0&sig2=ce1aqBvojfvdh1fTdD7dgQ&zoom=1&tbnid=Y7ikaaXsxk2lcM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=145&ei=1KOHTNXpM8H6lwe8xrixDg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbrick%2Bcolonial%2Bwith%2Barched%2Bportico%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1016%26bih%3D509%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C102&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=253&vpy=215&dur=895&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=133&ty=130&oei=1KOHTNXpM8H6lwe8xrixDg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0&biw=1016&bih=509

brick w/black front door & black shutters
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://philly.brownstoner.com/decbrickwork1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://philly.brownstoner.com/preservation/&usg=__Tlm_qAa7t1gfk7SifSv8Ac1OCP4=&h=364&w=500&sz=196&hl=en&start=348&sig2=iosMnAug8v-qHVYP7Wr-wg&zoom=1&tbnid=X_M8-ms_v5O2pM:&tbnh=174&tbnw=247&ei=iaaHTMmEIYPGlQf9p_iKDw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbrick%2Bcolonial%2Bwith%2Barched%2Bportico%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1016%26bih%3D509%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C17833&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=475&vpy=201&dur=3102&hovh=191&hovw=263&tx=121&ty=110&oei=1KOHTNXpM8H6lwe8xrixDg&esq=43&page=46&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:348&biw=1016&bih=509
Remove the evergreen to the right - at least part of it, the part that is eating the house -is there house behind that?
Trim the evergreen on the opposite side, it is now encroaching on the house.
Someone decided to plant a tree way to close to the house in front, that soon will be eating up the front of the house - I would move that before it gets to large to move

Make beds in front of the house with some mix of small evergreen types rhododendron, azalea and perennials
Perhaps some type of facing over the existing front steps w/stone - if the concrete base is in good condition and install nice black wrought iron railing - Other black accents may work well too - urns - perhaps painting the front door black & then consider installing proper shutters

best of luck

I do not think the house is ugly. If the inside works for you, then there is nothing really wrong with the exterior, although it is a bit boring. I think it would be greatly improved with dark shutters and front door: black, charcoal or very dark green. It also needs some landscaping to add dimension, but we hired a professional for that because I am no good at planning landscaping.

iwant, it appears that people are commenting on the pix that Macy posted, and did not open the link to the house you are considering. (Notice they are talking about the red shutters and not the white ones.)

Personally, I think it just needs landscaping. After you plant some shrubs, etc. then you can decide if it needs a porch. If the interior floor plan suits you and the price and neighborhood are good, I would go for it. You are right that brick is more desirable than siding.

Hope I'm not too late!