Hi Aisha, Yes it can be updated to any style you like. My suggestion would be to make it have a more modern appearance, possibly Mid-century modern, Craftsman or cottage. Here are some ideas: remove the bushes along the side of the house. Make a flower bed in front of the garage conversion. Cut the 3 arches up to make them look like straight up columns. Add some natural wood siding on both sides of the large front window and maybe add some stone below the window full width of the wall. If you want shutters use the style that you like the finished home to resemble. Best of luck on your possible project. Jerome DeMarco ART.chitecture

Oh-that driveway is terrible! A neglected exterior really detracts from the house. There are huge cracks with weeds growing through, as well as patchwork added later. Since it is the first thing you see, I'd replace that as a starting point. Perhaps a curved walkway to the front door? trim over-grown hedge.

Add hanging colorful,flower pots at the sides of the arches - drip system makes for easy watering

since their is a limited planting space from the garage-walkway.... Build the planting bed on the other side, like here :

One of my favorite beds

How close is the tree to the house? Is there a sprinkler system? If the tree's roots are compressing the sprinkler pipes.... You'll see that some sprinklers won't pop-up. You'll hear a hissing underground when the sprinklers are running. If you notice these things you must dig out the root cluster and sprinkler pipes & lay new pipes using blue glue to prevent leaks from attracting more roots.

The problem is the driveway is an expensive fix and the house screams "we turned the garage into a room and now we don't have a garage"

Are you really thinking of purchase a house without a garage? IMO that is shortsighted.

Good point Bev! My initial thought upon looking at the pic- was " they converted the garage"

****Was THAT permitted? If not, then you might need to remove it before the city will approve any future remodeling

Yep do not purchase the house unless there was a permit pulled for the conversion or they will make you put it back.

I 've noticed garage to living space conversion in no snow states like FL.

Might want to keep looking. When you can obviously see a lot of deferred maintenance from the outside, it usually doesn't get better inside. It takes cash and a lot of time and patience to fix 10 years worth of no maintenance. Cash Flow can take a real hit, or you end up with a house you can't resale either. Caution advised.

Hi, Aisha! I am not a pro, so take my advice accordingly. I love the color of the siding on this house; it reminds me of that of my own house (the only mint-green house on our street). However, the green on my house works largely in conjunction with white trim on windows and porch rails. The arches on the house you're considering (stucco? concrete?) appear to be a sandy color, so I would paint them white to complement the green siding.

I, too, am bothered by the driveway, which is definitely ugly, and lack of covered parking. We have a two-car garage (hubby put his foot down about that as a must). You might consider a carport if the neighborhood will allow you to build/erect one. We're big on protecting our cars from the elements (YMMV).

Ohhhhhhhh guys! Sometimes extra room is more important than garage. In our area people having garage, still parking on driveway.

Here is some idea

If that's stucco at the main house, then I would convert it all to stucco, but going with the back and white theme. It could look quite smashing. I'd keep the arches:

Regarding garages: in my area you can still easily sell a house without a garage but WITH a garage is much quicker. We bought our house without and have just added one... Just depends on your area, some places you would never consider a house without one.

following

All nice and good but will you have access to at least 15-20k of cash after closing?