I have been pleasantly surprised by wonderful interiors paired with terrible exteriors AND vice-versa. But I've not been inside any homes as terrible as the pyramid you show. I'm afraid that even a fabulous interior couldn't make up for that! (*smiles*)

In my experience, it gets even worse inside.

Yes. I looked at this house at an open house on the way to a different house I was interested. I looked at it because I thought, at one time that it was one of the ugly houses in the neighborhood. But the architect really designed a house with a great floorplan.

When we were house hunting, we fell in love with a beautifully restored old Foursquare with original wooden trim. But the outside still had whatever "improvements" previous owners had done to hide its original charm.

Our current house which we purchased fourteen years ago, looked aweful from the street. The paint color was an aweful light brown and the yard overgrown like a jungle. It had rickety fencing across the front and a yard full of cigarette buts..but, the inside had been freshly renovated, b- quality..decent floor plan, almost 4000 square feet and the owners couldn't sell it because people wouldn't come in and look at it. Well, we bought it at a significant discount, fixed it up on the outside, trimmed down landscaping revealing a nice small view! The realtor cam by a year later and offered us a 100k more for it. We chuckled, it was worth way more by then..

Couple times. The houses were better inside than they looked; but the main best thing about them were backyards so wonderful that it made me consider them, even though I really disliked the exterior. One such house got around 15 offers at the open house(that's when we saw it too) and was under contract the next day.

I would love to see the inside of this home!

There are houses that need some love and a bit of help - new landscaping, some shutters, removing an aluminum storm door etc. Then there are just butt-ugly houses. I would have a very hard time coming home to such a house and when we were house-hunting 34 years ago, if the house was ugly on the outside, I would not even go in and waste my time looking at it. Sure, sometimes, things can be changed, but when the house is truly a design disaster, the cost will usuallly be so great as to make this not an option.

Maybe, living inside confers special health powers. I don’t consider this to be an ugly structure (living on Staten Island, the home of egregious McMansion housing statements).

If you look at enough houses, you're bound to find ones where the inside is the opposite quality from the outside. More importantly-- pay attention first to what you cannot change (regardless of time, money, and passion/commitment): immediate neighbors & neighborhood; potential for locale to change dramatically during your expected time living there (such as construction in currently vacant land, upward or downward real estate values, transportation improvements, or promised ones that might never happen, etc.); views/vistas; local travel routes required when you live there; quality of schools (affecting resale, if not your children, health care and any other services you routinely use; and things that may/do cause potential discord with adjacent land owners ("verbal easements" [structures built within lot-line set-backs or actually on your property, tradition for someone or everyone to cross your land or use some feature of your land ;without asking, etc.], overhanging trees, surface water drainage, ...). Make a checklist of such things so when you go a-house hunting you won't be blindsided when discovering your dream home. Best Wishes!

mi2ct, a lot of good points! I was set on an area because of the "quaintness" and a couple of cute houses. Then reality hit me over the head and brought me to! Next door to the cute little house was boats, too many cars parked all over the front, overgrown lawn/weeds, a lot of other problems. Do I want to live with that forever? Not! I ended up in a patio home development, connected on one side to another home. Perfect size home to live out my days, about 30 years. Association takes care of lawn, pools, clubhouse, only 77 homes on 2 streets. Next to everything and mainly seniors, perfect. I would not have lasted next to broken down cars, boats, etc. Basically, be careful of your possible surroundings. It will make a difference in your peaceful existence.

I've seen it both ways! There was a dilapidated house with an overgrown yard near my high school. When it was finally offered for sale a friend of my husband's bought it, but we noticed it never seemed to get repaired or fixed up. (The man worked for a big corporation, so we knew he could afford to update it). My husband asked him about it and was rewarded by an invitation to visit. (I was unfortunately not invited!) My hubby was so surprised by the beautiful interior that he talked about it for years! The man had purposely kept the exterior "unimproved" to avoid high taxes, while upgrading the interior to the max with all the latest technology, electricity, plumbing, and improvements! Then there was the beautiful lake house where I was asked to "pet sit". The outside was updated with all the best materials and landscaping. The inside was bare, ugly and user unfriendly! You could not even see the lake from the living room!

My house (still under construction, we get keys on 31st) is not a pyramid but I think not the prettiest exterior wise (snout garage and all!) but when I looked at the model home I liked the interior layout and we liked the neighborhhood. It’s a little unassuming on outside as it looks a little boxy and “small” (especially next to neighbours with their tall gabled roof on their larger neo-eclectic) but inside it has just under 2,000 sq ft of light and open - but cozy - living space on main and second floor with a great flow for us, Very open yet has privacy from front door and between common spaces and private spaces, and we rearranged a bit to better fit our lifestyles. Also a full basement we will finish down road (~800 sq ft) to satisfy my husband’s desire to have a basement that looks like a old school smoking room (dark woods, big fireplace, etc).

While in a subdivision with tons of small lots, there are great schools (newer elementary right near me, new high school and junior high within minutes), is right by an amazing brand new community centre (pool, ice rinks, etc), within minutes to a library, a community garden, lots of walking paths and parks. It is a very “younger family” kind of area and though we are childfree and in our late 30s/early 40s, we like the energy and friendliness of it. There are some known “snobbier” areas around here with more of a keeping up with the Joneses mentality which I would have a hard time feeling comfortable in. My neighbours on my little cove so far seem great as well. My little lot has a backlane which was important for my husband too. My work commute also stays under 10 minutes which for me is a tremendous advantage and of course if fit in our chosen budget - we like to spend less on a house and more on experiences and be happy and able to “close up” the house and go on holidays.

So yes, it won’t win any curb appeal awards, even after we landscape it, but it fits all our other needs and the interior works for us nicely. My husband on the other hand loves the exterior of our house. He likes it for how simple and “boring” it as he feels it is a nice surprise on inside now open and yet cozy it is (we have varying ceiling heights including 8’, 9’ and 18’ that give various feelings of spaciousness (open living/dining/kitchen) and coziness (bedrooms, den, basement). We live in a climate where we like to “bunker down” in cozy cocoons through the winter months, ha.

I also like like my house is a bit boring and unassuming I suppose. In some neighbourhoods around here you get visually disjointed (to me) things like this that are *trying* to be fancy, but instead it looks like someone set their 4-year old loose to pick exterior finishings.

I dislike it when the exterior and interior have no relationship - I call it "facadomy". A sentimentalized, stylistic facade is applied to a builder's plan.

I am in the frame of mind to do the exterior for public view and the interior for my private pleasure. If I had my way, the exterior would be a strong purple with wall to wall flamingoes in the yard! Lucky for others, I live in a patio home complex and we are all beige. Inside, not the least bit beige. I like my inside and don't expect everyone to like the same, but I almost never complain about others comfort zones. Dreamdoc, with all beige homes in here, it would be difficult to "match" inside and make everyone happy.

No because I won't judge.

cookic - I have saying, "Committees can agree on a lot of things but they are invariably shades of brown and grey." As they say often in Atlas Shrugged, "Check your assumptions."

Not surprised at all since I grew up in an area with really nondescript facades in a metropolitan area. The suburban homes of my relatives were similarly not designed to be of any kind of architectural distinction.

Absent those kinds of really distinctive homes which I am probably never going to live in, I really don't care about the exterior of the house - it's what's inside that I am going to see except for the one minute each day I would theoretically drive up.

Of course exterior landscaping is not that same as architectural style but even on that score, absent a climate in which the backyard is truly an extension of the living room, I don't generally see landscaping that blows me away - occasionally yes but that is either a true labor of love or was designed and maintained by an expensive professional team.

I think most people keep their exterior rather neutral and I would keep mine that way, even if I had the option to paint it purple! Somewhere in our living conditions, we need to be ourselves, so the interior usually gets the treatment. How many people are visiting a non-descript outside and totally surprised by the inside. But, there are others who have to toally live by the rules to be happy. This is why Houzz is great in that it offers all forms of living. Usually pick up an idea or two. Looked at one article recently about bathrooms. My guest bath needs some color, but wondering if my fantasy color would look okay. Saw just about what I was thinking of, it's wonderful! I love the way different people live!

Where is this house? I would like to see inside.

What if the design is the facade? Not arbitrary or contrived?

To my mind this is "the same house" with different aesthetic directions taken. I already know I'm going to like the interior by the design effort put into the exterior.

dreamdoctor, I would happily live in your tiny silo...

We lived in a place where we fixed up the outside last, and even then just barely (for functionality etc.), it was a rough neighbourhood and money would have been wasted on a fancy facade. We CONSTANTLY had people making offers thinking that a) they were doing us a favour and b) they were going to score a a great deal. I think people have a similar reaction when they see just the front of this current house vs. the interior and back, we just prioritized the interior and function. And we get a ton of offers here too. LOL.

pennydesign - 3000 SF - not quite tiny. I am working on a 700 to 1000 SF version though - cool, affordable housing is the goal.

Dreamdoctor, I would probably pick the top one because it has a pool and looks more interesting than the ordinary bottom one. I am biased in that I would guess the inside of the bottom one is "normal" and could hardly wait to see the inside of the top one.

Yes! When we were house hunting and looked at our house the first time, the outside was just so-so and it really needed a paint job. Once I went inside the house, I fell in love with it immediately!

My present home was great looking on the exterior but when we entered it we were horrified by the mishmash of hideous flooring ( GOLD “sculptured” carpet, atrocious tile randomly installed in inappropriate locations throughout ), WALLS of mirrors. old dirty broken appliances, very questionable decor choices, etc., etc. However, the location was phenomenal ( beach ) & the floorplan & size was great. We made a full price offer immediately. We ultimately gutted the inside, it turned out beautiful & I have no doubt if we were to put it on the market in our very high demand area it would sell the first day.

When my father passed away, my mother was unable to physically take care of a 10 acre fruit orchard and a 1980’s “Brady Bunch” dark brown style, 3000sf “L“ shaped ranch built into a hill top at the end of a dead end county street. My mother begged me to purchase the house from her as my first home because my father had invested so much time and love into hand planting the orchard himself and she thought someone would cut down the trees for the 500 feet of road frontage and build another home on the lot.

After years of remodeling updates and improvements to every room and every wall, clearing fruit trees from one acre surrounding the immediate house for a yard with flowers and a large gazebo with a swing over looking a water fall feature into a Koi pond and making the house our home (raising a family, now off to college).

I’m now retired and we decided to follow my wifes job out of state. We spoke to many realtors who told us to re-paint many of the walls to a neutral color. One realtor said the blue and white decorative kitchen tiles and blue walls in our walk out basement (installed in 2012), dated the house to the 80’s and it would turn off potential buyers and lower offers. I understood their reasoning, but we had to move quickly and I kept the colored walls and crossed our fingers.

The house had three bidders offering more than asking price on the first day before a open house. The house was sold in less than 7 hours after hitting the MLS listing in a bidding war.

The current owners, a young couple, loved the blue/white kitchen tiles and the husbands favorite room is the “Blue” walk out basement with views of the Smokey Mts of Tennessee.

When I returned a year later for a visit, the Couple had only changed one thing, they were expecting their first child and told me that they continued to love the house and all my style choices including the walls colors and don’t expect to change anything yet.

Just goes to show that Realators don’t know everything and there is a butt for every seat!

Maybe we got lucky in the flat housing market of Eastern Tennessee, or just maybe I’m not as bad of a designer as some might think!

Timothy, I had about the same experience with my home. I painted all the inside doors a different color, most rooms matched the doors, not a neutral in the place! It sold in a day, full asking price, as is, didn't care if anything wrong. I was in a subdivision type, so checked out 2 different homes for sale with my model to get prices. I asked $40,000 more and got it! Oh, they wanted my couch and two chairs which I paid $500 for, so for $40,000, I let them have it. LOL I think if the house goes up with some decluttering and cleaning and no sales, then think of painting.

Tmothy that's such a charming story...especially that they didn't change a thing...That's the kind of buyer you want for a home you love.

We lived in a house built in 1900 complete with carved doors double parlors and hissing radiators. We loved that house and spend years stripping woodwork and repairing plaster. Huge regrets selling it to a couple who, in turn, sold it to a developer who tore it down and built 2 2-family houses on the property.

My dad grew up in a large southern family. Ever person had their responsibilities on the existence farm. His was working the fruit orchard, whose canned fruit would last them through to the following year. So when he retired from GM, he went back to Tennessee to start a organic orchard. Mom worried that all his hard work would be destroyed so I purchased it just to maintain it. It wasn’t my dream, but I learned enough from him before he passed to care for his trees. When we decided to move 20 years later, the person who purchased the farm was important to me. This young couple offered a lesser amount but they spent more time in the barn and orchard than in the house. They said their dream was to be substance farmers. To help me chose the right family to write the next chapter on my families farm, I finally decided to ask all parties too write a short letter explaining why they wanted the property. After reading them, It was clear that this young couple was the right choice. They made me feel that I had only been the caretaker of the farm until theor arrivial to fulfill my fathers dream and to take care of my fathers orchard. It allowed me to release my guilt over selling the family orchard and made selling so much easier. The new owners even bee keepers which is perfect for the fruit trees and for the bees. I believe they will realize the dream my father had always wanted but was unable to fulfill due to his cancer and early death at 59. He had no regrets and i want to believe he is proud of the way I kept his dream going and my choices for its continued future.

I hope this story reminds you that houses started out as homes, filled with dreams and stories, with a life of their own and as with everyone, experience highs and lows, get sick at times but with the right love and attention can be better than it is. We are only the caretakers, they will out live our time in them. Like children, reflect back all that we share with them. So show them love and leave your mark. For their are no ugly children in the eyes of someone that grows to love them!

My husband and I weren't a fan of the exterior of the house we ended up purchasing, but loved the interior. The outside was a bit drab and rancher-looking and had obviously been neglected, but we stepped inside and were greeted by a gorgeous open plan with coffered ceilings and a beautiful stone fireplace. We were sold!

The home pictured is similar to the office of a design / build firm in central Phoenix AZ. Their pyramid appears to sit on a 4 foot high mound of gravel. There are windows, at "gravel level", all around the structure. You enter the building by going down a flight of steps - to find that the structure is actually sunken 5 feet below street grade. The windows are actually just under the interior ceiling. Very clever way to eliminate traffic noise and greatly reduce cooling costs.

We bought a beat up 1911 Craftsman for 20,000 five years ago, it was in horrible condition visually and in not so great shape inside as it had been a rental then left empty. We got so lucky, the cedar shingles were in great shape, and the original oak floors and tiger oak throughout had never been painted. It's still a work in progress but we won an award from our historic foundation in our city last year.

There is NO way I would buy a house with bad curb appeal. Ugly house that can be fixed....OK. But, downright bad, NO WAY.

I have been amazed at some bad design decisions over the years. Attached is a mild example - the builder didn't want to offend anyone it would seem - Holy shades of brown Batman. So they used brick becasue it gives the impression of quality but used a hideous mix - probably got it on sale and then had someone put a lot of labor into setting it. It goes with the house make no mistake - like pants around the lower cheeks of a punk. I don't want to look at it. And the use of even numbered sets of windows the static, boring final touch. Much as I dislike messing with brick there was no other option - we stained it (not painted) it so it could still breathe. This is one of my first projects as a licensed architect on his own.

The pyramid reminds me of a building Steelcase built in Grand Rapids, MI, several years ago, and in the very center was a pendulum clock that swung from the peak of the pyramid to the ground floor level. It was an impressive building, I think it was their research facility. They have since sold it, I believe, to another company, but I will never forget the shape, the dynamic of design, and the materials chosen to highlight it in a way that would be most impressive to those visiting the building for the first time. You couldn't miss it driving in that area!

All can think is HOT. You have to have controlled air at all times. Looks like an attic room for the whole house.

If the top was vented it would be in the right place with the best roof configuration for maximum natural venting. And if the roof was metal and installed on vented sleepers it would act as a heat shield and stay relatively cool. That is what I did when I redid my roof - you could feel the difference as the work was done. The 2x4s are on top of squares of 1/2" MDO plywood at the rafters so the roof can vent where there is not insulaltion.

I would LOVE to see the inside!!

It is design 'on the edge', that inspires me.

Ditto

I LOVE the pyramid! Would love to see the inside! It isn't ugly, it's amazing!

Timothy Bailey, what a well written , beautiful story of your home - an absolutely lovely way to honor your Dad and the legacy he left you. I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s on a very eclectic street in Detroit. Of the 30 or so houses on the street, only a couple of them resembled one another. Tall 2 story brick duplex sat next to a dinky aluminum sided house that sat next to a brick craftsman that sat next to a ranch style house scar back on its lot, etc. Some of these homes so intrigued me because they were so different than mine and seemed so huge. Because, you see, we lived in prob the ugliest house on the block. The 7 people in our family lived in an 800 square foot square bungalow with 1 bathroom. It had the weirdest siding I’ve ever seen - it was some kind of tar covered siding that looked like it was dipped in nonpareils from the baking cabinet! And it had blue/green trim. But it was the best house on the block! My Mom too,k pride in keeping our home clean and neat and curtains changed with the seasons. But, most importantly, it was filled with love and laughter and good memories. And we never felt crowded- often hosting our large extended family for get-together. My siblings and I loved that little house and what it represented-home, security, family, love and a wealth of memories. And we loved that quirky little street where each house was different- as different as the families that occupied them. Over the years, I was able to enter many of the homes that I so admired from the outside. And I was almost always disappointed. The houses that looked huge from the outside seemed so small once I stepped inside- or they had an odd layout or they smelled funny or the furniture was stained or it was obviously devoid of the warm fuzzies that my home had. That’s why I love your analogy of a home your comparison to people, Timothy Bailey. Our funky looking house was the best one on the street. I wouldn’t have wanted to grow up anywhere else. And, one of the most beautiful persons that I’ve known, my great-grandmother - who shared that little house with us, was plump and wrinkled on the outside, but had the most beautiful, kindest soul on the inside.

As a P.S. - My parents moved out of that house only about 15 years ago. They sold it for a pittance to their next-door neighbor who fixed it up for one of his kids. For years “our” house was well maintained and stood nicely next to the several surrounding it while the rest of the neighborhood sort of disappeared and fell into disrepair, sadly. During my recent pass down my old street, there seem to be no more homes that are being maintained. It was so very sad. Detroit is making a “come-back”. There is much revitalization happening. It hasn’t reached the peripheral neighborhoods yet.

We live in an earth home in the Loess Hills of Iowa. It reminds me of a hobbit house and only has windows on the one side. Bought for the property, the inside and outside of the house is stuck in the 70's.. We have been working on the inside ever since and are getting close to finishing it. But making the inside more modern does little to help the outside. I've searched Houzz time and time again for anything on earth homes and really find nothing to help me.

My house is not very attractive from the outside...average looking house in the suburbs. It's in a new subdivision where all the homes look alike with the exception of the brick. While searching for new construction, I drove through the subdivision multiple times but could not get myself to even look at the models. Eventually I did, found out the homes come as empty shells that you can design yourself. Ended up purchasing & designed the entire interior myself with the partial help of an interior designer. I'm a home cook. One third of my house is kitchen & dining related. It happens to be a one level ranch with a full basement. Those are hard to find here. Six days after moving in, I broke my leg. Would not have survived in my old house with its 3 stories. I adore my house. It's a refuge. There are days I don't even want to leave it. When people walk in, they are amazed. I feel my house is an analogy...you can't tell a book from its cover.