What would you do with this house?

[DustyOwl]

Please help, wise mumsnetters. I love the inside of this house. It needs updating but its rooms are huge and it ticks many boxes.

My husband hates the outside. He says it has no curb appeal and will be impossible to sell. I can see it is a strange house, from the outside.

I think we could change a few things and make it better but my creativity has left me.

Any ideas very gratefully received. I am out for the next few hours, so won’t be able to reply straight away.

I’d dig up the car park at the front and turn into a front garden and lawn

A nicer drive and some greenery would help curb appeal. The two houses next door look similar though - is the whole road the same?

Remember you live on the inside not the outside so you have listed lots of positives that work for you :)

I would start changing the windows and removing that concrete (?) driveway and replace it a beautiful front garden. Replace that sad looking fence. If That’s south facing, I would add a wisteria there as well! So many options!

It's lost it's front garden and is pining for some bee friendly wild grasses and flowering plants.

Could the front door be moved to the front and add a porch? That would break up the front a bit.

Then make the drive a drive and the rest a garden. At the moment it is too stark.

Add Georgian bar windows, render it an off white. Side extension with pitched roof and a beautiful front door, planters either side. Can go into the garage that way too.

I agree, it needs a front garden. I'd probably also try and make a path from the pavement to the front door somehow.

Some sort of a garden would improve the curb appeal greatly, some planters or hanging baskets as a minimum. It’s very stark at the moment.

Thank you! That was fast, loads of great ideas.

I love the idea of adding a garden. The parking is tight, around here, so we would have to make the garden area quite small.

Thought about moving the porch, I think that would make it feel more balanced. We would have to move the downstairs cloakroom round too but that’s probably doable.

NO!
'Georgian bar window' should only be on Georgian style houses, not on 1980/90s houses.

But do dig up the car park and have a 'proper' front garden.

If you want to keep additional parking then, if you have the funds, upgrade to a resin drive and have raised beds along the fence line with some colourful planting. Some planters or a narrow bed under the windows too.

Next door's bay window looks nicer than the flat window. If that fence is your responsibility then renew it.

An internal layout will help with suggestions. Next door have added a bay window (not sure that fully works) and gone up into the attic. Is that something you are considering longer term?

I remember an episode of Your home made perfect that moved a front door like this. I think it is this one. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k4cx

This is the layout. Moving the downstairs cloakroom, to add a front door, may not be straightforward.

That'll be easy, looks like there's a wall at the end of the stairs, so close the front door off, flip the lav so that it occupies the space between the stairs and the front, where the front door currently is. The new front door will be to the left where the sink is now.

If you knocked the kitchen through to the dining room, could you carve out a utility/cloakroom/shower in that space. Or is another bathroom upstairs possible?

It looks unloved, but it must be possible to inject some love into it.

Turn the downstairs loo, move the front door. Sort out the car port, add a porch on the front and make a garden.

As it’s on a slope, if the front door is moved to the front, steps will be needed. Is the drive deep enough to accommodate a porch and steps without compromising on parking?

I'm sorry to be lighthearted OP, but my first thought was to put a false door under the existing small window at the front, using that window as a kind of fanlight! You'd never have to answer the real MN door again. 😊

Have a look online for exterior makeover ideas for 1960's houses.

Grass
Plants
And copy next door's bay window

(Very roughly done)

Parking space is a big plus so don't lose it. You can 'green' the front by going vertically - get a climber.
If you move the front door to the front, can't you move the WC to the classic under-the-stairs position.

If you want to do more then incorporating the car port into a garage and building above can look great. How much you want to match your neighbours is up to you - you could go for dramatically different and be bold. Have another houses had facelifts?

The programme I posted above isn’t available on IPlayer at the moment but it is on Prime. If I have the programme right I think they had a similar problem to you.

This. That looks awful. Just a bit of greenery would improve it.

Its very open and concrete... I wouldn't change layout to start with live in it a bit ..and then decide

How much parking do you need?

An easy way to improve the front would be a raised bed or beds accross the front of the house.. where the smallwr window is you could have a statement plant.. do depending on what style you fancy..cottage roses, exotic a palm? Japenese an Acer.. practical/hardy a holly or yew.. med an olive tree?

You could have in a big pot in case you decide to re organise later...
Looks like there'd still be room for parking..
If you can park horizontally to the house you could also go down the dide and maybe accross the front.. make it look less like a car park ...
Change the concrete for a different material?

This! The concrete expanse makes it look very stark. Even if you need to retain a space for parking adjacent to the drive you could soften the edges with some greenery. And planting something under the window would break up the brickwork on the frint corner. It's the very definition of a blank canvas - you could do so much with it.