what should i do with the front of my house?

[pixielou]

we need to redo the front of our house. the wood in the tudor part is rotting out. the bricks are fine and will be kept as is.

the sides and back of the house are currently cedar shingles that are painted (muck green - barf barf). they also need to be replaced - but we will be waiting a year or 2 to do that. we plan to replace with cedar shingles - and keep the natural finish.

here are the options that i'm thinking of. . .

1) restore the tudor. but do traditional tudor colors - we would not paint the wood green. we're in the norheast and the wood against the stucco does not tend to hold up the best. but it looks nice.

2) do away with the tudor - put up cedar shingles - natural finish. to match the rest of the house.

3) go with vinyl siding. it's the cheap option. and it's what every other house in the neighborhood tends to have.

4) give me your suggestions.

fwiw - we are also replacing the roof, the gutters and the trim up on the roof line this year. next year (or year after) when we replace the rest of the siding, we're thinking of adding some type of enclosed entry around the front door.

oh yeah - we need to replace the windows on the front of the house as well. not sure if they'll be in the budget this year, or if they will also be waiting a year or 2.

here's a picture of the front of the house.

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t6/pixielou_house/ourhouse.jpg?t=1171919987

~pixie

[c'est la vie]

1) restore the tudor. but do traditional tudor colors - we would not paint the wood green. we're in the norheast and the wood against the stucco does not tend to hold up the best. but it looks nice.

I like the traditional tudor look:dark wood against light stucco, but I know nothing about treating the wood to make it last. I'd also put shutters on the second floor windows; dark brown to match the wood.

[snowzilla]

I'm a big fan of the traditional Tudor look, myself.

Have you tried a google search on the Tudor style, to get ideas of what's out there? We have to work on the exterior of our home this summer (we moved in back in August, but concentrated on the interior over the winter months) and I'm having a heck of a time figuring out what colors to use.

[lawyerlee]

I'm not a super big fan of Tudor, but I think the house would look terribly bland if you took away those details.

What about adding some window boxes for flowers and herbs and the like? That might liven things up and add some nice color.

[suzubeane]

Respectfully, your home is not a Tudor. A Tudor is marked by steep roofs, multiple roof changes with gable ends to the front, heavy natural materials (like stone) and thick chimneys. Like this:

http://z.about.com/d/queens/1/0/g/4/tudor.jpg

What you've got looks to me like a lovely post war home that has had stucco applied to it. If there are other houses on the street like yours, then it's probably original. If not, then it was applied later by someone who admired the style and/or considered it low maintenance. (Painting clapboard or shingle is tedious and can be expensive.)

The good news is that this means you have options - you are not wedded to anything Tudor simply because there is stucco there now. Considering the garage is already sided (or is that clapboard?) you might want to continue in that direction.

In your shoes, I would consider a composite siding with real wood trim. That way, when you need to repaint, you'd only have to do the wood. (We intend to do this with our foursquare in a few years.)

For your house, I think a wide board would look nice. This house is probably older than yours and has dormers, but I think you can see what I'm getting at:

http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/Colonialbarrie.jpg

This post-war has a tighter clapboard:

http://i.timeinc.net/toh/images/exteriors/ex200208_revival04.jpg

(I'm not suggesting you side over your brick, but this one has it on both levels.) It also has shutters on the second level which a PP suggested. If you like the pediment over the door in the one shown above, you could have one added at the same time.

[NotDesperate]

You have a very cute house! I think I like the cedar shingles idea, it would look really nice and make your house stand out. If you have it in your budget- go for it! We have a small part on the front of our house (the first floor part) that is dutch blue shingles/scallops and I like it a lot. It really makes my house kinda unique- despite the same shape and design as every other house on the street.

[pixielou]

thanks everyone for your comments.

suzubean you are absolutely right - the house isn't a tudor. it's a garrison colonial built in the 50's with tudor detail on the front. i'm pretty sure it is original. there is another identical house - brick and tudor - nearby.

which brings me to the point notdesparate made. every single house on my street is a garrison colonial. of the 30-40 house nearly identical houses on the street, we're the only brick and tudor one; maybe 6 or 7 have brick. so it does make our house stand out a bit.

as i said, there is an identical house nearby built by the same builder. it has recently been restored. i decided to look at it for inspration (it's currentlyfor sale) they've also added on, but i really am not thrilled with what they did with the tudor part.

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t6/pixielou_house/othertudorhouse.jpg?t=1172777076

suzubean if we went with the wider composite board/clapboard style that you recommended - do you think we should also do that for the back and sides of the house as well? or keep the back and sides in the cedar shingles? i hadn't thought of a thicker board - it's amazing how much the thickness of the board makes a difference. i was always thinking of the thinner clapboards, and not sure that i like the look. even though it is what every single other house on our street has.

fwiw - i'm pretty sure the garage is cedar shingled as well (we haven't moved in yet - but i think i would have remembered if the garage siding was different from the rest)

and i was thinking of eliminating all shutters.

~pixie

[suzubeane]

suzubean if we went with the wider composite board/clapboard style that you recommended - do you think we should also do that for the back and sides of the house as well? or keep the back and sides in the cedar shingles? If the shingles need replacing anyway, I would replace everything with the wide board. In the same way as I don't see this as a a stucco home, I don't see it as a shingle home, either.

I see it more like this:

http://www.uwec.edu/geography/Ivogeler/w367/slides/ec46.gif

Complete with the little baubles under the overhang! (BTW, I've been calling the board "wide" but typically they talk about "exposure" - as in how many inches of the shingle or clapboard is exposed.)

You're right - it's less interesting, but if it needs exterior work, I like the idea of making it look the way a typical home of this period and style would have looked - even if this particular one never did.

As for adding on to the front, I think the one for sale in your neighborhood is a good example of what NOT to do. I agree with you - they could have done better. They used all that masonry for the post out front and the base of the new entry, and then sided the walls? :confused:

When these homes were being built, there was kind of a backlash against the font porch going on (seriously - they were considered déclassé. People were tearing them off their older homes.) So if you add anything, I'd encourage you to give it a very small footprint - not much bigger than this:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/179/407081729_af730467ae.jpg?v=0

If you want it enclosed, you could also design it to look like it a little pediment with columns that you then filled in to enclose. It's nice to give an older home a look that makes it seem evolved over time rather than *thunk* slapped on (which IMO is what your neighbors house looks!)

There are houses in my neighborhood that are the age and style of yours. If I see any while I'm out and about, I'll try to take a picture.

[pixielou]

suzubean thanks! hey - i kinda like those little bauble things hanging down from the overhang!

i drove thru the neighborhood yesterday and paid lots of attention to the siding on all the other houses - interesting, most are painted wooden shingles. a few have swtiched over the vinyl. even on the other streets where the ranches and splits are - most are painted wooden shingles.

i think you have sold me on going with a wide board. as i've been driving around, i've been looking at houses with natural cedar shingles - and i've decided that i don't necessarily like how the cedar weathers.

as for the front entry - we want something enclosed just for protection from the elements since that is the door that will be used all the time. we plan on making it only as big as our current landing. right now i'm leaning towards closed sides, but open in the front. but that could all change by the time we get enough money to pay for all this!

again, thanks for all your help.

~pixie