"She's a brick house..." Curb appeal advice needed!
6 years ago
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Need advice to add curb appeal to CA tract home
Comments (1)The brick is actually a nice addition to the home. are you up for repainting the stucco house? obviously the yard needs work. you have a nice base, just needs to be cleaned up, grass needs some help, some mulch, new plants, pruning of others. as for the garage door, just plain old white w/those arced windows?? How about something a little diff? BTW, Jasmine from Hidden Potential, works on so cal homes inside and out. this is one of her afters in OC. look through her IG feed at the exterior photos and see if it gives you any ideas https://www.instagram.com/jasminerothofficial/...See MoreFront Yard Curb appeal - Landscape / Hardscape advice needed!
Comments (46)Dennis - Unless I missed it, you didn't say what direction the front of your house faces, and how much sun it got, that is, if it's sun is obstruction by tall buildings on the other side of the street. The other very, very important thing for you to think about, of which other Houzzers might not be aware is that Southern California goes through extreme water shortages pretty much every single year, and many areas are told to not water their lawn or do it only minimally for parts of the year. That should really inform how you think about landscaping. Admittedly, I do understand if you despise cacti and other succulents. But you might want to seriously think about eschewing live grass in favor of artificial turf. There are marvelous artificial turfs now that would fool anyone, certainly from standing height, and you obviously don't need to water it and think of all the $$ you save in gardener's fees, and none of those those pesky varmints rolling up the sod, either.! You can can still have specifically carved out flower beds, and trees and bushes with planned irrigation for those specific areas. Your area abounds with very experienced landscape architects. You want someone who has an artistic eye, and who knows hardscape and who is very familiar with the plants that do well in your area, and is familiar with the exigencies of life in SoCal and in your microclimate and can speak frankly with you about what you want to get out of your garden and how much work you are willing to put in to it. Do you sit outdoors in the front or the back? Do you want fragrant flowers on a trellis where you sit there or will a fragrance annoy the heck out of you? Will you sit outside in the morning or night, so do you need flowers that bloom in the am or bloom in the evening with colors that will be seen sell in twilight and at night? Do you want an herb garden for cooking? Do you want vegetables? Do you want several rose bushes so you can fill your house with roses, or other flowers so you can always have bouquets? Of course Dig Doug's designs look fantabulous as always, but note that his designs show significant hardscape changes to the front of the house. You might want to think about saving up some money for the hardscape work. If you get rid of the grass and put in artificial turf, you will end up saving a fortune of money on your water bill that you can put toward hardscape. If you have never owned a house before, you would not believe how much the water bill will be, and when you add in watering the lawn, holy moly!...See MoreNeed Curb Appeal Advice
Comments (1)I like a lot about the proposal. I like the new windows very much. I like that the gable brackets are gone. I like the second gable over the one car bay and that the gable siding look like shakes. What I would eliminate is the second gable on the left. That has to have a hefty price on it. Although the roof over the front door and the lower windows looks good, it could be eliminated. Maybe just do a shed portico over the entry. The doors should be updated. You could leave the stone. With a lighter color on the bricks, it will blend in nicely. Even if you just update the windows and change the color of the brick, I think it will look a lot better. This mock-up is very crude, but it visualizes what I'm thinking....See MoreNeed advice for adding shade and curb appeal to late 1970's ranch
Comments (15)You could extend the garage roof leftward to a point about midway between the two windows on the left, adding a small forward facing gable in at the front edge of the roof directly in front of the front door. That gives you instant shade and an update on curb appeal. With the new "entrance" to the front door even with the front exterior wall of the garage, the glass in the garage door would be less of a distraction or focal point anyway but, just to be sure, you could create a bolder feature in the gable end of the porch -- perhaps an open arc: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/107171666112536981/ Perhaps an open end with only framing showing. https://onlineroofdesign.blogspot.com/2020/01/gable-roof-front-porch.html A wider/bigger bolder open gable . https://eplan.house/en/house-plans/149-kv-m-3-beds-no-garage-SV-58552-1-3 Enclose all or half the depth of the new front porch as a "sun room" entry of sorts or a more modern and dramatic entry foyer: With this one, you could add a patio door on the side of the new glass room and add a front yard patio on the side for which you could create a "green" privacy wall with a hedge beginning at the front of the sidewalk and extending all across the front of the house to the left front corner of the house. You could keep your existing front doorway but, perhaps, add a new door there, perhaps even a French door. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/543880092475643570/...See MoreRelated Professionals
South Orange Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Deer Park Landscape Contractors · Vadnais Heights Landscape Contractors · Asheville Furniture & Accessories · Arlington General Contractors · Ames General Contractors · Corpus Christi Architects & Building Designers · Middle Island Painters · Santa Fe Painters · Tomball Painters · Jackson General Contractors · Middletown General Contractors · Rosemead General Contractors · Troy General Contractors · Uniondale General Contractors- 6 years ago
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Dig Doug's Designs