The other day my husband and I were walking in the Achterhoek, an area in the East of the Netherlands. It’s very green there with many woods and fields. At one point we reached a little open spot in the middle of the woods with a house tucked away in the corner. The house had the best views of sloping maddows, a bit of a hill and off course the woods. It was for sale.
We are not looking to move anytime soon but one can have dreams right? I poked my hubby in the side and said “wouldn’t that make a dream home?” He shrugged a bit and said the house looked a bit too boring. Granted; the house is not spectacular, but I was hoping he could look past that and spot the potential. We argued a bit as I am really bad with people not agreeing with my taste and I pointed out a few of the possibilities. You can paint the house white, add a porch, redo the garden, maybe even add a conservatory. Somehow he was not convinced.
I thought I’d try to show him, and others among you who might not be able to see through things, what magic a lick of paint and a few personal touches here and there can do.
Let’s take this rather dull house for example.
Dull house, lovely location
On the market for ‘just’ € 472.500, andlocated in the very heart of the Netherlands, in Wilnis. This small town is a mere 15 minutes drive from our capitol Amsterdam and about the same distance from another large city; Utrecht. It has wonderful views to both the back and front, a large and deep garden, a garage and plenty of room for extensions to both the front and the back of the house. As it is there are three bedrooms, one downstairs, a wash room, a large and sunny living room, a kitchen, a garage and plenty of storage. But we’ll start with the exterior.
Let’s see what happens when we paint the brick walls white, the woodwork black or dark blue, add a porch, a dormer and make it spring (God bless Microsoft’s Paint tools!) We need to get rid of those ugly wintergreen trees and bushes. They are by no means indigenous to the area and look out of tone in this anything but woodland surroundings.
Same house, same location
My photo editing skills are limited, but I’d say this is a dramatic change. Don’t you agree?
This could do magic if you want to flip the house too!
It would be such a great challenge to actually do this in real live. I am going to try to redo the back of th house too and show the results here. Maybe I’ll even have a go at the garden!
Here the back and the garden as they are now. Let me think what you would do or change!
Back of the house
I think two classical double doors would make a good start. Maybe a conservatory?
The garden
This is the garden as seen from right by the end of the garage. It has so much potential!
*Sigh* one day……….
UPDATE: To see altered photographs of the back, check here!
Home voyeurs.... a peek into homes 