My 1st house was like that I hated it. Right I had to accept it as there was nothing else in the area that came close to that! The only thing it had going for it was it wasn't a trailer. I know exactly how to fix that house like the one you using as an illustration. Bulldoze it! Keep 'Em coming Brent.

@ponysoldier6770

Жыл бұрын

I thought Bulldoze it too! 😂

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!!

4:57 as soon as you brought "entry level housing of the 1920s" what you drafted made it look significantly better but you are right 2 garages next to the front door is a really bad idea.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thanks.

Side entry garages also require more land so you can't pack the homes as tightly as with the front entry types. But, I agree, they look better.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thanks.

You're doing the Lord's work with these videos, Brent. Thank you. Keep sharing the good, the beautiful and the true.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!!

thank you for what you are doing to show people about style. thank you. it takes a lot of nerve to tell someone their baby is ugly. but thank god you are speaking up. just like Flip Wilson did about the lady with the ugly baby on the bus, but you may not be old enough to know who he was and that joke

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Haha, you're dating yourself... and me. Yes, I remember Flip Wilson.

"This is a production house.... How do I know ? It's ugly. " straightforward and true lol Personally I would prefer something half that size, but well made and interesting. Fighting the mind set of the value of quantity, over quality. Education is a great start though, definitely creates a greater appreciation. Great videos!

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I appreciate it.

These two fixes would take the house from "bad" to "mediocre": 1. Paint the garage doors to blend with the brick background. Maybe even replace the brick surround on the outboard garage with siding to match the garage door. 2. Resurface the driveway with a darker flagstone pattern that's not as bright as basic monolithic concrete. (I think about how much nicer model houses look when the area in front of the sales office/garage is landscaped and not paved.)

@BrentHull

2 ай бұрын

Ok, Thx

i think mid century eichler style houses manage to find that balance real well. they often even have that more garage forward design but somehow it looks and feels way nicer

@BrentHull

7 ай бұрын

True. Thanks for that.

Another excellent design Wednesday! Fully agree, builders can actually build value by providing and educating on better design ! Customers should demand better design! Very well said Brent!

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!!

Great video and analysis. I love seeing your take on how to improve on these houses! I think it would be great if you had a video showing how you would design a "entry level" house from scratch. You're one of the few people who can show others what is possible!

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Great idea. Let me work on it.

@andrewenjaian1924

5 ай бұрын

Yes, I would love to see this happen!

Good ideas! Might be different in Texas, but for a century in California, at least, most lots are not wide enough for a garage around the back. The older houses that did have a garage, had a small one that could be accessed on a narrow driveway to the rear, and the houses with those were narrower. Fast forward to 1960 and any lot that didnt't have an alley had a prominent garage on the street, competing with the entry which competes for space with the front room.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

i absolutely want my house designed from the exterior first!

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

It helps.

A side entry garage needs at least 28’ for a car to back out. At that point the lot would be too big to be economical for the developers. The struggle for good design is real!…..

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Word.

If you have time, I would love to see something about door heights. Should you go with 6, 7, or 8ft doors etc.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

8 ft doors are hard to justify unless your ceilings are 10' or more...6'8" is standard.

From poorly designed production houses to strip malls... there definitely needs to be a cultural shift.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

YES! Strip malls are a great example.

Always so much to learn. To fix a production house - move front load garage to side load, move front entrance forward and add emphasis, remove elements that take focus away from front entrance, reduce the concrete drive width in half by moving to side load garage and look at cozy cottage designs of the past for design ideas.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thanks.

In my neighborhood in East Bay SF, the garages protrude into the drive way and it is the most prominent part of the house from the street. Such an eye sore. I love looking at the old houses when I see one. The ugliness of these new buildings are a drain on the soul.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Sadly, I agree.

You said it. Ugly! So right! Centered around everybody in the house having a car or two, hence a driveway that can hold 4 cars and two more in the garage. Times have changed.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

No doubt.

The house in this video looks like my current home, but mine has an even more ugly 3-car, front-facing garage and driveway.

@BrentHull

2 ай бұрын

Yikes Ok.

I always wondered if snout houses could be fixed. If Brent can't do it, nobody can. My starter house was one of these. I spent years on and off trying to sketch a fix, but it couldn't be done. The dimensions and floor plan were all wrong. Sold it because I hated it.

@BrentHull

5 ай бұрын

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I would like to know what the builder's budget is for this house and see what you could do in the same cost ballpark to make a house like the 1920s "starter" homes.

@BrentHull

4 ай бұрын

Great idea. I'll know more soon.

I call a house with a prominent front-load garage a "welcome to my garage" house.

@BrentHull

4 ай бұрын

Haha. Yep

I know Brent hull would not like my house. It was built in 2021. To me, it’s so much more aesthetically pleasing than our old home built in 1950s. Yep, you bet there is a huge front loaded garage. The peak over the entry door is slightly higher than the garage peak. And the entry door is tucked to the side sort of like your drawing. I kind of like it though, as it feels private that way.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Nothing wrong with liking your home. Cheers.

Great video! You make it look so easy with your experience.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching.

I LOVE these Wednesday shows. I've always wondered why we have to see the ugly garages. The cement $$. Got it. I hate the visible garages and planting trees in front of them isn't enough...they're still ugly...LOL.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thanks. Agreed.

These house imho need the most fixing. I'm sure the vast majority of Americans live in houses like that. If we could build better looking ones everyone benefits.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

THanks.

Kudos to you. Like you have said, production housing is not led or influenced much by looks perse. Stewart Hicks recently did a whole thing on the massive use of alleys in Chicago. I totally refuse to believe the same costs can't be reallocated to find the money for alleys and detached garages or creating communal garages down the street shared by 6 or more houses as done in Japan, or other

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Good point.

Bring back 20's and 30's style bungalows and cottages.

@BrentHull

2 күн бұрын

Amen. Thx .

You should come out to Japan and check out some of our homes. I can host!

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

I would love that. Thanks.

Amen about the garages! It just shows how messed up the whole culture is about cars. They take priority even over our homes! Nothing says that more clearly than the giant focal-point garages, and the entrances that look like afterthoughts or only grudgingly given. The entrance should be the focal point, because the entrance is for humans.

@BrentHull

26 күн бұрын

Agreed. Thanks!

My forecast, garage doors will get larger to accommodate quad cab trucks.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

haha, could be.

Wouldn't it be nice to do something to the left window as well? To make a three times as wide on you would get a more balanced house for rather low cost. Is your opinion that the cost for your idea increase the value more than the cost?

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Even minor costs are too much for these production builders. Its a bottom line product. Sadly

I love your analogy of the donuts and Doritos. Where do you get photos of the homes you critique? I have on that is in desperate need of an exterior facelift and I don’t know where to start. 1893 farm house in central Minnesota with a clunky addition.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

I have pics that I collect in a pile. If it is a good teaching example I may use it. You can send it to info@brenthull.com. Make a note that you want it in the Wednesday file. Thanks.

I live in an area in the West that sadly doesn’t have that many charming homes, we have 1 small section left and some scattered everywhere else, but we had natural disasters that destroyed some of the authentic well thought out historical homes from mainly flooding long ago or a forest fire in recent years. Since the 60’s the town has boomed in different generations but the area was too poor to afford intentional designed homes, so that production style is about 90% of the homes available. It really puts a damper on the appeal of the place, always quoted by those who visit that the surrounding nature is a hidden gem but the city is ugly. It’s really disappointing trying to explain the passion I have for historical homes with the original charm to some people here. There’s been a few tries to curb this but a lot of people don’t think twice about how much these neighborhoods have robbed certain cultural essence of a community. We live in a State that is very controlling, especially about the zoning, and the local government haven’t been flexible either. The irony is that lately I’ve noticed a shift in our culture mainly from the younger generation, likely thanks to people actually being stuck in their homes realizing that some of these spaces have little function to fit their living needs or seeing how their space doesn’t feel as cozy, yet more people are starting to vocalize they want some charm to their homes. Videos and channels like yours will be helpful to bring insight to the potential we can have among ourselves. It’s high time we try to elevate these buildings to be our homes, with the intention to be timeless, and hopefully the cookie cutter homes can be more thought out in the future instead of just selling in a quick in go manner of no reflection of the living conditions these houses limits the residents in.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Nice. Thanks for sharing. I'm hoping for a renaissance as well.

Great video 😁. Saving our culture is so true no only homes but values. Happy Easter too you and your family. God bless 🙏

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Same to you! Thanks.

Seems like there is an opportunity for well designed/classically designed small to medium homes. Or perhaps someone is already doing that, but I haven't found them.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

There is definitely a need!! No one that I know.

Good Design has only a little to do with cost. A house with good bones doesn't really cost more than an ugly house. The issue of money really gets down to how much quality craft you can put in but I have also seen people pour thousands into ugly houses--and it stays that way--ugly. I like these Brent. :)

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Good insight. Thanks.

That house is every modern suburban "fancy" solution to sell a garage, bedroom, kitchen with too-few cabinets, and I've got a dollar that says there's a TV above the mantle for the fireplace that shouldn't even exist. You're nicer than I am in your commentary. The irony is that if cost was truly the issue they'd just make a simple '50s box or '60s ranch and call it a day. This here is the builder's solution maximizing profit on that which shouldn't be so profitable, because of the wasted effort.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for your feedback.

Never understood why someone would choose to live in a house that looks like a giant garage

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Cost.

How do we submit a house for “help fix my ugly house”?

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Send a pic to info@brenthull.com. Just note that it goes in the Wednesday video pile. I pick and choose from that pile. Thanks.

You hit the nail on the head with this one. People always justify the bad designs of the last 70 years, saying that function is the reason and costs make things this way. I say BS, look at what they were building before the production crap came into being. People lived in houses back then, and they didn't look like the mess that has been produced for the last 70 years. And that's why we have the megamansions like you showed last week - What the heck is going on with the second bay on the rights roofline? That doesn't belong anywhere, on anything, in any universe!

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Ha, agreed. Thanks for the feedback.

This is why I live in an older neighborhood. The houses are so charming, but then you get these people buying them, tearing them down, and building a horrible McMansion in its place. They're popping up like mushrooms and destroying the neighborhood.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Shoot. That is what historical districts are for. . . you should start one.

Even if you could fix the bad design, chances are good that the surrounding homes have equally bad design traits that diminishes the charm of the entire neighborhood.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Yep. True. Its not fixing one house, its hopefully changing the thinking in the neighborhood.

I really think we can find a balance between function and beauty. We certainly need to. Our communities are ugly and apparently in DR Hortons case, they can’t even manage to properly attach walls together. I would love to see more videos in the future of how you would go about design if you were an entry level home builder. This topic is really interesting to me and personally strikes a chord. My wife and I are looking for our first house, but do not want to buy a new build for this very reason, of ugliness and lack of quality. Huge fan of yours. It was probably ten years ago now when I ran across your book, Timeless House in an Instant Age, in a library. I have been learning from you ever since through your videos on Build Show. Before that I had always wondered why our modern houses didn’t look and feel like old ones. Now I know! I have not seen anyone else go into detail about it before. I live in Dallas and while in Fort Worth, I recognized one of your houses while driving by.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Nice. Thanks for watching and the feedback.

I'd be curious as to your thoughts on how to improve the "average" multifamily building, like a 5-over-1, especially since new apartments get the brunt of complaints about how "new stuff is ugly and ruining the neighbourhood." Are there simple ways to improve the appearance of buildings like that without starting from scratch, and while keeping costs low? Also, you probably know this ... lots of cities have design panels with volunteer architects, builders, and even regular folks who are supposed to advise on how to make buildings better looking and more liveable, and this is often a mandatory step in getting a development approved. The results of this design-by-committee are, um ... predictable. If you were running the city, and you wanted better buildings, what are the first things you'd do?

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Great questions. I'll work on these.

Hi Brent. have you ever approached production builders in your area and offered to redesign some of their projects to make them more appealing? They may balk at first, but if you can show them that the simpler details you prefer will actually save them money in framing and labor costs I'll bet they'd go for it.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

I worked with an architect once who designed houses for one. There is a lot of bureaucracy and tangles.

Hey Brent, love the channel. Thanks for all the great content. Just thinking, aren't these production houses from a time and place? Isn't there beauty and heritage in the ideas they were built around? When you ask what does this house want to be, maybe it wants to be built with efficiency, economy, around the car, etc. Can those values be applied to a reno that fits current lifestyles and aesthetics?

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

In my opinion, when we build anything, clothes, food, and houses where cost is the leading value, we are restricting ourselves and pushing out ideals like beauty. We become an ugly and cheap culture. It is not good for us to chase this.

I blame Levittown Brent lol. They put tract housing on the map after WW2 as their response to an immediate demand for cheap housing primarily VA/FHA financed. Architectural design was watered down to an endless series of homogenous boxes with 4 or 5 boxes contained therein as rooms. Then placed them on identical box lots. A few generations now have grown up thinking that this was housing design. As the DR Hortons and Lennars have eventually "evolved" (sarcasm intended), they thought it a good idea to tack on applied elements far more suitable to much larger homes, the descaling fails on every level. Add to that a generation of architects trained to be over-reliant on CAD and canned footprints and we can see the visual assaults everywhere. Intelligent design is not necessarily, nor does it need to be more expensive. We need to get the "draftsmen" away from their computers and learn to create aesthetically pleasing, properly scaled housing for the masses. You are an expert at such things, there is no reason designers cannot be taught to do the same.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Well said. A succinct explanation. Thanks.

When I see these houses with garages as the prominent feature, I think back to a famous picture from the late 80s of a modern house on a hill at night with a row of garage doors and luxury sports cars parked out front. Maybe that subconscious image, burned into the minds of men of a certain age, makes this design acceptable, and even cool.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Hm, could be. I suspect it is just cost.

@jban4457

Жыл бұрын

@@BrentHull you're probably right.

Do you know if it's a matter of education of the population and the builders that is missing? I find it so hard to believe that at one point they were able to find a way to sell homes by catalog at a profit that were adorable and functional but that's an impossible ask now. Usually so much wasted floor space because they added "the most often requested" features. About 5 years ago I bought land and tried to find a way to put something to live on it that was around 1400 square feet and the closest I could get was overpriced "manufactured" homes - aka trailer homes. Even they are very cookie cutter and you end up way over paying if you want something "custom". Still looking....

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

There are a lot of companies trying to solve this dilemma. Most without success so far. But it is aa goal for many.

How to fix a production house: 1. Remove all the caulking (the house will fall apart) 2. Take a lawn chair, a beer, a match, and a can of gasoline. It might be fixed even before the fire department arrives.

@BrentHull

8 ай бұрын

Haha. very funny.

@MladenSolaja

8 ай бұрын

@@BrentHull Jokes aside, these videos are both educational and inspiring. Thank you very much for enlightening many of us and keeping the torch burning (no pun intended).

Definitely an ugly house. So true what you say about caring about function more than design.

@BrentHull

9 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching.

Brent. What's your thoughts on flippers, going around painting the bricks white and dark colors??🤦‍♂️

@96littlefeather

Жыл бұрын

I personally have a brick and stone home built in 1927, it is beautiful, but whoever decided to fill the mortar used white caulk in the cracks! Been driving me insane, lol. Painted brick ughh i dont see the aesthetics in doing that. Brick is beautiful!

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

I think it is often misguided.

@snafunet

9 ай бұрын

You should never paint brick because it blocks the pores causing degradation of the brick and can peel off over time. On the other hand, you can stain (dye) brick which really isn't any different than the manufacturer adding a dye when they make the brick creating different color bricks. Like with anything, obviously, it can be abused or it can be a great tool depending on how you use it.

I agree, so many of the new cookie cutter homes they’re building nowadays are ugly. Years ago, I rented a little new brick house that didn’t have a covered patio, so the rain came down directly on the door. How much would it have cost the builder for a little cover when your building many houses. Surely he could have done it cost affectedly while providing a little extra for the new owners.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Shoot. Sorry.

The car has taken so much dominance in our (American) lifestyles that we are purchasing homes often times with...1/5 or 1/4 of the overall sq footage dedicated to a device that we spend 1 hour in a day for each spouse. The storage is nice of course but instead of downsizing the things we place in long term store and focusing less on car centricity, we're paying for space that for many years only really cost enough for a covered shed. If we want to reduce the cost of American homes (or hopefully refocus that into building science and beauty) we need to really ask the question do most people need a garage.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Well said. Thanks.

Nah Brent, 8' garage doors are important. Find a different way to fix it.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Noted. Thanks.

I like the house... What's wrong with me ?

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Ha. Nothing.

save $6000, that's 2% of $300,000... jeasus on the saving money bs... they just have no clue. *edit to change brainfarts that have little bearing on actual premise...

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

haha.

@edwardvermillion8807

Жыл бұрын

@@johnperic6860 ya... and

Culture? What culture?

@BrentHull

8 ай бұрын

hmmm.

I think it’s entirely possible to build well designed homes with a conscious, deliberate approach that incorporates clearly defined architectural themes. As you’ve observed, it’s not an issue of IF but rather, it’s an issue of CAN we collectively or individually, afford the costs. An added problem is population densities in some locations make land a high value commodity that by itself is expensive without even first casting anything in place. How to achieve the goals you’ve identified within our marketplace is achievable by only a few wealthy people who are equipped with both the fiscal resources and cognitive willingness to demand such adaptations in the residential market. ♥️♥️♥️

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for commenting.

Brent, that is an absolutely horribly designed house. That said, I don’t think there is much of a market for Tudor-style cottages. We need production home builders to understand that there is a market for better-designed homes.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Agreed. The consumer needs to demand better.

What we need is IKEA for suburb development. The entire IKEA design ethos is affordable furniture at middle-to-upper-middle quality with outstanding design so the RTA pieces are not a daily embarrassment. The same thing applies to tract home design. I disagree with your "good design costs more" stance. It doesn't. the Sears kit houses of the teens and twenties are very desirable attractive homes, designed and offered as low-cost budget kits for owner/builders. There is nothing stopping us from doing that again except for a lack of imagination! In a single, lone example: Make the garage side-loaded. Put inexpensive single pane windows on the front - they'll look right from the street and it's a garage, not an interior heated space. Skip the concrete - and the ecological disaster that the concrete inflicts - and lay down decomposed granite edged with a decorative border. Attractive, cheap, low-maintenance, and eco-friendly. Then simplify the stupid junked-up roofline and save 20% on the trusses. Tah-dah! Better design AND a cost saving from the original design.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

I like your thinking. Thanks.

I'm sure you know that builders chase the easy money. VA loans FHA loans Any other govt lending These programs are the reason builders build what they build. Easy lending not only does it inflate the market, but also ends up creating huge tracts of poorly built homes.

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

Interesting. Thanks.

"Car culture" has debased so much of the US. We could have focused a lot more on public transportation and 15-minute cities, but maybe? (I am being ironic) we couldn't? or wouldn't? Just expand transport options? I get angry the way James Kunstler gets angry. Probably, my views seem tiresome to people with other concerns on their mind.

@michaelgrover3443

Жыл бұрын

Definitely need to ban cars. Also to enforce 15 minute cities we need to ensure people are not wasting resources frivolously travelling out of their optimal zones by enforcing travel restrictions reserved for approved situations only. Cars are so degenerate. Get your family of 3 (not 4 because that would be unenvironmental) on your electric bike or walk. Now eat the insect gruel you were rationed!

@willbass2869

Жыл бұрын

15 minute cities....yep, that's about the time it took to empty the "showers" and fill the "ovens". Good luck on that...

@BrentHull

Жыл бұрын

I agree. Thanks.

We need smaller houses. This would free up the cost issue so that more funds can be given to design. The cost issue is the biggest issue here. Good design costs $$. We can devote the funds needed for design by having less “obese” houses. The bigger is better trend is a gimmick and imo the heart of the matter. We must face this.

@BrentHull

11 ай бұрын

So true. Thanks.