curb appeal Archives - MidMod Midwest

Get your parents’ dated mid-century house ready to sell

28 min readAs you get ready to sell your parents’ mid-century home, you may feel pressure to “modernize” before listing. But don’t!

What should you do to get ready to sell a house built in the mid-century era – a house built back in the 1950’s or 60’s?

Should you rip out a tired kitchen? Quickly tear off that old, beat up siding and replace it with some easy care vinyl?

No, please don’t.

One of the saddest things that can happen to a mid-century house is that the current owners jump into a bunch of unnecessary repair work right before they sell it in the misguided idea that that’s what future owners will want.

Don’t make un-necessary changes

Instead, let me make your life easier. Do less. Because there is someone out there searching for your parents’ time capsule house.

Here’s a checklist of how to get the house ready to catch that person’s attention…and then move on with your life.

House Number Basics with Modern House Numbers

21 min readToday, we have a fantastic chat lined up with Brandy McLain, co-founder and one of the creative geniuses behind Modern House Numbers.

Della and Brandy McLain, founder of Modern House Numbers, are digging in to discuss all things house number. From current requirements to history, plus tons of great style tips!

If you’ve been thinking about giving your home’s exterior a fresh look, you’ll want to keep reading!

Progress: Breezeway to Mudroom Conversion (Part 3)

8 min readTurning your breezeway into a mudroom is a great way to connect your garage and house. This kind of breezeway to mudroom transition is perfect for many mid-century ranch houses with detached or semi-detached garages. Here’s what I’m doing!

Two weeks ago, when I posted about installing my DIY windows, I promised I’d talk about what’s going on behind that pretty cedar wall. Here’s the progress update on my journey to transform a useless breezeway into a practical mudroom with some bonus garage storage!

I’ll go over not only WHAT I’ve been doing but also WHY it is important and HOW you can start thinking about the same solutions for your home. Continue reading “Progress: Breezeway to Mudroom Conversion (Part 3)”

Progress: Transforming the Breezeway into a Mudroom (Part 2)

3 min readGetting the glass in these windows took me three months of waiting for the right weather conditions (and free time) and about three hours of work to install!
I am SO EXCITED that they are finally in!

Remember back in OCTOBER, when I posted about putting up this fun cedar slat wall? Well, the project is still ongoing.

Getting these DIY windows in was such a simple job that I’ve been waiting to get wrapped up for SO LONG now. It took a few moving parts: having the glass cut to size and having the right weather conditions to caulk it into place. Plus I’ve been crazy busy on all previous good-weather work days working INSIDE the garage to build the mudroom part of the project.

Technically THAT progress update should be Part 2, but I forgot to post about it in November and now I just want to shout from the rooftops about my brand new DIY windows!

Continue reading “Progress: Transforming the Breezeway into a Mudroom (Part 2)”

Progress: Transforming the Breezeway into a Mudroom (Part 1)

2 min readThe big chunk of work for this fall is transforming the long narrow breezeway into a cosy and effective mudroom plus a little bonus garage storage.

This is phase one of … well many. I’ve pushed the project a little late in the season so before I get started on constructing the new mudroom structure within the existing breezeway I’ll be closing off both ends. To the street side, that means the new and permanent extension of the garage wall. On the back yard side I put up a quick temporary wall of translucent plastic to secure the garage and keep it somewhat weathertight. Continue reading “Progress: Transforming the Breezeway into a Mudroom (Part 1)”

Micro Update: Matching the Front Door to the Mailbox

2 min readOne of the most fun (and easy) things I did to the house last year was painting the front door. Here’s how I exactly matched the mailbox.

This is one of those curb appeal updates that gets tossed around when thinking resale. For me, it is just too-long-delayed improvement for every day life.Granted, part of the reason it was so satisfying was that I’d devoted countless hours to fixing up the rest of the exterior, but this felt like the element that tied everything together. Continue reading “Micro Update: Matching the Front Door to the Mailbox”

The Six Major Elements of (Nearly) Every Entry

4 min readThe components elements of an American house entry are fairly consistent, country or city, large or small. Ranch entries are even more consistent: Door, Lights, Mailbox, House numbers, Wall and Overhang. If you have your own door (and maybe even if you don’t) you have most of these to play with.

You probably have the ability to fix up each and every one of them (except the overhang) in a weekend project. Here are a couple overarching ideas to bear in mind when you go to work. Continue reading “The Six Major Elements of (Nearly) Every Entry”

Progress: Miscellaneous Exterior Painting

2 min readI took advantage of the last few nice days of fall weather to do a few outstanding paint tasks.

The last of the peeling green paint was hiding out in a small strip of wall between the garage and house roof lines. It was a little awkward to get to and I never really felt up for climbing around on the roof when no one would be around to call 911 if I took a dive. Wednesday and Thursday I scraped, then painted and primed the wall and soffit while my folks were around which upped the safety factor of sliding around on a roof slope with a bunch of painting supplies to juggle. Continue reading “Progress: Miscellaneous Exterior Painting”

Exterior Progress: Nearly done with North and South Gable Ends

6 min readI spent the (spectacularly hot) week of my birthday pushing forward on the painting progress. Knowing I’d have someone around to spot me, I planned to do the high-up, platform work on the south gable.

I got started on re-painting the house last fall right after we the sale closed.

The tired green color and peeling paint were about equally unappealing to me and I wanted them gone. Plus I wanted to get some plantings in to replace the hedge I tore out and I knew that new plants wouldn’t appreciate drop cloths, ladders and the general tramping around that painting a house takes.

I knew it was going to be a tough job, made a little tougher by the lead paint underneath the green – which meant I’d need to follow proper safety procedures when scraping and sanding and the year was getting cold fast so I committed to just doing the front face of the house – the east – for the fall and coming back to the rest this year.

Continue reading “Exterior Progress: Nearly done with North and South Gable Ends”

The Tools You Need To Scrape and Sand Exterior Wood Siding

4 min readScraping, sanding and painting your wooden house is not a job for the faint of heart but with these tools you can get the job done!

Scraping, sanding and painting your wooden house (especially if it’s in rather bad shape) is not a job for the faint of heart. It’s hot, sweaty, dusty work that requires at least SOME ladder work. If you like pinching pennies and feeling a sense of accomplishment, by all means take it on. If you are looking for easy, fun DIY that people will admire … maybe choose another project.

For me, painting a beat up wall in an ugly color into a new smooth color of my choosing is about the most fun I can think of, and is well worth the labor. Stay tuned for my discussion of how high on ladders you have to climb to paint a single story ranch in an upcoming post!

Continue reading “The Tools You Need To Scrape and Sand Exterior Wood Siding”