Hi, Congrats n the great house. I have lots of idea�s that may work for you. We recently "updated" the look of our house by adding Stone-like Keystones to the trim around the windows and above the garage door. Just Google Keystones, you�ll see lots f sites and style to pick from. These days these architectural components are made out of non-wood products so stay looking great for years. Also, If you have a Lowes nearby, go check their section of non- wood trims. We purchased the base boards which are about 8" tall, turned them upside down and used them like a crown molding. That would look really great in the two spaces above your garage doors. Another suggestion, you could add shutters around the windows on the first floor. Also, Consider buying a few year round material style Urns for the 3 corners of the garage, and for either side of the front door. You could plant a nice combination of flowers and evergreens to give you color, and height. We have 1 with a rose tree which blooms all summer, at eth base we added begonias and two tone Ivy, one has a rounded shaped evergreen shrub, with impatient at the base, our last one has a topiary evergreen, about 3 feet tall, with the 3 ball shapes. We got all this done for under $1,000 and eth neighbors all love what we have done. I suggest also adding lower potted plants to your entry way as well. If you stay with the "stone looking" pots on posts and you should get some high impact. You can usually find those year round pots really inexpensively at stores like, TK Maxx, Marshalls, Ross and Tuesday Morning. Good luck and best wishes. Maria

"Obviously if there were other homes better suited to my tastes I wouldn't even ask, I would buy the other home! Only house for sale in subdivision!" "Did I mention limited budget?" The answer is really, No, you can't make changes to this house to make it more traditional looking or appealing to your taste at a limited budget. The limited budget answers are 1) wait until something more to your liking comes up in the subdivision, 2) look in a different nearby subdivision. If you had a high budget and could afford to either pay for the house, then tear it down and pay to build another, or you had several hundred thousand dollars in addition to the purchase price to substantially alter it, then sure, you could substantially alter it. (While you were living in another house because it would probably be uninhabitable during most of the renovation), then the answer is yes, you could do anything you want with enough money. It rarely makes sense to tear down a house unless it is really unsuitable to the lot, or the neighborhood in terms of surrounding houses and values, or for some reason it is uninhabitable or condemned. This usually only makes sense in densely populated areas where land values are very high, or there is something extra special about the property, such as being oceanfront. I live in an area where property values are very high. They recently tore down a commercial building and built 6 houses on the parcel. Each house is twice to 2.5 as large as the houses in the surrounding neighborhood. Each house is being sold for at least 4 times the typical selling price of the surrounding neighborhood. My neighborhood can support such variances in value, although Most people who already live here have said they would not spend nearly that much to live in this neighborhood. Can you afford to spend $200K (a 1700 sq foot house at $117/ft.) and then spend another $250K (a ballpark estimate based upon a more typical larger house at the same price/ft), for a total of $450K? Could you Sell a $450K house in that subdivision? Is that a limited budget to you? That's a serious question, because to some people a limited budget is $1M. If your limited budget is $100K in addition to the purchase price, I would say in no way could you change the character of the house And make other renovations like kitchens and baths.

Thanks Yardvaark. The original pic at top of thread was in mid construction so of course it was not welcoming -- very ugly it was (or perhaps you were referring to the original house with white siding that had overgrown burning bush that obscured the circle pavers). Either way the result is an improvement for sure. I am very glad we decided from the good advice on this thread not to do plantings around the circle entry courtyard as I like how open it is now with just a garden around the birch (future garden that is). emmarene, We are definitely still doing the glass railing around the deck over the garage. We just have not got that done yet. That will really finish off the outside.

Before planting a tree it would be good to add some topsoil to slightly crown the island in order to give it a fuller looking appearance. If it's pure flat it will tend to look sunken. Personally, I wouldn't make "quick growing" a factor. Most any tree will grow quickly enough to please the neighborhood. The tree's longevity, beauty and overall good habits will be much more important not far down the road. Among the others, consider a male clone Ginkgo biloba if you can find it, as it has many good qualities, not the least of which is that when the fall color show is over, the leaves drop suddenly which helps the clean-up not to drag on ... good for a street tree. A good groundcover for an area like this would be able to repair itself when damaged and, more or less, wouldn't be prone to damage. Anything that is shrub like -- forms twigs and stems -- is going to be breakable. I would consider something durable like Virginia creeper. It makes an excellent low care groundcover but is often overlooked because, like any vine, it can be rambunctious, and therefore feared in someone's private, manicured setting. Here, that quality is its asset. It would only need to be trimmed at the edge (which is a quick and easy chore) and clipped from climbing the tree once per year (probably during the winter so it's leaves will have already fallen off.) One does not even need to remove the clipped vine as it will fall off on its own accord. In the winter only an undamagable network of vines remain, hugging the ground. There is room for all the snow one wishes to pile on them. V.C takes sun or shade so would have no trouble adapting to the changing light conditions that occur as a large tree grows. It could be found for free since it's pretty much everywhere and would be easy to start by anyone who has knowledge of plant propagation.