Beautiful home! Here are a few ideas to help update the exteriors:
-Pull out the shrubs and plant some nice boxwood and other shrubs
-Paint the front door a nice shade of dark green
-I would leave the shutters on and maybe paint them in a color that complements the front door. I think without the shutters the front would look rather plain.
-Take the house numbers off of the column and have a nice plaque made for beside the door
-Add a pediment above the door (great idea)
-Add an urn on both sides of the front door with topiary
-Extend the shubbery/flower bed on the left side so it spills down the hill towards the basketball goal
-Add more landscaping to the front lawn, sort of like an island of shrubs and a small tree or two.

That's a gorgeous house- it's going to look even better when you're finished!

I might call in a designer for this remodel. The proportions are very unusual, and the potential is great. Definitely the front door needs highlighting, and something needs to be done that will make sense of the relationship between the 'basement' windows and the front door level. My first inclination is to remove the shutters and make a a bit of an opera production of the front door. And remove the shrubs to the left, and then play with landscaping in general.

Does this look better to you? It does to me.

The pic would help.

I see that so far the ideas are running along similar lines ... :-).

Draw attention away from the basement windows by focusing your efforts on the entry. I'd beef it up considerably and take out the sidewalk in favor of of something more classic like brick pavers. I think I like the shutters removed and this article tells why.

http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/residential-architecture-101-shutters/

Using the second floor balcony in this picture to explain my idea….the columns support an extended roof on your house. What if you made that area more important by railing it in?

I think the profile of your roof is too low to get the effect JudyG suggests.

What are thoughts on doing something with trim to beef up the lower windows? (See picture) Or alternatively, adding box trim below the upper windows (see 2nd picture)?

For example... Is this too much?

a little trim on first floor windows might be ok, but you are showing way too much - you want the front door to be the feature.

I'd rather ignore the basement windows so the door takes the focus. None of what is added above and below windows fits the colonial direction the columns take, and they leave the door as the minor focal point. Front doors should always be the focal on a facade.

deco, don't understand? Railings couldn't be added between the columns under the extended roof?

Happy today, everyone. JudyG, is this more or less what you have in mind?

The railings look a bit cottagey on the scale I could draw them but they could be properly designed not to.

I don't think the railing would work with the lower windows- it will obstruct the views from those rooms, and it almost looks like bars on the windows.

JudyG, I thought you were suggesting adding more roof. What is this split colonial style of home called? I know I've seen some but can't seem to find the right google term to get anything to load up for reference.

Hi Caleb, good point about views, but only Amy could say whether those particular windows function in such a way that one looks out of them for the view. They look like high basement windows, whose main function is to let in light and which may be too high to look out of casually anyway.

From the outside, a properly designed railing wouldn't look like bars at all, and from inside the railing would be at a distance of several feet from the windows -- not much like bars. (I live in Security City, I know what bars on windows look and feel like -- and I have the bars of an enclosed porch just six feet or so from my living room door. They take a tiny bit of getting used to but they are not at all like bars across the door, and in fact are rather aesthetically pleasing.)

What I like about JudyG's idea is that it brings the attention powerfully to that central part of the house -- one doesn't really notice the windows outside that area at all. And though the high windows are still high, one doesn't have the distraction of the oddly low windows to each side of the front door.

Amy, with the addition of your idea for the top windows, just to see ....

I know deco, I can't find a term either. It is a split, and I think the attempt was to make it look like a Southern plantation home...hard to do with the basement windows.

I wonder if a phoney peak on the front of the roof could be added?



There is a small neighborhood close by which has this style of house...totally out of character for my location, but I am going to take a ride by and see if the owners did anything creative with the front.

Rina, you are pretty fast with your renderings and yes, I was hoping something like that would call attention to the main area of the house. Maybe wrought iron rails would look better?

I think the windows start overwhelming the doors. ?

I googled column split and this is the closest I found. Note how the door has been over-sized to compensate and take the focus. Tho' I'm not a fan of non-functioning shutters, they seem to work here. These windows don't come to ground level though and that makes a difference.

This link is a pain, and the house is not a split level, but this concept may work well for Amy's home. Comments???
. https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrTcXeBoZ1UsxIABsKJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTI0Y3EwbnFsBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZAM0MzA4OGZhYzM2Y2IxNzExMTA3YmFmMTM5YzkxYWVjMgRncG9zAzE1OARpdANiaW5n?.origin=&back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dcolumn%2Bsplit%2Blevel%2Bhome%26_adv_prop%3Dimage%26va%3Dcolumn%2Bsplit%2Blevel%2Bhome%26fr%3Dyhs-mozilla-001%26hsimp%3Dyhs-001%26hspart%3Dmozilla%26spos%3D24%26nost%3D1%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D158&w=614&h=508&imgurl=houseplanhomeplans.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fimagecache%2Fproduct_full%2Fmiles-brewton-hall-house-plan-00401-front-elevation.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fhouseplanhomeplans.com%2Ffloorplans%2Fmiles-brewton-hall-house-plan&size=212.4KB&name=Miles+Brewton+Hall+%3Cb%3EHouse%3C%2Fb%3E+Plan&p=column+split+level+home&oid=43088fac36cb1711107baf139c91aec2&fr2=&fr=yhs-mozilla-001&tt=Miles+Brewton+Hall+%3Cb%3EHouse%3C%2Fb%3E+Plan&b=121&ni=240&no=158&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=12689o32o&sigb=161l8849o&sigi=13qb8h4l0&sigt=114mm5q1k&sign=114mm5q1k&.crumb=R9sDQnetS.z&fr=yhs-mozilla-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla

I drove by the houses and the only one that had something "done" to it which I liked had all the brick under the extended roof covered with vertical siding in white, no pediment over the door, and a huge chandy over the front door. I noticed that extra trim had been added to the columns, so were beefier than yours.deco, column split makes sense...good sleuthing.Found this houzz article from a couple of years ago....check out the rendering.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/our-1960s-split-foyer-needs-an-exterior-update-to-match-its-interior-charm-dsvw-vd~111244

Here is what I first thought when reading after it was posted.

Clearly needs some work, but the idea is there.

Love that ppf.

The lower windows on the left are in the garage, but the lower right windows are large bedroom with a walkout. I love the rendering PPF. The rendering with the railing looks really great, Rina. Thank you all so much!