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Home Decorating

Curb appeal suggestions needed

11 years ago

Hi, all,

Attached is a photo of a little rental house we rent to one of our friends and to his disabled roommate. I did some PS magic to remove the trash cans in front of the one window, and to remove the broken shutters and empty window boxes and hanging baskets with plastic flowers, all of which had seen better days. The photo is how the house looks now (with my not-so-great skills with PS) EXCEPT that the rosemary and flowering bush to the far right of the photo are no longer there.

The house used to have shutters, which have since fallen apart and disintegrated. It also used to have window boxes, but now there is only the shelving under the windows to the far left and the far right. The house used to also have two hanging window baskets (with plastic flowers) over the front porch. It was cute. Now, not so cute. Two bachelors living there don't care.

Times are tough for them financially, and our friend and his roommate do not bother to water the lawn because the water bill is in their name.

Are there any frugal fixes my DH and I can do to make this place a little more appealing?

Thanks!

Smiles,

Sooz

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Comments (10)

graywings123
11 years ago
It is neat and clean with renters who don't care how it looks, so why do anything that is going to cause work for someone? I would focus on any maintenance issues and leave it at that.
bronwynsmom
11 years ago
Can you switch the water bill to your name in the interest of preserving your property? Then I'd plant abundant foundation plants, and make the deal that you pay the water bill, but they water regularly.

I think it looks better without shutters. It has some of the appeal of an authentic ranch house in its simplicity.
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beachlily z9a
11 years ago
Is anyone else having problems seeing links? I see people referring to their photos and see others responding to the photos, but I don't see the link at all. I use Firefox. What's not happening??
pianolady007
11 years ago
What are the scalloped things under the windows? I think I'd remove them if they are just decorative and go for a clean look. I also like without the shutters. Depending on the reason the security door is there, it might look nice to remove it and paint the front door a wedgewood blue or other contrasting color that will "pop".
Tmnca
11 years ago
How about zeroscaping or xeriscaping for the front yard? However since the lawn is already dead, it's going to take time money and maintenance to do anything with it. So if the current tenants really don't care, you may as well save your money and wait until the day you want t sell or re-rent it. Unless the neighbors are complaining!

Some ideas:

zeroscaping

xeriscaping

Xeri and Zeroscaping
sooz
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions!

The scallop things you see is part of the shelf atop which sat the window boxes.

Thanks for the links, too!

Smiles,
Sooz
mclarke
11 years ago
It's a cute house. Stark, at the moment, but cute. Is it stucco?
sooz
Original Author
11 years ago
Yes, it's stucco. Here's the photo of the place with shutters, window boxes with painted wooden flowers on a stick in them, and the hanging baskets (and dead lawn).
jterrilynn
11 years ago
What a cute house! There is something not right about the shutters on the window to the left, I would leave them off. Down the road you might want to remove the Fred Flintstones on the front and stucco over. Otherwise like already said just make sure its maintained and get some green in the grass.
mclarke
11 years ago
I do like the white shutters on the right-side window.

Also -- you can get inexpensive "silk" hanging plants that will do fine outdoors. I had artificial flowers in my window boxes for years... They look great from the street, and withstand neglect.

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