Large 1960s house needs a facelift

6 years ago

Hi all

I'm considering making some changes to this mid 60s property which has had a couple of extensions over the years, is more or less structurally sound but would benefit from exterior remodelling in my view. Planning to sell the property on and really looking to do some work with the purpose of increasing value. These sort of properties quite often are viewed as glorified building sites but I think there is some potential to modernise and refresh. Would love to hear your thoughts.

My initial thoughts are to render, and perhaps re-clad, not sure what to do about flatness of facade. I would ideally like to keep the windows, which are white UPVC. Granted larger windows would look good but I will not be able to stretch to changing them.

Thank you!

Munday Girl

Featured Answer

Carolina

6 years ago

Or vertical cladding...

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (35)

Daisy England
6 years ago
Is that one property or two?
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
It's one property, the double gable roof gives an impression of it being 2 semis. Altering the roof may be out of bounds financially and not quite sure how it could be reconfigured.
Related Discussions
Updating a 1960's house
Q
Comments (7)
Check out Marley Cedral or Cedral click cladding. You can buy it prepainted or paint it yourself with any shade or tint of Dulux weathershield. Cedral is best screwed to treated battens with stainless steel screws, and you can externally insulate behind it if you want... Most people think it looks great, and it really will not ever rot! Perhaps incorporate a new, more modern and crisp porch at the same time?
...See More
1960s terrace in desperate need of curb appeal!
Q
Comments (13)
I think you've had some great suggestions already. I like your original idea of painting the garage door a sage colour which you could then pick up elsewhere with painted planters/window cils. A nice outdoor light above the house number will help to draw focus. Whilst I do generally prefer 3 panel glazed windows I think due to the fact the neighbours either side have ones similar to your current ones I'd go for more or less the same. The only change I'd make is ensuring you mirror the split top window across all of them so it ties in nicely with the top garage windows. A completely new driveway would probably make the greatest difference to the curb appeal. Something that sweeps around towards the door would be nice. You could then plant up the corner patch to help provide some visual interest and depth.
...See More
Front of house unusual, needs facelift
Q
Comments (6)
Looks like an unusually large 1920's house to me. I think paying someone to strip back to brick on the central tower and low brick walls would help give a definite focus and importance to the door. Usually those bow fronted bays would have had vertical tiles which would again add warmth and texture. Finally a porched area to the left would tidy it up a lot.
...See More
1960s Blockwork
Q
Comments (10)
Hi Chris, If you want to change the look and at the same time significantly improve the thermal performance of the walls external wall insulation with a modern render finish would be a good solution to covering up the brickwork. The eaves would need extending to accommodate the thickness of the insulation plus render coat and, if you can stretch to it, it would be an ideal time to renew the windows (triple glazing would complete the new highly insulated overcoat). However, dependant upon your Local Authority you may need planning approval so worth checking this out first. Assuming you are not in a conservation area, to do the works under Permitted Development rights the material used to clad the exterior have to have 'a similar appearance to those used in the construction of the house.' A timber clad rain-screen could also be used as the exterior finish but again planning approval and details around the windows and doors at the eaves will need to be sorted. Martin McCurdy W: www.mccurdyarchitecture.co.uk
...See More
Daisy England
6 years ago
Goodness me that's absolutely huge.
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
It is about 270 sq meters, with a double garage also
honeypoppet
6 years ago
Some ideas for the exterior, looks an awesome house!

Hope this helps.x
PRO
Nicky Percival Limited
6 years ago
Hello Munday Girl - are you just wanting to increase the 'curb appeal'? If so you could break up the frontage with larger plant pots, small trees, sculpture for little cost. If you are wanting to change the exterior of the house for sale then cladding is a good idea but I'm not convinced you would add value. Have you spoken to estate agents yet?They should have a very good idea of what will increase the value. What usually sells houses is kitchens and living spaces - what are these like currently? Do you need a 'make over' for selling? I would make sure you had a wonderful all singing all dancing kitchen, dining, living space that functions as the heart of the home.
I did a large extension to create this very space for a property in SW London last year - the client added £400K to the value of the house by spending £200K making a cool £200K profit. You can see this on my Houzz site. I have a feeling this is not what you are looking for but it is possible. 60's houses of this style usually have generous spaces any way so the best thing to do is show them off to best advantage. Do you have floor plans we can see?
Hope this has been of some help. Best wishes Nicky
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
Hi Nicky Thanks so much for your input. There have been quite a few attempts to try to sell and so I'm in very regular contact with estate agents. They are now trying to limit my expectations and tell me it is a building site unfortunately, which I simply do not accept. The interior is actually fairly good. The kitchen living space was renovated a few years ago. The house has an unusual layout, living spaces are on top floor for better views. I am told this is also a big problem. I am not going to be able to add considerable value due to where property is located, you could say I am trying to maintain value or create some moderate uplift. The facade lacks wow factor and there is a lot of competition at the price level so I do feel I must up my game and make it look like a different house so to speak!
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you Honeypoppet, what software did you use? I like the grey palette more, although I intend to remove much of the cladding.
honeypoppet
6 years ago
I use the Benjamin Moore (US version) Design Your Own Room service...
munday girl thanked honeypoppet
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
Some images of the interior living space. There are 2 other reception rooms that are quite old school with Old Charm furtniture etc
A B
6 years ago
A building plot?! The house is so cool I'm shocked! Would turning it into a pair of semis be an option? It would be the only off putting thing for me that it looks like 2 houses not one. Where abouts roughly are you?
munday girl thanked A B
Carolina
6 years ago
Agree with Jen P that it looks like a really cool house. It doesn't bother me that it looks like two houses.

What bothers me are the different styles of windows, the dated dark brown cladding and the slightly raised paving level on the left side.
munday girl thanked Carolina
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
Hi Jen, We're in Ireland. The house is on a very secluded private plot so I would say that is selling point we wouldn't want to compromise. Aside from that I also believe that there is a single dwelling condition on the plot, so semis not an option.
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
Carolina, what bothers you also troubles me. I think the flagstones have to go and the cladding I feel is too overwhelming and dark too. When you say different styles of window do you mean the wood frame on the left with the mock balcony?
A B
6 years ago
Iceland that's a shame-I was a bit in love with your house!
A B
6 years ago
Ireland!!! Autocorrect
Carolina
6 years ago
Haha, Jen :-)

Yes, I do mean the ones with the French balcony, but also the French doors opening out onto the roof terrace. The subdivisions in that are a different style to the other windows. Sorry, can't think of the correct word for those subdivisions, English is my second language.

Maybe the brown frames can be painted white?

And maybe you can remove the paving and replace it with a border to soften the look of the driveway?

I really like the dark grey, the first of the mock ups.
munday girl thanked Carolina
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Oh I see Carolina. I'm not sure what they are called but I know what you mean. I would like to replace both sets of doors, brown and white. Priority would be change the wooden ones.

I'm quite interested in spray painting UPVC window frames as an option, but I'm wondering what I would do with the interior frames.

I like the grey too but I think if I go for cladding it will be a natural wood rather than painted.
PRO
V.I.P Walls Interior Specialist
6 years ago
Honnypoppet was bang on with the pictures.

Fairly in expensive way would be is to have someone like us to come in and cement board clad the top in a dark/light grey and maybe either painting below on ground level or K rendering in white.
munday girl thanked V.I.P Walls Interior Specialist
Jonathan
6 years ago
Personally I think you need to tackle the upstairs windows as they make the most impact. In my opinion the window with the Juliette balcony needs to match the French doors at the other side of the house and the other three windows need to be the same depth.
I also agree that planting will soften the frontage but the tiny pots in the downstairs windows illustrates that you need to go big to make an impact. Personally I would put a wide borders between the slabs and the block paved drive and put tall shrubs in them.
munday girl thanked Jonathan
Jonathan
6 years ago
I also wondered if the balcony above the garage would look more inviting if some of it was covered. Perhaps the cost effecting thing to to is build a pergola. I would put it at the far end of the terrace away from the French windows and construct it so that the top slopes echoing the pitch of the roof on the main house and donut covers about a third of the terrace. Then I would stain it white to match your render or a colour (if you decide to add a colour elsewhere such as the windows)
munday girl thanked Jonathan
minnie101
6 years ago
I think it's a great house too. Agree with painting the window white. I would also dig up the area with the ramp and have a bed with structural planting. Paint the garage door dark grey. I might also paint the front door or change it if in its budget. The French door also looks odd as it appears as if it's sinking. If you had a pane at the top which matched the height of the other windows I think it would look much better (in a simpler style). Depending on what you do with the cladding it could also look good painted black. I also think the terrace needs something, maybe 2/3 sails at the end to match the roof shape? Internally I might just look at removing some of the downlights and adding a couple of pendant lights.
munday girl thanked minnie101
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you all! Some of these suggestions I had never evn considered. Particularly partially covering the terrace, I will have to give that some thought, living in ireland we don't get to do as much outdoor living due to unpredictable weather, so perhaps making it more of an all weather space could work well.

The border would add more depth and interest to the frontage for sure. The bedrooms can be a bit gloomy so i would imagine I'd have to keep the planting lower than window height? Should the border extend out from the front wall or should I leave a path way.

Window-wise I can't increase the kitchen window (the small one to the left of patio door) as it is above the sink and would require complete re-configuration of the kitchen. I would however want to create some symmetry and parity with the other upstairs windows and and the juliette balcony door and patio doors, so I will look to replace.

I'm planning dining space pendant lighting and perhaps a media wall (ikea besta) in living room.

I want to get away from the dated 60s look so I will be very careful on any decision re cladding and dark block colours. I might even consider a New England or Scandi type look.

I'm thinking of replacing the front door too, what about extending it out so it is flush to front of house?

Other considerations are spray painting the windows grey. I wonder if it will look odd to have dark exterior frame/ white interior frame, also is a luxe good-as-new finish possible?

Thanks :)
Carolina
6 years ago
Another option... Maybe?
munday girl thanked Carolina
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
Wow Carolina that's very pretty. Could you try adding a natural coloured clad on a few sections to see how it looks?

Thanks
Carolina
6 years ago
Yep, will try that
munday girl thanked Carolina
munday girl
Original Author
6 years ago
Here are some more pics of the house and setting
Carolina
6 years ago
Does this help?

or

or white as I posted before, so you have the three versions together
munday girl thanked Carolina
Carolina
6 years ago
Sorry for the wobbly lines :-)
kiwimills
6 years ago
smart !
Jonathan
6 years ago
Btw- is the window above the front door a bathroom?
If it is then I would cover it with cladding and have a sun tube or skylight instead.
Victoria
6 years ago
I love this house. I'd suggest keeping the front door recessed. That little bit of shelter over your head will be useful when you or your guests arrive and it's raining..

You've had some great suggestions.
munday girl thanked Victoria