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There is nothing wrong with the house. The brick is great. Brick is not meant to be painted. A little paint on the front door and garage would be nice. For great curb appeal half is the appearance of the house and the other is the appearance of the landscape. Your landscape is sorely lacking. Invest the money in landscaping.

Yes I agree! Landscape is a must. Do you think shutters? any landscape advice?

I would make your landscape multi-tier, and multi- color. This isn't the best image, but it will give you some idea of what I mean.

Sorry, I can't help you with the landscape. I just know it needs it. My landscape style is taken in steps. I can't envision a landscape all at one time. It evolves over time. Maybe re-post with a new title and don't forget to put in your zone. There is some very talented people on Houzz that do wonders with landscaping.

Landscaping would go a long way; however brick can absolutely be painted and I would personally paint yours. Many brick houses look better and more modern painted.

You would want to hire a professional and have them use a paint like Romabio (many other options/brands avaliable) which only requires maintanence every 20 years. Don't be scared you can paint brick and not believe the myth you have to paint or maintain it constantly. Just my 2 cents but I think paint would make a massive difference for your house.

Oh and I would add shutters.

Painting the brick will not help the house what so ever it will still be a flat ranch ( I have one too only it's painted stucco). You need landscape, landscape, and more landscape. Maybe hiree a local landscape designer and ask for a design you can do yourself in stages.

Rachel of course that painted house looks nice. It has all new landscape, new porch, new door, new shutters, new walk way and new roof. It has nothing to do with the paint, but because of all the new improvements. In fact I think it would look better if it wasn't painted.

Nice house. Really nice large lot.

My personal prejudice favors a usable front porch, at least a small one with a forward facing gable over the front entry. But, if that is not in your plans or budget, obviously you focus on the landscaping.

Whatever else you do, please do not paint the brick. The entire point of brick is the low maintenance of it. Anything painted will, inevitably, need to be repainted and begin to look awful as it gets that way.

Would NOT add shutters -- they'll just draw attention to and emphasize how small your windows are.

You should try to visually minimize that second door (from the garage?) that is not your main entry while emphasizing the door that actually is your front entry.

Do create a much more distinct outline the right side of your driveway and have that second door (from your garage?) obviously a part of your garage.

Adding a new sidewalk from your front entry door to your driveway that ends at a point closer to at least one car length from the garage door would help. The example pic by Dig Doug's Designs(8A) is a really good idea; however, you don't actually need to get rid of the existing sidewalk, just plant your flowering hedge immediately in front of it. Do make the point at which your sidewalk meets your driveway wider than the rest of the sidewalk -- have it invite guests to walk there.

You'll be creating a defined planting area between the old and new sidewalk. Put your taller plants/shrubs in the back and smaller plants in front of that … perhaps adding a plain concrete bird bath. (Make sure the bowl is smaller at the bottom and wider at the top so any water that freezes can expand without damaging the bird bath.)

You could also add a treated post with a solar light atop it where your new sidewalk meets your driveway … perhaps with a pair of brackets for hanging baskets of flowering plants or bird feeders or wind chimes or holiday decorations … depending upon the season.

If you were in Planting Zone 7, I'd suggest you outline your driveway with liriope. Perhaps you could find something that works as well for an outline.

Otherwise, unless you actually like the real work of gardening, don't clutter yard with plants that require a lot of care.

You do have room for a front yard patio (where the children's toys are) on the right side of your home in front of the wide wall between the two windows. In the absence of a front porch, this is a good idea. You could build a short wall that could double as seating and/or create a green privacy screen between your patio and the road.

Because the hip roof of your home is very plain (your word: "boring"), you might consider adding weather vane and/or wood cupola for your roof centered above your front entry.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/540924605226637750/

I like that design. Do you think it's achievable still without redoing the sidewalk? Like maybe doing more landscape on the other side of the sidewalk to create the same effect?

Yes, that could be done.

Maybe a small tree and some boxwoods on the front side of the sidewalk then? I can do what you have created on the right side. It definitely needs that curvature to it.

WOW! Dig Doug Very impressive. Thank you for your time and talent!

I did also say landscaping was important. I was just trying to say painted brick can look nice, which it does, not just because of the shutters or landscaping but because that is a lovely color and ALL of it comes together for a nice finished product. You don't have to agree with me or like painted brick, funtionthenlook. I'm just sharing my opinion and taste and more importantly trying to help the home owner.

Painting brick is turning a low maintenance product into a high maintenance product. A brick house with quality brick is recommended to be painted every 3-5 years. The average cost to paint an brick exterior is $7000. Brick needs to breath so you need a special paint. You have a lovely brick on your house. As far as Romabio paint lasting 20 years, I would take that claim with a grain of salt. It is only the companies claim that it lasts 20 years. Romabio paint was only formed in 2011 and the formula was only finalized in 2013. You not going to find a un-bias review on the longevity of the paint. After you update the landscaping and you still dislike your brick color you can always use a stain to change the color of the brick.

Don't paint the brick, put your money into landscaping instead. However, what would REALLY help the curb appeal would be to create a covered front porch at the entry door, which would break up the long low mass of brick and interrupt the roofline. The front door looks like it is already slightly recessed, but the porch roof would provide more shelter from the elements.

Needs landscaping to break up the horizontality of it. I'm thinking of a tree on the right side (away from the garage). Maybe three Italian cypress of various heights.

I live in PA, but I am assuming Ohio has the same problem with deer eating the landscape. I would try to use deer resistant plants. Nothing is deer proof, but deer resistant plants are the last choice for them to munch on once established.

I'll apologize in advance for shouting, but this house should ABSOLUTELY NOT HAVE SHUTTERS. It would be totally wrong.

RappArchitecture I agree. However its not in the budget bc we had a complete remodel inside and will be adding a detached garage this year as well. We ripped out all the overgrown landscape that was there.

groveraxle thank you. I need to hear that bc it seems like everyone thinks it looks naked without it. ha Any suggestions for garage color and front door then? I would like the keep the existing widow trim color bc it's no maintenance on it as it is wrapped aluminum I'm guessing. Although I'm not completely against it.

Suezbell Thank you. very good suggestions. I will definitely add another walkway -that makes sense and I never thought of that. It could easily be done with flagstone or something. Another struggle is between the house and the existing sidewalk it is such a small area. It may be too small for anything other than flowers so having a multilayer of landscaping would allow me to still put in some boxwoods or something still. I'm trying to picture the porch in front as you mentioned. It's not a bad idea. We actually have a large shared pond in back with most of our acreage being in front and side (like a piece of pie shape). We have 5 little children so we keep the play set and trampoline in front of the house, volleyball net on the side... Not ideal but keeps them safe away from the water. We have a beautiful view in the back yard with large windows and a nice screened in back porch. Just need to bring some beauty to the front of the house. Great ideas. Thank you

heres is a pic of the house from the end of our driveway.

Your house has small windows and too much blank space between the two windows on the right, so I would definitely fill in that space between the windows with some height - maybe a mini tree, large shrub, etc.

Really, landscaping can work wonders for a house.