STYLES OF HOMES

The Cape

The Cape is typically made of wood and covered in wide clapboard or shingles. Characterized by 1 or 1½ stories with a steep roof that rest low to the ground. Large central fireplace that is connected to each room in the house. Hard wood floors. Contains a recognized center-hall floor plan. Windows and doors are symmetrically arranged. Decorative shutters. Many people beThe Levitts invented the cape style home but they did not invent the Cape Cod style. It was a traditional Colonial Era architectural style: boxy, low to the ground with a sharply pitched roof and narrow eaves. It is a style that re-appears from time to time in American architectural history. It briefly emerged from the shadow of Victorian architecture in the late 19th Century Colonial Revival period, then again beginning in the 1920s when it was re-popularized once more by a Boston architect whose writings sparked a revival  of early Colonial styles, primarily in New England. The Levitt brothers, however, successfully adapted the Cape Cod to their mass production techniques; and both the style and the techniques were adopted widely during the postwar housing boom. 

The Levitt Cape Cod had 4-1/2 rooms: living room and kitchen across the front, two bedrooms at the rear and a bath tucked in behind the kitchen. But it kept the boxy  rectangular shape, high pitched roof and narrow eaves characteristic of the original Cape Cod style. The floor plan was soon revamped so that the kitchen was at the back of the house, for reasons of better privacy and to make it easier to watch the children in the back yard.  But relatively few pristine postwar Capes still exist. Improving your tract house became something of a nationwide obsession in the 1960s, spawning a whole new "do-it-yourself" industry and creating the tool-belt-totin' "weekend warrior".

Almost as soon as the paint was dry on the original house, American homeowners turned to making it bigger and better. Finished basements, new gardens, garages, porches, decks and, for the very ambitious, bedrooms in the attic or whole new additions. In Nebraska a lot of Cape Cods were built as one-story homes with relatively low hip rather than gable roofs, reducing the opportunity to expand easily to a second floor. But this did not prevent owners from expanding them: out the back, out the side, or remove the roof and add a story. Some expansions are so extensive that it is had to tell that there was once a Cape Cod under the pile of additions.HOME STYLES Long Island,search mls CAPES,The Cape,search mls COLONIALS,search mls HI RANCH,search mls RANCH RAISED RANCH,search mls SPLANCH,search mls TUTOR,search mls CONTEMPORARY,STYLES OF HOMES,search mls

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The Colonial

The Colonial Contains a medium pitched roof with a square, symmetrical shape. The front door has a decorative crown. Five windows align the upper level of the front of the house. Lower level consists of four windows and a centered door. Typically a 1½ or two story home. Eaves have classical detailing.The Colonial style of house has been around in one form or another since before the Revolution. There was a revival of the Colonial styles after 1870 that lasted into the first two decades of the next century. The Colonial Revival is often seen as a stylistic backlash against the excess of Victorian housing styles and a yearning to return to the country's "more wholesome" agrarian past. This sentiment helped trigger the Arts and Crafts movement that gave rise to the various architectural styles that had swallowed the Colonial Revival by the 1930s. 

During the postwar housing boom, the Colonial style arose once again to serve the need for a larger house that could be mass produced in very large numbers. The Cape Cod was just not enough house for many postwar homebuyers. They wanted three bedrooms rather than two and a little more space. Builders, already familiar with the humble Cape Cod, merely added a second story. The additional story allowed the bedrooms and main bath to be moved upstairs. This, in turn, permitted a full formal dining room as well as a larger kitchen and living room with a guest bath just off the entry hall. And thus was born the mid-century Colonial house. 

Like the Cape, easily added to, Colonials soon sported wings, decks, porches and attached garages. As time went by, fewer and fewer of the smaller Cape Cods were sold and the larger Colonial in its many different forms, particularly the split-level, became the dominant tract house style by the mid-1960s. 

By then the simple post-war colonial had undergone a number of major transformations. The second story was made larger by cantilevering it over the ground floor. The larger space allowed for a small additional bathroom attached to the "master bedroom" — a term just coming into use. Variations in roof styles and detailing emerged. Adding a gambrel roof turned the structure into a Dutch Colonial. Split foyer colonials inspired split-level colonials with the obligatory unfinished "recreation" room in the basement. These allowed as much living space as ranch style houses (see below) without the large lots required for ranch houses. Integrated one and two-stall garages became indispensable in the late 1960s.

But by that time the style has lost many of the elements that had originally defined it. The early Georgian detailing such as the entry cornice and detailed eaves was gone as was the two-story rectangular shape. Split-level and split-foyer variations had so diluted the style that it was almost unrecognizable. In fact, whether a split level house is termed a Colonial or a Raised Ranch is now often a matter of which label will most quickly sell the house. The Colonial had become a "left-over" style. Any two story house that did not fall easily into another style classification automatically became a "colonial". 

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The Ranch

The Ranch Style became become one of the dominant home styles during the middle decades of the century and passed the Colonial in popularity by the 1970s. The Ranch was geared to casual indoor-outdoor living with its open floor plan, semi-enclosed patios nestled between the wings of the house and extensive use of glass doors and large picture windows to bring the outdoors in. In 1977, 77% of the single-family houses built in the U.S. were single story Ranches and Capes. 
he Ranch was born in the sprawling southwest. Architect Cliff May is widely credited with having built the first Ranch style home in San Diego in 1932. Although to the modern eye, May's house does not look very much like a ranch-style house, it did have all the usual ranch features. It was greatly influenced by low-roofed Spanish-adobe houses on which thick walls, broad overhanging eaves and tile roofs were intended to keep the house cool in blistering desert summers. The complete absence of blistering desert summers did not keep the style from quickly migrating north and east into the suburban landscape. 

This was due to a unique confluence of events. First, a casual, west coast style of living promised by the one story open Ranch design struck a chord with American homebuyers. Second, relatively inexpensive land in the suburbs meant that even the modestly affluent could afford the wide lots required for a rambling Ranch style. Third, and possibly most important, central home heating  had become inexpensive and convenient. In the days when a wood-burning  fireplace or coal stove was the main heat source, heating a house took a lot of  work cutting wood or shoveling coal. Building up rather than out made the most efficient use of heat rising from the first floor to also warm the second (and possibly third). But in the 1950s, reliable, cheap central heat was available just by turning up the furnace thermostat. It made Ranch houses possible in cold climates. Without central heating and later air-conditioning, the Ranch style would probably be nothing more than an interesting Southwest regional curiosity. 
As the house style migrated north it shed much of its characteristic southwest flavor and began showing more Prairie style influences — at least in more affluent neighborhoods. In its tract house version, builders seemed to make a special effort to make it as bland and characterless as possible. In fact the Ranch style is often described as the "complete absence of style" — which is absolute nonsense. A well-styled Ranch has as much character as any other house type. It's just that there are not that many of them. The defining characteristics of the style were also muffled when the variations started such as the "Raised Ranch". Today the Ranch is largely a "left-over" style like the Colonial. Any one story house with a low roof that is not a Cape is probably going to be identified, rightly or wrongly, as a Ranch. 

The Ranch style has been declining in popularity because it requires so much land, and land is getting more expensive nearly everywhere. In 2005 single story houses, including Ranches, had declined to just 42% of new homes sold — far below their post-war peak. But the main features of the Ranch style, the open floor plan and merging of indoor and outdoor spaces, have retained their appeal, migrating to contemporary housing styles that look absolutely nothing like the Ranch style home. HOME STYLES Long Island,search mls CAPES,The Cape,search mls COLONIALS,search mls HI RANCH,search mls RANCH RAISED RANCH,search mls SPLANCH,search mls TUTOR,search mls CONTEMPORARY,STYLES OF HOMES,search mls BUNGALOW,Search Sold Homes on MLS

The Cottage

The Cottage resembles a Cape . However, the roof of a cottage is much shallower and it has a higher eaves-front wall. Typically, small windows line the top front of the cottage. Main windows consist of multi-paned double-hung sash. There is increased space and light. The , cottage house plan might conjure up seemingly contrasting images. To some it could mean a cozy one-story vacation style home design to others it could mean a storybook house style, with romantic flourishes and sweeping lines. No matter what kind of cottage home plan you are looking for, you'll discover a wide range of house styles to choose from in this collection. Picturesque dormers, arched doorways, steep gables, quaint porches and steep rooflines are just some of the features embellishing this collection of cottage style home designs. When you order your cottage blueprints they are shipped directly from the home designer. Similar home design styles include Bungalow House Plans and Craftsman Home Plans

The Bungalow

The Bungalow is an all American housing type, but it has its roots in India. In the province of Bengal, single-family homes were called bangla or bangala. British colonists adapted 
these one-story thatch-roofed huts to use as summer homes. The space-efficient floor plan of bungalow houses may have also been inspired by army tents and rural English cottages. The idea was to cluster the kitchen, dining area, bedrooms, and bathroom around a central living area.

The first American house to be called a bungalow was designed in 1879 by William Gibbons Preston. Built at Monument Beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the two-story house had the informal air of resort architecture. However, this house was much larger and more elaborate than the homes we think of when we use the term Bungalow.HOME STYLES Long Island,search mls CAPES,The Cape,search mls COLONIALS,search mls HI RANCH,search mls RANCH RAISED RANCH,search mls SPLANCH,search mls TUTOR,search mls CONTEMPORARY,STYLES OF HOMES,search mls BUNGALOW,Search Sold Homes on MLS

The Split

An alternative to (but relative of) ranch homes, the split level house plan features three levels of living space on a floor plan that makes economical use of the space on the building lot. The front door leads to platform between the two levels, with stairs leading up and down to the other levels. The mid-level area of the house plan often contains the living and dining area, the upper level holds the bedrooms, and the lower level typically features a finished family room and garage.

The exterior of the split level house - composed of natural wood, bricks, and large picture windows, but with few decorative elements - gives the home a modern, unfussy feel. The relaxed and informal split level house caters particularly well to growing families, since the multiple levels allow different focuses - play, study, entertaining - to occur at the same time, with a minimum of spillover disruption. Also, the split level house plan typically features a finished basement and a sliding glass door that leads to the patio.There are usually three levels separated by short flights up or down, with an asymmetrical layout. The Family room often opens to a back patio with sliding glass doors

 

 

 

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