Curb Appeal

By Frank Snodgrass

Curb appeal, the most important feature you can include in any house design and construction. Today's home buyer is far more educated and informed than the buyer of five or ten years ago. The average buyer today is looking not so much for a Castle but for a home they can retreat to. A higher level of design and a use of materials to add texture are becoming extremely important in houses of all sizes and style. People are more willing to spend money where they can touch feel and see it. It is impossible to sell any home if you can not get the customer out of the car and into the house. Needless to say, curb appeal is important and in the eye of the beholder. Even Ug the "We buy ugly houses" cave man can find curb appeal in most any home but most people like to think that they have better taste than Ug.

What attracts someone to a particular house design? I think, for a majority of people it has to do with architecture that is pleasing to the eye. Well, you may ask, what do you consider pleasing to the eye? A house that has all the right materials and details for its style of architecture. As an Architect I try to design houses that can stand the test of time. What do I mean about standing the test to time? If you drive by a house ten years after it was built, can you date the construction of the house based on a particular fad that was popular at the time? If you can not tell if it a house was built ten years ago or one hundred years ago, it is likely that it will stand the test of time. Houses that are designed to a specific architectural style seem to continue to be popular all the time and never go out of style.

Styles like Country French, Craftsman / Bungalow, Mediterranean, Tuscany, Country Cottage, Southern Colonial, Shingle Style, Low Country and Mountain Lodge just to name a few, have historic roots and continue to remain poplar all the time.

You might wonder what makes a house either Country French, Mediterranean, or maybe even Craftsman in design. Most of the details that determine an architectural style have to do with the geographical area that the design originated from. In some cases like in a Country French design you will find steep roof pitches with very short eave overhangs to help shed snow. Some designs like a Craftsman or Mediterranean house for example have a very low sloped roof but may have a large eave overhang. These homes are usually found in areas where there is little or no snow and sun control is a bigger problem. These are just a few design features that are specific to these styles, as you can see, I would have to write an entire book to explain all the various architectural styles and what details define each one. You will find that most of the detail found in any Architectural style came about as a practical and or functional necessity.

Even though providing good historic use of architectural details and materials is important. We do not need to tie ourselves to the way people lived one hundred years ago. Open floor plans with attention to where family and friends gather are very important. Covered porches and outdoor living areas with fireplaces and barbeque areas are becoming the norm for today's homes. In short, good design is a blend of the current trends of how we live today and the strong design elements and details of yesterday.

Good Architects and Designers do a tremendous amount of research on your behalf to incorporate details that not only help define the architecture but are the little details that you find pleasing to the eye. Design features like, shutter style, plant boxes, carriage garage doors, cupolas, window style, trellises or even proportionally correct colonial columns to name a few can be that special character detail that makes the difference whether someone comes inside or stays in the car. When a builder leaves off the details to save some money he is not only removing the curb appeal that attracted him to the house plan in the first place but usually pays the price in additional interest when the house does not sell.

Another important feature that is as important as the Architectural details is the use of materials. Again, like the details, materials more often than not, were indigenous to the area of a specific style of architecture. Materials like stone, brick with weeping mortar, Cedar shake, stucco and heavy rough sawn timbers when used architecturally correct can give a house that special texture today's home buyer is attracted to.

Last but in no way the least important element to an attractive house design is the use of good massing relationships. Too often, I see designs ruined because the builder changed something as little as the overhang on a dormer window. By not following the smaller eave detail and applying the same detail as on the rest of the house, suddenly, what was supposed to be a gracious design element with a delicate eave detail becomes a top heavy overwhelming monstrosity. Massing details are difficult to explain but when they are right they are beautiful and when they are wrong they are horrible. In conclusion, Architects and Designers have a reason for every design feature that is included in their plans. More than likely you chose that plan because of some if not all of those details. Is curb appeal important? You betcha.