Dressing up Virginia

I live in Northern Virginia, where Colonial style first met production housing.  So much housing stock here was built in the 1950's.  It is well constructed, but horribly banal. The floor plans are outdated, and the facades are the drollest of simplified colonial, repeated mercilessly.  For better or worse, it's also extremely valuable real estate in one of the country's most expensive housing markets.  

Recently, I did a quick study of how to convert one of these bland dwellings into something a bit more lively and contemporary.  This hypothetical example is in the Hume Springs neighborhood, next door to "hip" Del Ray (both in the City of Alexandria, VA).