Are you building a new home?

Currently renting this one and potentially purchasing it but would like a major remodel or start from scratch. I really hate that its sideways .

What is it about being sideways that you don't like? Personally, I think altering the driveway to include a street entrance on the "front" side of the house would help a lot.

If you are considering renovating it what I would suggest is to keep the front as is, and redo the back part that faces the rive way, siding all the way, upgrade the stairs and get a nice looking bigger door there with a porch and that will give the outside facing part of the house the curve side appeal that it is missing right now,
Good luck with your project!

You can do a fair bit with landscaping, and even signage if you're concerned that people will confuse the correct front entry with the back side. A really nice statement sidewalk (pavers look awesome) with good landscaping can help direct people where to go.

We have a few of these sideways houses in one of my neighborhoods. I agree it looks odd to pull into a driveway and not see a front entry anywhere in sight. However no house is perfect either. Only you can decide if this awkward placement can be overcome enough for you to love the house, or if you are better off looking for something else.

No house is perfect. It's worth repeating that a few times. :) It's all a very personal assessment of the pros and cons, weighted by what is most important to you.

Hire a house mover to pick it up and turn it around. Thats about the cheapest option to ”fix” it it, and that aint even close to being cheap.

Find a better house to buy.

Put a porch across the front - modify to have stairs that lead to your porch near your garage area (in the area of the retaining wall), and replace the long sidewalk from your driveway with something that goes from the street to the porch. Landscape and lighting too.

What rooms are on the garage side of the house? New, bigger, and more windows on that side would add interest.

It would probably be better to spend your money buying a different house as attempting to fix the orientation will probably cost the same as building a new one as you'd have to pay for demo in addition to then building it up a different way.

About the only thing that seems reasonable that you could possibly do is change the driveway approach so people would see the front as they enter and add a privacy fence/hedge or something to mark off the backyard. However with the slope that is there it doesn't seem like it would be easy to change the driveway either as it would make it fairly steep.

I see why you would consider buying it, near the lake!

Does the zoning allow two driveway entrances? If so, you could keep the existing one and add another on the other end of the lot, so you have a loop.

I don't know alot about cutting into sloped yard. Maybe you could change the driveway to pull straight into the garage and do a pull off on the other side ( cutting into the slope ) and adding stairs up to the front door??

Or Move the driveway to the upper area of the house and have it slope down to the garage...

Never buy something you hate.

Who walks up to the front door of your house now and how often is it used? Seeing that there is no sidewalk here, it seems that you probably drive most places and do you ever use the front entrance? I get why it bothers you but front doors also seem so very unused these days anway. Make the side of your house look beautiful so it won't matter.

There's no way to "fix" a sideways house which won't cost a fortune and demolish a perfectly good house. Let someone else buy the house who isn't bothered by the orientation.

The house is oriented in a way that the open private areas face away from the neighboring home and toward the large, private yard and toward the lake. There are advantages to that. I would remove the shrubs and privacy fence near the garage and make that area a more welcoming entry. I would put up a privacy fence or shrubs along the street.

She doesn't own it, she's renting. If she purchases it, she's buying the land and the house. Adding the cost of removal and a completely new house would be cost prohibitive in almost every circumstance. Sometimes the best response is to walk away.

I would also recommend considering aging in place. When you are older, are you always going to want to enter your home by having to go upstairs??

I would want the ability to pull up to the front of the house.

Why not talk to someone now while you are still renting to get ideas of what can be done and the costs for those ideas. Then you'll know.

Good luck!

If she can get away with selling it without owning it, that just tips the financial feasibility in her favor. She should at least get the property in her name.

(some Friday night comments should be taken with a grain of salt)

It's hard to tell from the pics, but could you just add a driveway access from the road to the front door? You could gate the existing entrance and continue to use it, but guests would use the new driveway.
Or, you could gate the existing driveway where the seam in the concrete for the turn around is; people would park there (at the closed gate) and walk up the walkway to the front door. Landscape and fence (maybe an iron fence) to define the parking area from the lawn. It would also add privacy to your back yard.

We have a sideways house but our driveway comes in off the road at the front of our house.

In our neighborhood we have houses situated on lots all different ways based on the lot and views. There are houses where the back of the house faces the road.

Can you make a new driveway where the driveway comes in off the road closer to the front of the house?