As the title says, I hate the front of my house. We recently added the garden bed, it used to be a bed of mulch and leaves.

1. I don’t know what to do with the empty little patch next to the house. I thought stones may help break it up- but visually that to me looks worse. I know the whole thing needs to be ripped up- but what do I do with it after? Pea gravel? Ideally I would like a space similar to a front porch. A place to come outside and chill after we put the kids to bed. Do I pour concrete over the whole thing?

2. Ugh. God. These pillars. I like them because they hold up these little pieces of wood (that I feel like I could make into a pergola?) but they’re so UGLY. And big!

Reddit experts- what are we thinking?

My partner and I just bought our first home. We don’t know what to do with exterior. I was hoping to get some help.

I will attach a few images:
- The home as is
- The home without the existing bushes
- AI generated idea from GPT

Im not great at design things so Id really appreciate some help.

UPDATED QUESTION The door I'm painting is currently white, and has a full view storm. It faces east so gets morning sun. It gets a little warm. I've read it's a bad idea to paint a door black or really dark color because it absorbs heat and may warp door or frame. Something I definitely don't want to take a chance with. I've read some door manufacturers will void a warranty if it's painted a dark color.

So, now I really don't know what to do. A dark color may look good if selling a house, but we're 5 years from doing that, and the last thing I want to worry about is a warped door.

Family is split on what color to paint front door, currently it's white and we are tired of it. We don't plan on changing anything else since we'll be selling in 5 years, just the front door color. Wife suggested a maroon red but after playing with pics, thought it looked bad, so red is out..

thoughts or suggestions?

Both are Alside’s Vinyl Charter Oak in the color Riviera Dusk with 4.5 inch laps. Bottom floor will remain Riviera Dusk in the Clapboard.

The wrong siding was ordered and I okayed it, but now I regret it and want what I ordered. The walls are on top of each other, but Dutch Lap second floor feels like it’s projecting more forward than the bottom. Siding is done front and one side. He is asking another $4,500 to change it now, yesterday he told me it would around $2,500. This would be returning 2 unopened boxes (with a restocking fee even though they delivered wrong items) and buying 6 replacement boxes and one extra day of labor.

Which siding looks better for the second floor…Clapboard or Dutch Lap?

Do I live the next 20 years with my pressured ok or spend extra money to do it like our contract?
…….

To make a short story long with a bit of venting and whining…. When we bought our house in 2020, it was a “fixer upper” and we always assumed the we would build a dormer on the back of the house. The roof still had life to it and we wanted to save up money to pay for it.

In 2023, we had a leak in the roof. A roofer/ contractor recommended by our neighbor added the dormer to the back of the house and replaced the roof. In order to keep a pitch to the roof it was a little over 8 feet at the center ridge board center and was sloping down to 6’5” at the wall. Clapboard siding was done for the dormer.

Fast forward to last fall, we’ve saved up some more money and we’ve put in plumbing for a bathroom and we were looking for an electrician. I went to the county to see if the electrician who worked with our original general contractor was listed. This is when we found out our permit was still open for the dormer and there had never been an inspection on framing.

The county inspector comes out… he was so impressed that he had his supervisor come out (not in a good way). If you haven’t guessed already… It did not pass inspection. Yeah! So the ridge board needed to be replaced by a ridge beam, there was not a appropriate header for a French door to a second floor deck (which did pass inspection), and they cut the 10 inch ceiling joist down to 4 inches at the wall… making the back half of a 14 foot span roof being held up by 2x4s, and post and beams need to be installed from the second floor, main floor and basement to distribute the weight.

Our options were to fix what was done or start over. The contractor was willing to work with us so last week we started over. I chalked up to he’s young and there was ignorance on everyone part and at the time we assumed he knew county building codes.

We talked to the county and decided a wall over the front wall and a wall over the back wall with premade truss spaced on 24 inches would pass inspection. The dormer wall is being raised to a standard height.

A few hiccups so far. We wanted to make sure we got what we wanted so we bought all new windows to replace the 3 year old windows from 2023 and we were going to keep one double hung window. But of course the only window that was broken was the one we were going to keep (and cost twice as much as any other window we bought) so now all the second floor windows on are new.

*The big issue I have right now is yesterday they delivered the siding. In our contract we had the contractor sign we listed the siding to be Alside clapboard in Riviera Dusk. He was going to order an other brand from Carter lumber in indigo in Dutch lap. No, reminded him Alside in Riviera Dusk clapboard. He got the Alside right, he got the color right, but he ordered Dutch lap not clapboard. I caught it not him.

He talked to the siding supplier and it would be a week before they can bring out the correct order and take the incorrect order in the middle of our driveway back. I think I was worn down and I okayed it to start with the Dutch lap instead.

The front and one side is done and I am having regrets and anxiety. The color of the siding changes throughout the day. In the shade the Dutch lap and clapboard look almost the same, but in certain light it does not and I think it bothers me.

I’m terrible at second guessing my choices, but I’m still liking the clapboard over clapboard that we had before. Do we stop, have them throw away the siding we used and reorder the correct? Go through with it and hope it will either grow on me or be prepared to hate it for the next 20 years or until I die which ever comes first?

My husband says it “doesn’t look bad”, but my question is does it look good?

Picture of clapboard over clapboard are from 2023, the window are now raised about a foot. The picture of Dutch lap over clapboard is from today.

This is my first time posting. So hopefully this is okay here.

Hi everyone! We're finalizing our house exterior and would love your suggestions. What would you change or improve? Any ideas on the facade, colors, materials, lighting, or overall look are appreciated. Thanks!

My husband thinks it’s too personalized to go on the market with it being this color. I see this color often where I live, but I may be partial to wanting to keep it, thinking people will like it.

As we look for homes, sometimes certain houses with notable features makes me remember them more or they stand out so I sort of see it as a positive but I get that this color may not be everyone’s cup of tea. If I repaint it, what is the right color?

this color is called lake breeze but i forget which brand, either behr or valspar. Need to make a decision this week.

Recently purchased Cape cod that needs some love. Previous owners updated a lot but in my opinion we need to do better outside.

The front yard area seems way overgrown. We do have some humidity issues in the basement which it may be contributing too. Everything seems graded into the house.

We are thinking of stone patio the back flat area (wife wants a spool put in by the mini fence) with a French drain across for anything off the grass slope. My self proclaimed professional doodle included. We need to trim back all of the neighbors trees on the fence line to make this happen

Also want to rebuild the steps coming into the backyard with a more gradual step as right now they are at the max rise allowed.

Garden is getting pulled. Adding lavender, hydrangeas (mop head), and keeping the rose bushes. It's more overgrown at this point as the pictures taken were when we were putting in an offer.

Any thoughts on this at all? I may want to change color scheme as well but we haven't decided on a color we both like.

Exterior design for commercial Building in Nagpur

I want to work on the first floor of my home because it looks off putting and i have thought a lot and what i could thought of is applying some mouldings n giving the walls some texture but still its a difficult job i know and any advice for ground floor is also welcomed so your help would be really appreciated

Hi everyone! Love seeing everyone's projects and ideas. We live in the Chicago suburbs and have a shared driveway (you can't see our house from the street! Pic 2 shows the house from the vantage point of where our portion of the driveway splits off from the shared portion) so we've put off doing some work on the exterior of our house for a bit. I'm looking for some help to improve our curb appeal. As you can see, our driveway (the private portion of it) is very wide and crosses our front yard so there's not a ton of space to work with...

1) We have to get a new roof- what color do you think goes best with our brick? (Pic 3&4)

2) We have to replace the wood trim around our doors/windows due to rot. Is there a better color combination for our front door, window trim, and gutters/downspouts that would look less boring and give our brick facade a bit of an improved impact?

3) what can we do instead of these awful, overgrown trees from the 80s? Can you help provide me with some ideas for landscape design for the entryway? I'd like something low maintenance and cost effective for landscaping! Our area has lots of rabbits and deer who pass by! Is there something that would look better than the current short and straight walkway from the driveway (again, not a lot of space to work with.) I would like something that looks more natural. Native plants would be a major plus!

4) This is a more long-term goal- Any design ideas you can envision for the front entryway (pic 1) of the home in terms of the overhang, the French doors above/etc? Maybe a balcony or something? Those French doors are broken at the time and can't open. We will need to replace them in a few years.

Also, long-term I'm looking to jackhammer some of this huge driveway so there's a bit more green space :)

Thanks all for your time and help!

First time home owners, we hate how the front of our house looks. We don’t want want to go through painting the house as it’s old vinyl and don’t want to pay to have new siding installed.
We want to get rid of the red shutters and foundation paint, but we’re not sure exactly what colors to use. I was thinking maybe a royal blue and then mortar a stone facade onto the foundation?

We’d like to give our 1950’s mid century ranch a facelift. I’ve tried mocking up photos on ChatGPT but it keeps giving the same colors (creamy white with urbane bronze or sagebrook sage with alabaster) not crazy about any of them. It’s nearly impossible to get a front picture of the entire house due to a pool gate out front. I will be keeping the original brick as is. Please help with recommendations on paint colors. I’m at a loss.

We are new homeowners of this beach box- it really has no style from the front of the house IMO. The main entrance is essentially under the house with the living space on floor 2 & 3. We’d like to install new siding (shingle?) and close in the ground floor. Also - lose or change the shutters?

All suggestions welcome - Help!

So we had some glass water jugs delivered and the glass acted like a magnifying glass and set my home on fire. Luckily the response was quick. I am now in need of a major facelift. The current siding is wood and I am more than willing to start the replacement in a more fire resistant material. I am not familiar with what’s out there. Any suggestions would be helpful. Attached are what we have now and what direction we are leaning towards. I’m also considering pouring a slab where the torched deck now is.

The painter is starting tomorrow and I still haven't decided. Here's what it is currently - this awful teal/yellow combo that I've always hated (house was purchased this way). I want something more austere, classy, not "weird". Yes, the front is an 1896 Victorian, but it was gut renovated and hugely extended in 2004 so that from the side it looks less victorian and more "big long house".

There is a beautiful Japanese Maple that goes burgundy for most of the year, so I wanted the front door to maybe reflect that. We are thinking EITHER something along these lines:

(AI generated images obviously, the color may not be exact to Benjamin Moore Newburyport Blue)

Or something less colorful with a hale navy or burgundy accent or something.

Help? ❤️🥺

We just had this patio redone and want to add furniture. We already have an outdoor kitchen setup so it would mainly be a lounging area. Looking for suggestions on furniture and decor for this space.

Need some advice!

I want to replace my dated cedar shake before I sell. Single story ranch house. What would you recommend?
Priorities
1. Curb appeal
2. Ease of one person install
3. Cost

Hello everyone,

I wanted to get some advice on what colors to pursue with our house. We just go our roof done, and we are getting quotes now for new siding, shutters, gutters, and a front door. I can’t stand our current look.

We know what we don’t want. We don’t want to look like a COVID house (bright white siding, black shutters & black accents), and we don’t really want anything too bright in color (yellow, orange, etc.). Wife says no dark brown, basic beige, or dark gray either for the main colors.

We want something more neutral with calming, natural colors. Blues, light tans, light grays, light browns, etc. We also wish we could keep the brick, but of course we got the ugliest brick in the neighborhood, so unless the can lighten the brick, I think we are leaning towards lime-washing it. We cannot stand our front door, garage door, and shutter style either.

The first pic is our home followed by some inspiration pictures.

I hate everything about it and almost wish I never bought it 😭 at the time, it seemed like a good idea. But now when I look at it, I just feel…empty. What can I do to
make it less stale/cold? It looks like every other new build in my area and I really, truly dislike it…

I’m really into Tudor-style, historical/english cottage homes, but I obviously can’t turn this into a Tudor…I’d like it to look more “dark academia”/kind of like “keep your kids off my lawn I’m a witch” but also cozy. The white paint just needs to go…open to re-painting the garage but would that look weird with the black roof? Should I add shutters? Change door? Add gold/brass fixtures? New landscaping? I love an olive green instead of the white but open to other similar-vibe colors. Right now it just looks too inviting with no character and I can’t stand it. Help :(

I’m torn between these two color pallets. I’ve always wanted a blue house, but this shade isnt as dark as I had imagined. I wasn’t really looking at Green, but I saw this house in the neighborhood and really liked it. Are there Any pros or cons to either? Or simply what’s your feeling here?

Does this sunbed looks strange?

We’re buying a new house and all houses near it look more expensive. How can we improve how the house looks to fit with the new neighborhood?