Yes, definitely focus on the landscaping for now. The house is nice...nothing bad about the roof and siding colors. Some color in the landscaping will help. One thing that caught my eye...a third window up above would have been nice. I guess it's consistent with the lack of symmetry. Tons of potential for your house!

My sister has a cute Dutch colonial. They painted the house white that seems to work nicely with many Dutch colonials IMO. They chose Benjamin Moore's Tarrytown Green for all the trim and front door. Looks nice!

I agree with others who mentioned the landscaping. I think that the previous owners may have wanted some separation for the large front deck from the road. Think about whether you would use the front deck or if something else might be more to your taste. As others have said the current rather messy looking trellises don’t do much for the house. Neither does the pathway of irregular stones set in gravel or the lack of other landscaping. I would look at a lot of pictures of yards and gardens both on line (which are often newly planted) and in garden books to get a feel for what you like. Think about how you would like to use the property: sitting area, kids’ play area, ornamental gardens, trees, separation from a busy street, etc.

I find my eye going to the sections of white gutter and downspouts; I would paint them to match the house color so they blend in.

Definitely start by thinking about how you intend to use the property. We don't know anything about the interior layout, but it looks like the front door was abandoned by the previous owners, and the main entrance moved to a side door. While the front of the house is quite nice, the side definitely has some issues.

So one of the first questions if whether or not you have any interest in turning the front door back into the main, pretty, guest entrance. Then it doesn't matter that the side door is off-kilter.

Is this the side entrance? How is the used, or will be used?

If the deck had visual shelter from the street instead of feeling exposed, would you use it? You may be able to plant or add fencing in strategic spots to allow the deck to not be visible from the road. If there is no chance you would ever use it even if it isn’t visible from the road, I would remove it. Would you want an outdoor sitting area elsewhere?

The vine in your first photo is trumpet vine, Campsis radicans. It sends up suckers, often many feet from the original plant, so I would be likely to cut it off at ground level and paint the cut surface with brush killer. Take a close look at the leaves so you can recognize and remove sprouts. This isn’t typically an easy plant to get rid of, so you will need to be persistent.

Just because it is a time you can plant doesn’t mean you have to or even should plant. Any work on the house such as painting, replacing the path with one that can be cleared of snow easily and isn’t a trip hazard, deck demo, or adding fences needs to get done before any landscaping near the house or other work spaces. If you want to plant trees out by the road, that is likely OK unless a fence or drive or walkway will be installed there.

We often suggest that folks live in a house for a year or at least a growing season before doing too much work changing the gardens. That is because it typically takes that long to figure out how your family is likely to want to use the space and what is already there as far as plants and things like drainage and how the sun’s path changes across the year and if outdoor bugs or road noise make a patio impractical, etc.. I often will spend a summer planning and evaluating and doing preparation of beds and then plant in late summer or early fall. My current house needed a fair amount of work (roof, foundations, paint, insulation, etc.) and we lived here for 3 years before I was able to plant anything near the house. So living with what is there while you take the time to plan and evaluate can be a good thing and save you making mistakes you will later regret.

Hello, I think a lot of the landscaping suggestions are spot on, so I'll focus on the house. I think the two areas that would have a lot of impact are 1) creating a porch over the deck and 2) redesigning the second floor windows. The porch could be shallow, but if proportioned and detailed well would add a lot of character and "hominess" to the facade (as well as providing a covered space to wait outside the door if its raining). I like the asymmetry of the house, but the second floor windows draw an inordinate amount of attention to themselves, and they give the impression of having been randomly placed. Adding a window or grouping the windows could help a lot. Lots of ways to do it, but almost all would be an improvement. Its a nice house in general, just needs some tweaks.

My question is the same as Babs... since you already have the deck, is the only thing that would keep you from using it, the lack privacy? That can be easily remedied. Also, is it in good condition? Most people find an outdoor lounge and dining space useful, especially if there are gatherings of many people. I also agree with her conclusion that if you absolutely could not use the deck, it would be better to get rid of it and return the side yard to conventional functions.

Aly, you might want to explore Microsoft Paint as a program for visualizing landscape changes, since it's readily available on any Windows computer and is easy to use. The caveat, however, is that in order to use any graphics program to its fullest, you need a touchscreen and stylus. Still, you can use a few tools like lines, shapes, and cut & paste with just a mouse. The paint brushes and pens will be difficult without a stylus.

Aly, I use Photoshop.

I'd live with the existing trellises for a season before you take them down. You may find that you do end up using that area since it is quite private behind those vines. It may be a lovely area to sit in summer.

Depending on the type of vine, it may need a hard pruning annually (e.g. wisteria), which you could do in late fall if you don't like the look of the bare vines in winter.

If this was my house, I'd remove the small door bump-out and make that whole side of your house a covered porch. It would be a nice sheltered welcome for visitors. I would also do something about the part of your house with the flat roof. It doesn't seem to go with the rest of your house. Can't tell if it's living space or garage. If it's living space, would be nice to add roof trusses and make it into cathedral ceiling with a post & beam look. Will be big bucks but will also add value. You have a lovely home with oodles of potential!

Hi! I'm not any sort of architecture pro, but had some ideas!

I think everyone is spot on -- cleaning up the landscaping is going to really add some charm to your home. I played around with the second floor windows as well. Feels more balanced with them wider and grouped, I think. Doesn't have to be brick, but adding some sort of edging to your driveway would clean up the look and keep stray rocks from your lawn. I'm not very confident with roofs and rooflines, but extending the roofline more cohesively over that mudroom entrance would look more clean. Not sure if that makes sense -- making that roof area all one section, no interruption. And you could do tons of things with that deck: add a railing, possibly a pergola, fill it with potted plants, remove the deck on both sides to make the mudroom door more of a focal point, etc. I think you have a really great canvas here to do all kinds of things! :-)

Also played around with giving your roof some sort of "vertical" element to help break up all the horizontal lines. Not entirely sure if the roof would work with something like this, but maybe someone more knowledgeable would know.

Best of luck!

But what about the question ... "would you use the deck if it had privacy?"

When I was little, we rented an old four-square with two front doorbell buttons. It had a large front porch that was enclosed during the winter. So it was a 'porch' in the summer, open to visitors, and a 'mudroom' during the winter, part of the house.

If you are thinking of the space as a mudroom, the doorbell has to be moved. Nobody is going to wander into the house searching for a doorbell.

Before you paint, consider replacing the enclosed porch with an open portico.

Less Lawn More Garden · More Info

Yarrow Point Residence · More Info

some ideas:

If you didn't add a third window upstairs, I would want to add a speciman tree between the two bottom windows which would offset the upper (missing) third window and then plan my borders around that. I'm totally a beginner though, as you can tell by my drawing :)

I agree that the doorbell should be moved outside. And Dig Doug's Designs nailed what I had in mind with some sort of pergola over the deck area! If you want privacy, you could do a lattice and grow something to help create an "outdoor screen." But if privacy isn't a concern, leaving it open is great too and gives you so many options for potted plants or added landscaping.

I also wondered about the original front door. Is it ever used?

Just put a wireless doorbell by the outside door. Not a big deal.

So to follow up with this thread, we decided to keep the front deck in place and ended up using it lots. It remains sunny after work in the summer and we’ve really enjoyed sipping wine in the sun and eating dinner al fresco. Now with the extra time due to quarantine, we have rebuilt the pond retaining wall (still need to add plants and a waterfall), torn down the large trumpet vine trellis on the left side of the walkway, and planted a row of 10 Arborvitaes by the street to give us a more private feeling from the front deck (once they grow in that is!). We planted boxwoods on the side of the walkway and added mulch as well. It’s starting to feel more like an official entry way, thanks in no small part to all of your suggestions! We do have plans to add a better roof line to the flat rubber roof on the front entry mudroom in the future, and we would like to eventually add a third window back to the top level of the house on the right side. Thank you all again for the help and suggestions!!

That was a lot of work. Thanks for giving us an update.

Great plantings! Appreciate you letting us know what you’ve done. And I’m glad you enjoy the deck!

Looks like you have been working hard . Thanks for the update. It is appreciated.

One word of caution: be sure you have looked up the ultimate size of your shrubs. Often folks will plant for current plant size rather than ultimate plant size, and that can pose problems in a few years. Both boxwood and arborvitae vary considerably in size depending on the cultivar. Some types of arborvitae can grow 40’x20’, and if you chose one of those, they will be into the wires and need removal. Likewise, envision the boxwoods 6’x4’ or even 3’x3’. Will they reach the walkway? Will visitors feel as though they are approaching through a tunnel? Are you interested in pruning that length of shrubs annually to keep them in check if needed?

There are cultivars of each that stay small, but since we don’t know what exactly you planted, you likely want to check. What is given on plant tags is IME often a 5 year estimate and they typically will continue growing past that. My favorite website for finding realistic sizes of woody plants is the Missouri Botanic Garden’s Plantfinder. Your plant tag should give you the genus and species or cultivar. As an example, the boxwood will be the genus Buxus and then either a cultivar such as ’Green Velvet’ or species name such as sempervirens. Arborvitae will be the genus Thuja and the species or cultivar name. Or you can just use the genus name and get a list of all plants they own in that genus so you can scroll through to find yours.

I don’t want to discourage you, but it is easier to move them now, should it be needed, than later.

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/plantfinder/plantfindersearch.aspx

Plan to water as needed this summer and into the fall until the ground freezes. The way to tell if you need to water is to actually check several inches down to see if the soil is wet or dry. You want it lightly moist. Mulch is a good start to help keep even moisture and keep down weeds.

All great points NHbabs! Thank you. We will have to see how quickly the boxwood grow, but can plan to trim them each year if needed. The Arborvitaes may have actually all died over the winter, so we will have to wait and see if they come back and if not perhaps replant new ones further apart or plan to have them topped each year. Once again, thank you!

Hey guys! Wanted to follow up again and say thanks a bunch for the suggestions and morale support. Things are looking so much better over here. Curb appeal has grown a ton and we are so much happier!

Looks great

Your home is very welcoming. Looks well loved.

Lovely. The plants are doing very well. Thanks for the update.

Lovely! Thanks for sharing the update.

Nice follow through with the update. So rarely done. We appreciate it.

Looks great. Good choices, nicely done.

Making more progress! Thanks you all for the support, ideas, and suggestions! They have been such a huge help.

Your house looks happy with the new flowers. Great job!