What a difference a new owner makes

"It's so ugly."

That was my comment to my mother as we drove past a house in our neighborhood that she and my father owned for 24 years.

Yes, she agreed. The house was indeed ugly.

In my parents' day, the house conformed to its traditional Ranch-style architectural roots: It was painted a plant-friendly shade of green, the plant boxes were built of natural bricks, the driveway was an unobtrusive plain concrete affair and a decorative birdhouse was perched on the brown wood-shingle roof.

Birds didn't actually occupy the small house, but it was a standard element of this type of house in the neighborhood.

Two decades and a new owner (or owners) can make a huge difference in the appearance of a house -- especially if it's been neglected or the new owner has no respect for architectural style and absolutely ghastly taste in exterior home décor.

My parents' former home hadn't been neglected, but oh my, had it been disrespected. The plant boxes were now made of interlocking grey and beige paving stones, which also covered the entire driveway, the front porch and the steps up to it. Every time I drove past the house, this crazy-quilt pattern of convict-striped blocks made my eyes cross and my head ache.

As if that weren't horrible enough, there were also other changes for the worse: The house had been painted a dull and lifeless color that wasn't quite gray and wasn't quite beige, but could perhaps be called putty, for lack of a designer's paint swatch with a catchier name on it.

Four Grecian-style urns with plants stuck into them had appeared on either side of the front porch. In place of the traditional front door there was a metal-and-steel-framed screen that blocked any view of the front door that must have been behind it. ...CONTINUED

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