I hope you are joking. I'm usually a reader not a writer, but after seeing your description and then your ideabook of ideal exteriors, I felt compelled to say that your house is stylish, with a beautiful roof line, and great angles.

You may think your idea book of exteriors are for "huge and expensive" houses and you may be right, but they are also a complete mush of styles, have nonsensical rooflines (hence the expense), and are certainly not superior to what you already have. Consider yourself lucky.

Please live with your home as is or sell it to someone who will appreciate it (mucking with the outside will be expensive, time-consuming, and de-value it).

after seeing your exteriors you like, kind of wondering why in the world would you have bought this home? The amount of money you would need to invest to get the exterior that you want, well, ridiculous. I'm sure you had your reasons for buying, but to make this home into something it wasn't meant to be, is silly. Somewhat like buying a Victorian and saying you like the mid century straight lines and flat roof.

Would be much better financially and esthetically to embrace this home's design and work from that.

Beth: Maybe the OP is considering buying and doesn't already own this house? Sam: When I look at your exterior idea book, it's clear that you crave a house with charm and character, neither of which exists in this house. And, somewhat along the lines of what Beth said, it would cost so much money to get that cozy traditional look you desire that you'd be better off buying a house with those qualities in its bones.

I have not bought it, I haven't even gone to see it yet, just saw it on Zillow

sammy, true. then again my statement stands, "why consider this house when you want to make into something it's not?" Buy another home with the traditional exterior that needs a make-over. Unless of course OP has unlimited funds to where she could basically completely redo the entire home.

I am not a pro. For a low cost change to the house, I would just use some of the paint colors from your Lookbook. Gray house, white trim and windows, maybe a red door. I would add an outdoor seating area to the right of the patio (I could not find an exact photo). Some colorful cushions, umbrella and some shrubs or tree around it. The major change I would make would be the landscaping. Get rid of the grass on the slope and add a tree, some colorful low maintenance shrubs and plants. Define the slope on a few levels with some retaining walls. Make sure some plants have color (red, brown) and some dark stone to pull in the house colors. I know you wanted ideas other than landscaping, but even a beautiful house can look ugly with no landscaping. I would love to see what you decide to add. Good luck!

I bet this house is in a neighborhood of similar homes. If it is, even more reason not to try to change it from MCM to Craftsman. But it does seem to have had some not too good work done on it already; I think I'm looking at vinyl siding. If you want this house to shine, embrace its style.

You could paint the posts, window frames and railing black, much like this house. Maybe get a new glass door.

Replace the siding. Board and batten would look good.

Doing some appropriate landscaping, especially on either side of the steps, will also help.

I would change the windows...

If you haven't purchased it, don't because this is NEVER GOING TO BE A TRADITIONAL HOME STYLE.

Mocreidhl, 100% agree with you about the landscaping. Excellent ideas for that particular house and I agree with your statements in general.

Houssaon, great examples! I can definitely picture a before and after with the after looking like the ones you've shown! That's exactly the kind of answer I was looking for - I couldn't picture an after. Now I can. And those are not hideous at all, quite nice. That siding is so much better that the roof doesn't bother me as much.

It's probably not the house for me, and I appreciate everyone's advice!

I love this house. It could really quickly and easily turned into an awesome architectural piece. Not in a craftsman or traditional style though...