Hi there, Do you have a photo or two of the outside you can share to get a better idea of what you are working with?

No, because it is a house in Houston that my daughter and husband are buying. She is the one who needs help. The exposed wooden beams in the front of the house are the problem. Would one paint the whole house the same color, brick and all, to try to hide/disguise those wooden beams? Or would one try to cover them with horizontal Hardi board? I was hoping someone out there has done something like this before.

why are they buying a tudor house if they dont like tudor.

Basically, the floor plan, space, prime location, zone for schools, price are all pluses. It needs lots of updating. It was purchased from original owners who are now deceased.

@feeny the lower right pic is very much what you would find in an older neighborhood and what comes to my mind when people say Tudor. From living in a similar neighborhood as that its freaking me out that anyone would try and turn one of those into a generic humdrum dwelling, I know if it were my street I would be calling anyone I could to get them fined or work stopped!

Usually people are trying to take generic places and make them look tudor.

LOL... I just clicked the link for that pic and it IS my neighboorhood

Thank you for your positive comments. I am grateful for them as it helps me appreciate their investment all the more. Yes, the one on the bottom right looks a great deal like the one they have purchased. I will pass along your advice. Much appreciated!!

now if its like 70's tudoresque, like this Houston home then I think its no big deal. In this case you could just remove the trim and do what ever since the surrounding homes probably have all kinds of "mock" styles. Probably a Cap Cod on one side and a Hacienda on the other

I would really scream for help if their house looked like this one!! That's a monster!!

@dhermensen if they live in hood similar to that one photo then they can get away with painting it fresh modern colors. It doesnt have to be "traditional" tudor colors.

When you say "fresh, modern" colors, what exactly do you mean?

well people buy these homes for the stone and brickwork. dont touch those. but the tudor trim / stucco part you can paint what ever. i just drove down a street on google maps and look at the really BIG ones on this one street. all the rich ladies seemed to be using greens, yellows and cream

@larry: I completely agree with your previous point further up the thread. I too live in a neighborhood that has lots of tudors from the 1920s (probably about 1/5 of the houses are tudor, the rest colonial, dutch colonial, etc.). Fortunately, they are all on the national historic register so no one is allowed to tamper with their distinct architectural features (or do anything too goofy with the color palette). The tudors are particularly prized because they often have the most beautiful interior woodwork and detailing.

But to the question. The easiest way to remove the Tudor look is to use nailers in those area to bring the stucco area to the same level and use pre built cedar shake panels to cover the nailers and tudor trim boards. Most of the basic style Tudor's will look fine and much more traditional.

I think I would love to hug you all for counseling in favor of salvaging the original style. Over and over again out here I read people buying things that are a certain style and then they want to "fix" them. I can understand that-up to a point. People are buying things that they are getting on the "cheap," because of the housing market. Also-and the house that the OP said her daughter and family have bought originally belonged to someone who is now deceased-and that is playing into the market, too, as many of us who are middle aged have parents who are passing away, and probably a lot of these houses belonged to older people who weren't wealthy and remodeled them probably forty years ago when they were still in the work force, but when they retired they didn't have the funds to keep doing that, and just did their best to maintain it so they could continue living there. Now they're gone, and either their children, or grandchildren have no reason to keep it-or their aren't any heirs-and so they are willng to sell it for less to settle estates, etc. The thing is, that many just don't realize that you can't just slap a coat of paint on old paneling and have it always work. Sometimes something old just looks like something old with new paint on it. Another thing is that I don't believe that they are realizing how much money they are eventually going to spend until, like Goldilocks, its "just right,"-and the truth is that they would have been better off if they had just waited a while longer for a property that suited their tastes better and will have spent more money on the principal owed instead of pouring it into trying to fix a house that they may very well be de-valuing-and I realize there is a fine line there between keeping a house marketable and sacrificing your own sensibilities. Also, there is the fact that these houses also have lead paint-and the paneling that many dislike that post here also-and many don't realize this-has been stained with stain that also had lead in it. So, if one merrily decided to sand, even if you put on a a mask, that's not much of a deterrent to the dust, and I don't think its cheap to have to hire someone to come in and sand the surfaces and place one of these tent like things over everything to keep the lead dust from escaping.
I live a few hundred miles north of Houston, and our housing is not very expensive when compared nationally, but Tudor houses are very high end in our little part of the world, and I have assumed its the same elsewhere. The siding of a Tudor house can certainly be neutralized by painting the framing and plaster/stucco the same or similar colors. If I couldn't live with it, I would talk to a professional to see what I could do to cover it up without destryoing the features, because the next person who might want to buy the house-even years from now-might like the Tudor style and be willing to pay a premium for it if it wasn't going to cost them a mint-at whatever the going rate at the time would be-to restore the features.
dhermansen, I hope your daughter and her husband can make peace with the style. I don't think they will be sorry if they do.