What could I do to improve the garden and any other improvements to this house? Opinions welcome!

[dottytablecloth]

We are in a move or improve place, in case anyone wonders about my previous post!

this house is definitely not the most attractive but it's within our budget and location is good

I really don't like the garden, or lack of garden- is there anything we could relatively cheaply do?

Not fussed on the 'snug' where the utility room should be.

Really what I'm looking for is advice on how we could make this a family home!

I am not the most stylist person or an expert but i like the house.
I think that once you put your personal touch in it will feel lovely. Family photos etc.

Ok i dont like very much the red wall in bedroom and the lighting in some rooms but this is not big deal. It is a lively house.

As for the garden for instant change you could buy some big pots. Later some plants in borders and a tree.

Lovely not lively! Although you might turn it into lively!

I think the house looks very nice - it's just that the current owners are clearly not very interested in gardening and need an awful lot of driveway!

I'd work out how much parking you actually want, and then ideally have the rest of the tarmac taken up. Then dig over and add new top soil, turf some of it, with generous flower borders round the edges, and plenty of climbers up against the walls and house walls.

If you can include a pergola in the area which is currently overflow parking, you'll get a bit of height and a focal point.

You could go for a lot of pots on the driveway, but then you've got the problem of all the watering.

There's a really useful garden design book called tThe Small Garden by John Brookes, with lots of ready made garden designs for modern houses. You could get that and copy his design for a weirdly shaped garden!

The house looks good overall, loads of space for your money. The garden does look a bit bare, but at least that's easy to work with rather than overgrown iykwim. If you have young children I'd actually keep most of that Tarmac for football, bikes, skateboards etc so that your plants in the rest of the garden survive. I'd lose some of the paving by the lawn then mark out some borders with maybe an oval shape for the lawn. Some evergreen shrubs & climbers, easy quick growing stuff like choisya or honeysuckle will soon soften things up and then you can add to the initial framework planting as you go along. Someone said that if you buy one thing in flower each month from a garden centre for a year you will have year round colour / interest without any planning at all.

Stick loads of trees and shrubs and landscape a little. The garden is very utility but could be so much nicer. Front and back.

I'd probably put new tiles on the kitchen floor and walls. I'd also change the fronts if all the cabinets.

Also repaying the front door and garage blue

Repaint

Is the 'snug' the room with the red carpet?
If so I would turn that back into a utility room with ironing board and tv +radio for entertainment. I would love to be doing laundry etc in that room .Love the stable door.

The garden just need softening. Lots of planting will help .If you dont know what to plant its a good trick to wander around the neighbourhood and take photos of plants that look good. Helps meet the neighbours too .

I would also keep the tarmac for sports stuff - football, swingball, maybe a basketball net. Then some trees.

It is about 5 times more garden than we have.