Photo of front of house - come & judge!

[EndlessInanity]

How old would you say this house is, based on this picture?

Also, what can we do to make it look nicer? We don't live there yet (move at the end of the month) so don't worry about offending me I want to change the gate ASAP for a start! We've never owned a house before, so don't really know where to start when it comes to doing things with it!

Congratulations on buying your first house! It looks pretty good to me thinks of state of own front lawn and path. Agree the gate isn't fantastic. The crazy paving is nice, unless you fancy a lawn? But I think a lawn is more important at the back, if you've got one there I wouldn't bother. I would maybe grow a nice climbing plant up the front e.g. wisteria.

I would paint the white / box / door thingy (electrical meter cover?) a similar colour to the brickwork (so it blends in a bit). I like the front door (maybe add a pretty hanging basket?) I'd remove the triangular trellis (just because its not to my taste - but you may like it?) stain the wooden side gate a better / darker colour. I particularly like the two identical windows downstairs (very 'symmetrical' I would buy two large matching vases or candles for the windowsills).

Good luck with the move - may you have many happy years in your new home! X

Thank you for the ideas!

I think we will leave the drive paved, although it could do with weeding. The back garden is fairly big, although there isn't a lawn - there are lots of shrubs & trees, with those bark chipping things you find in playgrounds! I think we'll probably leave it as it is, as it has some hiding places for DS & the cat, & should be relatively low maintenance :)

I wasn't sure about painting the electrical box - I think it's so ugly, but don't want to draw MORE attention to it. Perhaps you're right about doing it brick-coloured :)

The climbing plant is a good idea too. I will have to look into exactly how to go about that.

By the way, you can't really tell from the photo, but the gate is made of off-cuts from laminate flooring

What that house needs i think is greenery, flowers and other plants. If you do decide to keep the trellis then grow something up it like a rose bush (not ivy!). In the longer term you might want to paint the house all one colour like off-white with a complementary trim but that's just my taste and you may prefer something else. Definitely get a hanging basket or two or, even better, window boxes with pretty flowers in them would look great this time of year. Finally the trim around the windows is quite stark white and doesn't really go with the house so I would paint that to match the house a bit better.

If you did decide you wanted a lawn at the back it might be cheaper and easier to create one than you think. Our old house had a wilderness at the back when we moved in, DP and BIL dug it all up, made it level and laid turf on it - it took them about 3 days to do the digging and cost £80 for the turf, which was delivered to the house.

But lots of gardening books recommend doing nothing in a new garden for at least a year - that way you'll know what all the existing plants look like in each season (e.g. do they flower in summer? Do all the leaves fall off in winter?), and therefore whether or not you want to keep them; what bits are shady; what bits catch the sun etc.

I'd want to replace the gate, put picket fences down the sides, get rid of the triangular trellis (don't like the shape), paint the door, sort out clematis / wisteria / virginia creeper type of thing to break up the front a bit, disguise the meter cupboard and put in some pots if they wouldn't go walkies. If funds allowed / was DIY-savvy though I would consider taking out some of the bricks in front of the windows and down each side - say 30-50 cm worth to create some borders / generally soften the impact of the paving - instead of pots. Looks like a nice house though.

That plastic white box, (my old house had one but it wasn't so visible) yours is so noticeable it's like a feature!

can you cover that up somehow? an iron bench ? I'd go for a side gate in a colour that is not exactly the same as but co-ordinates with the front door, to 'book end' the house.

I agree the trellis looks odd with nothing at all growing on it.

Yes, definitely change the gate!! (although a gate made from cut-offs of laminate flooring must surely be quite something!!)
I would paint the box black. It will instantly become less noticeable. And then some big pots with climbing plants / flowering shrubs to the front of the house to soften the house and to hide the now-black box.

I would also paint the front door a nice pale colour and perhaps create a low level fence / low level hedge between my front door and next door.

But all in all it is not a bad looking house and will just need a few minor tweaks to get it looking homely.

Congratulations on your new home!!

Congratulations on the new house! I'd second the suggestions of the pots (or even a long planter - which might disguise the slope of the drive from door to gate) along the front under the windows. You could then plant small flowering plants along it and a slightly larger shrub to obscure the box.

The drainpipe thing had me stumped for a while - is the guttering pitched so that all runoff goes via your neighbour's downpipe?

Definitely agree about the climbing plants. Also, we had that wood chip bark stuff instead of a lawn when we moved in last year. It was one big litter tray for every cat and fox in the neighbourhood!

It looks a bit "naked".

I'd buy some pots and have a line of pretty plants in pots up both sides of the drive and some underneath the windows to detract from the white thingie.

1950's?

If you can afford to build long custom planters do, pots have a nasty habit of being stolen. Also big heavy troughs hold much more water and can have seep hose hidden in them.