The half moon over windows instantly date your home. IMO when you change out the window to a window that works with the other windows it changes the entire exterior to a more timeless design. Adding another half moon window would make it worse, not better.

Agree

Rebecca, keep in mind that there are no perfect homes. I think this home is truly lovely with a couple of quirks that need improvement over time. Overall if it meets most of your criteria, then make an offer. The couple of small changes you mention in this and the FP post shouldn't be that expensive to change. The people that had the home built threw in a couple of 1990s embellishments but that isn't unusual to find a home with mixed elements. Its a matter of: Does the home meet your needs/wants?

Totally agree that it dates it! However I just don’t know why I am kind of ambivalent about the pure aesthetic appeal/balance of a rectangular window in that gable space. Its like I agree with you on paper and in theory but then when I sketch it out I feel ‘eh’. For some reason. Hmm.

Sorry Denita—I was responding while you were as well! thank you so much for the second comment. That is very helpful and definitely I am very realistic that there is no perfect home. At least not in my price range,ha. Interior(layout, good light, ceiling height, etc)- those things are way more important to me than the exterior anyway since that’s where our family will be spending our time! Thanks again for your input :)

There are architects that work remotely right here on this website. Maybe it is worth contacting one of them for a couple of elevation ideas. The really good thing is you don't have to do anything until you are satisfied with your choice.

Adding another half moon window would make it worse, not better.

Agreed!

Don't add the lipstick.

So do you think it’s a pig? ;)

We’re not in a huge rush and may keep looking.

Design is very important to me but now that I’m a mother, other practical things need to be as well. I like garages for their practicality even though I agree that I hate them aesthetically and in theory. But my husbands car literally got stolen from the driveway of our current rental house this year— and my three-year-old is convinced that moving to a house with a garage will help keep the ‘bad guys away’.

I’m the kind of person whod be super happy living in the most gritty, walkable neighborhood ever if I wasnt a mom. In a 1920s craftsman which has somehow been perfectly maintained and tastefully renovated over the years and somehow magically falls within my budget. :) So-even though I shouldn’t care what strangers on the Internet think, it does sting if the home I’m considering might be considered hopelessly a ‘pig’. Don’t get me wrong , I really appreciate the honesty!

If you like the house, buy it now. In my area most houses have a front load garage, I dislike them but in the big picture not important to get all the other things I want in a house.

This house is not a pig.

Thank you. Feel so silly for asking for reassurance! Why I do like it: This house has more natural light and windows (along back side) than I think I’ve ever seen in a ‘normal’ house ( as opposed to some kind of design magazine, ha). Appears to have been well maintained. Its got great living space for our needs. Beautiful hardwoods in much of house. Plenty of trees. Lots of families in neighborhood, a pool, can walk to (chain) store and restaurants ;) (can’t win em all!)

The main cons are that I dont love the things mentioned or the overall very ‘90s suburban builder’ (per Rawket girl, ha) feel of the exterior.

(and that fireplace. Hoo boy. ;))

If the only cons are cosmetic RUN don't walk to make an offer! What are you still doing here on Houzz, go find your agent!! :-D

We can deal with the cosmetic later...

Yes, buy it, if the neighborhood is nice, get it now.

Holy cats rebecca_adia I live in a hovel compared to that lovely home! Please do not listen to me -what do I know, I work in medical and do design and spruce ups for a hobby for neighbors/friends/ family homes. I am sorry if anything I said is preventing you from buying that great house. ALL houses have something the owners don't like. Thankfully for you it is the outside, since you live inside you wont have to think about it for a while. The outside can be tweaked to make it more to your liking.

Adding a front porch with more "presence", adding a awning or accessory between garage doors and window, Paint, landscaping & lighting alone can fix most things.

I hope you will seriously consider this home for your family. As my Realtor friend says "You can fix a house, but not it's location".

You can easily lean into farmhouse here. That was my first thought once I squinted enough to fade away the added elements you don't like. The garage can take on more of a farmhouse appearance too. It's there, so it might as well fit in!

N Maney Avenue · More Info

Garage Doors · More Info

I thought farmhouse too :-)

Thank you guys!! I really appreciate all the words of encouragement.

The last house we owned (we rent currently) was contemporary. I loved the look and feel of the home inside and out. It was gorgeous. Oh except the kitchen— that was almost nonexistent— and the lack of functional storage space— and the tiny bedrooms- shall I go on? I dont want to make the same mistake again of choosing appearance over practicality. And yet I consider myself somewhat of a creative and I just hate uninspired-feeling things. So you guys are just bringing up my own internal conflicts about this home, is all. I cant afford new construction to my preferences in a neighborhood I like nor the cost of a historic home. I have to work with what’s available. And our budget is enough that we do have SOME choice- so its the analysis paralysis kicking in!

LOVE the idea of leaning farmhousey if we go with this one. . .

It sounds like a lovely neighbourhood that won't be diminishing in desirability; if something that suits your aesthetic better comes along someday nothing is holding you to this house even if you do buy it now.

That being said, if your gut is saying "NO" about this house there might be a reason for that. None of us can walk through it with you and it's such a deeply personal decision. I know I said jump on it and now I'm contradicting that a bit. From your first few posts it sounded like your one and only hesitation was the look, which can be worked with. But if you're having niggling doubts or an outright bad feeling and you don't have strict budget or time constraints, there's no problem with letting this opportunity pass.

Thank you for the free therapy session ;) Obviously I am conflicted. have spent pretty much all evening talking with my husband about this, and other, homes. I can come back and post an update when we decide :)

Here's a very, very rough mock up of the house with farmhouse elements. I did this quickly and didn't have time to search out all the right items, but it gives you an idea. I honestly think it's a great house--not a cookie cutter home at all. After removing the shutters and window fan, the first thing I would do is replace the front door with something of solid, stained wood. Could you post any interior photos of the house? Good luck with your decision!

Thank you teeda! Beautiful inspiration :) I was definitely thinking of a possible wood door!!

Interior: while my style is eclectic we have enough farmhouse-ish furniture ( like, one of our tables is a farmhouse table for example) that it could all work. That would be the fun part and the part that I feel I can handle. :) Cabinets are already white and I could add a subway tile backsplash. However I don’t know if I can actually handle posting any pictures of the current interior here- because if someone points out something else that they dislike and it gets added to my list then I don’t know if I can handle making the list any longer! Ha! ;)

I really like how you added the black detail around the exterior windows! What is that called?

The one thing I’m not sure about in your mockup is making the garage doors more prominent rather than less. . . ?

If you can’t say “that’s the one!”, I think you’d better keep looking. It’s not meant to be yours........

It’s not my style, it looks unbalanced.

Such a cute house! I agree it does look like a lot of the older midwestern or western farmhouses, simple and practical, white with a colored door. I also see the 90's builder house, but I think it's mostly the half-moons, so get rid of those and I think that look will go away. I really love the muntins on your windows. I would call it a traditional farmhouse. I think you could go with farmhouse, coastal, or transitional on the inside if you leave the outside mostly the way it is.

Rebecca, I love teeda's illustration. If I were going to purchase it, I would go with that except keep the garage doors the same color as the siding rather than have them darker. JMO

Denita I absolutely agree about the garage doors. That was my exact thought, it was the only thing I don't love.

But the overall illustration is truly beautiful I absolutely agree! Gives the exterior some visual interest.

What are the black things that she put around the windows, that you see in some farmhouse homes, called? that little change would make me very happy. does it require actually replacing the windows or is that something that can be added on?

and Emily. .yes! I have farmhouse, coastal, transitional (and mid century!) elements in the things I own now so the interior would be a mashup of all of the above ;)

oooh and now I'm thinking.. . if I did a subway tile backsplash, then for the fireplace surround (see other post 'Dislike green marble fireplace'). . . what about subway tile for that too? Too predictable?

I think she just painted the window frames black to achieve that look.

I think others have painted their frames black if they were not black at the time of construction or remodeling. See this one:

Modern Farmhouse in Altadore · More Info

The wood garage doors make it look more like a carriage house, which is so cool to me.

I probably would go with something classic on the FP too and you have many options, including subway.

Someone also mentioned a pergola over the garage. That would be so cute with the wooden doors!

Denita- so interesting! So is painting exterior window frames something that people do? And who do you even call to look at having that done. . .just a regular painter? It looks great in the illustation but not sure how to translate the concept to IRL. I would be too afraid to do it myself.

I don't know who would do it other than a painter, but it would have to be someone that is detailed oriented. I'm sure some have experience with it and others don't so if it were mine I would want to see a couple of jobs where the painter had done it previously to gauge experience and quality.

I know it is just me but a word of caution about worrying about changing things immediately. First get the house and live in it for a while before changing things. I have seen too many people either getting in over their heads financially or changing their tastes within a year or two after spending a lot of money on changes. If you feel that you must make lots of changes immediately the house is not for you.

Thank you. The problem is that my husband (rationally) fears there may be no house ‘for me’ !

What’s the phrase. . . ‘champagne taste on a beer budget’? :) Im pretty solid about what I like and dislike even though I may not know why. With the caveat that leaning farmhouse might become ‘too dated/trendy’ eventually but I’d guess that’s 15 years yet in the future, not a year or 2.

But we’ll see. To our knowledge they dont have other offers yet so with each day they hopefully become more likely to budge on price (leaving more $ for changes!)

i literally just dont know that a home I love in a town I love exists ‘as-is’. We’d also really love other kids around and a pool so that means a planned community of some type. And I hate so many of them! (I have deep ambivalence over having become this person who wants a planned community—)

How long has it been on the market? I wouldn't wait to make an offer. It's a valid strategy, but I would hate to see you lose it by a day or so if someone else makes their offer first.

Ask yourself do you still like the styles that you liked two years ago. Along with do you really want to move. Then discuss realistically with your husband if you would purchase a house do you have the extra money to make major changes? Then start saving for those changes. Hardly anyone gets everything they want in a house so waiting and saving more money to make the changes that the two of you want to is important. I do not think it is champagne tastes but you just have not found the property that will say to you "I am yours". This house was over the budget I had set but when we walked into it the years of looking were over. That feeling is what I hope you will find.

Please don't get hung up on the need to define...really, "dated" means that a whole bunch of lemmings are just going in a different direction. I really have never said that I like or dislike a thing simply based on it's decade of creation..but that's just me.

Also does it matter what the house's style is? Why not just call it "mine"... :)

It's a lovely house.

thanks to all of you. maifleur that is a VERY encouraging thought, that perhaps the perfect home is out there for us! Like true love! :) And you're right. . .saving more money on hand is always, always a good thing. It's balancing renting + saving $, vs investing in equity now. Also, interest rates are possibly going up? (although I feel I've been hearing that for the past 2 years I've been renting, without much movement.)

Stylistically, I do actually love what I liked 2 years ago, though. in fact I'm trying not to buy much new furniture for a new house- I love all the random finds I have curated over the years and I want a house that will work with what we have. we have for example a sectional that's only a few years old. And a custom made farmhouse table (before they became quiiite so uubiquitous). of course little touches will be updated with any move--need a new piece here or there to steer things or to work in a particular room but in general-- I know what I love.

I do like things to feel 'fresh' and 'not dated' which YES pennydesign is not what should matter! You are so right. But on the other hand. . 'Fresh' to me means you're feeling and noticing kind of the collective creative energy of your current society and sensing the direction the world is moving, and you're shaping your physical environment at least partially in response to that. So maybe there's an impulse there that's slightly more meaningful than just following the rest of the lemmings. . . or maybe not ;)

You all are giving some amazing food for thought, here. Very grateful!

Well said.

I tend to go against the grain in my thinking...if others want it, I don't. Maybe I'm just a societal claustrophobic :) Who knows.

Please though...try to stay away from Revere Pewter (or any shade of gray), shiplap, and orb light fixtures.

Pretty please?

(In all sincerity, the best of luck on your future home purchase)

I literally just laughed out loud because i have painted about 6 rooms in the past 5 years in revere pewter!!! You got me ;)

And no I don’t think your feelings make you a societal claustrophobic -I think it probably makes you truly ‘cool’ :)

You are the sweetest...(and clearly of higher intelligence) I defer to your superior decorating skills...

Honestly though. Trust your good taste. You're the only one you have to please.

What direction is the front of the house facing? I like foundation shrubs that cover the two feet of foundation showing. If you have an eastern or northern exposure, hydrangeas would be beautiful. They are deciduous, but the spring through fall blooms are gorgeous. They do not like a lot of hot sun, so western exposure would not work.

Here's the garage with the white doors. Rebecca, I simply pasted other windows over yours. I think they may have been one of the Andersen series. I think you could do a lot with this house--and really feel it lends itself best to casual/farmhouse. I love interiors that are a mix of modern/vintage but are cleanlined and unfussy, and I can see that for this home!

Thanks so much to everyone! Update- we are leaning away from this house. Went back to see it and noticed other negatives, and husband decided he’d like a larger lot after all. But loved all the creative energy here, you guys are awesome. Will definitely come back to this forum in the future!!

So we kept coming back to this house after all! Closed abt 6 wks ago, have been moved in for two weeks and I LOVE this house.

thought I would post a ‘so far’ update for fun :)

(Oh and the other half moon is going to go too. . . it just might be another month or so. New square window had to be ordered! And. . .landscaping is next :))

That's fantastic news rebecca_adia! I'm so happy to hear you're loving your new home :-)

And thanks for taking the time to update in the midst of what must be a hectic life at the moment :)

thanks Lindsey!

and sometimes, life is SO hectic that you just have to shut it all out and browse Houzz for 15 minutes, you know? kind of like a power nap, but recharging the aesthetically inclined part of my soul instead ;)

I am so happy for you! Can't wait to see your new square windows to replace the half moon windows :)

Your heart led you to the best house for you!