Curb Appeal Suggestions – Lake House

[Mike Kroupa]

I bought an ugly house. I want to make it beautiful. I am looking for suggestions from the BP community.

The house has wood siding with vertical lines (T1-11) that is a bad color. In addition, the house lacks balance. My wife says it “looks confused” due to window placement.

We are moving rooms around and replacing every single window. That gives us a chance to put them wherever we want. We will be using a vinyl siding with vinyl shake in the gable. We will also be replacing the front door to give it more weight. It will have nice glass and side-lites on both sides. I did not show the new door in the mock-ups.

I am including three images.

1. The house as it is today
2. A rough mock-up with three windows in the main front wall.
3. A rough mock up with two windows in the main front wall – but with “headers” above the windows.

Note: The colors are not correct. We do plan to use a medium tone on the main siding and a darker tone for the shake.

Here is where I can use your help.

Which design approach do you prefer?

Do you have other suggestions?

Thanks,

Mike

[Jimmy Seaborg]

Mike-

I don't think the existing design looks confused because of the window placement. I think it looks confused because there is no strong front entrance that screams 'come on in!!' If you are going to the effort of changing floor plan and window openings, my suggestion would be to move the front door to where the awning window is in the first pic. My take on the existing design (top pic) is that there is too much uninterrupted roof and wall space and the whole thing just looks 'flat'. A strong front entrance will help this. your suggested change to double hung windows instead of casements doesn't do much for me. I think the front door placed under the gable roof will make a much stronger statement than changing to double hungs. And definitely do a shed or gabled roof over the new entrance. That would really attract some attention. Good luck!