I don't know who picked the colors for the roof and the siding, but it could have been ray charles.

you have very warm brick tones, and cooler siding/roof tones. they compete w/each other.

The other thing I noticed is the tall shrubs. I would remove a lot of those so you can see the actual home. landscaping has a huge impact on curb appeal.

since painting is cheaper than replacing a roof, go w/that.

If it were mine, I'd limewash the brick and spruce up the siding.

This is not a paint. It's a natural lime that allows the brick to breathe and age naturally.

Then you could have a cohesive paint palette. see how much better these cooler tones look?

If the blue siding is in good shape, just do the brick. then I'd paint the garage door a darker shade, add some iron hardware to it. I like the wrought Iron color for trim.

diff limewash applications.

this is the color brick you need w/that roof

anything to tone down that orange would be better.

Romabio also has Masonry " paint". it's meant for brick and has a heavier coverage.

they used it on this home tinted w/SW colors

So you do not own this home? Good, move on. Find a home which is architecturally correct.

Not one with multiple aimless roof lines, lack of external balance, and mismatched design elements.

The house is appalling, trying to pretend to be "from the manner born". It is from the McMansion born.

Paint the siding to start probably with that roof a shade of maybe even black , some new blck windows and the go to work on landscaping. BTW IMHO painting or lime washing brick instantly devalues your home so huge no way from me for that. Yoy can download a pic of the house on most paint sites and add color to the siding that will give you a really good feel for what you could do.BTW never blue siding no matter what.

This house has the location everyone wants, including me. Location, location location! It is not selling because it is just not appealing. I do like the limewash for the brick and paint for the siding. What would happen to the siding color-matched gutters? Can they even be painted or would they all need to be replaced? @lisedv Thank you for the mock-ups! They are incredible! I never even thought of overing the brick with more siding. Is there any siding that would be combined with the horizontal siding there now? board and batten? fish-scale? shake? I've seen all of those in this coastal neighborhood as architectural details with horizontal siding homes. @lisadv what program do you use? I can't do black. I just don't like it all over a house. I would get tired of it. Thank you to everyone and please keep the ideas coming! I'd love to find a way to make this house as attractive as possible and paint just is not that expensive. A little siding isn't bad either. Minimizing the landscaping is easy enough too. Please do keep the ideas coming!

I agree the house is a little bit homely! Remove landscaping and redo it, paint or alster the brick to tone it down, repaint the siding that is there. I think that would do a world of good in change the appearance. If against changing the brick, pick a tannish color that blends with the roof and the brick.

Then wait for all those that passed on the house to be mad at how good it looks!

I'm curious about what style you mean by low-country coastal cottage. I have never heard of it.

Maybe if you posted some examples it would help to move the look of this house to what you like.

Is there any other brick on the house, other than what we see in your picture?

Romabio brick stain/whitewash can be tinted, so you could possibly match the colour to the siding and save a lot of fuss by leaving the siding as it is.

@Kelley

From what I see of the architecture of your house, I don't really see where you'd be able to introduce another pattern of siding (usually done for example on a gable). As for a match to the existing, you'd have to search in you area to find a supplier. For a house in Florida, I wouldn't opt for a dark colour siding.

Low country style is a wide covered porch, oftenn looks like a story and a half, often raised up one story. Google for examples.

Is this the only house not in that style? If so, it will always stand out. As a midwesterner, I think of low country style houses isolated and not in a subdivision but I could be totally wrong.

It doesn't look institutional. The problem is not the colors (although the warm-cool split is not ideal). The problem, as @User has already pointed out, is that the house is a mini-McMansion. It looks like it was "designed" by someone who doesn't understand any of the principles of good design.

If you find that the inside of the house suits all your needs with minimal changes, then it may be worth buying—assuming all the other variables also work for you, starting with location. That's more than a "good" neighborhood. It takes research to be sure there are no "gotchas" waiting for you. Assuming it meets your needs for accessibility to services, noise level, taxes, local schools, distance from noise and environmental pollution, not being prone to flooding, fire, mudslides, etc., maybe this is the house for you. But it will never not be a poorly designed house on the outside.

I agree with amystoller's comments. If you truly love everything but the exterior, then budget for some big changes. I would remove the brick and put siding in its place. I would remove the arched window and replace it with a square or rectangular one. I would remove all the landscaping (i.e., the massive shrubs). Consult with an architect about altering the entryway to have a focal point front door and porch. And then get a good landscape architect who can design and install hardscaping and plantings. Good luck!

This would be an option for your home. Less institutional.

It's the paint. It looks light blue here. It's just not reality that what you see is why that home doesn't sell. If all you say is true about the location and the inside then it's the price that's the issue. That's just realty 101. It is a McMansion. It's not what the rest of the neighborhood is. The person who built this home wanted DIFFERENT. If you or any buyer wants same same then move on. Updated paint and landscaping will be fairly inexpensive as these things go and really all the home needs to show itself well. If one does not care for it's architecture one isn't going to change that homes style. It is what it is. Love it or leave it.

The blue gray is so, so bad with the brick on this nice home. I laughed out loud at the suggestion that Ray Charles chose the colors!

Next on the so, so bad list is the fortress of greenery jammed up against the house EVERYwhere. The advice of a licensed landscape designer is direly needed. Plus a chainsaw.

The home itself is lovely, though. So much potential. If you love the inside and the location, buy it!

The inside floor plan is actually good. Large rooms, high ceilings. Inside I would change some bathroom tile and get rid of some carpet. It is ICF construction, so it is strong, new hvac, new roof, pool is enclosed in the back. I’m not overstating the location of the neighborhood. Houses do not normally sit there. While there are some other brick homes I don’t believe there are any other combination brick and siding homes. The majority are in the low-country coastal style, even if they are brick, they have a porch covering at least 3/4 if not all the front. That is not a big deal to me. I don’t have to have a front porch and with setback lines I don’t think I could. I don’t want to force that look on the house I just want it to be as attractive as it can be given what there is to work with. I’m not great at visualizing things so the mock-ups were amazingly helpful! From what I understand the older couple that built the house came from TN and they were different. They hired an architect. This is what they ended up with. They must have loved it. It was not an inexpensive house to build. It’s just not attractive. I want to be able to drive up to my home and at least think, “What a nice home.” As it is a large investment, even with the recent price reduction! I could make the changes and it would not cost as much as the amount of the latest price reduction!
The changes many of you gave have been so very helpful! The mock-ups look fantastic and the landscaping comments are on point. I’m going to share all of this with my husband and go view the home again! Thanks to everyone!

Please post an update if you decide to buy it.

BTW, the architect is probably listed on the permits at city hall. If they are still active, consulting them may be useful in customizing changes.

1. Paint the siding a color near the color of the brick. 2. Get rid of the overgrown shrubbery. Don't paint the brick unless you want a maintenance nightmare. I don't know anything about lime wash, or it's maintenance, that may be a good alternative.

Regular paint is not the right product for brick. Then it would be a maintenance nightmare, or as Patricia invariably posts "Instantly devalues your home."

As with all paint/stain projects you need the right product for the job. For brick that is limewash, or a product like Romabio that is made for brick.

If you want to unify the look and are OK with the siding colour, changing the brick is the easier way to go since there seems to be so little of it.

Buy the house...it checks all the boxes...you're not going to be out front staring at it all day lol.

Does this sketch help? Gray paint from the roof but darker, some black trim, and a garage door in Redwood or Mahogany wood or stain to tie in the brick. Black front door.

Here is that nice green with gray trim from Beverly:

following along

I think the right color of sage green, instead of blue, would make a WORLD of difference. And be prepared to spend some money on really smart landscaping! Seems like a winner to me.

I wasn't exactly sure how low-country coastal style homes looked (I had an idea based upon the porches and coastal style) - now I see why you dislike the exterior of this home as much as you do. I've seen much less attractive exterior homes than this one (although the colors really aren't doing it any favors).

I think if you could square off the arched window + use lime wash on it (not super light - but not solid like paint) + paint the siding to match, the house would look much better. Plus, once you add in some updated landscaping, it will greatly improve the curb appeal.

Location is so important - as long as the inside works for you (except for a few updates you've added to one of your comments), + the price makes sense = seems like this will be a good home for you.

If you really want to see what the house might be able to become -Brick and Batten have many examples re: updating the exterior of a home - some have been absolutely amazing.

Some of their new exteriors would cost $$$ (where someone is trying to completely change the style of their home. Other update ideas involve paint and/or siding changes + landscaping.

The first example below would take a bit of money - but would make a significant improvement on the exterior of the house:

The next two are not expensive updates as the one above (unless you changed every window on the front of the homes vs. updating the existing windows):

This next one reminded me a bit of your house - 90's style home with arched details + (windows/garage shape) + the similar brick color. Changing the shape of the arched widow would cost some $$ - however, this one looks much better in the after where the arched details are the same color as the rest of the home.

Plus, I thought that maybe you could use the idea of using some exterior siding material to fill in the top semi circle of the window in order to have it blend in like in the after photo below. The second story window would look too short if the arch totally disappeared - this way it keeps it height but doesn't stand out.

This next home is a not "super stylish" 90s brick house with some siding + a bay window on the right side. The white siding/garage doors really stand out next to the dark red brick - instead of blending and/or coordinating with each other.

The homeowner could keep the same windows, but remove the existing muntins and replace with the updated style ones (if they are the faux ones added on the inside of the window - many 90s homes had/have these) vs. replacing all of the windows. Also, making everything one color helps the bay window blend more with the rest of the home.

IMPORTANT: Notice how much updating the garages improves the look of the exterior of both 90s homes.

Kelley, be sure to read the HOA docs before purchase to make sure there are no significant restrictions.

Simplest ways to make the exterior more appealing though you'll never have the cottage look. You could have a cottage garden, though.

--The right sage green that Beverly posted would get rid of the pastel blue/pink look. I also like the way this great fencing does make the house cozier looking. Your potential house deserves a garden designer to figure out how to better frame the house with a front garden.

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--Or paint siding same shade of gray as the roof so you don't have three large color blocks. Again, notice how the well-designed landscaping enhances the house, bringing the eye forward.

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--Create a deeper garden bed on the right and move the shrubs forward and remove the overgrown shrubs by the entryway. We can't see the entryway, so that's off putting. The current shrub placements gives the house a choked off look.