Please help me re-design the front of my house (pics included)

[Kitsmummy]

Hi, I live in a v old cottage which is lovely on the inside, but a real ugly duckling on the outside.

I need to change the windows (hopefully wooden in the vague style of the attached picture) but I also have such a bugbear with the porch. Here are my thoughts: it needs a different roof - one in more of an apex style, so generally prettier and more cottagey. it has doors on either side of the porch. I can change the doors themselves, but the layout has to stay the same (eg I can't put a door on the front of the porch). To my mind the front porch window is the wrong size - it needs to be longer (and therefore start lower down the porch). The bottom of the window would then be lower than the house windows. In my head that will look fine, but I can't find any examples of this look anywhere online, which makes me worry that actually it wouldn't look good.

Is the porch itself just too wide for the cottage? Do I need to knock down and start again...make it slightly narrower?

The garage in real life is more of an eyesore and obscures the house more than the pic suggests. I could shorten this by 1m and would then would also create a parking space in front of the house (currently I have no parking).

I can also of course get handy with a paint brush. I wondered if it would look better all white (including the stone) as the the lovely mullions would show and I'd have nice green/grey/blue painted windows

I have a few thousand to spend on this. Advice and suggestions appreciated.

[BunnyTyler]

Move the porch window to the side of the porch (opposite the door), fill in the old window hole, then attach paint the porch (white?) with a pretty trellis attached that covers the whole front.
Willow trellis is nice - have climbing plants to overrun the trellis eventually.

Can you match the extension exterior to the main exterior? You can get all sorts of cladding now (it's not like the 1980s cladding market nowadays ).

Wrt the garage, could you knock down and replace with a carport/storage type thing?
So a half garage length lockable storage, with roof extending out to the length of a parking space?

[Kitsmummy]

Thank you so much for all the comments...am trying to keep up and take it all in.

Something just struck me though...the comment about a garage being important for re-sale. In agree with this BUT...if the garage is replaced by parking space so there is off-road parking instead of having to park down the bottom of the lane, do you think that would counterract any loss made by removing the garage? (Am thinking that as soon as one thing is put in the garage there is no room for a car so I've never viewed it as a valid parking option)

[jalopyjane]

If it's not possible to park in it then really it's a shed not a garage in my eyes. And yes, I would value a parking space in front of my house more than an ugly shed. Which in any case could be replaced with a more appealing traditional style wooden shed AND a parking space. Win-win for me!

[PrimalLass]

I'd render the front to match either side then paint it.

Change the windows, including lengthening the porch window.

[ChopsticksandChilliCrab]

As long as there is off road parking at the house I don't think it matters whether it is in a garage or on hard-standing. Personally I would prefer hard-standing as it is more flexible and I would have plenty of room to open the car doors fully.

[BunnyTyler]

By half garage/full carport, I meant this sort of thing.
(Obvs not exactly those, but that sort of idea).

[snowgirl1]

Have you had a quote for new windows? That alone might eat up your budget if you've only got a few thousand to spend. If you do have some money spare after doing the windows, I'd get a builder in to rebuild/re-work the steps in stone or brick. Then paint the porch, extension and garage.

[Chloe1984]

Do you actually need a porch? I think having a nice cottage style front door on the front of the house would look better personally, but I guess removing could damage the stone.

Agree with the above poster about Windows, especially wooden ones, they cost an absolute bomb.

[NoMilkNoSugar]

A cottage similar style to yours has had green upvc windows put in and they look lovely.

Do you use these porch for storage or could you get away with an awning?

I would prefer a parking space nearer the house than a garage full of junk. If you are planning on staying sometime, is it worth having the house to suit you rather than with about resale value?

[Kitsmummy]

Thank you so much for this, it has certainly opened my eyes to things I hadn't thought of before!

Drumroll...new shed has been ordered and I am knocking down the garage and converting to parking. (I have a long estate car so can't do the storage option there as I'll only just fit my car into the parking space anyway).

Once that is done I can clean, paint etc and see what I'm left with. I will probably have to save a bit more before I can get the windows/porch doors done but I think just losing the garage will make such a difference anyway. And I will certainly look at coloured pvc...I guess it will probably be about half the price of timber.

Am so excited now...I have loathed the front of this house!

[Kitsmummy]

Definitely need to keep the porch unfortunately

[VertigoNun]

I would not have green upvc. It will be like a 70's coloured bathroom suite in ten years plus.

[BeachysFlipFlops]

Turn the porch around and make it smaller so it sits in the middle, facing out with the door visible. Is there enough room for that (without falling off the ledge )?

[jalopyjane]

Instinctively I would say no to upvc in such an old cottage. However having googled green upvc (which I don't think I've ever seen), it does look surprisingly nice. I suppose it depends on the cost difference and what you think of it!

[Afishcalledchips]

Could you paint the extension and porch the same? An off white/cream would be nice maybe? A cheaper option than replacing the roof of the porch could be to replace the white plasic-ey cladding on the porch roof with timber maybe? It'd look a bit softer I think.
Maybe you could grow some clematis or something up the side extension/the porch, too, it would look beautiful in the summer.

[thisismypassword]

It doesn't need much doing. I'd just alter the porch so the door is at the front and have the same bricks so it blends in. Obviously steps have to be changed, so it would look nice landscaped.

[thisisbloodyridiculous]

Agree with painting porch and extension, & getting rid of garage. Love your new windows. I'd suggest attaching a planter to the wall of your porch and a trellis and growing something like clematis or honeysuckle - would look lovely. I live in a 250 yr old cottage & we have an established wisteria & rose growing on my house, a clematis on the fence & I've recently added a honeysuckle. Looks stunning about 3 months of the year

[CakeThat]

You're definitely doing the right thing about the garage! It looks terrible in that position in front of the cottage. Is there any way you can soften the look of the frontage by removing some of the concrete (obviously not the steps but the flat parts at the bottom and where the garage is) gravel would look much softer.
I like those green cottage windows but personally think cream would look better against the stone and you could paint the porch and extension the same colour to tie it all in. Also agree that green windows could be tomorrow's avacado bathroom.

[Kitsmummy]

Thank you everyone. Wheels are in motion to get rid of the garage and change to parking. I was wondering about facing the parking wall (eg under the porch and along) in stone to match the house and I'm going to talk to my builder about options for making the steps a bit prettier.

I will also be painting, doing windows etc and planting. Some of these ideas were there already, but certainly not in conjunction with taking the garage down which I think is going to be the biggest game changer. Once that's gone I'll take a view on changing the porch roof etc but perhaps I may not need to without the hideous garage. I'll update one day when it will hopefully look a lot different!

[thesilentone]

There's a few green pvc windows near me in cottages and it looks great. Not as authentic as wood but way better than white.
Op - garages only affect resale value ime when attached to a house for future conversion or useable as parking, neither of which is true of yours so have fun with the sledge hammer! You might have to be mindful of asbestos in there depending on age?
I hope you post again when garage gas gone and the front has been cleaned. You never know what colours will appear after a deep clean!

[ccridersuz]

Could you not make the steps curve up to the front of the porch and replace the window with a front door? Replacing the door with a window.
The other thing I suggest is to remove 2/3 of the garage, and create a concrete shed with a timber carport attached, which could then be decorated with climbing shrubs in planters.
A unifying coat of colour would then being the whole thing together.

[Kitsmummy]

Update: thought you might like a mini update on progress so far...

Garage is gone and next week I am having walls rendered, shingle put everywhere, the front steps are changing to sleepers/shingle ones.

I'm also waiting for the window quote to come in andhopefully 'i'll have new windows in a month and then everything is being painted.

I would never have thought about all this without thegreat advice on here and getting rid of the garage has made an enormous difference already!

[Chimchar]

Wow! That makes such a difference!
Are you pleased?

I would pain the extension and the porch in the same colour. Get rid of all the old pots and get a few pretty coloured pots of climbers to go up the road facing bit of the porch.

Well done. Can't wait to see the next update!

[Kitsmummy]

Yep, delighted! Once the whole thing is done it will be tidy, pretty and not look totally ramshackle!

[dynevoran]

Yes looks wonderful. Please show us the end result!