Are you only painting the brick on the garage portion of the house and not painting the brick on the main house? I would be inclined to suggest painting all of the brick, including the knee wall, the same color. I think this would update the look of the home significantly.

There is a reason that such a feature does not exist on homes. A solid half-wall spaced a few feet from the house wall, concealing, presumably, a walkway, is not a "plus." How do you use this feature? The only thing I can think of is if you have something unattractive hidden behind it that you don't want the public to see. Is this the case? Or is there some other way that this wall is useful? If it is not actually NEEDED, I would consider removing it, since it does not visually enhance the house. (It looks like a great feature to help conceal wannabe burglars. Maybe that's why the burglar bars exist for that window.)

Hi Patricia and Bear Creek-

Sorry, I think my post was confusing. We're not painting the red brick on any portion of the house. We like the brick. Just concerned about the half wall of yellowish brick running across the house. Part of me wants to take it down and the MCM lover in me wants to work around it. Patricia we really like the idea of a horizontal wood wall to conceal or replace the wall and that's definitely an option. Do you think having the iron posts on the porch encased in the same wood would be a good idea as well? I just worry about a wood wall looking out of place.

Yardvaark-

We didn't build the house or put up the irons on the windows it's a 50+ yr old house. No we don't "hide" anything behind the wall. Wasn't looking for a snarky rant about the wall. Thanks though.

Jeez ... ease up on the ruffled feathers. It wasn't a snarky comment. It was a serious comment about the wall that serves no purpose. If you cannot handle simple truth, don't ask questions in public. I know it's a 50 year old house that you did not build. I was asking about the wall's use. It has no practical use since you are not hiding anything behind it. And it isn't compatible with the house itself. I don't know what one would consider MCM about this wall. This configuration was not used in the MCM era, or as I pointed out earlier, in any era. It is simply an earlier owner's brainstorm that was not well thought out or well executed. The solution is to remove it. Or deny truth and try to make it acceptable, which will never work because that's the way truth is.

Bear Creek-

Yes the wood wall is my favorite option we've had so far. When you mention new material is there anything aside from wood you think would look good? Now I'm wondering if we leave the porch and front doors exposed (the irons aren't staying) and start the wood or other material where the red box is below.

yardvaark,, you did it again, spot on,, why don't more people take your advice ?

Doug-

Thank you for the planting ideas. Is your mock-up suggesting adding stone in place of some of the porch concrete and the brick?

ramaboo-

I'd love to take yardvaark's advice if it was constructive. That's why I'm here.

yardvaark-

Thank you for editing your comments to come across more friendly. Nice touch.
The problem with your comment remains. You harp on why to take down the wall, but provide no solution as to what to replace the wall with?
So taking your advice, I take down the half wall that is attached to the house, sure, and then what? Leave damaged brick exposed? Fun.

"I can't seem to find any examples of houses that have this."

And there might be a very good reason for that! Put me in the camp that favors removal of the wall - it is NOT MCM (nor is the rest of the house to any significant degree - just a ranch style); it adds nothing to the facade and actually detracts visually and painting it is not going to make it look any better.....just a different color :-)

If anything, I would go with horizontal wooden cladding but then that would not fit with the character/style of the house. Just remove it, replace the far too delicate looking iron supports with something substantial and get someone to help you with a landscape plan for the front that grounds, softens and accents the facade and entry way.

Makes sense gardengal48. Since breeze blocks were used fairly frequently in midcentury architecture, something about that half wall element still strikes me (and quite a few others) as MCM. Repairing/matching the red brick behind the half wall isn't going to be possible, unfortunately so need something to cover it.

I kind of see it as an opportunity to make changes to the exterior to lead the house more towards MCM since its interior has those elements as well as other house exteriors in the neighborhood.

Of course, I don't want to overwhelm my wide brick ranch in the process of trying to modernize it. A wood wall/fence seems like the best option, then balancing out the fence somehow. The landscaping has already been done, but it's all dormant at the moment. I like the idea of tapered wood posts that match the wood wall.

Thoughts?

Hmmm........didn't realize it was attached to the structure in quite that manner! So it is just the breeze block portion that is free standing? Not sure what the reasoning is behind that, but as that is the least attractive element of the wall and serves no apparent purpose, I'd remove at least that portion. If you use the wood cladding, you should repeat it elsewhere for design cohesiveness but I do not see obvious places where you could repeat......maybe on the garage facade plane?

I'd also look into relocating that downspout to a less conspicuous location - it's not helping at all. And I'm sorry to say that dormant or not, the current landscaping is not doing you or your house any favors - you need more and of more substance/mass and something that is more evergreen than not. I'm being very blunt but it just looks like a weedy mess at the moment.

Just an aside but you can revamp the exterior of a ranch style home into a more midcentury modern feel but that should be facilitated by a professional with some exterior architecture skills, not just some random suggestions from an online forum. And be prepared to throw a few $$ at the project cuz it's not gonna get pulled off successfully by just some paint or wood sheathing.....we're talking some demolition and rebuilding and replacing of elements - wall, windows, posts, siding, walkway, entry configuration, etc.

I like your first photo redo.

if you can swing it, getting a wood garage door, or a more modern one w/the frosted panels, would really look nice

Maybe these will help w/some ideas. And as mentioned, landscaping in an mcm manner will go a long ways.

I would suggest you using ipe, or redwood for your slats. Even w/these, a good spar varnish w/UV protectents will have to be used (at least 3 coats at first, and one coat each year) or else all wood will turn gray.

or you could use a semi transparent deck stain, but it will still have to be done every year. . I like this style and the first one, where they incorporated the the breeze brick.

don't be afraid to paint it like they did, next to that wood

or even to paint the brick

I don't think anyone is saying the wall style isn't MCM. We are saying that as a feature of a home, no one in the MCM era was using like walls in a like manner. But it would be fine in an MCM museum ... for the 'hall of freestanding walls.' Houses would be in another wing. In every era of history there are rogues building their "great ideas." Many of these so called great ideas are really terrible and never withstand the test of time. Which is a good thing.

"You harp on why to take down the wall, but provide no solution as to what to replace the wall with? .... So taking your advice, I take down the half wall that is attached to the house, sure, and then what? Leave damaged brick exposed? Fun."

I don't know why you must ask the question with the tone of irritation. This is the first I'm seeing that the wall is attached to the house. If you mentioned it, I didn't see. It doesn't show up prior to the last pictures so I thought it was freestanding, in which case the obvious thing to replace it with is ... nothing ... air. Then you would have a regular house remaining.

Now I see it's a freestanding wall that also happens to be attached. Still, with the close-ups, information is concealed. No one can have an idea of the extent of the blond brick. I suspect that the freestanding portion of the wall could be removed and the remaining (attached) portion could be "patched"/terminated in a quite handsome way, with relatively little cost or distress. Doing that seems like it would be infinitely better that covering up a sizable error with a massive, brand new "Band-aid."

BTW, if there is anything else that is part of the equation but you have not shown it clearly with pictures, the conversation is bound to be incomplete or skewed. You must show the subjects of discussion in their context so people can get an idea of what the possibilities are.

Gardengal- there aren't too many evergreen options for zone 5 in partial shade but I'll keep an eye out when we add plantings in the spring. My goal is to get a firm-ish idea of what I want for the exterior before being led in a direction by a contractor.

Beth H. - you always provide great examples. Thank you so much!

Yardvaark perhaps my "tone of irritation" comes from your name calling and taunting in your second comment, which you conveniently edited. Rather than belittling people whose houzz skills you feel aren't up to par maybe you can let them know what information you feel is missing. Very simple.

That being said I don't want to patch something unattractive. If I'm removing it I'd like to do it fully and properly and come up with a solution for that portion of the house.

How many evergreen options there are depends on where you are. It is usually the first question asked, and if answered, I missed it. Where you are in the world, the direction the house faces and a few other factors can make a big difference in what you can get away with.

Hey mad_gallica- no worries there's probably too much to read through. I'm zone 5 and that area of the house is partial shade (maybe 4 hours of sunlight a day in the summer) so it makes it even trickier. There are some young plants and shrubs that are maturing to size currently, but we aren't opposed to filling in more or transplanting the current plants to make room for ones that work better.

Even now knowing that the wall is connected to the house, my first choice would be to remove the wall, at least the portion that goes across the front of the house. I would first talk with a skilled masonry contractor or architect about how the wall could be finished off at the point where it was removed - perhaps with a post that matches the replacements for the support posts currently there, or if cleanly cut and finished, it can be ended back at the points (or close to) where the wall joins the building. The porch isn't deep enough to make the sheltered portion attractive, and it makes that part of the front of the house look isolated from the surroundings. Since it goes across to the front door it makes the house look unapproachable or even slightly menacing. It isn't a front door I would want to visit after dark, and I would expect leaves, etc. would blow in there, adding maintenance. I don't think that covering the current material of the wall will improve the overall issues and may add to maintenance since wood against masonry may have moisture issues and if not against the masonry may trap things between. (Yes I know ipe is weather resistant.)

The current steps look like they are relatively wide, though it is difficult to be sure from the perspective, but the walkway at the top that leads to front door looks pinched, and the inset pinkish pavers with the three poor plants poking out is a bit odd. The downspouts aren't currently placed well and should be included in the changes as was mentioned above. The overall approach to the house can be redesigned to be more attractive.

I would do whatever structural work needs to be done including the wall and walkway and planning the locations and size of planting areas before starting to think about specific plants. Having the overall design of the house front done before starting any work will help with cohesiveness and prevent the work looking piecemeal. That doesn't mean that you need to do it all at once if there are financial constraints, but you need to plan the whole thing at once.

Once you are ready to start thinking about plants, there are quite a number of evergreens that I grow in my cold zone 5, including perennials, broad-leafed shrubs, and conifers of various sizes, along with deciduous plants with interesting bark or branch structures, so the landscaping could be an asset to the house. To get ideas, you might want to grab a camera and wander around the nearest botanic garden to see what plants appeal to you in winter or even around neighborhoods with similar architecture and nice plantings. A good landscape designer can help with choices and arranging when that time comes. IME gravel or rock mulch in areas that aren't desert is quite difficult to keep weeded after the first couple of years, and if there is landscape fabric under the rocks, you will want to remove that as well as it interferes with movement of water, nutrients and air as well as getting roots growing into the fabric. I hope that you will come back when you have settled on a plan to redo the front.

NHBabs spelled out the pertinent issues in her first paragraph above and I agree completely. A solution of wood cladding, or any other material, doesn't help the actual problem -- the existence of the wall -- in the least, but it increases the potential for other problems, not the least of which is unproductive expense.

"That being said I don't want to patch something unattractive." I used the word "patch" simply to explain a process of finishing an already existing, unfinished thing. Presumably, one would calculate how to do it in an attractive manner prior to undertaking the work. I'm sure it's possible, but that seems to remain as the subject yet unexplored.

There is a lot of zone 5 in this world. So saying you are in zone 5 really doesn't tell us all that much. State and nearest large city are much more useful as guides to what you can grow. The biggest question is often whether or not you have deer.

As for the wall, I am firmly in the camp that you haven't shown us enough of how the wall (or the house) fit into much of anything to make judgements. Panoramic photos are awful. Does the wall take a right angle to meet the house, or does the house come out to meet the wall? Does the change in brick go around the house? I will say that if you try to hide the wall behind a wooden fence, you will be making a nice home for something that you probably don't want, and the wood will rot fairly quickly because it can't dry out on the wall side. So your choices are: leave the wall as it is, as a monument to the 1950's, paint it, hide it behind shrubbery, or remove it.

Mad_gallica: central Colorado

All: The brick half wall goes into the brick about 8 inches at the points that are truly attached. It stretches across the left portion of the house where it becomes unattached again. At that point, It serves as a fence for the left 4 feet of the house in front of the dog run on the side. There is actually a real fence behind the brick wall there, so that's no concern if we were to decide to take it down. Attached are some additional pictures. The 3rd picture has an arrow showing where the wall is not attached again.

To the comments about the downspouts we actually had gutter work done to correct gutters that were hung incorrectly. Out of 3 quotes, they all gave us two options either having the downspout where it was originally (running across the porch as you see in the first picture, which drove me mad) or moved along the side of the house in front of the wall as you see on my previous close ups. Running across the porch was awful and there was no way to paint it to disappear so I went with moving it.

The middle pictures are old. The cedar is gone. The right cottonwood is also dead and removed (part of the reason for our working on the exterior).

"Cut" it off at the wall, letting it protrude, rebuilt to be a pilaster. You could get enough material out of the demolished wall to make perfect match.

A couple suggestions, Crystal, if I may:

a) remove the glass block and replace it with an open design with the same brick as on the house, or leave the wide opening.

b) research tall grasses and plant them along the face of the wall.

c) plant some interest with tall shrubs such as lilac and crepe myrtle and star magnolia, &/or tall evergreen shrubs such as viburnums or rhododendrons.

I like it, especially from a distance, as in your late photos above, I don't believe passers by are seeing it so close up as in your initial photos, or even notice it, even when they come to visit, unless the are coming to visit your canine family.

Have a happy new year, Crystal and forget about the wall. It is well-built and is providing a quiet space for your pooch.

Be happy for it.

some ideas

Thanks for your input Cascio Associates! It really isn't as jarring as some of the pictures make it seem, but admittedly not the most attractive feature. What do you mean by removing the glass block? Are you referencing removing the breezeblock portion of the wall? Definitely will add more interesting landscaping once we see what does well in that planter. Nothing but Japanese forest grass and hostas seem to like it over there because of the heavy shade. We tried tall grasses and they were stunted due to the shade.

Thanks Doug that's nice looking! Is that stonecrop on the right? What are the two species on the left? We are pretty limited when it comes to the wall section of the yard. The house is west facing and that portion of the yard stays shaded for the majority of the day.

http://www.paradisepalmslasvegas.com/2014/02/the-architecture-of-paradise-palms.html?m=1

Found photos of houses with breezeblock and stamped concrete used for privacy/design. Looking at more examples and Beth's examples the implementation on our house seems 100% for "design" because the only privacy it provides is for going to check the mail in your robe lol.

Going to chat with a couple (landscape) architects, but if anyone has any additional input...

Well, since you asked for additional input here’s mine - even though I’m risking be accused of not giving constructive advice:

Remove it. It really doesn’t add anything attractive and looks odd. I would worry about lurkers behind it, both the 2 legged and 4 legged kind. Use bits of the removed wall to repair/patch/built a new wall “end” at the house. Done.

Thanks for the input littlebug. I'd consider that constructive.

I wish I could afford those breeze blocks!