Buying A Home? What's Your Style?

Whether you're buying or selling, reading real estate ads can be confusing. Here are explanations of more style terms used in real estate ads.

"Bungalow" Style

Bungalow is a type of single-story house that originated in India. Bungalows are very convenient for the homeowner in that all living areas are on a single story and there are no stairs between living areas. A bungalow is well suited to persons with impaired mobility, such as the elderly or those in wheelchairs. On a per unit area basis (e.g. per square foot or per square metre), bungalows are more expensive to construct than two story houses because a larger foundation and roof area is required for the same living area. The larger foundation will often translate into larger lot size requirements as well. While the concept of a bungalow is simple, there are a number of variations upon the term, often describing where floor-space is extended above, or below the primary floor, Ranch bungalow, Raised bungalow, Chalet Bungalow, American Craftsman Bungalow, California Bungalow, Milwaukee Bungalow, Michigan Bungalow, etc..

"Split Foyer" style

A home entered by a foyer with a half flight of stairs up to the upper level (where the living spaces and one or more bedrooms are usually located) and a half flight of stairs to the lower level (typically housing the family room and additional bedrooms).

"Tri-Level" style

A home with three levels. It is typically entered on the middle level and has half flights of stairs to the highest and lowest levels. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are usually on the middle level. The bedrooms are usually on the highest level. The lowest level may be unfinished or have family room, laundry, and perhaps a garage located there.

"Contemporary" style

These vary greatly, but none looks as if it could have been built prior to 1900. Some are almost entirely of glass. Some are almost entirely under ground. Roofs can be gable (slants down on each side of a ridge line creating triangles of space at each end), shed (slants in one direction only from high on one side to low on the other), flat, or sod (grass covered) for that matter. Often several roof styles are incorporated in one home. Energy saving or indoor-outdoor connectedness tend to be designing motives. Simplicity, straight lines, and open spaces are hallmarks. Decks, patios, and terraces are frequently featured and are often constructed of the same materials used indoors.

"Victorian" style

This style is based on houses built during Queen Victoria's reign and for a while afterwards. They are usually at least two stories tall and maybe more. They are embellished with a variety of things including porches, turrets, towers with conical roofs, pediments with fanciful shapes over doors and windows, windows to the floor with perhaps only one sheet of glass per sash. And do think "gingerbread" or wood fashioned into intricate shapes for gable ends, places where porch posts reach the ceiling, at stair landings, and so on. Modern builders usually pare this style down because of the expense, but even the most recently built examples can be rather fanciful.

"American Foursquare" Style

The American Foursquare, or the Prairie Box, was a post-Victorian style that shared many features with the Prairie architecture pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright. The boxy foursquare shape provided roomy interiors for homes on small city lots. The simple, square shape also made the Foursquare style especially practical for mail order house kits from Sears and other catalog companies. American Foursquare houses usually have these features: Simple box shape, Two-and-a-half stories high Four-room floor plan, Low-hipped roof with deep overhang, Large central dormer, Full-width porch with wide stairs, Brick, stone, stucco, concrete block, or wood siding.

"Tudor" Style

The emphasis was on the simple, rustic and the less impressive aspects of Tudor architecture, imitating in this way medieval cottages or country houses. Though the style follows these more modest characteristics, items such as steeply pitched roofs, half-timbering often infilled with herringbone brickwork, tall mullioned windows, high chimneys, jettied (overhanging) first floors above pillared porches, dormer windows supported by consoles, and even at times thatched roofs, gave Tudorbethan its more striking effects.

"Quenn Ann" Style

Eclectic designs that often included Tudor elements, Typical features of the style:a sweep of steps leading to a carved stone door-case; rows of painted sash windows in boxes set flush with the brickwork; stone quoins emphasising corners; a central triangular pediment set against a hipped roof with dormers; typically box-like "double pile" plans, two rooms deep.

"Ranch" Style

The ranch house is noted for its long, close-to-the-ground profile, and minimal use of exterior and interior decoration. The houses fuse modernist ideas and styles with notions of the American Western period working ranches to create a very informal and casual living style. Their popularity waned in the late 20th century as neo-eclectic house styles, a return to using historical and traditional decoration, became popular. However, in recent years, interest in ranch house designs has been increasing.

"Cape Cod" Style

The Cape Cod style originated in colonial New England. Today, the term refers to Cape Cod-shaped houses popular during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Twentieth century Cape Cod houses were often given large dormers and decorative shutters.

"Neo-eclectic" Style

Neo-eclectic architecture combines a wide array of decorative techniques taken from an assortment of different historical house styles. It is a rejection of the simple and unadorned modernist styles, such as the ranch house that dominated North American residential construction in the decades after the Second World War. It can be considered an outgrowth of postmodern architecture. Some neo-eclectic buildings will combine an array of different historical styles in a single building. Thus a house so designed may have Cape Cod, Mission, Tudor, or even French Provincial elements all at the same time. Often houses, or whole subdivisions, will focus on one revival style. Different historical styles predominated in different regions.

"Colonial Revival" Style

Features that make them distinguishable from colonial period houses of the similar style of the early 1800s are elaborate front doors, often with decorative crown pediments and overhead fanlights and sidelights, but with machine-made woodwork that had less depth and relief than earlier handmade versions. Window openings, while symmetrically located on either side of the front entrance, were usually hung in adjacent pairs or in triple combinations rather than as single windows. Side porches or sunrooms were common additions to these homes, introducing modern comforts. Also distinctive in this style are multiple columned porches and doors with fanlights and sidelights. To go along with the Colonial Revival style of architecture, owners often seek to furnish the house with furnishings that are preferably antique but often are reproductions.

"Spanish Colonial Revival" Style

Characterized by a combination of detail from several eras of Spanish and Mexican architecture, the style is marked by the prodigious use of smooth plaster (stucco) wall and chimney finishes, low-pitched clay tile, shed, or flat roofs, and terracotta or cast concrete ornaments. Other characteristics typically include small porches or balconies, Roman or semi-circular arcades and fenestration, wood casement or tall, double-hung windows, canvas awnings, and decorative iron trim.

"Pueblo Revival" Style

Pueblo style architecture seeks to imitate the appearance of traditional adobe construction, though more modern materials such as brick or concrete are often substituted. If adobe is not used, rounded corners, irregular parapets, and thick, battered walls are used to simulate it. Walls are usually stuccoed and painted in earth tones. Multistory buildings usually employ stepped massing similar to that seen at Taos Pueblo. Roofs are always flat. A common feature is the use of projecting wooden roof beams (vigas), which often serve no structural purpose

"Mission Revival" Style

Missions shared certain design characteristics, owing both to the limited selection of building materials available to the founding padres and an overall lack of advanced construction experience. Each installation utilized massive walls with broad, unadorned surfaces and limited fenestration, wide, projecting eaves, and low-pitched clay tile roofs. Other features included long, arcaded corridors, piered arches, and curved gables. Exterior walls were coated with plaster (stucco) to shield the adobe bricks beneath from the elements.

Summary

When looking at homes, you'll find particular styles appeal to you. Once you identify the styles, you can narrow your search for the perfect home.

I am available and well prepared to assist you in reaching your real estate objectives. If you are ready to move forward, you can reach me at 214-234-6901 or by email at Grant@GrantHowell.com. You may also visit my Web site at www.BrokerMyHouse.com for additional information on all the real estate services I offer.