| Overcoming Eyesores
Tips for turning your home's exterior blemishes into aesthetic elements
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Text: Roger Johns; Photo: GarageWowNow
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  (7/10) Despite America's obsession with curb appeal, the utilitarian nature of our homes continues to inflict eyesores. But with good taste, a little work and the right materials, many residential blemishes can be eliminated or at least diminished.
To identify common offenders, we asked real-estate agents, architects and landscape designers for their opinions. They cited plumbing vents and fireplace flues that sprout from prominent roof planes, ugly utility boxes that deface front lawns and broad driveways and massive garages that rival parking lots and aircraft hangers. They also complained about boats and RVs that are too big to stow away and refuse/recycling areas that trash otherwise appealing views.
Four approaches are effective at overcoming eyesores: • Make it look smaller (driveway).
• Make it look better (garage door).
• Make it blend in (roof vents).
• Make it disappear (trash collection, RVs, boats).
Perspective also plays a big role when you’re dealing with unattractive objects. The most challenging problems are routinely seen from many angles and places. However, some unappealing views are more limited. For instance, the scene out a window when you sit at your kitchen table or in the lounger on your deck might improve dramatically by correcting a narrow sight line or by moving or blocking an offensive eyesore.
Roof vents
When architects design homes, they try to keep the street view as uncluttered as possible by venting plumbing, exhaust fans and combustion gas flues to roof planes that do not face forward. However, adding a bathroom or a gas fireplace or moving the laundry room can compromise the appearance of prominent roof surfaces. If you must position a vent or flue on a street-facing roof, match the color of the roofing material as closely as possible. Specify matching colors if you are planning to replace your roof shingles and vents, or simply paint existing vents if you don't intend to reroof. White PVC plumbing vents can be particularly unsightly atop dark roofs. If the roof is black, one option is to transition to black ABS pipe for the visible vent. Meanwhile, square roof vents often can be replaced by less obtrusive continuous-ridge vents.
Utility boxes
Underground utilities are wonderful because they eliminate utility poles and overhead lines and are less susceptible to storm damage. But you may not feel so grateful if your front lawn plays host to a large unsightly box. The box is typically situated on a public right-of-way or easement, but it still looks like it was plopped on your lawn.
Utility companies require that significant open space be maintained around electrical boxes so workers can safely service the high-voltage internal components. In my area that means leaving 10 ft. in front of the box and 3 ft. on the three other sides. The large flat clearing in front of the box allows service workers to replace internal buses using nonconductive poles that can be as long as 8 ft. Utilities prohibit homeowners from painting the boxes or concealing them from the street. Apparently nothing says "I'm yours" to a utility worker like a hulking faded-gray box. Forget about making an electrical box disappear under one of those large hollow fake rocks. That could cause heat to build up inside the box, and it would defeat the "visible from the street" requirement.
Instead, after satisfying the clearance regulations, choose plantings that will provide cover throughout the year. Evergreens such as arbor vitae and spreading yews are ideal in zone 4, suggests Peter Moe, operations officer of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. But he warns that deer and rabbits love to munch on these species and may chomp holes in the natural screen right where you need it most. Deciduous shrubs with dense branches also make effective screens. Ornamental grasses provide yet another alternative. Although you will need to cut them back for a short period each spring, they will provide attractive cover throughout the rest of the year.
Moe notes that the primary view of ugly utility boxes is from the sides as you travel up or down the street or from the back as you look from the house. If you conceal an offensive box from the sides and the back, you can improve the view 80 percent without violating any utility company rules.
Consider installing a decorative fence on the 3-ft. line behind the side and back plantings. This not only will provide an attractive background for low plantings but also will prevent them from encroaching on the open-space requirement as they grow.
Before doing any digging, call your local "Call Before You Dig" hotline to have underground cables and pipes marked. Do not dig directly where utilities are marked, and only use hand tools to dig carefully in the vicinity of the marked utilities. While you are at it, why not call your utility companies and suggest that they design more attractive boxes for their equipment?
Garage doors
Because of their size and prominence, garage doors provide one of the biggest opportunities to help a home look better — or to create an ugly eyesore. Back when garage doors were mostly plain and utilitarian, the best advice was to paint them to match the body of your house so they would blend in and not shift attention from the home's front entry. But even matching paint couldn’t hide wooden doors with sagging frames and deteriorating panels.
In recent years, however, garage doors have become so stylish and low-maintenance that they are more likely to make an upscale architectural statement. Some homes benefit from overhead doors that masquerade as old-fashioned hinged carriage-house doors. Traditional overhead doors come in a variety of panel and window (lite) designs that can mirror architectural details on the rest of your house and enhance the view.
Driveways
As family fleets have increased over the years, both garages and driveways have grown to accommodate extra vehicles. It isn't good enough to have a place to fit each car or truck in the garage or the driveway; many families want to be able to pull any vehicle onto the street without moving another one out of the way. The result is an enormous paved area that detracts from the color, texture and water runoff that natural landscaping provides.
Beautifying an oversize driveway is not a black-and-white (asphalt-or-concrete) issue. Paved driveways can be stained, stamped or even stenciled to resemble pavers or stone. Another option is to replace solid paving with modular grass pavers for secondary parking or turn-around areas. When the grass grows, the pavers disappear beneath the green turf but still support the weight of vehicles without compacting the soil.
Trash
Rolling trash barrels and recycling boxes should be kept in a convenient location that’s safe from animals and preferably concealed from view. Although storing trash containers in the garage is convenient, it consumes valuable secure storage space and can invite foul odors and vermin into your home. A better alternative is to create an attractive corral alongside or behind the garage. It can be concealed by a thick row of evergreens or a solid fence with a design that matches the house. Consider a decorative gate or arbor to complete the facelift.
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