I am interested in seeing this too!

There’s a whole documentary on Levittown. Look for “The Wood People”. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0120529/

in our area the baseboards, door casings, and molding was all a generic traditional molding. Changing to 1X6 and 1x4 completely changes the look of the house for not a lot of $$. Balusters are usually white routed spindles, changing to horizontal steel, wire, (more modern) or just vertical and metal without faux ornamentation looks great.

Ceiling fans are usually builder grade and are inexpensive to do.

Fireplace mantle is oftena standard white. Replacing with something custom can change the feel of the living room.

Fixtures, doorknobs, and cabinet hardware also can make a big visual impact and are easy to do it your self.

Turn off the computer, get in a car, and go to some open houses. See for yourself.

Me too. In a way, a cookie cutter house is not a bad thing as it offers a relatively blank canvas for you to impose your own style.

What paint and a change of finishes can do:

//www.apartmenttherapy.com/before-amp-after-a-cookie-cutter-house-gets-a-bold-brilliant-makeover-225739

"Fixing up a cute bungalow or ranch is easy(ish)"-umm..)) no, it wasn't. lol. not in California. lol.

but I know what you mean. that's how I got sucked up into "easy-ish"...)))

I know I need to feel good about exterior of the place..even if cookie-cutter(cookie cutter from 90 s will have HOA here where we live.)

and I know the layout should be workable-to me and the family.

The rest is optimizing, furnishing, styling and personalizing the inside.

Flooring if you dislike the current one/doesn't function as you need it too. Lights. Lots of. On different levels. "Where there's no light, there's no beauty". Hardware. Woodwork.

And landscaping outside. Can't be beaten. The effect of vegetation on us humans is huge.

Working with windows/doors if needed. Garage doors if unfortunate. If very imposing or unattractive. Changing stucco's color. If it makes sense.

(Say after whites and creams, I kinda like green color on stucco:) But of course depends on the size of the house, neighborhood, etc

I'm irritated by a certain shade of pale yellow..just doesn't look good outside. Very washed out, not here not there. Also dislike some browns. So see where your heart lies)

Obviously one can be more helpful upon seeing pictures of specific houses. Even cookie cutter is of certain character. Surrounded by other houses. Is on hilly street or on a flat one. Has such and such view. such and such lot. The feeling of arrival as they call it can be good-or not so much. Etcetera.

The biggest impact for a limited budget is from changing the builder's colors. Change the paint color from builder choice to something livelier. Install new window treatments. Choose new rugs if you have tile or wood floors.

There are several upgrades you can make to "builder grade" items. I would focus on the light fixtures (this is huge and necessary), the cabinet hardware, upgrade the baseboards and crown molding, upgrade the bathroom mirrors ... all of which you can do yourself, without worry from an HOA, for not that much money. If you have a kitchen island, i would paint it a different color than the rest of the cabinetry. Do something special for window treatments. Give the exterior landscaping an upgrade. And then from there to me it's up to the decorating to make it stand out from the other homes.

Think about what you have always wanted in a house, and figure out a way to make it happen.

For me, it’s something like a wrap-around porch. Those work great on boxy homes. One incredibly boring box of a home in my neighborhood added one. All of a sudden I wished my house was a box.

Next would be a front yard balcony. I always thought it would be cool to walk outside an upper level master bedroom in the morning and have a cup of coffee while watching the world come to life.

I have neither of those. But I do have an elevated deck with a chunky sectional that addresses that lifestyle a bit. See where I’m going?

I don’t have a master suite, but I have a dressing room (a.k.a. Guest bedroom). And a remodeled bathroom that looks like the sky. The only thing is there are doors between these 3 rooms. They are close together so no biggie. I don’t wish I had a master suite anymore.

A kitchen with an island would be nice. I had a galley kitchen. I removed the cabinets separating it from the living room, and now I have a loft style kitchen with a peninsula that feels like an island.

A built-in wall unit to restore the storage I lost? That can go in the adjacent dining room. I can make it look like an extension of the kitchen.

I wanted those gorgeous expensive wood windows that have aluminum on the outside. I have bare builder grade aluminum windows. I clad the drywall with wood, add a trim design, and now my windows “feel” like wood windows but have the strength of aluminum with the maximized view.

I could go on and on. Start with what you want. Start with what you love in someone else’s home. You can find a way to get a reasonable substitute, and as you design that feature, the style will become your own and you will fall in love with it.

When house hunting we saw a house that was nothing special by itself but had the most amazing(and probably very expensive) windows. It stood on a rather boring street, was nice but not the best layout inside, and I didn't like how it faced open space for dog walking with some superugly fense around. Yet the windows made this otherwise non descript place in a way that I remember it 4 years later..to the point I gave it brief consideration even. I told my DH "they'll sell it tomorrow". I was right. It got multiple offers and went under a contract in a day or two. And the sole reason for it was these windows:) Which, by the way, they had only in the front..:)

The house you show is not bad at all, if you compare it to many. Imagine it with different windows..add , mentally, flowers to that tree in the front..the inside should be seen, in order to make suggestions. And one's style should be known. You can't do anything truly great to the inside of the house where there's not "you" in it.

Nobody cares that much about orange peel of the walls- art is what makes people stop and stare. Color that'll make them feel cocooned or invigorated. How the room will reavel itself differently from each point. People love to discover. Give that sense of discovery, even with few and mundane things it can be given.

But of course one can go for smooth finish if orange peel irritates him. One can go for wallpaper or murals if he loves them enough. One can add arches, skylights, moldings..glass doors when one needs sense of privacy without loosing the light, where makes sense..carve out more storage..

It's a question of budget (windows are very expensive for example) and thoughtful consideration and what bugs one, and what doesn't, and what brings most joy.