Planning a Curb Appeal Project

Curb appeal isn't just for homeowners looking to sell. As a homeowner, you want your front garden to be a source of pride and to compliment your home. If you feel challenged by the idea of updating the front landscape, here are a few simple steps for planning your curb appeal project. With a good plan in place, you can create a beautiful front garden on a reasonable budget.

1. Take a camera and walk across the street. Take a few pictures of your home. Be sure to get a few wide-angle views as well as pictures of any problem areas such as the entry way or that corner to the left where the air conditioner unit is exposed. Upload these photos to your computer or send the film for development.

2. With notebook and pen in hand, take a critical tour of the front of your home. Make notes of tasks that require clean up such as stains on the driveway, overgrown hedges or trees that need trimming or need to be removed. Make note of the condition of the lawn and flowerbeds. Is your lawn healthy enough to be reseeded, or do you need to consider other options? Do you want to revitalize the flowerbeds or discard them and design a new layout altogether?

3. As you ask yourself these kinds of questions, consider the architecture of your home. For example, if your home is a Tudor style house, would it benefit from a more formal English garden? Perhaps it's a mid-century ranch. A sleek, modern approach may be more suitable.

4. If you like the paint color you currently have on your house, consider power washing the exterior to freshen up the color. But if you want to repaint, choose a color that not only will compliment your home, but also works well with your neighbors' homes. While you want your home to be distinctive, you don't want it to stick out; you want it to stand out.

5. By now you're getting a rough idea of what's required to clean up, to get to a blank slate. Now step across the street again and look just at your house. Is your entryway inviting? If you were a passerby, could you pick out the entrance right away? Do you need to replace the door? Do you need to replace any windows? Is the fascia in good shape? Could painting just the trim liven up the existing house color?

6. Once you've assessed the front garden and the house, sit down with your notes and photos, a notebook and a sketchpad. Set out three sheets of paper. On one sheet of paper, make a list of all the clean up projects. These would include cleaning the driveway, removing dead plants and trees, killing weeds, taking up old sod or reseeding, and clearing out flowerbeds.

7. On a second sheet of paper, write down what needs to be repaired and what needs to be replaced. This list will include such items as repairing the crack in the driveway, replacing windows, replacing the wobbly handrail on the front steps.

8. On both of these lists, next to each item, make a note as to whether you can do the work yourself or if you need to hire a professional. This will help you to determine your budget and make a timeline.

9. On the third sheet of paper, write out your ideas. This is your wish list. For example, you may decide to plant a small hedge at the side of the house to hide the air conditioner. Perhaps you want to add a flowerbed around a tree or along the front porch. Perhaps you want to add a front porch. Whatever it is you want to do, write it down and sketch it out. Refer to your photographs to help you decide what you want the final outcome to be.

10. Now it's time to pull it all together. Look at your list of clean-up tasks and outline a time frame. Look at your replace and repair list and outline a time frame for that one as well. Start researching costs for the materials needed for tasks you can do yourself and costs for those tasks for which you need to hire a professional.

Finalize your wish list, deciding what is realistic and what isn't. Work up a final drawing, either by hand or on the computer. Research the costs for the projects you want to accomplish.

You have a clean-up task sheet, a repair and replace task sheet and a rough drawing of the outcome. From this, you can develop a budget, and create an overall timeline for the project. With a realistic budget and timeline in place, your curb appeal project will go much smoother and you're more likely to achieve the results you desire on budget and on time.