rosecottagehome: your practical and innovative ideas are very much appreciated.

You are most welcome Quick. My family and I did some renovations and spruced up our home and yard in 3 weeks to sell on a 5000 dollar budget, complete with beautiful outdoor potted plants and new porch seating. House looked spot on and sold in 6 days. I learned how to be practical and stretch a budget for sure. I am enjoying helping you out.

Have I said this before? What a transformation!

That landscaping illustration Cyndy Kloeter did for you a while back looked very nice. I think mulching around the flagpole and light fixture (as one big bed) would spruce up that side of the house and get rid of the mowing-around-the-stuff problem. However, would that impede your access to the back yard? Hmmm, then maybe not.

Better with 1 ?

Better with 2 ?

Please tell me. The good. The bad. The ugly.

Both the red and white doors look attractive. The red catches your eye.

This looks so good! I would paint the frame around the door window red, too.

red door

Ugly door.

Not really feeling the red. A little gaudy.

I like the dark blue, groveraxle's second pic or the white. Maybe the white would be more neutral, either way it won't be a deal breaker, the house has such curb appeal now. Any chance you could spring for 3 more of those small shrubs you planted in the front? One planted in the corner beside stairs and the other two in the middle evenly spaced. The flag and mulch added look nice Quick. Such an improvement!

I'm with Grover, not the red door! Actually I liked it with a white door, that would be inoffensive to any prospective buyer , you could add colour with a pot of flowers or 2 on the porch.

Agree, white door.

Red is OK, but the red you picked is way too saturated. And the door would be much better in any color with the window frame painted to match. I prefer the Navy, but the red does look nice at night..

I suppose it isn't in the budget, but the fanlight door isn't right for this sort of house and is about the cheapest thing you can buy, but it is better I guess than a faux stained glass door or something. I wish there were more budget doors on the market that really work well with older homes.

I hope you kept anything salvageable from the cute garage and the house in the basement or at least the salvage yard. I was bitterly disappointed that all that stuff was cleaned out of the house I bought so I was stuck with the cheapo replacement windows rather than the originals I thought were in the basement. Should have made it clear that I wanted them.

Cranberry red door, not orangey red door would be better. Why hide your light under a bushel? You want to draw attention to the house while it is for sale, and the red door is a great punctuation mark while still traditional.

Cranberry.

It looks very, very nice, Quick! Yes, I think the red color on the door is a bit bright but I personally like the red. I do think it is more eye-catching (and definitely don't leave it white). The porch looks amazing! Everything looks really crisp and new. Are you proud of yourself???? The only other thing I would do is replace that little tiny dinky light fixture on the pole. Actually, how about spraying the pole white and adding a fixtuer similar to the porch or just a white one? The black looks kind of "old" next to all the light finishes now.

Kathryn: yes, Im proud! and grateful to all of you for helping me and holding my hand. the bright red used was the shirian william paint you had mentioned. after it was painted, i said uh-oh! anyways, i may decide to repaint blue or cranberry thanks to groveraxle. I chose your light fixture for the pole and it is a black looking one, so i think we'll just repaint light pole black, that ok? thanks for your kind words :)

Yup, black is fine. Sorry about the paint color - it's impossible to select paint colors online so I should know better than to stay away from that!

thanks for all your time and effort Kathryn. will post final pix when we are ready to market.

What an awesome transformation so far! Can't wait to see the finished project.

any additional ideas, curb appeal?

Hi Quick, I love what you are doing! I like the cranberry door, it will give people something to remember about your house. I also think you should work on the landscape design suggested by Cyndy K. What you have is too sparse and the bed is too narrow and doesn't do the brand new porch justice. You need at least three shrubs but probably five in front of the porch (always use odd numbers of plants). Don't worry about cramming them in a bit because they have to look good now, not in five years! You could deepen the bed to 4-6' so it is in line with the bottom of the steps or the front of the pad at the foot of the stairs, and put in a natural edge by cutting in a v-shaped channel (2-3" deep) between the sod and the bed with a flat-bladed shovel; it looks very professional. If you are looking for more shrubs, get 3-4' tall skip laurel -- they are evergreen and have fragrant "candles" of spring flowers, so they are a good thing to put in by the front door right now. They are about $50-65 each and super hardy. My skips here in NJ haven't flowered yet, but will in the next month. Place (an odd number of) shorter spring flowering plants in front of the skips -- small forsythia or azalea (1 or 2 gallon pots might be big enough), for example, and pansies in front or sort of between those would work, depending on the size of the bed. Yellow or white would look nice up against the skips and the house. You want to have graduated plant sizes, smallest in the front of the bed, which is what Cyndy has in her design. If you have time, extend the bed along the walk and put in azaleas, daffodils and/or pansies, depending on price and size of the bed, but a larger bed is better than smaller, about 2' wide or so I think. You can put a feature shrub by the flagpole to the left of the stairs, a lilac is traditional, for example. But a big enough one might be pricey. These are pretty easy plants to find in a big box store and nurseries, and all flower in the spring/early summer in NJ. You can always cheat on the beds a bit by scraping off the sod with the flat-bladed shovel (use it like a pancake turner) and then mulching over it -- no need to dig the whole thing! If mulch is too expensive, find a friend with white pine trees, rake up the old fallen pine needles and spread them instead. It's very eco friendly and looks pretty good -- or at least better than shredded leaves. Or go to the town eco station and get their mulch -- it's free to residents where I live. Buyers are always wowed by curb appeal! You have done an amazing transformation in so short a time!

Stain the steps, white always looks fresh and clean

Idea one: add a retaining wall around front porch with steps leading to front door. Then add some simple landscaping in and around retaining wall, along with (2) flower pots, one on each side of front entrance, and/or can add (2) columns incorporated into the retaining wall (place each between the stairs) and can place potted plants on top of columns. Spruce up front door as well.
Idea two: repaint exterior a tan or putty color and paint the shutters a contrast color (white or beige) to renew the appearance.
Can do both ideas if in the budget.

Cranberry is better if you want to go with red; I think white is the best option. Bright color makes the blue look faded.

Hi Quick, after I went back and studied your photos from last week, I think you would be fine with extending the flower bed just a bit to the foot of the stairs, and not putting a bed along the walk. The yard is smaller than it looks in the straight-on photos. I still think you should cut in the beds with the v-channel though. I wouldn't do any more boxwoods. Expensive and tiny, and take years to grow. They also can be salt sensitive. Ditto any hardscaping for a flip -- just not worth it. Consider putting a potted plant or planter to the right of the door when you show the house, or a table with flowers or a plant instead. Supermarket hydrangea plants, for example, are cheap and welcoming, especially for a shore house. If you really like boxwood, consider Japanese holly (Ilex crenata), which is similar but less expensive and faster growing. There is a cool variety called sky pencil, which you can put in between the current boxwoods and is very popular with architects right now. Another alternative is Euonymus Japonicus, with a rounded leaf size between boxwood and skip laurel. You might recognize euonymus because it also is a ground cover that looks like a bigger version of myrtle (vinca) but without the pretty blue flowers. All of these shrubs are evergreen and pretty tough, surviving dry, wet and hot spells. They are smaller in scale than skip laurel, and might work better in a small yard. I have 3 Ilex crenata in my front yard and it is about 10 x 10. Yew is OK as well but very dark, definitely not fashionable any more. I don't even know how much it costs. But if you like retro shrubs, you could always do gold-dust plant (aucuba japonica), but I think some people really dislike variegated shrubs and so it probably doesn't appeal to the widest audience. But if there are privacy issues in the backyard, either skip laurel or aucuba japonica will survive almost anything except dogs with big bladders, and give great screening. I hope I am not being overly specific, but if you aren't familiar with plants, it helps to have recommendations!

rcnj: big help! can you explain what this "v-channel" is all about?

It's edging the bed, when you cut down through the grass to the dirt to make a nice clean line. The top photo on this page shows one, which is pretty deep because it was done before mulching: http://www.alternative-landscapes.com/spring__fall_cleanups. When I do it, I do more of an angle, just because it is easier to do with a shovel. I don't know if it has a name, so I call it a v-channel because it is shaped like a 'V'. It looks really professional, and you don't have to mess with it. Easier to mow in general too. I had brick edging and it almost drove me crazy it was so hard to mow around.

I looked at your other project in the 50+ development and the teeth edging really cracked me up. To cut the edge, push the shovel straight down, step on it a bit so it goes in about two inches, wiggle back and forth, and it will loosen a strip of sod and dirt. Remove strip, and slide shovel over and repeat. That's all there is to it. It is a really great technique for curved beds.

I'm a fan of the cranberry door!

rcnj: can you take a look at my other posted project by the lagoon?

Hi Quick, I looked at your lagoon project, but will have to post suggestions on that thread tomorrow. The one thing that really jumped out was the lack of shade or anything between the house and the pool. Roasting in the summer -- no one would even want to swim! I agree with Kathryn that you need some kind of pergola or shade between the house and the pool. There are lots of options for that. The front is a bit neglected but at least you have something to work with! I will post more tomorrow.

From RAGS to RICHES... below is my way of saying Thank you to ALL of you for you input and valuable ideas! THANK YOU!

and this...

Nice job!

What about a hedge along the long side rear fences to give some privacy on your back garden? Or higher fences at least.

Looks GREAT quick! I could see myself enjoying sitting on that new front porch. I like how you extended the gardens down to the sidewalk. Good luck with the sale.

What a beautiful job! The neighbors must be SO happy!

Wow! You did a great job finishing this new home! It most definitely is warm and welcoming :)

Ouch. Remembering now, never got a mailbox up there. (The mailbox in photo. Graphically inserted ) where to order an affordable nice one to match the door hardware/light fix? Also, where to the numbers 619 go? On the mailbox or elsewhere? Stick on numbers or what?

Oh holy night you did an amazing job. And the input everyone gave was great as well. I settle on a 1929 craftsman that's had its front porch enclosed and I can't bear to part with it-- but this post makes me want to. Awesome job.

Looks so good!!

Thanks Reagan!

It is so wonderful and well executed!

thanks for your endorsement

I think a deck come off the top two windows woud be nice.put glass doors were windows are and put big deck on top,Would really stand out ,looking at the other homes.Just a thought.

So impressed! What a fun way to see how Houzz can help one person transform a whole space. Loved the progress photos along the way! This transformation is an elegant and charming update!! A standout from the rest of the neighborhood, I'm sure. Well done, everyone!

thank you all. Special thanks to Kathryn