The Cost Of Bad Curb Appeal

My project of late has been updating our landscaping. We've been in our house over a decade and things were definitely starting to show their wear. We started with the front of our house for the whole curb appeal and all. Things were nice, we had a nice layer of mulch and a variety of plants. Time went by and some plants died, some plants spread like crazy and some areas had far more weeds than we could keep on top of. As for the back of the house, just never really got around to it. So when a pandemic hits and you find yourself with more time on your hands than normal, it is decided it is high time we did something about it. It isn't the most fun job in the world, it is pretty physical and you are hot, sweaty and dirty. But the payoff is what it does to the value and appeal of your home. 

Thinking about the value of good landscaping got me thinking about the value of good design in anything. Having a pristine, well manicured yard might increase the value of your house, but your value will sure go down if you have areas of overgrown weeds or dead plants. Same can be seen in Web site, great design is a nice to have, but a bad design will for sure negatively impact your users. 

Just as important as good design, is good maintenance. After it is done if you spend a little time on keeping things up to date and looking nice will make it far easier than letting it go for ten years and then deciding it looks worn down or outdated. 

As much as I hate landscaping, I know there are some minimum levels of curb appeal we need to maintain on our property. It will be a good project to have done and it will be far easier to maintain going forward. The same is true for any project, any product, any relationship, any culture, or any team. 

Cost of Bad Design

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