Plans for Some Added Curb Appeal

I live in one of Ann Arbor's historic districts so I am not allowed to change anything about the front of my house (painting is an exception) without filing an application to the Historic District Commission and getting approval. On the one hand this is great because it preserves the character of my neighborhood. On the other hand it can be frustrating sometimes when I've had to deal with the process myself. Back when I was remodeling my upstairs it took two application tries and several months to get a window replacement approved so that my master bedroom could be brought up to code for fire egress.

It has been a few years since I have applied for any changes but I am about to try again. Although painting my house was a huge improvement it still looks a bit plain to me. I want to do two things to give my home a little added curb appeal.

First, I want to add some shutters on four of the front windows. I think I have a pretty good case to get approval since I found old shutters in the crawl space above the side wing and there is some remaining shutter hardware on some windows. If it gets approved I am thinking of painting them dark teal to match the trim on the house.

Second, the side wing has weird side by side double hung windows that were put in during the seventies. They clearly don't fit in with the period of the house so I think that I have a good chance to get approval for replacing them with double hung wood windows. Along with being ugly the current windows also don't meet code for fire egress which is another reason I want to get them replaced.

I drew up a little sketch on my computer of what my house looks like now and my proposed changes.

What do you think? To me switching the side wing windows makes them seem bigger and the shutters add some character and make things a little less plain. It will likely be a while before I can get approval and actually implement either of these ideas, but it is time for me to get the ball rolling and submit my application. Wish me luck!