Maybe ugly house - please help by recommending fixes?
I have a house that is in a great spot. Acres of land, beautiful gardens, nice view - as you come out the front door, you see the backside of our local ski mountain. It's very pretty. So, the problem. We've lived here for a few years and I still think it's ugly. My husband disagrees, he loves it. But he's willing to change things, possibly because he's sick of listening to me complain. We've bounced around some ideas but nothing solid. What can I do to improve the look of this house? I may be willing to take serious measures, maybe even change the roofline (I find the peak odd, it's a relic from a renovation/expansion that was done ~ 20 years ago). The size of the house is fine so I'm not considering a remodel that would expand the space. My primary complaint? The gloominess. Can this be cheered up? Thoughts we've had include: new roof (needed) and maybe paint the window trim (not outside the windows, but the wood pane/parts of the windows themselves. They are dark brown right now) and sills. What color? No idea. The siding is rough sawn cedar, it's in great shape, though I don't like the color. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Comments (13)
littlebug zone 5 Missouri
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
Mrs. S
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoRelated Discussions
Help me fix an ugly kitchen on a budget
Comments (32)I think your kitchen is honestly not as bad as you think. So my advice with projects like yours is to make your list of the things that bother you the most, and roughly how expensive and difficult they are to fix, and ONE BY ONE fix the things that bother you the MOST and are LEAST expensive and/or difficult to fix. There is no hard and fast formula. It's basically an approach that urges you to go slow and tackle the projects that give you the most impact per dollar. aka, prioritize. The idea is that most people think they have to fix, say 7 things to stop hating their kitchen. But in reality, after 3 or 4, the other things won't bother you. Then stop! And you won't have bought materials or committed to contractors or demoed those other projects. Once you do the work on the bathroom, and perhaps other unexpected things you may need to do around the house, you can go back and decide whether to finish your list. Or to save your money for retirement, kids education, your next home or a more extensive renovation. Me? I'd clean everything, paint the cabinets (I have gray cabinets and like them a lot) and wainscoting. I don't mind the floor, but you don't like it, so that's a priority for you. I took some of the doors off my cabinets for an open-shelving look -- it's nice for glasses and things you use a lot. You could replace a couple with glass doors for some variety -- if you find that appealing. Enjoy you new home!...See MoreWe are buying a house! But boy is it ugly, please help me!
Comments (45)Somehow I ended up here when I was searching for something else and I became distracted reading the posts ;) I have to agree that I wouldn't remove the shutters, and I also wouldn't paint the brick unless you have a plan to change some of the architectural features of the home as well. I know the shutters and brick aren't modern, but the problem is that the windows are small in proportion to the outside of the house, and the brick is what gives the long, boxy shape of the house some texture and interest. If you look at the pictures of the modern houses above, all of them have windows that are either blocked together or are larger in proportion to the house, or there is some kind of textural or architectural element to provide interest, such as the cedar siding or the linear decking. If you remove the shutters and paint the brick, I think you're going to end up with more of a flat, boring house than you began with, and I agree that it will look more commercial vs. more sleek and modern. In the long run you can transform the house more dramatically if you wish and really make it more modern, but I think it will require some architectural changes, and it just won't look right if you do it part way. You could replace the siding that isn't to your taste, or possibly replace the windows with larger ones, trim out the windows, build something out front, etc. but I think those are all going to cost more than your budge - unless you do it in phases. I also second the suggestion to consider your long term "dream plan" (keeping in mind whether your priorities might shift to a different area of your house once you're living in it) and maybe break it up into stages, doing stage 1 now. As far as making what you have as modern as you can, I think you'll get a better result if you can embrace (or accept, haha) some of the traditional style. If it's freshened up, especially with your great landscaping ideas, you'll give it a much more modern look without making it look forced or awkward, especially because it does have a rectangular, linear shape. If you choose a color scheme that has more crisp contrast, such as light and dark grey for the siding and shutters like someone suggested earlier, it will contrast really nicely with the red brick, and with a great bold door, you might find the traditional features don't bother you nearly as much when they aren't beige. I LOVE the idea of the awning, especially the one you pictured because of the metal and because it mimics the line of the existing roof, and it would go a long way to draw attention to your doorway, and away from the traditional features. I think if you're careful you could probably paint, replace or paint the door, add a great, graphic railing, and probably DIY some more blocky, contemporary shutters to replace the traditional ones that are there, all for within your budget. I haven't ever priced out an awning like that so that's one thing I'm not sure on, but the awning is definitely a really good place to start to give you a lot of bang for your buck, unless you want to make more dramatic structural changes in the near future....See MorePlease help save this home from looking like an ugly modular/trailer!
Comments (17)Rip that front porch and ramp off and replace it with a much larger porch, covered if you can afford it. You need to disguise the tall foundation with plantings. Most people where I live use some type of evergreen. The window sizes don't bother me at all. Bathroom windows ARE usually smaller. So what? I wouldn't paint the garage door a different color than the house. That would draw attention to it - like, "Hey, look at me! I'm a garage!" Attention should go to your front door instead. Could you post a picture of the fencing you are talking about? Cattle or hogwire fencing sound, well, like livestock fencing. Years ago, when our two boys were ages 6 and 2, we bought a home on a busy street corner. The back yard was completely enclosed with a well-constructed chain link fence. That fence was a selling point to us because of our kids. However, the day we moved in, both boys busily explored the back yard and we observed our oldest carefully teaching his little brother the easiest way to climb over the fence. *sigh* We can't recommend any plantings because you don't tell us where in the world you live. Edited to add: I forgot to say that I think this can be a cute little place. It looks well kept and tidy. It just needs some love....See MoreHelp please! The exterior of my house is a little ugly!
Comments (25)I love those ideas above, thank you all so much!! Those photos and the photoshop one especially give me such a great visual on how it could look! I love the white with black/dark charcoal window look, and of course the red door I’m partial to 😊 I took a look at those romabio products, would love to use them but haven’t found anywhere in Canada nearby that carries them! we were going to wait for spring before any pruning or removal, to see what is actually alive and what we have out front. A lot of pruning is definitely on the list. Our spring comes pretty late here, so we won’t be able to get started until may/June!...See More
girlnamedgalez8a
5 years agokudzu9
5 years ago
mrswaves
5 years ago
PROFlo Mangan
5 years agoHere is rough mock up. But consider a color palette with a deep blue, cedar, black and white. Also remove dark landscaping materials with lighter ones. It will enhance the view. Beef up porch pillars with field stone bases. Add flowers. Add some details to “peaks” for more mountain retreat look.
- PRO
houseinthewoods18
5 years agoYou are all so nice. OK - first off, I agree that the house isn't all that bad. My "problem" wouldn't be a problem if I had anything in life to really complain about. I'll try to address a few questions. First off, the driveway - I think that the driveway extending so far to the left is a relic of the house before there was a garage, which was added on when the house, once a small cabin, was renovated. It's not paved, it's dirt and some packed gravel, same material as the driveway. Do we need the parking space? Not typically, but I have to say that the truck that delivers heating oil might need to park there. The garage might be too far away for the hose? They send the hose down the bulkhead, into the basement where our oil burner is. I should mention - I live in rural NH. Also, you cannot see the house from a street - the front, on the other side of the front most flower bed, is a large field, bordered by forest - pines, birches, and maples. I agree about the railroad ties, those are actually degrading in place. We contracted with a landscaper last year to improve that situation but due to rain the project was put off until this spring. I don't want to pull that garden out, it's a perennial garden that is very mature and in bloom is wild but beautiful - peonies, poppies, irises, lilies, lots of bee balm, mint, another flower that I love but can't remember the name of, and other things, mostly ground cover type flowering plants.No doubt it could be tamed and that is on the agenda this year. Where I live in NH, we have about 2-3 months of lush bloom so you have to really love it while you can. The garden closest to the house is messy and kind of disappointing, outside of two mountain laurels I could part with all of it. I did cut it back quite a bit at the end of last season, so am hoping it looks more tidy this year. The big log is in fact the remnants of a large tree, we cut out three huge pines last year, they were old and sort of looked like they'd crash onto the house if a wind blew in just the right direction. Cutting down those pines was our first real attempt to address the gloominess, definitely successful. The trees/logs were completely removed shortly after this photo was taken.
Flo - I like your ideas. If I can figure out a way to work with the peak, I think that would be best, as it would be less expensive. I'm also afraid that extending the roofline to address the peak would leave me with a hulking rectangle of a house which might not be great. I really like the blue and hadn't considered that color. In your design, I would be considering a dark roof, right? Here's a photo I found last week - I think that I could successfully incorporate some of the design and color elements displayed here. I find the tree growing through the deck on this house to be so odd, not sure why it was left in place, though the moss covering it is cool. I also like the idea of incorporating stone - we have nice stone and slate inside, so that would makes sense.
- PRO
Flo Mangan
5 years ago 
Olychick
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoI love your gardens and am surprised that was what people first suggested changing. Looks like a lovely setting.
I think what bothers me most aesthetically about your house is the asymmetric placement of the window below the sharp peak, along with the lone small window to the left of it. Maybe someone skilled with mock-ups could try some different window configurations there to see if it would improve the balance.
It seems that peak would look better if it continued downward on the left side instead of looking like it was chopped off. Although I think it would look best if it were made to match the other pitched roofs (an expensive fix).
This reminded me a bit of your house and wondered if something similar to the dormer window shown could fix the odd window placement by replacing them all with a longer dormer style - not really a dormer but a bank of windows with its own roof (I realize this is a dormer in an existing roof).
The colors Flo posted are very nice. I also like green or greige homes in the forest. Green in the landscape looks really great against a greige house - a color similar to cedar aged in place. This is a little lighter that my vision
This is a little browner than what I was thinking (can't seem to find a pic of the exact color I want).
I don't care for the trim color with this for a house in the forest, but think it's a really nice green, as is the one above.
cat_ky
5 years ago
PROBuild Beautiful
5 years ago
Flo Mangan