Readers, put on your thinking caps and ready your fingers for your keyboards: Today we’re looking for reader suggestions to help Jordan add curb appeal to her 1955 suburban ranch home in Houston, Texas. Jordan writes:
I love your website and have combed through almost every article! I’m having a problem with our 1955 built ranch house. We live in a small neighborhood in Houston, TX and most of the houses were built in the 50’s and 60’s with a few odd new builds in the mix. My husband and I love the house and really want to be here for quite a long time, but I just can’t stand the exterior of our house. I bought the house because the floor plan was great, the price was good and a fair amount of updates had already been done… but I knew I didn’t like the exterior.
She continues:
My main bone of contention are the glass blocks in the front of the house. They are there to cover up a old wood burning stove (fireplace) but they are so ugly… also, the bay window on the left is in the dining room and that looks a little off to me as well. We are planning to re-pave the driveway and walk way this upcoming spring and want to tackle the rest of the exterior at the same time.
I have racked my brain and don’t have any good ideas yet… if you have some suggestions, I would LOVE to hear them… thanks for your help!!
Jordan
Jordan – your house looks lovely, but I have to agree with you, those floor-to-ceiling windows all along the front of the house are new to me. Yes, readers, look closely — those are floor-to-ceiling window / nooks to the right and left of the fireplace, which has the floor-to-ceiling glass block behind it. And in the dining room, that’s a bumped out bay with floor-to-ceiling glass. Someone sure wanted to add light!
What do you think, readers? Let’s assume Jordan says we can get rid of the wood-burning fireplace. I’ll let you run with this one, and my pipe in at some point after noodling the question myself….
Dave says
I’ve got to agree with Missouri Michael, the glass block, stove area looks like it took over an existing porch. The pipe kind of kills the roof line too. I would restore the porch and install a large picture window, and add a nice bench. The bushes on the right side are too high, I would get rid of them and plant hostas along the house and a flowering tree in that part of the yard. On the left side of the house, I would change the bump out window with something flush with the house and get rid of the plantings to make the entryway look more clean and open, maybe a continuation of the hostas.
Mary Toodles says
Landscaping with some color, to pop from the green…elephant ears, hibiscus….Pink Flamingo’s by the palm tree, more palm tree’s, perhaps a gazing ball with an old school pedestal. Not sure if it would go with the interior but turquoise drapes would look great in all the front windows against the cream color of the house….stepping stones, small shrubs along the walk way….
Eartha Kitsch says
What a beautiful home! I am intrigued by those large windows and those walled off areas. Jordan, your neighbors are lucky because if I lived there, the “kitsch” in me would have me decorating each one of those windows like department store windows at Christmas with a tree and decorations in each one!
The only thing that really bothers me about the exterior is that stove pipe. My eye goes straight to it and it really breaks up the low-slung and clean lines of the house. And the glass block is pretty much a given as not going with the house. I don’t know how much you have to spend and window renovations can get pricey but that window really needs to match the others whether they stay the same or change. And if the hedges were trimmed shorter or replaced, it could balance out the house. Good luck and please let us know what you do!
Gavin Hastings says
I LOVE the department store Xmas idea!!!!!!! How fun!
Elaine says
I actually like the glass blocks. I agree the dining room window needs some kind of attention. It is obviously not in keeping with the look of the house. The space added inside is not needed either. I think I would replace it with a flat window with mullions to echo the glass blocks.
If you don’t want to keep the wood stove, by all means restore the flat porch and decorate that for a welcoming look for the front of the house. I see it as a covered loggia going from the front door to include the glass block area and the two insets on either side of it. If you do that, you could leave off the mullions on the dining room window.
While I don’t care for the color of the brick, it may be just fine with you. If not, painting it in a light earth tone would not be too difficult.
I would lower the bushes about a foot on the right side, and replace that palmy thing on the left with a short tree, slender trunk, leaves about eight to twelve foot level, just right to block that chimney, if you keep the woodstove. Dogwood, maybe.
mitch gordon says
a new door would be an easy fix. I don’t mind the idea of a free standing fireplace but maybe a retro one from Malm (which can be found on this site) and I agree about the glass brick (you want MCM not Miami Vice
Dana says
Take a look around the subdivision at the other houses … there are probably a few that are this very same model. See what they look like to get an idea of the original front facade, and then see if you can work toward that. The metal flue sticking up is a distraction but if you keep it, maybe it could be disguised with a framed chimney that matches the siding, or has a masonry (either brick or stone, whatever the foundation is) veneer. It’s a cute house ~ I love the horizontal lines.
Gavin Hastings says
I like it…just needs a few tweaks. How much do you really want to spend?
Do you use the stove? Not crazy about the chimney, but it is what it is. If you don’t use it-I would not remove it…but cap the pipe at the roofline.
The hedges are making a wall to the street…and I would keep those on the right for privacy, but redo that area on the left-ornamental tree-maybe? for some height and to draw the eye to the house.
I don’t really understand what is going on with that DR window….but it is not objectionable….if it has to stay- $$$- maybe build it up to a focal point (a la ’50s) with 3 2×4 supports on each side: vertically anchoring the house to the ground.
Make one million copies of that exterior photo and draw different ideas on each. You will at some point come up with a composition which you like. Just make sure you keep it to scale.
Your house is nice, neat and sound. Structurally it seems sound…so there is no rush to change anything, Needs VS Wants is the rule here. Remember that any changes you make to those windows will change the light, open feeling on the inside.
For some reason- I see brown as an exterior color- but it is still early in the day.
Best wishes in your lovely (and spotless) new home. Good luck!
Gavin Hastings says
…or maybe a grey-green exterior.
Shane Walp says
LOL
Clayton says
my suggestion would be to find out what the original architectural design of the home was and if it has ever been remodeled. if it has, which it looks like those windows are not original, you can go back to more the original style. those windows to me look more like an 80’s edition to the home. but that just a guess. glass block was quite popular at that time on certain styles. but yours do not really fit.
Col says
ditto about the overgrown shrubs… outta there. small low individual bushes. shows off the windows.
Missouri Michael says
Somehow, when I look at the photos, I get the feeling that the house originally had a front porch that was enclosed to include those unusual living room features. I get this feeling because the flooring in those nooks is diffferent, and it really looks like the original wall was turned into those columns/walls surrounding the wood stove (when looking at the photos again, I believe that the front door is still in the original location that the windows should be in). If the stove area had been part of the original plan, I don’t think that it would have all of those strange nooks, it would be more open to the rest of the room. Those nooks are there because they had to leave support for the roof in that area, as they altered a load-bearing wall. I might consider removing that whole area, and putting windows in the area where the original wall appears to have been. This would then add a porch area to the house, which could be a real plus. Also, the house would look more streamlined without that stove pipe sticking out of the roof right in the middle of the front of the house.
As for the dining room window, I think that I would consider replacing it with something that is flush with the house, instead of sticking out so much. It looks out of place.
To also help add curb appeal to the house, you might consider replacing the overgrown shrubs on the right side. They make the house feel like it’s playing hide and seek.
Ruth Fugee says
Ponder adding a stone fireplace to replace the wood stove. I could be two-sided and grace your new stone-floored porch. The stone could flow horizontally to the front door with a planter box, like in this website author’s 17 tips to improve curb appeal. It can have a window on either side to preserve that great light entering the front. Throw away those shrubs since they will just grow too big again and replace them with a curving bed with perinneals that drift up toward those right windows. You can take advantage of the repeating vertical element in those right windows with trimwork and continue the stone horizontal under them.