How to make my cedar shake home more appealing?

Question

We are trying to sell our small home and need help. The weathered cedar shakes are unevenly weathered and look dirty. Help? The interior may need (decluttering) suggestions too. The lot is beautiful and has over 1000 ft of shore front.

Anna Marie A · Answer

Your home is beautiful. I love it. It mirrors one i would love to retire in. I use bleach to clean the outside of my home. then darker stain over the clean bleached cedar. Is it the best....I don't know....but it works for me.

Creative Interiors By Connie · Answer

Power wash the outside and spray some stain on it. It will make it look brand new. Minimize the inside. In other words, pack up a lot of your collections and make each room look sparse. You may need to add a fresh coat of paint to the rooms. It is a lovely home.

YmooRe · Answer

Ha ha, it's so refreshing to get an honest idea. Friends won't tell you that you need to filter out some of that 'Stuff'.....believe it or not, these ARE the filtered spaces. I'll go further. It's a very small house and that could help it to appear larger?

YmooRe · Answer

more ideas will be appreciated, I expected the 'pack away collectibles comment' So happy to have a spot where we can voice the ideas...thanks thanks By the way, I'm in Maine, 2 miles from downtown Rangeley.

YmooRe · Answer

Creative interiors.....The wall all have fresh paint, do you think the cream against the white ceiling should be changed?

YmooRe · Answer

Should be try and revamp the entrance somehow? there is a rain cover over the door....does it look terrible?

Barb · Answer

Your house is fabulous! I don't think the door awning looks bad, however, I would plant some colorful flowers along the retaining walls. Good luck!

YmooRe · Answer

Great idea, Thanks Barb...hopefully get those window boxes growing too.

Hope Williams · Answer

I would agree with above.  Definitely bleach ad power wash exterior.  As far as interior, try lightening up your walls in color.  The move your decor around in your home.  Just like a shopping trip but in another room.  Then if you don't make a place for everything, pack the rest away.  Next time you can unpack and freshen again with new placement of decor.  This will help minimize clutter and refresh every room in your home.

Country Design Home · Answer

Hi! First of all, the house is adorable and that view is spectacular! That being said, a few suggestions to show it off to potential buyers: 1.Remove all the umbrellas from the front porch-they obstruct the view of the house and make it appear smaller. Maybe move one set down to the water's edge to give people the idea that they can sit down there too. Also remove the plastic chairs from the upstairs balcony-replace with a bench or something smaller. The awning is fine. 2. If you can power wash the front with a cleaning agent made for cedar shingles, that would give it a fresher appearance. 3. Clean up all the weeds along the retaining wall area (I assume this pic is from before the winter because I cannot imagine you have that kind of greenery with the crummy spring we are having) 4. Inside: remove all of the little plates and pictures and items hanging on the walls- the trim and your furnishings and rugs are already dark so it just makes everything look darker and smaller. Anything large-like the hutch filled with those gorgeous plates-should stay. 5. If you could paint the kitchen cabinets, I would go with ca brighter, lighter color. If you cannot paint them, then I would change out the knobs to something with a bit of shine to them. 6. I know you are in Maine, but I would take down the moose border-it also darkens the rooms and makes the ceilings appear lower than they are. 7. Clean all of the clutter out of the kitchen-I would even consider removing the overhead pot rack. You want to make the kitchen appear as spacious as possible.8. I would change the painted trim on the stairs from dark red to white to match the wall with the Indian print on it. 9. Just remember, you are not decorating for yourself- you are staging so the potential buyers can walk in and imagine their own stuff in there! Good luck! (If I were looking for a house in Maine, I would absolutely look at this house-its so cute!)

YmooRe · Answer

Wow, I am so thankful for all this wonderful free advice...I'll get started on these suggestions soon. I am so pleased to find this site. Just what this old lady needed!!

Upstater · Answer

Your place looks wonderful. You need to research the part about the cedar shakes before you damage them further. Experts do not recommend using chlorine bleach or a power washer or oil based stain! Next you will see a dramatic difference inside if you severely edit your decor.....but..you have to love it!

YmooRe · Answer

M-1 Hw1g House Wash Concentrate, 1 Gallon.....
I did some research and found this at Home depot.....it states for cedar . Thank You.

YmooRe · Answer

You would perhaps not appreciate the Bear and Bobcat rugs on the upper wall either....he he

Rebecca Rose · Answer

Shingle oil is what we do every couple years. Pressure wash carefully first!
Love your home! 😀

Patricia Mayne · Answer

Yes, be careful with the pressure washing. You need a light hand with that so the shingles don't get dinged up. We also have a cedar shake house. It was stained a gray color and looked in poor shape because of air pollution, shadows depending on where the sun was shining and the north side of the house does not get much sun so looked dingy. We had a professional house painter pressure wash and staine it in a green. Looks so much better. I agree on removing some things to make the interior space look larger. We have a large home but a lot of stuff. We are moving this year so we called a realtor and asked if she could come to provide a market analysis and to suggest changes that would help it to sell faster-this was all for free. One of her top suggestions was to get rid of the outdated 80s wallpaper, get rid of clutter and personal pictures, etc. We already purchased our new home in December so we are going to move what we know we want/need and sell/donate what we don't and sell the house empty. I could send you a before and after of our cedar shake, you could see what a difference new stain can make. It's nice your home has water frontage. Sorry this is so long.

BarbW · Answer

Your house is absolutely delightful and the property is gorgeous! Having said that it is unique and very few people like unique. Those very few are the ones that will buy it however. Don't change a thing, but do expect it to take a long time to sell.

Linda B · Answer

THIS IS VERY CUTE, but they say if you want to sell a house, don't decorate or paint to your OWN likes. Make it more neutral so more people will love it. The dark green kitchen seems to make the room look darker and smaller, especially because you have so many things in it, including hanging from the ceiling. I think it's better to keep your walls a soft winter white so you can have your decorations bring in your colors. If there is wall paper or trim, I would remove it. That would be something that a buyer would not like because they would have the task of removing it to make it their own. People like houses that they can make their own and some houses have so many different things in them already that it would be too big of a job to change things. They'll keep looking. Take some things off the walls, patch nail holes and repaint to light walls. I would take all those things off the wall in the eating area around the window and do some patching and painting in the same color. Take things off your counters and out of the sink. Yes, it's cozy but cluttered, which is the first thing people will see when they walk in and that is what they'll remember. Clutter makes a home seem small with no room to get around. You're in a beautiful setting. Spaciousness and airiness would be beautiful and inviting inside of your home.

Delyse Tomaselli · Answer

I have the peaks of my house filled in with cedar shakes. After ten years they were looking very much like the exterior of your home. I had bought some 30 Seconds, a product, from Home depot to clean the mould off my garden fruniture, which worked very efficiently. I decided to try spraying a small portion of the peaks with this product to test and see how it worked. I was very satisfied and sprayed all the peaks, then rinsed off and allowed to dry thoroughly. I then painted them with a stain and they look really crisp and attractive now.
Try this on a small section of your house and see the results, you may not even have to paint, depending on the condition of the existing coating and how long since your last paint application.

YmooRe · Answer

OK, So when I remove all the 'stuff' from the kitchen counters and walls, what color would make the cabinets look better? They are pretty simple. Maybe White with black knobs to match the appliances? I can't really afford to replace them. Should I replace the faucet or add a back splash?

Country Design Home · Answer

If you were going to paint the cabinets, I would do a soft white color (I like Ben Moore Snowfall White-it's a warm, creamy white) but not black knobs-it would be too harsh of a contrast and look like polka dots against all the white. You can spray paint the knobs to look like silver or get some at your local big box store. A backsplash that ties the white and taupe of your countertops together would be great. The small mosaic tile ones are easy to install with little cutting if you space them right- we did our daughter's entire kitchen for about $100. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Daltile-Island-Harbor-Sea-Oat-3-in-x-12-in-Ceramic-and-Glass-Universal-Decorative-Accent-Floor-Wall-Tile-IH96312DCOCC1P/202726084?N=5yc1vZbo1xAnd they sell adhesive backing in sheets, so no messy glue either! Again, you want it to look nice but not spend a ton of money!!

YmooRe · Answer

This is exactly what I hoped, that i would get some more helpful comments. Thanks so much, when you live in a space and it gets cluttered....items disappear from view because I'm so use to seeing them. GREAT ADVICE.

Linda B · Answer

Hi YmooRe - I forgot to mention - when decorating or even when we choose the colors we wear, it's best to have an uneven number. 3 different colors, of anything we create or decorate -- or 5 or 7.

YmooRe · Answer

I have done a lot of de-cluttering today

YmooRe · Answer

Now as I look around with renewed vision, I have much work to do in the other rooms now. I have an over-decorating problem for sure...thanks again ladies for your help.

Debbe · Answer

I was told when our house was on the market to get rid of any wallpaper borders. Someone else might not be able to see pass that.That view is what I want instead of my neighbor's backyard !

Kayo Frazier · Answer

Here's my 2 cents...For the outside of the house, you can pressure wash the shingles to get some of the darkest parts of shingles cleaned. Make sure you do so evenly as you can. IMHO, I think leaving them as is looks better. For the inside of the house...I would take down the border around the top of the walls. I would also take down most of the artwork & decorative pieces scattered thru the room. For artwork on the walls I would do a small gallery of 4-6 different sized picture frames. For decorative pieces I would place them on 1-2 sections of open wall of 2-3 floating shelves. I would also neutralize the green cabinets and the base of the kitchen island changing the upper cabinets to white. Then change the lower cabinets & base of kitchen island to a dark charcoal grey. Then I would paint the walls a soft grey color this will make your artwork & decorative pieces pop off the walls even more. Hope this helps.

Anna Marie A · Answer

YmooRe, 
You do not have an over decorating problem. you are a collector and you like to display your collection. I know for me, I like to change out stuff. But i love to see what i have and the memories that my belongings bring me. I share with you what i have been told by selling agents. When i am to sell my home, i am to put everything away. Present my home with the bare necessities so that the potential buyer can envision their items in the the space. Of course paint and repair where needed. But, i was to depersonalize the space and have the place staged to look very simple. That staging would make a small space look larger. Neutral colors would do the same. Your home is lovely and I wish you great success. Anna Marie

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