Exterior Dreams.

Currently, the front of our house looks a bit like this:

 (Taken while the house was on the market in '09)

While this little rancher look is cute, it totally doesn't fit our neighborhood. I've been pining to change the exterior since we moved in and it is still pretty far in the future, but a girl can dream. 

I blogged about my exterior plans here and here a while back. I'd like to change:

- wrought iron columns into white boxy columns
- front door to less wrought iron
- get those boxwoods out of there and put in something that is less... "boxy" (?) and more easy to maintain and lower to the ground
- replace the porch (the brick tile stuff is falling apart)

I have two inspirations. The first is a website for an architect group called Moore Architects out of Alexandria, VA. This group took a house very similar to ours and created a perfect bungalow look out of it. Ideally (if money were no object), I would do something similar. Their work is amazing. They took this:

And created this:

 Wow, right? If money were no object... I can't imagine all that extra space in a second floor! I can't imagine how much that would cost either. (Please note - I do not take any credit for that idea - that is all the Moore Architect group - I found their pictures online in a magazine article).

The second inspiration I had came from a brochure at Sherwin Williams. You'll have you use your imagination for this one but basically take this house on the top:

And imagine my house (so no top floor):

Now our house would only have the porch on one side (the right) but you get the idea. This is probably much more feasible. It would be nice to paint the brick a blue color like this, but I could live with our brick if we had the columns and a cute front door like that. Notice the plants in front of that house are low lying - that is what I want. 

So, until Ed McMahon calls (is he still alive??)... in my dreams.