Front door colour help - slow but steady improvements to curb appeal
zoran86
5 years ago
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Elizabeth B
5 years agozoran86
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Sad split foyer needs front door help and curb appeal
Comments (43)Okay, let's see if I can catch up on all of your helpful posts! I met with a landscaper and we were pretty much on the same page but there were a few things that I didn�t agree with. Maybe I just have no clue what I'm doing and maybe his recommendations are truly better than the picture I have in my head! I'll be meeting with another designer on Monday to get his take on it. The first guy was free and we just talked about what the plan would be. The second guy charges $50, but will draw up a whole design. They also do driveways, which the first company does not do. The one thing that I really didn't like about the first guy was that I felt like I had seen all of his ideas in my neighborhood already. I don't want something crazy that doesn't fit the house or neighborhood, but I also don't want the same thing everyone else has. How do you get your house to stand out from the others but still "fit"? Just because everyone else has "x" number of garden beds and "x" amount of front yard grass doesn't mean I have to, right? I did read over our HOA docs and they simply state that no more than 20% of the yard can be raised garden beds or container gardens. I would really like to make maintaining the lawn easier and to shade the front a little more. He wasn't on board with that. As I said before our yard is quite short, only 25 ft deep from the sidewalk to the front brick. So that will definitely play a big part in the design. The front tree is a cherry tree (with fruit) and I have been told that it will grow large enough to provide cover for the front window, not too sure about the door. Every arborist and landscaper that I have talked to seem happy with that tree and tell me not to touch it. The shutters have actually done quite well with all of the sun and heat that they get exposed too. No warping or anything. Considering the roof color is a good point. I think the wrought iron color would look great. I still don�t know what I want to do with the door. I have been playing with pictures of the house for days now. I've cut and pasted so many different designs I'm stuck. I think that there are some styles and looks that definitely work, some that definitely don't work, and then there are the in-between ones. I don't mind having my house look a little different then the neighborhood. I have two tri-levels on each side of me and three true 2 story colonials across the street from me. From my mock-ups I think can get away with some different looks that neither of the other two styles could pull off. And that is why I'm stuck. Too many ideas. I think a designers eye is what I need. The other challenge I am having right now is prioritizing what to do with the house first. The inside still needs to be painted. I could use some new furniture too. If I did do painting I would want to update the lighting while the ceilings are getting a fresh coat. As far as the outside goes, we obviously need landscaping. But we could also use new gutters and soffits, possibly a new door, and new hardscaping. My husband would also like to close in the carport. There is just so much to do and I don't know where to start. The changes we have already made to the inside were easy because they were done out of necessity. Really none of these other things have to be done. I think that I would like to focus on the outside simply because I have a 4yr old and 1yr old that make it a little harder to maintain the inside versus the outside. And I can handle the inside myself. I obviously need professional help with the exterior. So, any ideas on how to prioritize my projects?...See MorePlease help with Front Door and Curb Appeal
Comments (34)I can totally relate to your situation. We bought a retirement home five years ago, just one month before the real estate market started to collapse. We still had our other home and thought we would have no problem selling it. We were anxious to get all the "equity" we had in the first house. Now we can't sell either home. We don't want to get into the "renting" business either, but we have no choice. My suggestions to you is forget any flowers since you live out of state and can't take care of them. I would paint the front door a "brick red", almost like a burgundy. I would not paint the garage doors, take down any shutters or do any more work. If that is grime on the siding, I would get the house pressure washed. Anyone that buys it will know it is a fixer upper. I know from personal experience, as we sunk a lot of money into our first house ...new stove, new countertops, new cabinet hardware, had the entire house painted, had the porch steps ripped out and redone...believe me, any $$$ you spend (except getting rid of the pink door, lol) is going to be a waste of time and money. The market is bad and no amount of expensive repairs, color changes, is going to change that. It's definitely a buyer's market, not a seller's market. Chispa is right on the money! What WILL change it is lowering the price. We chose not to lower our price because the house we moved out of is a better house than the one we moved too. We couldn't get anymore for it than what we pay for the "downsized" house. It's really sad the market is so bad, but if you and your husband don't mind waiting, you may be able to get a little closer to the price you want, but don't count on it. By the way, our first house we tried to sell is on three beautiful acres, close to shopping, close to the interstate...none of that accounts for anything in a bad market. I wish you the best of luck!...See MoreHelp me improve curb appeal and update the look of house
Comments (29)Like the concrete bird bath. Birds will like it more in the middle of your front yard. Like the windmill, too. Perhaps you could level up spots for each of them. On the side of the house, you could extend the existing roof with the same slope enough to cover the side stoop and create a smaller side facing gable over the side door. Add to your front porch (treated 1"x6" rounded edged deck board floor), extending it from the current stoop all the way to the right end of the house plus the additional width of your side deck. Use a shed roof with a small forward facing gable over the front door. By connecting the two porches, you end up with a wrap around porch. Add a treated wood railing, leaving an opening directly across from the front door; also, leave an opening in the railing of the side part of the porch facing the back yard. You've now defined which is your front door and which is your back door. Front porch should be at least 6' deep to allow chairs to be set against the exterior wall of the home and still have room to walk by the rail in front of the chairs. Now do your landscaping to direct visitors from the driveway to your front entrance. By creating a sidewalk that begins with a short straight walk toward the road at the front of the house before curving it toward the driveway, you'll create a planting area between your porch and the walk. If you're in pn planting Zone 7, I'd suggest aucuba bushes -- they keep their leaves and are attractive all year. There are plastic elbows you can attach to the end of your downspout and flexible pipe you can connect to that and bury in the ground -- or at least lay a length of it on the ground beneath your newporch to have the water run out beyond your porch to get the rainwater farther away from your house,...See MoreCurb appeal help for 50's 2 front door rambler!
Comments (31)Make the walkway to your front door straight to the sidewalk. The way it is now, it visually looks like the door with the wreath is the secondary doot. Make the other walkway go to the driveway. Flank the one to the door with low-growing plants. Hostas are good if you have shade, lavender for sun. You fix the off-center window by putting something taller under it. Or a climber on the trellis (which should cover up some of the brick you don't like). I had a Camellia close to the house years ago. But a climbing rose would be nice, too. You'd need to measure. You want to avoid symmetrical designs, like Dig Doug gave you. That will draw attention to the lack of symmetry in the window. I'm not good with photoshop, so I'm not going to draw anything up. Another option is to put large house numbers in the space next to the window. If you do this before fixing the walkways, you're just putting another indicator that the wrong door is the right one. But if the right door was the only one with a path to the sidewalk and emphasized with flanking planting, the number placement would be okay. You can also put a larger tree out closer to the sidewalk, which would cover the wider spot next to the window. For example, if you didn't take our advice on the walkways, and you planted something like a weeping cherry in the V between the two walkways, most views of your house would have the off-centeredness not noticeable. A cottagey garden always looks great and makes any house look better. I like the brick. The thing I've noticed about homes and homeowners is that sometimes they just focus on something and hate it. If it's hard to change, just learn to like it. All houses have their plus points and their negatives. Focus on what you love about your house, not what your don't like. My take is aging walkways, no garden or foundation plantings, too much exposed concrete, and a lawn that could use some help are the areas preventing your house from looking lovely....See Moresloyder
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