A general rule for us is if a house has a lot of disparate parts the best way to sew them together is to use the same color scheme on all part of the house. That being said I would suggest you go ahead and hire an architect sooner rather than later. They should do as-built drawings and can them begin to explore how to make your house a more cohesive design.

IMO you have to find out what the cost will be to get this fixed IMO the turret and the carpot need to go then see what can be done with what is left . That can be expensive but only you know if it is worth it. The turret is interesting if there is some fabulous thing it loks out to so maybe share that at least that needs to match in color to the rest if it is important to keep.

It looks to me like it started out as a relatively small ranch style house that had some additions that weren't well thought out as you said. Is the roof relatively new, or is it coming to the end of its life? You can't change the disparate rooflines without reroofing. I don't think changing the exterior would be inexpensive, so you'll have to decide whether the lot and interior are nice enough that you can live with it as it is - unless your budget will allow a substantial modification. It also might be difficult to change the exterior without modifying the interior. Since you have seen the interior you would be in a better position to know whether this is true. In addition to what Patricia mentioned I think the entry is too tucked in and I would be interested in addressing that.

Thanks! The Turret does let in a lot of beautiful light into the house, but I agree, if feels too prominent.

Both the carport and the shed could have been add-ons. City hall will have the permits on file.

Edited to add: you can see a small triangular peak in the original house roof next to the "S" in the red lettering. That's a sign that the original house ended right there, hence it's likely that the carport is a later addition.

The garage bump out also looks likes like an ill conceived addition.

The easiest thing to do would be to make the entrance where the shed bump-out is.

I did some house-hunting in England. There, it was very common for people to tack on additions to smallish houses. It wasn't uncommon for a well-built, well-designed house to have cheaply-built, poorly thought-out additions. In fact, we didn't end up buying a house because the inspector pointed out that only 50% of that house was an older, solidly-built house and the rest was cheaply-built and not up to code.

The house we rented appeared to have no problems we saw until we had a baby. It turned out "flushable" baby wipes are not actually flushable and they'd built the addition over the sewer line, causing difficulties in cleaning out the blockage.

So, make sure your inspector looks carefully at the additions and the junctions between the house and the additions. You should look hard, too.

Too many roof lines - yikes!

I would get rid of the shed - that would definitely help with the front entry.

If you keep the carport - I would change that roof to be the same direction as the original house roof. The garage roof seems off but it may be ok if the shed and car port are changed.

Have an architect work it up in 3D so you can really see what it would be like.

I really like the turret - I would leave that alone.

The inside is amazing! Even if I had to - I would live with the outside to get that beautiful inside and great looking property.

Good luck - please post after pictures if you go ahead with this home!

That’s a house that needs shutters and dormers! I’m kidding, they really threw everything at it. The cupola is nice but doesn’t need to be THREE colors. Actually none of the house has to be three colors plus stone. Get rid of half of the gables and the shed thing, and simplify the color scheme, and you start to have some order to the house. Right now you can hardly find the front door.

I suggest you hire an architect but just for the sake of it, to take out some of the choppiness, I eliminated the shed next the front door, removed the brown trim at the bottom of the windows on the turret, replace the trim with charcoal/black to take away from some of the brown, and painted the garage doors and trim the same colour as the siding.

I could live with a lot of superficial exterior faults ( visual but not falling apart) if the interior AND exterior “ livability”, and views/ lot, were great. Does the inside work right now or does it need $100k kitchen renovation. Are the bathrooms fine, cleanly finished even if not up to the minute. Do the rooms and floorplan flow and work for you and the outdoor living space ( is that a deck ir patio in view?) work right now?

I do love a handsome house exterior and so many new houses . do not have that, though they think they do! Because driving or walking up to a home that greets you with a wow or beauty is a great experience. And one can live with a variety of interior quirks.

But the daily function is so important. And more than just one wow living room, unless you have budget and stamina for other renovations.

So as usual, it’s all the factors, and price, and what else is out there.

Our second house was a large ugly colonial. The floor plan was great, on a cul-de-sac in a great neighborhood and the backyard overlooked 30 acres of conservation water/land, so we couldn't see any houses from our main living areas. Loved that house and was sad to sell after 3 years when DH got a new job that required us to relocate.

A slightly ugly exterior wouldn't stop me from buying a house, if everything else was perfect.