Curb Appeal Help Needed
Hello! My husband and I just bought a new house on a mountain in the Ozarks. Our house is built on a very tall crawl space (5’10”), so you must climb stairs to reach the first floor (and only floor) of our home. The front of our house looks like the back a house, but I want the front of the house to look like the front of the house. I also want to make the deck look more substantial, but I don’t know how. Right now the deck looks like it’s on skinny stilts. Landscaping will help. Do you have any ideas for improving the front the house or beefing up the deck? I’d greatly appreciate your suggestions!
Comments (10)
callirhoe123
last yearckraft24
last yearRelated Discussions
Starting Over; Curb Appeal Help Needed
Comments (4)Gle, rather than me recommending plants for your area, what do you think would work for the various plants? #1 -- tree #2 -- 8" - 15" groundcover or perennial #3 -- 3' - 3 1/2" height shrub #4 -- color...See MoreCurb Appeal Help Needed!
Comments (13)Removing the arches, considering the brickwork, would be costly and maybe even difficult to match (with new brick). I didn't even notice the arched windows. Anyway, if you did shutters, you would just stop at the top of the rectangular part of the window. But, again, it would be really strange-looking over on the right side there, where the shutters would be over that horizontal brick trim on the edges of the house. PS--My husband and I couldn't decide about shutters, so I "made" some, out of construction paper close to the color I was considering and we tacked them up to see how they would look. This will be difficult, considering tape won't stick to the brick, but where there is a will...Or--you could photoshop a photo of the house?...See MoreCurb Appeal help needed
Comments (9)If the main entry will be via the breezeway, remove the front walk from the public walkway to the front door. Make both doors the same color, but add the sidelights and a large landing in front of the breezeway door. Then add a narrow path that continues past the breezeway door to the front door, skirting a deep (front to back) front bed, but use plantings and pots as well as the path width to convey that the main door is the breezeway door. Remove the fence in front of the breezeway door and perhaps put a gate across the path to the front door. If cars are likely to block the drive and pedestrian access to the breezeway door, put in a walk along the edge of the drive. I would remove what is in the front bed now. All the plants appear to need pruning to stay within a reasonable size which is below the level of the windowsills for this house. It looks like you have a small tree off the right corner of the house? If so, that can stay if it is healthy. Even large rhodies are shallow rooted and relatively easy to put onto a tarp to slide across to a spot along the perimeter of the property where you might want to block a view or just have something green to look at in the winter and flowers in spring. Just prepare the hole ahead of time and water and mulch well. I don’t know that the needled evergreens are worth trying to rescue. To get specific plant suggestions, ask in the New England forum if your Waltham is the one in MA, or the shrub forum or the perennials forum. Look up your zone and tell what state as not all plants are happy in all areas. Also, an indication of how much sun the area gets or the direction the house faces is helpful. https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/neweng https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/peren https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/shrubs...See MoreCurb Appeal Help Needed
Comments (17)Agree no shutters, and no awnings (unless they are needed due to your location - I would choose a cooler house over looks!). Also no window boxes. This is a rather contemporary house style, so country/colonial/rustic touches aren't the best choices. What I would do: When it is feasible I would change out the country style storm doors to something more contemporary. Try to find one or two (a lighter and a darker, perhaps, or a dark neutral and a bright) colors that complement the stone and roof (that shade of roof can be difficult) and paint everything that is currently white - darker color for the window frames and doors. You might look into adding a bit more trim around the windows- just a half inch or so - to give them a stronger balance. You could Romabio the red brick chimney to a shade close to the stone. Yes to landscaping, clean & simple lines. Look for a couple of evergreen shrubs that won't get huge. There are several varieties of boxwood that could suit, as well as junipers, falsecypress, and others - you want variation like illustrated above. Some planters/urns on the porch or on the side of the house can add winter interest when the other plants are bare....See More
PROMiloni Mehta
last yearckraft24
last year
Here is one without the wildflowers in case this helps. It kind of shows the small cement pathway from the slab in front of the garage to the deck stairs. It is raining hard outside so I cannot get better pictures right now.
ckraft24
last yearlast modified: last year@BeverlyFLADeziner I love that idea. The people who built the house did not add anything above the garage, so my husband and I do plan on adding a room up there with windows. Thank you for the visual on this. It really does look SO much better with windows there! We are even toying with the idea of building a garage behind our house and finishing the bottom of the current garage to make it an entry room with a front door. Something like the french doors in this picture.
Sigrid
last year
decoenthusiaste
last yearI gather there is no walkout basement under the deck, right? How about a split double stair?
It would be a bit more easy to access the upper porch and would allow those parking on the right a quick entry.
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misecretary
last yearCan't be sure, but if those posts are 2 x 4 then I would strongly suggest replacing with 4 x 4 or 6 x 6 posts. Whichever size looks best. I would also get the opinion of a contractor before doing so, but a few loads of dirt/black dirt could be brought in to terrace the yard somewhat.
BeverlyFLADeziner