Wendy--

It's not just the corbels that are wrong - those Colonial divided-lite windows are wrong too - from across the street it looks like a gigantic window air conditioner.

Personally, I'd remove the entire thing and replace it with a sliding or double-casement window which would be more appropriate to the architecture.

I thought it was an a/c too before I zoomed in.

i know a homeowner can do anything they want to the facade of their house (unless they live somewhere like irvine, ca where there are rules about that stuff... and ick!), but why do some people insist on doing stuff like this home's previous owner?

i live in long beach, ca and there is a neighborhood of cliff may houses here. some people have done some really egregious shit to those houses, like put windows like that in them. there's nothing worse than a mash-up of cliff may and cape cod!

people, respect the architecture of your houses!

so obvs, i'm with bepsf. that whole window needs to go. otherwise, the place is looking pretty sweet.

Rip that sucker out!

I agree with bepsf. The house will be beautiful when you are done.

You should also check out the brick house dot com. They did a really simple wood slat entrance way on their mid century that's gorgeous and quite smart.

Knock Irvine all you want, but no one gets to put ugly stuff on their houses here!! :)

We have beautiful neighborhoods that all look like they belong and no purple houses (thanks goodness!).

I agree that the window has got to go! I would say a standard, single-pane window would be great unless you need to be able to open in, in which case a side slide is the way to go!

If I didn't have the money to replace that window, I think I would put a Mid-C style trellis/screen in front of it and grow a small vine or just plant architectural perennials/shrubs in front of the trellis.

It'd still let in some light through the window and be screened from view.

FYI, we used Crestview doors which makes replacement doors for mid-c houses, for the front door to our house. You don't say anything about your door, but a new door makes a huge difference, and that style is very hard to find. We were very pleased with them. www.crestviewdoors.com (I think).

The window on the far right (in the top picture) is also not period. You should check out the Lotta Livin' board for answers too.

Thanks for all the comments everybody. I don't have the budget to replace the window so I was thinking I could either build some sort of soffit to cover the corbels, put in cleaner ones or build some sort of a box from the bottom of the window extending all the way to the ground that I could cover with matching stucco or stack stone. I need something less horrifying than the current window but replacing it isn't an option.

BTW, the front door is to the home is original and awesome. I actually bought the house because of the front door.