This house needs a facelift! creativity welcomed!
Hope M
5 years ago
We bought a house on the lake and the view is amzing and the back of the house is the best part. The front needs as much help as it can get! I need ideas that won't break the bank. The bushes will be trimmed soon but they might die if I trim them... they appear dead in the middle. ( I don't think they were ever trimmed, I would like to have them spiral...) The yellow garage door and window trim has got to go! I took off all the ugly brown shutters and had a dead of cleaning mud bugs from them and the the brick underneath. Planning on painting them this week!
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Comments (31)
partim
5 years ago
fidlfreek_justice_4_sophie
5 years agoRelated Discussions
1920s House - Kitchen? Your Creativity Welcom!
Comments (95)uroboros, I have to ask this, because I can too easily believe that you were just casually scanning the real estate listings when this decrepit charmer reached out and grabbed your heart. (This has happened to me, although with a less expensive and more readily fixable house, so I know it is possible.) Here's the question: When you fell under the spell of this enchanting crone, were you actively looking for a smallish house in an lively urban neighborhood? If so, and * the size of the overall investment could be made clear by consulting with a contractor before making an offer, and * anyone can conceive of a way to render the house livable without completely erasing its preserved-in-amber decrepit charm, and * your DH magically became sanguine about the feasibility of what is needed and why it would be not completely financially foolhardy in the medium term, WOULD YOU REALLY WANT TO LIVE THERE? To me, it looks like urban nirvana. Having rooted around on Google Earth and various Montreal sites, I found a lively and lovely urban neighborhood with quite nice street trees and a Metro station only a long block away. Also, there is a restaurant nearby named Aux Derniers Humains, which has a menu as cool as its name. It looks as though the only room that is preclusively small (for someone used to rowhouse-scale spaces) is the kitchen. It is is a first floor-only extension off the back that is narrower than the body of the house, which is basically wide and shallow compared to other rowhouses in the neighborhood. The kitchen may only be a bit chopped up, as it is listed as 9 x 13, which could make for a nice galley design. If one did want to enlarge it, however, I see two options. Because the house is actually detached on one side, rather than part of a row, you could build out sideways to fill in the dogleg, which is exceptionally wide. Pop out some bricks, reinforce the new opening(s) with angle iron, et Robert est ton oncle. You would still have windows on the side of the house and if you created deep windows at the back of the new bit, you would have a nice perspective over what could be a charming garden. Alternatively, you could move the kitchen to the basement, having it go back further toward the front of the house and having clerestory windows. You might need a dumb waiter, but who wouldn't want one of those? I suspect that either of these options would not be extraordinarily expensive in the context of what needs to be done in the rest of the house, which to tell the truth is going to be more because you don't want to gut it. If Montreal is anything like DC, however, pictureseque urban neighborhoods are gaining value just because people are so tired of getting stuck in traffic. Sorry to be so pushy. This house is haunting my dreams. Cheers. hbk...See MoreCreative Ideas for our little stone house
Comments (83)Hey guys, just following up. Thanks everyone for your input. TheFoxesPad, i very much imagine a similar use .. for me or my kids! A few general obeservations: 1. I am thinking more about tying it to our house, and to my surprise that means white trim 2. There is a part of our house, a small room off the living room, with very similar dimensions. It is stone about 6.5 ft up then clerestory. It has a gable roof. 3. Before our reno, the house has a very lovely little solarium at the side entrance. We had to demo it to make a mudroom and craftroom (believe me I hated doing it). My DH save the Marvin french doors and oversized windows. We'd love to use them, although whatever facade gets them will really change in character, so still mulling it 4. I want to emphasize its garden setting and path as much as the pond 5. The contractor says if we use too much glass it will be very hot in a stone house ... 6. Decided against post and beam, too much visual weight for the space. Probably shiplap ceiling, painted. Floor should be tile --- maybe antiqued saltillo 7. Our house has a cedar shake roof. Thinking we should copy it although I like tin or even copper too. 8. I think we will put in a sofa bed for those adult guests who want to stay there, and a small loft with a window for the kids as a reading nook. When we have narrowed done more decisions I will post again for input. In the meantime, thanks!...See MoreKitchen Layout Help - creative talent welcome!
Comments (26)Really rethink your eating areas. You have a dining room. YOu want seating at the island. You want a table. That's 3 areas. 2 of those 3 could be combined functionally and your kitchen would work better. Either make the opening between the kitchen and dining room large enough so that it feels like part of the space, or combine your "eat in" area with your island or peninsula. That "breakfast room" space is a joke as far as actual usable space if you want to get outside. That's one I'd really have to go back to the architect about. Now, if the doors were eliminated and banquette seating put all along the walls with a table in the middle, that would work, but to actually try to make it serve as a passageway to the outside and a dining area won't work. So you're left with trying to reclaim it's use for someting, so why not make your mudroom larger and create a craft/homework/mudroom/laundry room area with the adjacent power room maybe getting some more space from the whole as well. OR, claim some of the mudroom for space for your eating area. I don't see you needing 3 main "family" entrances from the exterior on that wall (the doors in the family room, the doors into the mud room, the doors from the breakfast area) so also reasses that whole area's functionality in relationship to the downstairs as a whole....See MoreFront of House Facelift
Comments (14)I am another vote for not painting or limewashing the brick. Turning a virtually no maintenance surface into a high maintenance surface seems counterproductive to me, and limewashing is one of those trendy things that will become the equivalent of the 60's avocado or harvest gold appliance but harder to fix. (I think I am dating myself . . . ) The paint color of the stucco and front door are uncomplimentary to the rest of the house, so I would change those and work with the landscaping, and then live with it for at least a year before doing something like painting the brick. I like the suggestion of a gray or brown that works with both the dark bricks and the roof color for the stucco, and a bright shade for the door. For the landscaping, remove the shaggy large bush eating the right corner of the house and replace with something that won't grow in front of the window. Let the tightly pruned shrubs grow out a bit and then snip as needed to allow a more natural shape to see whether you like them better that way. If not, remove them and replace the landscaping including some evergreen and flowering shrubs, something bright at the base of the stairs, and a groundcover to tie it all together. Plant the shrubs a bit farther from the building since the current ones look like they were planted too close, and make choices that are sized so that they won't need a large amount of pruning to stay in proportion. I like the idea of having the ornamental planting fill the whole triangle between the walkway and drive, and unless you want to see the street from the windows, putting in a small tree or larger shrub pruned to tree form there might work well. If you want any specific plant suggestions we would need a location (nearest large city) and planting zone, or you can go over to the perennial forum and shrubs forum to ask for suggestions for your area....See MoreHope M
5 years agoI like that idea a lot. we talked about doing the wood beams but the rocks around the bottom would be lovely!!
PROCreative Visual Concepts, Kevin Strader
5 years agoshivece
5 years ago
greenfish1234
5 years agoEverything CVC said. The bushes were never right for the house, yank them. Stone wrapped columns would be all wrong, no shutters on the picture window...as shivece said, a walkway, flanked by deep perennial beds would be fantastic
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Shade garden Path · More Info
Urban Retreat · More Info
PROHope M
5 years agowow thanks for all the great insight everyone! Kevin great ideas all around. The exterior trim and siding is a yellow that must go too!! We have a house warming Saturday... so none of the big projects will be done by then..any awesome ideas for a quick facelift for the party? I will get shutters done by then and interior painted.
here's a few more of the house and the view!
decoenthusiaste
5 years agochiflipper
5 years ago
Pugga70
5 years agogreenfish1234
5 years agolizziesma
5 years agoHope M
4 years agoHope M
4 years agoUpdate! Shutters are finished.
We are looking for landscaping ideas all around the house. We love the inside and love that it's on the lake but there is no curb appeal on the outside..New shutters helped dramatically. I know some people said not to put them around the large picture window, but I liked the way they helped blend the ugly rain gutters/spouts.
We are putting a gravel fire pit and a vegetable garden bed in the back... (I have a picture of what the intended fireplace will look like.) We plan to hide all the rain down spouts by adding some garden beds alongside the house. We have been researching fence ideas or at least the parts that are visible... but they are so expensive and we have a list of "to-dos" about a mile long ...but for this part would like to focus on a ------Landscape Curb Appeal Makeover!-------
It has been cold and rainy, but I got several pictures today to play with ideas I will post below.
I looked up apps I could download my photos to and play around with landscaping ideas but none were available on my pixel 3. (I've heard iScape is great)
We have not taken down the dwarf Alberta Spruce trees yet since we have no idea what kind we will do with the space.
We are looking for dramatically different and also some simple easy changes to start get our imaginations running with the landscape. "The lake house" is the theme we want to try and incorporate that in style if possible.
Hope M
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoOther side has a bunch of roses and annuals that go in it with the red mulch. The sidewalk alongside it needs a face lift. Any ideas?
Hope M
4 years ago
beesneeds
4 years ago
grdnbeth
4 years agoHope M
4 years agogrdnbeth
4 years ago
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