Would you buy a house that...

[Luckyelephant1]

Has been renovated and extended throughout inside and is essentially exactly what you're looking for in terms of floor space/a blank canvas to decorate... But you just find the exterior so ugly?

A bit of background, we've been searching for a while for our long term home but we're in a very expensive area in the South East, so even though we have what many would call a decent budget, it doesn't stretch very far here so options are limited, but we really don't want to move out as we love the area and have a lot of ties to it.

We love properties with a lot of character, period homes etc. But also with the opportunity to give it a modern twist inside. A house has come up that is ready to move into inside, done to a high standard etc so we wouldn't need to renovate much at all, just paint and maybe replace the kitchen worktops at some point as I'm not a fan. It's rare at the price it's at to have a house that doesn't need a lot of work to get it to how we like. However, I just can't get over the exterior. I'm no expert on houses of certain eras but it's one of those boring, square houses built in maybe the 60's/70's? Very unremarkable, would be quite hard to make look nice. Ugly casement windows, but it would look ridiculous if you changed the windows to say, sash windows because that's the total opposite style of the house iyswim?

It has 'kerb appeal' in the sense that its very neat on the outside with a well maintained front lawn, path and front door etc. But I just don't like the style of house! Am I being too picky? Would you buy a house if the interior is perfect but the exterior not so much?

Yes I would. Because if I think about it, unless it's something I'm interested in why would I care what the outside of my house looks like?

@TheVillageShop
That link to exterior makeovers didn't work ( for me anyway ).
Could you repost it please ?

@Laptopsandmouses

They are the Georgian houses of the future

I think we should at least be honest. Of course they aren’t the Georgian houses of the future, an ugly house is an ugly house. It will always be an ugly boxy house. In a hundred years time if it’s still standing people will still think it’s an ugly house.

Find ways to soften sure, but pretending people will suddenly think they are beautiful in a centuories time is unrealistic.

I dunno.....if you look at the antique and retro market, plenty of things that were admired when they were first designed, go through a period of being thought ugly and then become appreciated again.

It’s much easier to renovate the outside of a house while living in it than the inside.

There are some stunning makeovers of this kind of house online. Take a look.

I have! I don't regret it at all it's like a small niggle rather than a major annoyance. At the minute we don't have the money to improve the exterior, but even if we did I'm not sure how we would even do it. Every now and then I remember that we live in the ugliest house on the street then I just sort of forget again.

Yes.

Buy it.

Save up to renovate the exterior.

Yes

You can makeover the outside over time also

We did pretty much that. Our house isn't exactly ugly, 1930s semi but far from pretty, it does however have amazing space inside and a large garden and outbuildings.
We came from a grade 2 listed cottage so current home has nowhere near the kerb appeal of previous house but is lovely to live in. We also looked for a long time and struggled to find a decent size house ( there are 6 of us) within budget.
You might be able to add kerb appeal overtime with better windows, doors, cladding, a nice porch, planting etc.

We have just done exactly this. DD1 (16) had a friend came round to help DH move some heavy stuff and described it as a 'reverse catfish' house-looks rubbish from the outside, amazing when you get in

We will render the front, change the windows and front door, change the gates and jt will look grand-it's relatively easy to do-(there are companies that spray paint PVC windows which makes it a bit cheaper to alter them-ours our sound structurally we just don't like them).

I should add that I moved from a former ancient coaching inn to the current house. I love old houses and quirky spaces but it was just too small and because listed and so old, we couldn't have extended with any ease or without spending and incredibly amount. I will always miss that house because it was exactly right for me in terms of its character, but it was a nightmare trying to fit all our kids and dogs in to it. Current house is modern but ugly outside ( built in 1981), but it's so light and spacious. The only issue is that I dont know how to decorate modern houses very well!

You can change the exterior. The house opposite my mother in law was a ugly 1970s house. They rendered the outside changed the windows and doors added window boxes and now it looks quite pretty.

Yes and no.
Our house isn't stunning from the outside, but I think it's pretty handsome. And I get a huge sense of pride when I walk up the street towards it. So looks do matter to me to some extent.
However, a lot can be done to make a 60/70s house look more attractive. Can you render and paint, or clad the outside? I've seen some amazing transformations on property shows and Instagram!

Agree with Domus that most things look better if they are 'honest' and authentic. And also with the posters who lament the vandalism of ripping out period interiors to create characterless open-plan grey spaces with kitchens that look like operating theatres.

As many others have said mid 20th cent houses are usually well built, well-lit and very spacious. They often have big gardens, too, with lovely mature trees.

OP what is the rest of the street like? Are the houses all from the same period, approx? If so, changing a house from honest 1960s to mock Georgian or whatever is going to make it stand out and look really silly.

A plain box exterior provides a great background to lots of lovely climbing plants.

@scottishnames it's quite a long road with houses from lots of different periods. There's some huge very modern ones, then some large Victorian terraces/semi-detached ones, then randomly a few 60's boxes. It's funny because until this house went on sale I must have driven past it hundreds of times and never noticed it as it's so non-descript. If we do change the exterior I'm not planning on trying to copy some sort of period like mock Georgian or whatever as I agree that would look stupid.

I've looked online at some ugly house transformations now and feel a lot more inspired. A pp said 'embrace the modern' which has really stuck in my mind (and by modern I DO NOT mean soulless grey box!!! There will be no grey!!) but I will try to empty my mind of the idealistic period property I dreamed of. Now let's see if we get the house lol.

Best of luck, OP!!

To my mind, one of the best things about mid century houses is that they often tried to 'bring the outside indoors' whether through lots of light from big windows, views over gardens, dramatic house plants or french windows and the dreaded patio! (Earlier houses, however lovely, often tried to keep nature well and truly out.) Again, this is just my opinion, but it does help create a spacious and restful feel.

This is going to become a generational thing, I think. Mid century design has become very fashionable and in some cases very desirable. Look at the premium people are willing to pay for SPAN houses, for example.

About a year ago I moved from a very characterful Edwardian house (family home) to a 1990's bungalow. Never in a million years did I think I would live in a modern bungalow - I was looking at country cottages and barns - have never lived anywhere older than the 1920's.

It's a revelation. Warmer, due to modern building regs and good insulation. No quirky structural issues, it's a warm, dry, box with a sloping roof and no flat bits to trap rain. The location is perfect and I've got views of trees from the rooms I use most often. My heart doesn't sing when I look at the house - but it does when I look out from it.

@DingleTheDragon's post resonates with me. We bought our house a long time ago, and thanks to being self-employed we've improved it in fits and starts, as and when we could pay for it. It started out as a plain house, built to a standard you would never find now, by a builder for himself and his family, and there were compromises everywhere because it was built in the early 1990s when times were tough.

But the rooms were huge, the location and view are stupendous and we've done all the comforts he couldn't afford. So now it's a house that gets a jaw-drop from anyone who visits us. It still looks like a modest 80s bungalow from the street though.

I live in a 1960s "box" with white upvc casement windows and pebble dash. Luckily I didn't know it was supposed to be ugly till I read this thread!
It's a great house.

Yep - pretty houses cost way more 😬

I’ve just moved from a beautiful Edwardian maisonette in London to a 10 year old house in rural Ireland. I was very keen to find a beautiful period house but where I am there are very few. Those that exist are generally crumbling wrecks or are city centre mid terraces. I’d have bought a beautiful Georgian terrace over several levels if it wasn’t for my kids! But we wanted detached and a decent garden so we’ve bought a big modern house with a big garden on the edge of a village. I miss my high ceilings, beautiful fireplaces and coving. But I also like my warm new house with an A rating, the big windows and plenty of parking. We spent last winter wrapped up in blankets spending a fortune on gas and logs for the fire as we couldn’t afford to refurbish our beautiful single glazed sash windows so being warm has been lovely this year!

i was amazed by how planting and a new doof and fence transformed this terraced house near me .