New bungaloid cottage

[anneandkita]

Hi everyone!

I'm brand new to these forums and home owning. My boyfriend and I are in escrow on our first house and I am so excited! It needs some TLC and fixing up, but it has so much character hiding under all those years!

I'm hoping you all can help (and I've been reading the other threads and getting tons of ideas!) but I have a few MAJOR decisions right up front.

The house needs to be repainted very badly, especially the exterior. The paint is peeling/chipping/non-existent in many places.

It was built in the 1940s, so after the craftsman era. (One source says 1943, another says 1947). And the location is a beach town in California. So here are my two major decisions.

1. It seems like it wouldn't be difficult to add some craftsman styling and take it towards the bungalow feel. On the other hand, maybe I should take it cottage style? Which way should I go?

2. What COLOR? Any ideas? My boyfriend doesn't want a neutral base to the house, he'd rather it be a color.

Any help, ideas, comments, anything! would be very appreciated.

Thanks so much in advance for your time.
-Anne

P.S. It's a bank-owned house so it hasn't had anyone in it for a while. Please forgive the mess! We can't clean until we're out of escrow. :)


http://www.asdesigned.com/house/305grant/before.jpg

[Gigi]

Welcome Annandkita! This home is just charming and has so many possiblities. There are lots of people on the board that will chime in...

Colors??? What is the "favor" of the town, the street, the city??? Some of the paint companies like Sherwin Williams, etc...have visual aids that allow you to put the paint on a similar home to see what you like.

Best of luck~ can't wait to hear more.

[rubyslippers]

We just bought our first house as well ... there are a handful of us who literally just moved and/or are moving to new and fun cottages ... so, welcome to our little cottage corner. I think a craftsman paint combination would look great on this little house. Red/yellow/hunter green ... blue with green shutters ... you can have all kinds of fun. What a sweet little home. Good luck!

[memmey]

The new Cottages and Bungalows has a craftsman palette reference in it this month. I didn't buy it this time but the more I think about it I am going back and get it. I looked at it while I shopped for groceries( sorry) and then put it back. DRAT!:(


What a cute house I would love to look inside.

[anneandkita]

There don't seem to be any favorites in the area. Our street has cottages that range from white to pink to bright blue. There are a few victorians, some more craftsman era, some spanish revival and a little bit of everything else mixed in between. :)

I was looking at the color of Memmey's house and I'm now toying around with going red, it looks so striking!

Thanks so much for the recommendation ruby! I'll take a go in photoshop and see how it looks. I've been playing with color combos for weeks and haven't found any that really stick yet.

Memmey: The inside doesn't look like much, yet! Thanks for the pointer on the craftsman palette, I'll definitely make sure I get this month's copy!

Thanks again everyone for the warm welcome and the help. I appreciate it!

-Anne

[Lynzee]

Your house is so cute, Anne! You are going to have so much fun making it your own. Please keep us posted on your progress!

[Lisa S]

It's so exciting to buy a house! Yours in lovely and I can't wait to see your progress. Words of wisdom have been passed around here and a prevailing thought is sometimes it's best to live in your house awhile before making changes. You kinda need to get the feel of how you'll live there.

[chyna]

You do know that bungalows and cottages pretty much flow together right? You really don't have to choose one of the over, if memory serves me your house would be considered a transitional so the skies really the limit. Do photoshop I can't wait to see what you decide on. very cute possibilities there.:)

[Breezy]

Hi Anne ~ your house is so cute! Keep in mind that a bungalow is more masculine whereas a cottage can have a more feminine "feel" ~ so depending on which way you decide to go you could make your color choices based on the "feel" of the house. Best wishes and please keep us posted.:)

[RoseMary]

Hi Anne, great house! I'm looking forward to seeing the results of what you decide!

[ThriftShopRomantic]

With its straight lines and angles, I think the Craftman look would be lovely.

[chyna]

I wonder if you removed the halfwalls you'd find evidence that the columns used to be beefier. Hard to tell what has been done to it over the years. Wonderful looking porch, looks big enough to have porch furniture and maybe a swing on it and not tripping over each other. That is high on my dreams for my home. :o

I'm not really seeing a color pallette but do see the door stripped, stained and sealed. Bet there is a really beautiful wood under that paint.:)

[rubyslippers]

I think you could do some neat stuff with your porch ... you could put some spindles out there (don't take my word spindle at face value - - I know that is a more Victorian look) ... but you could add some detailing to the top of the posts as you add color. Keep us posted. (Also, Memmey, thanks for the paint update.) I am practicing "living" in my house AS IS ... I keep changing my mind so often right now that it would not be a good thing to make any permanent changes at this time. I'm still learning where the light switches are if that makes any sense. So, I wholeheartedly stand by the let the house talk to you thing.

One thing I am planning involves a change from venetian blinds to wooden/plantation blinds. I have never embarked on this challenges; so, I don't know what the finances look like. We have enough windows that it makes sense ... I thought it just might make the windows that need blinds a touch classier. Now, the sunroom will be left alone so-to-speak, but some other areas of the house need the privacy at times. One of my friends mentioned this is a spendy update; however, I think it will look crisp. This is something I plan to do when I update the "inside" paint later in the year. I really haven't made a lot of decisions about this yet ... I appreciate someone reminding me that Sherwin Williams has that click and try website. That might come in handy for the exterior house stuff in this thread as well.

Bye,

Me

[anneandkita]

The porch is great, there are even still hooks for a porch swing! It also has a gorgeous deck out back. There's outside living sorta makes up for the small space inside. :) Especially in Calfornia!

I've read about a billion books, but House Color (by Susan Hershman) has two color schemes (a gorgeous green with pale yellow trim, and a darker blue with cream trim) that I really like a great deal. :)

Breezy - That's a great way to think about craftsman vs. cottage! Only problem, I like them both so much!

Thanks to everyone for your feedback and ideas, I love it. :D

[Edit] Ruby, you slipped in while I was typing! I love your idea of adding some styling to the porch. it is kinda plain jane how it is. This little house wants to be a show stopper, I can tell! I also like your idea of living with it for a while. I'll try that for a bit, but we really do need to paint asap as the paint is peeling and down to bare wood in some places. OH and plantation shutters are GORGEOUS. I love them. :D I want to see pictures of everyone's houses now!

[memmey]

I believe that Behr has a paint sale going on right now. I bought my paint on sale and got a $75 dollar rebate from them. I think it is $5 off a gallon right now. Not bad and the paint seems to be holding up so far. We have tremendous heat in the summer and it is not fading.

[chyna]

I was kinda thinking gingerbread for the porch but managed to resist mentioning it until now. ;) How cool that the hooks are still out there, a porch swing would be so sweet! And maybe some planter boxes along the porch walls for some color.

[anneandkita]

Ooooh great idea about the planter boxes!! And thanks for mentioning the behr sale! I use their interior paint all the time. :) I even managed to score one of those color decks so I don't have to go to the store every time I want a new paint chip. :)

[LindaLK]

Good Morning Anne, :)

What a cute house! The possibilities are endless on what you can do. Congratulations again.


Have a good day.



Hugs,
Linda :)

[mavgal]

Looks like it has lots of possibilities to look really cute! I don't have any advice on colors, I just go with what I like. Good luck!

[oxide]

Cottage or Bungalow depends mostly on what you do to the porch. The half-walls and skinny posts don't match well. The house strikes me more as bungalow than cottage, but small cute stuff can always go cottage.

Bungalow has a beefier solid look. You could keep the porch half-walls, and use larger posts (or maybe add another skinny post for a row of double posts). And I guess the you'd paint the house a darker color. Brick red?

If you'd like to go cottage, you could take out the half walls and put up a delicate railing. Then you could decorate with some trim on the posts and the porch swing and hanging flower boxes. The house should be a lighter color (I'm partial to anything sage green.)

Is the window on the right the living room? Depending on how much it costs, maybe you could increase the window size to balance with all the wall space?

[mavgal]

That's a cute house, just having a covered front porch makes it so inviting. You can do like me, just go with what you like, your favorite colors and eclectic decorating scheme!

[shabbychick]

Ah, what a sweet house, and how exciting for you to have something you can change around to your heart's content. Since you have to paint soon but haven't yet found that perfect color, you might consider going with white for now. It would protect the wood, lighten everything up, and give you a nice, fresh "base" on which to imagine other colors until something really strikes you. The nice thing about paint is, it's relatively cheap, so you could paint the house your "holding color" and still have an attractive home while you fix up the interior and decide on a theme. When I get my own real house, I want a porch, too. I'm looking forward to following your adventures as you unearth the gems this little treasure chest is hiding!