Curb appeal 1960s colonial
Austin Potter
6 years ago
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1960's ranch needs curb appeal on tight budget
Comments (3)I love 60s ranches! Ours is built on a sloped lot, so we actually have a full walkout basement, but from the front it looks like just a one-story ranch. Anyway, how energetic are you feeling? We used to have a concrete walk that ran straight from the drive to the house like yours. We took it up and put in a flagstone walk that begins down closer to the street and curves in an 's' shape to the door. That gave me the opportunity to plant on both sides of the walk and gave us a very pretty and much more interesting entrance. We also have shade and acid soil. I have some sun in the morning over the low roof, so I keep trying cone flowers and I have a peony which is really healthy, but only get a couple of blooms each spring. They aren't fabulous, but they are surviving and the gold finches are all over the cone flowers now. Most of what I have is shade loving, though. I have hosta, azaleas, one camellia (had two, but moved one and killed it-alas), hellebores (a favorite b/c they are evergreen), liriope (also evergreen), heuchera (evergreen), astilbe, dicentra, brunnera, impatiens-annuals for summer color, cimicifuga, asarum europaen(European ginger-evergreen and really pretty ground cover for filling in around other plants)and I had tiarella (foam flower) and lamium (dead nettle), but they died. To keep costs down, check with neighbors. I got some hellebores from a friend whose plants had spread too much, people may be dividing hosta now or in the spring, and you may have neighbors who can share the liriope. I don't like the look of a walk entirely bordered by any one thing, so I have hosta, liriope, heuchera, hellebores, etc. interspersed along the border and in the bed. It makes for a nice mix of leaf shapes and textures. The astilbe will spread if you keep it moist, and tiarella and lamium spread, too, but slowly in my garden (after which it died-about as slow as you can get, I guess!!!). If there is a local garden club, join it. You will find people with lots of ideas and also, plants to share! Good luck. Have fun!...See More1960s Colonial Style Home
Comments (7)It's a 1960s style suburban house. They are all over the place. Acres of them! What is really important is ... is it well-maintained? Can you afford it? Do you like the layout? Do you like the location? Is it close to work and school? Can you do what's important to you without having to drive a lot? Search Google's Images for colonial homes and look at the windows and porches ... What strikes me as a visual flaw is that the upper windows are so short, and in a classic colonial house they were equal height top and bottom. Installing taller windows would be relatively easy. Doubling them, as Renovator suggested, would be harder, but still possible. If you did that, do upper and lower windows and keep them matching heights. If there is a room over the entry that could benefit from having a window, add one. Fattening up the porch columns and trim would do a lot for the house. The posts are way too skinny - visually - for the width of the porch roof. I like that the porch is big enough to actually have benches on, BTW. Other changes, which unlike the windows are easy to DIY, would be to widen the walkway until it's the same width as the front doorway. I'd lay a brick edging to match the lower part of the house. Increasing the width of the foundation plantings would also add some "street appeal" to the house....See MoreUpdate Curb Appeal for 1960's Ranch?
Comments (24)I moved some of the photos from the album the OP linked to. This home looks to be custom built for the lot. Notice the design philosophy where the posts blend right into the trees and are hardly noticed. Why would anyone want to "beef up" the posts or glue trellises to them? It looks like some of the posts have started to be painted white to match the window and door trim for some reason. This is an easy fix and the posts can be repainted to blend. If you start messing with the posts in front of the house then you have created a monster with the posts along the garage not matching. There is no reason to start hacking the support posts out as some are suggesting, both from a design perspective and from an engineering standpoint. This home was designed to 'cocoon' the inhabitants and blend in with the natural surroundings. The FLW philosophy believed a home should work with the surroundings not just be plopped down. This home embraces that philosophy. I am very curious as to whom is the architect here. It looks like there may have been tiered steps and a platform going up into the garden in back that have now been removed and replaced with a new sloping walkway. Before doing any other modifications a professional should be consulted for guidance....See More1960s "colonial" split level facade help
Comments (13)This home appears to have a sizable lot with plenty of potential. If the homeowner were replacing the roof, I'd suggest replacing this one with a steeper roof with gable ends and a third gable -- a forward facing gable over a larger front porch in front of the house. If the interior of the house and the land on which it is located and the neighborhood in which it is located and the selling price are all to your liking, don't be discouraged by purely curb appeal cosmetic issues. Before buying this house, however, you should have an expert that is working for you inspect the house to help you avoid costly surprises. You should know before you buy what work needs to be done -- roofing, insulation, electrical, plumbing, heat/ac, moisture issues, etc., just to make the home livable. You should also find out about easements, underground utilities or building code limitations that could affect your efforts to effect necessary and/or desirable changes. For instance, if the home needs a complete redo of a bath or kitchen, you should factor that into the pricing of the home. With that low roof -- not even the usual 4/12 -- and high windows, it is likely there is little overhead insulation. It wouldn't surprise me to find out the roof rafters are also the ceiling joists. There's also likely little ventilation in what passes for an attic, which could mean moisture/sweating problems -- which could explain the trees being planted so close to the house in an effort to create much needed shade. If so, the cost of a new roof should be factored in as you consider the price and you budget. From the front, the lot appears sloped toward the driveway. You should pay attention to potential rainwater drainage issues on the left side of the house and the potential for dampness and/or mold/mildew issues beneath the floor....See MoreAustin Potter
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