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Ideabook 911: I Need Help Staging for Resale
Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected."
I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia. I've been writing about design online for quite a few years over at Hatch: The Design Public Blog.
Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta... More »
Alright houzz friends, Jennifer needs our help. Here is her plea:
Help!!! I have agreed to help my boyfriend stage/update his house for resale, but to be honest I am feeling overwhelmed by the task. While I just completed construction of my own home in November, I've never tackled anything like this. I relied on Houzz extensively to design my house (and love it – thank you!!!), so I’m hoping my friends at Houzz can help with this project as well.
The house is a 1970's ranch with a garage that's been converted to a bedroom, an outside garage that was converted to an apartment, and a scary room that opens to the exterior of the home and has a dirt floor (a by-product of tacked-on additions - the prior owner had planned to make the home into three separate apartments).
I have ideas for the interior, but I am at a total loss outside. My total budget for the entire house-inside and out- is $5,000. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you so much for your help in advance!
Sincerely,
Jennifer
Alright, first I would ask real estate experts what they think about the apartment angle - if it's still viable, is it a selling point or should they use the space as part of a single family home. I would also want their expert opinions on how to market the dirt floor room or if it makes sense to put your budget dollars toward demolishing it.
Second, Jennifer, I would recommend you read The Brick House on a regular basis to be inspired by Morgan. Check out her houzz tour here. Also, watch a lot of Curb Appeal on HGTV but don't get too sucked into all the crazy stuff they do in the yard. Take the basic concepts and keep it very simple.
Look around at the nicest houses on the block. They probably are not too different from this house. Why do they stand out and where do they get their appeal? What is the sense of entry like? What kinds of shrubs have they planted that look nice and healthy? What color palettes do they use. In short, what do they have that your boyfriend's house doesn't have?
Get rid of all that stuff around the backyard. You're right, it's nice back there. You just need a bit of lighting and a place to hang out to make people imagine themselves back there. This is a great spot for bachelors to have a few brews, for for a family to have a great swingset, baby pool and sandbox. It's great for pet owners too - everybody wins with this backyard, it just needs more oomph.
I think with some sweat equity you guys can pull off a deck or patio, a few trees and shrubs and a garden on your budget. I'll pull some good examples and everyone else, please share your favorites as well. Plant in the fall.
As for paint color, what do you all think? Personally, I'm tempted by a charcoal gray on the bricks and wood, but I think to coordinate with your roof color you should pick a light neutral or maybe even a dark brown. If you opt for the light color, paint the trim a darker color. You can make the front door a third color to make it stand out and say "Welcome!"
Speaking of the front door, make sure your mailbox and lighting are in good shape. This is where the first impression will happen when potential buyers come over. Pick a good porchlight or two and a few potted plants.
As for the front landscaping, a simple foundation planting is an easy way to go - just be sure to plant about four feet out from your foundation so that you'll have room for houses and access to the house's exterior. I can also envision something more fun and modern here - perhaps long rectangular planters along the length of the house planted with natural grasses to accentuate the long horizontal plane of the ranch.
As for the "garage apartment," continue plantings in front of it and when buyers are coming over, don't pull right up and park in front of it. This is like screaming "YEAH, THIS WAS THE GARAGE AND IT STILL FEELS LIKE IT!"
Alright, enough jibber-jabber from me. Please chip in and help Jennifer with your suggestions. I have gathered up some images I hope will help; everyone please add your suggestions to the comments section!
Help!!! I have agreed to help my boyfriend stage/update his house for resale, but to be honest I am feeling overwhelmed by the task. While I just completed construction of my own home in November, I've never tackled anything like this. I relied on Houzz extensively to design my house (and love it – thank you!!!), so I’m hoping my friends at Houzz can help with this project as well.
The house is a 1970's ranch with a garage that's been converted to a bedroom, an outside garage that was converted to an apartment, and a scary room that opens to the exterior of the home and has a dirt floor (a by-product of tacked-on additions - the prior owner had planned to make the home into three separate apartments).
I have ideas for the interior, but I am at a total loss outside. My total budget for the entire house-inside and out- is $5,000. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you so much for your help in advance!
Sincerely,
Jennifer
Alright, first I would ask real estate experts what they think about the apartment angle - if it's still viable, is it a selling point or should they use the space as part of a single family home. I would also want their expert opinions on how to market the dirt floor room or if it makes sense to put your budget dollars toward demolishing it.
Second, Jennifer, I would recommend you read The Brick House on a regular basis to be inspired by Morgan. Check out her houzz tour here. Also, watch a lot of Curb Appeal on HGTV but don't get too sucked into all the crazy stuff they do in the yard. Take the basic concepts and keep it very simple.
Look around at the nicest houses on the block. They probably are not too different from this house. Why do they stand out and where do they get their appeal? What is the sense of entry like? What kinds of shrubs have they planted that look nice and healthy? What color palettes do they use. In short, what do they have that your boyfriend's house doesn't have?
Get rid of all that stuff around the backyard. You're right, it's nice back there. You just need a bit of lighting and a place to hang out to make people imagine themselves back there. This is a great spot for bachelors to have a few brews, for for a family to have a great swingset, baby pool and sandbox. It's great for pet owners too - everybody wins with this backyard, it just needs more oomph.
I think with some sweat equity you guys can pull off a deck or patio, a few trees and shrubs and a garden on your budget. I'll pull some good examples and everyone else, please share your favorites as well. Plant in the fall.
As for paint color, what do you all think? Personally, I'm tempted by a charcoal gray on the bricks and wood, but I think to coordinate with your roof color you should pick a light neutral or maybe even a dark brown. If you opt for the light color, paint the trim a darker color. You can make the front door a third color to make it stand out and say "Welcome!"
Speaking of the front door, make sure your mailbox and lighting are in good shape. This is where the first impression will happen when potential buyers come over. Pick a good porchlight or two and a few potted plants.
As for the front landscaping, a simple foundation planting is an easy way to go - just be sure to plant about four feet out from your foundation so that you'll have room for houses and access to the house's exterior. I can also envision something more fun and modern here - perhaps long rectangular planters along the length of the house planted with natural grasses to accentuate the long horizontal plane of the ranch.
As for the "garage apartment," continue plantings in front of it and when buyers are coming over, don't pull right up and park in front of it. This is like screaming "YEAH, THIS WAS THE GARAGE AND IT STILL FEELS LIKE IT!"
Alright, enough jibber-jabber from me. Please chip in and help Jennifer with your suggestions. I have gathered up some images I hope will help; everyone please add your suggestions to the comments section!
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This house needs some resale-boosting curb appeal.
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The back yard is a great size but needs some set up to show people how they can enjoy it.
by The Brick House
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The brick house went all white with wood accents.
A palette like this one would be good for your exterior colors.
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| This one is nice too. |
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I wanted to show you this dark paint trim and simple patio.
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| A nice path like this one could lead visitors to the front door. |
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Or this one.
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This house does not have a whole lot of landscaping in the front, yet it looks great - check out the willow tree on the right side - it adds a nice sculptural shape.
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This would work with your house too.
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| This one has the same idea too. |
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| What will follow are some ideas for the backyard set up. |
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by huntley & co
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| See that wooden sculpture on the wall? Something like this, or a trellis, or the stars below could look good on the right side of the back of the house. |
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I thought I saw a Texas license plate on your car - if you are in Texas, some big stars would be perfect!
| Or even something like these circular panels. A simpler trellis could work just fine. |
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These planters are very inexpensive but would look great with the geometry of the house.
by The Brick House
»
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The Brick House shows you how to make a fire pit rather easily and inexpensively.
| |
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by Madson Design
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Check out this front door - the color stands out, the house numbers are eye-catching, the porch light and mailbox are neat as a pin - it's a great first impression.
Another advantage of having a front door that stands out is that the people who come to buy will literally remember your house as "the one with the (insert color here) door."
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Love the double front porch lights here. Big box stores now offer a great variety of porch lights. It's an easy way to spruce up the front of the house.
Ideabook published on June 30, 2010.
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The planting boxes are great too - lots of inspiration here. I'll be sure to keep you updated as things progress.
Good luck, take pictures for us
Lisa
Sincerely,
Jennifer
The backyard is going in a good direction. I would put a proper hedge, maybe three feet high, down the walk and around the patio, but take Lisa's advice and gather wood from building sites (around here I am able to find shipping pallets that are made from Mahogany, for free) and use them to build bench seating (vertical slats) around the edge of the stone patio and then the hedge around that. It will give some weight to the backyard, as the house is quite long. Definitely a fire pit. Keep your plantings to shades of green (if you go with the charcoal, the lighter greens will give a nice contrast and make the area fresh looking) and another way to save money is to transplant from an area where they are doing a demolition. Phone around to companies and see if they are planning on ripping apart anything in your area and grab what is going to be trashed. I filled an entire garden INCLUDING the marble wall stones doing that. It is truly amazing what people will dump.
Please please please post after shots... and maybe some during shots too, love to see something like this come together. Good luck!
Get a truckload of 12" square concrete pavers and lay them in the backyard as a new patio - lay them with 1" spacing so you can plant some sweet/creeping thyme in between. Probably won't cost you $500 if you do it yourself.
Cleanup the lot and call in one of those Hydro-seeding companies to get a green lawn out there - That should run you $500.
A few potted flowers on either side of the front door and you're done.
http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/SkyPencil.htm
You guys even have Bill excited, which is huge - this is definitely NOT his thing. We have several friends that are contractors here in the area, so I plan to check with them on Monday and see what might be available as far as plantings are concerned. That is an awesome idea, and so are the pallets.
Andrea, thank you for such a detailed response - I see another half dozen excellent ideas to add to the checklist.
Becky asked if we are in Texas. We are - far southwest Texas, and so we do have to take the heat and lack of rainfall into consideration (we actually border the Chihuahuan desert). I see that Japanese sedge grass likes moist soil - what about substituting succulents in the same shades of green?
Catgardner, the monkey grass may do really well too - good idea.
Bepsf, the "scary room" actually has no opening to the inside of the house (I'll attach a pic below), so we were thinking about making it into a really cute little potting shed by leveling out the floor, but still need to put more thought into this.
LOVE the sky pencils - these are stunning, and should grow in this area with no problems.
Finally, what do you guys think of the style (not necessarily the plants) in the pic I've attached? It reminded me a good deal of this house...
This is such a wonderful motivator. Bill and I both worked a rodeo this weekend for our local Rotary club (not my thing, but it pays for scholarships for needy kids) and we're beat. Had planned on plopping on the couch for the afternoon and reading, but now we're both excited to get started again. Thanks you guys!
Jenn
3. Consider the homes on either side of you when choosing a color palette: you don't want to look just like them.
4. If you paint a festive color on the front door, be sure to repeat that color either in the flowers themselves or the pots placed on the porch. 5. I agree with other commenters, you can't leave a dirt floor. At a minimum, concrete it and use a do-it-yourself water-based acid stain. 6. Make sure the home smells good. Once it's scrubbed well, invest in really good (not cheapie!) candles or fragrance diffusers.
It softened the color was not obvious that it was painted at all. I am not a big faux finish person at all. And she added old shutters she found on craigslist. It made a huge difference.