What color is your roof?

Your neighbors must be glad you moved in!

I'd paint the garage door and railing to match the front steps.

No to shutters. But you could add wider trim to windows!

Lights are great, for looks and safety. I'd want a light at the garage and up the stairs and at the front. Put them on remotes, and you can control from inside.

I like the ivy, but can you remove the other plants sticking up through it? And clean up the sidewalk in front of the garage where the weeds poke through?

Is your garage roof strong enough to build on top? It's a fun idea if you'd use it, but not fun if the roof collapses.

Some simple changes you could make ...

What about a wood/wood look garage door like the one below? I like the landscaping Yardvaark shows

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What area ? There are a lot different planting zones here in California. No shutters, I like the simplicity of your house, I wouldn’t muck it up with a lot of froufrou. Removal of the ivy will be a BIG job & will require retaining walls. Lighting is always nice. I love the new LED landscape lights, more expensive, but much nicer effects. New, larger house number mounted either horizontally above the garage door area ( my choice for visibility ) or vertically to the right (pic right ) of your entry.

Just clean up the slope, but definitely leave the ivy--no maintenance except cleaning it up. I like the idea of a tree planted in there. No shutters; keep the nice lines simple. Wood garage door or paint it to match the exterior. Yes to some great house numbers--put them over the garage.

A definitely yes to the ivy removal!! You would be surprised what is living under all of that :-) And it can be replaced with another, less troublesome groundcover for your area without the need for any retaining walls.

oh wow.. thanks for the responses so far!

@phuninthesun the roof is a grey color but not very visible for the street or from standing in front of the house and it will need to replace it in the next ~5 years!

Yardvaark: Thank you for doing the mock up! I'm more of a visual person so that helps quite a bit. I love the look but unsure about the trees: what makes them appealing to add to the ivy area/next to the steps? Denita(Zone 10) likes them too so would love to hear why you like that as well. Also.. what do you use to create the mock up?? I'd love to see what the numbers might look like on the garage!

K Laurence I live in Oakland, CA!

gardengal48 , housegal200 Regarding the ivy: I've been on the fence about those either. It's definitely not urgent for me to remove them and totally agree that I should remove the plants that are poking out! Here are some things that other neighbors have done that inspired me to want to remove the ivy:

I like the terraced look a lot better than one long slope. Seeing your picture compared to the terraced ones ... I think they compliment the houses, whereas my eyes only see the vast area of ivy with yours. It’s a sea of messy green your house is lost in, and not visually interesting. So if it’s possible, yes, I’d do some sort of terrace and other plantings to break it up. I’d consult with a local pro (maybe ask your neighbors who they’ve used).

To recap what I've heard so far! Welcome any additional thoughts or +1s to the ideas:

• - GARAGE: 3 options. 1) Paint the garage door and railing to match the front steps. 2) add a wood element to garage (sounds the priciest) 3) OR add the elements Yardvaark designed.

- IVY: keep the ivy for now but clean up. Eventually, do a terraced look? Add some trees (any ideas what trees might work?)

• DECK/FENCE: No one seems to be keen on adding a wooden fence or turning the garage top into a front patio deck. I have to redo the garage roof hence why I was considering the idea of reinforcing it and then adding deck.
• FRONT WINDOW: No shutters. Add a window box and/or bigger trims
• HOUSE NUMBERS: remove the old ones, add new ones above the garage door or on the side of garage.
• LIGHTING: yes. Above the garage and landscape lights.

phuninthesun would love to hear your thoughts! Roof of the house is dark grey but it's not visible unless you're standing on the roof itself. The roof of the garage is black.

About the ivy...It really depends on where you are in life...If you remove it, then that's more work unless you have a service.

If you have kids or work a ton or simply don't enjoy yard work, I would leave it. Sure the others look very nice, but only if you're realistic about maintenance. You've done a nice job so far...what about painting the house something a bit more California Cheerful?

You might need a structural engineer in to look at the garage roof if you plan on using it to sit out...which is a nice idea because every square inch is so very valuable there...

@pennydesign Thanks! I do a lot of the yard stuff as DIY on weekends. I don't think the ivy would be priority at this very moment but I could see me doing it down the line when I'm done with my other projects.

What would you consider California Cheerful for the house? I was really scared of messing it up so that's why i went with the current color. Neighbor across the street has a green house so didn't want to replicate that. Didn't want to do grey as this is the color everyone who flips houses does in the Bay Area. I was really in love with dark blue with white trims but was told it would make the house small.

Would you use a deck in the front yard? Before getting an engineer in and beefing up the roof structure, try sitting out in front of your house with friends and a beverage of choice and just chatting. Is traffic too noisy for conversation? Does it provide an opportunity to see and greet neighbors? Might it be used as a veggie garden with raised beds? (which would also require checking out the structural strength) or as part of a bocce court? or a spot for a sand box or water table for kids?

For the slope, I wouldn't remove the ivy unless you are planning to replace it with more plants. I don't find the sea of mulch in a couple of your examples to be an improvement. If I were going to remove the ivy (which as someone else noted will take a fair amount of persistance) I would replace with another low water ground cover unless you really enjoy gardening. If this is a new home, I would start with other changes and see how those create more appeal since the ivy is currently relatively low maintenance.

For paint, please start another thread (in Design Dilemma) with the appropriate heading....you'll get some great (and more!) suggestions and I'm sure someone will pop in with the photoshopped version, too!

NHBabsgreat points all around. I have a pretty large backyard that I'm working on and a small front porch...so the likelihood of hanging out on the front deck is pretty small!

Agree with re: the ivy as well. Sounds like i should start with some of the other changes first before tackling something like that!

Thanks for chiming in! Super helpful!

If you love the blue, you should do it...

Here's one showing a wooden garage door...

And here's one with a smashing pink front door....which would be a must for me... :)

I don't see how your house could look smaller any more than a light color would make it look bigger. I think that inside it might be a consideration, but not outside with all your sunshine :)

It's a very cute house....

I knew someone in the Trestle Glen area with a similar sloping front yard. Her front yard was terraced with planter beds, and stairs, her front yard faced west. The garage roof was used as a planting area when she moved in, her husband removed the soil and put in a deck, he said he would sit on the garage, listen to the Giants and smoke a cigar.

She planted; annuals, perennials, veggies and herbs

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Jim Mat OMG! I wish you had a picture to share! Would love to see how that looks!

Thanks BeverlyFLADeziner for the photos! I will definitely save those as inspirations! That's exactly how I envisioned it!

Your efforts are already paying off -- much improvement already.

If you could dig out several feet of ivy and dirt at the bottom of your slope and create a new stone wall even with stone added to the front exterior wall of the garage, you could then add a level raised planting area alongside the sidewalk for plants other than ivy and a couple posts with solar lights and a couple of brackets each for hanging baskets with plants, and/or bird feeders, and/or wind chimes. Then add the same stone to the wall of the house that is in front of the porch left of the steps.

If your garage roof is flat and waterproof and strong enough for you to build a front yard patio atop it, consider doing that. Perhaps you could build the new stone front of the garage a bit higher to provide some privacy for your new patio.

Just curious? Can you access your home (basement?) directly from inside your garage?

suezbell sadly no, there's no basement! They definitely should have added one! This house is pretty small at exactly 1k sqft. It's my first home :)

Do you happen to have seen any pictures that illustrate the stone details that you mentioned for the slope, garage and house? It would really help me visualize. It sounds very interesting!

The garage is currently concave at the top but when I redo it, I plan to convert it to a flat surface-- two of my neighbors have done that already! See photo for how the top of the garage looks (sorry..photo is from early on and house looks crazy!)

There are a lot of different kinds of stone you could use. My preference would be the more uniform (manufactured) paver stones or even brick because they tend to take less mortar between them than stone of mismatched shapes so there's less risk of the mortar crumbling.

The idea is to face your garage with either stone or brick and continue that wall same in the same direction, parallel to the sidewalk/road, but not, of course, as high as the garage wall. You'd build it only as high as is needed to hold the dirt of the slope -- This becomes your new retaining wall.

You could reuse the dirt you remove from in front of that new retaining wall to level up elsewhere on your lot or, after removing all the ivy roots, you could reuse it in your new planting area that, because of the new retaining wall, you can now make level. You'd want the height of the surround for your planting area at or lower than the height of the bottom of the window of your car door.

Found pics w/parallel stone walls.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/108016091040695594/

http://www.greenlifeathens.com/exciting-terraced-retaining-wall-for-your-outdoor-decor-ideas/retaining-walls-terraced-retaining-wall-2/

[https://www.houzz.com/photos/irvington-stone-walls-craftsman-landscape-portland-phvw-vp~11847976[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/irvington-stone-walls-craftsman-landscape-portland-phvw-vp~11847976)

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/109916047138816177/

Let us know how your project progresses.

phuninthesun Seriously... you're amazing! Thank you for making the time to build this! I love it, it looks sooo beautiful! and it feels like it actually wouldn't require too much to accomplish!

Although I just painted the current color over the last year, you've convinced me that I may want to go with the original blue color (that i was too scared to do!). It really does look great!

When you start to paint, don't second guess your color choice. Wait until you complete the entire look you are going for. Keep us posted

phuninthesun nailed it.

I like Jim Mat's idea! And phuninthesun did good mocking up. I only would add terraces with flower beds as Jim Mat mentioned.

Yes I hope Doug can come, he has good ideas!

Here is I used pruni's idea with exterior and added terraces, hope you do not mind pruni?

OR even modern

Does anyone know how terracing affects the stairs? I don't imagine that the side of the steps is deep enough as they are now. From what I recall being in a similar setup, we couldn't do it without having the stairs redone...

I know this would be in the future for you, but it's something to keep in mind.

Yahoooooooo! Let us have BBQ party on the deck!

For Penny

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Thanks celerygirl and pennydesign!

Celery - I like the modern mockup you did with the landscape. I can make sure to look in to the stair question before i did anything.

phuninthesun,,,gorgeous. I was also going to suggest the dark color and wood.

phun,,,could you try doing the house w/Iron Ore or another soft black? I love the black w/cedar or redwood.

the wall of the house on the porch,,,maybe do that in horizontal cedar slats?

bring in some lighting like these

This one is for Beth H

Thanks Phuninthesun! Beth H I love the wooden details of the black rendering but somehow this doesn't have the same 'wow' effect to me as the blue version. But I dont know if it's because the deck area is no longer there and the landscape dresses it all down. thoughts?

I like the blue color and the wooden garage door. I would leave the ivy and plant two flowering trees like Yardvaark suggested - perhaps crepe myrtle. Terracing would be very expensive, and think of the maintenance. Even with stone work gardening on an incline is not fun. Also find some very modern and luxe house numbers. Make the window box and a couple of great pots the showstoppers. You can hook up a self watering system to these and they would look great and be low maintenance. I just did this last year and the inexpensive self watering system made it so easy.

some new ideas that do not block the view:

I think investing in the wooden garage door and other trim is a must. If landscaping has to wait for the budget to be built back up, that's OK. The house will still look great, even with the ivy. Doug usually nails it, but I find that rendering just too much and blocking off the view of the house.

love the black, love the wood (thanks phun) and love dig dougs designs. that would be a very handsome home if all those were done.