Your best bet is to work with an architect to get the exact look you want. We have a European cottage and worked with Jack Arnold in Tulsa, OK. (We're in Alabama.) We had a wonderful experience working with Jack and his son, Trey. They also have stock plans you can purchase, they can make changes to them or start from scratch.

If you're into Tuscan, I purchased a new book/magazine at the grocery store today - one of the 9.95 ones - called Tuscan Style. It has beautiful homes and will inspire anyone. Eldorado Stone advertises heavily in the issue. Personally, I don't like faux stone, but their pictures are gorgeous.

Wonbyherwits aka Cameron had either posted or emailed me a link to an architect in her area recently you might enjoy. I'm sure she'll chime in - I don't recall if they sold plans or not though.

European can mean styles influenced by different countries. Can you narrow it down to a specific country -- England, France (there's a big difference in styles within France), Spain, Italy, etc.?

I posted a link recently to a Don Gardner courtyard house -- it's in the Parade of Homes thread, I think. Allison, is that the one? I've also seen some Italian influenced lately.

Cameron

No, it was one you sent in an email - a favorite architect in your state, I believe.

I realized later on you would think it was the Parade Home.

Yes, we are getting an architect but I want to know what I want when we go to him. Also, I'm not sure which country. I just realized that every home I came across while looking at plans said European or European-influence. I like painted brick or stucco with a stone mixture. I like a porch which is not necessarily found on many European homes but I have found a few. Any suggestions would be great!

I think the reason you're not getting many responses is because we need a few more details. What size house are you looking for? How many garages? Do you need a certain number of bedrooms. Like the open plans? Need Master on the main? Want a formal living room etc? Give us a few more parameters and maybe one of us can spot something that fits.

In the meantime, I found this one that has painted brick/stone with a porch.

Here is a link that might be useful: European Plan with Porch

Another one

Here is a link that might be useful: European Plan with Porch

Okay, last one until you give us more paramters. I loved the exterior of this house but the floorplan needs a little reworking.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cute Exterior

There are some interesting Shawn Fisher designs on the Natural Element homes website. I thought these were great!

Here is a link that might be useful: Shawn Fisher Designs

An easy thing for you to do is to start ripping out magazine pages of things you do like. I showed our architect the back of a lakehouse I liked and he used it for inspiration on ours. It had a lower level and our plan we originally did not.

It is very easy to buy a set of plans and, working with an architect, makes changes so that the house suites your needs. Wonbyherwits has a section on her blog about doing this. We did this as well - making numerous changes inside which only made the house more livable for us.

If you don't subscribe to a lot of magazines, take an afternoon to head to your local bookstore to flip through theirs - buy a few you really like. Even check out their books for ideas.

As far as the porch, your architect should be able to take the sample pages you give him/her and go from their so that you end up with the home you want/desire.

Check out this website too. Click on address to see homes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Currahee Club Homes, GA.

I guess you've searched eplans.com? You can search by style, square footage and features wanted.

Here is a link that might be useful: eplans

I was just checking out a real estate listing for a house and had this idea.

You could look through online listings of homes in upscale neighborhoods to find exteriors you like. Or Google's "street views". (Anyone know why some streets are 'missing' on the Google site? I see they've captured pretty much our whole town, but not my street.)

Looking at those architectural firms' renderings can be very misleading. Also, many of them are a real mish-mosh of incongruous styles: "Hey! Let's add more gables and roofline change-ups and call it 'European'!"

This is the European home in my dreams.

Allison -- it was Dixon-Kirby, right? They built a house where one side of it looks like the front of ours. They put the beadboard trim above the fireplace like in my house, too. I doubt they sell houseplans unless they are building the house. However, they have a neat gallery and links to some of their homes that have been built in different neighborhoods.

The original concept on our house plan had painted brick and stone. With our neighborhood covenants, we went with cedar shake siding and stone. Ours is English Cottage inspired with the catslide roof, front chimney. You can see ours from my blog (My Page link). If you like the look, I can send you a link to the house plan. The architects will modify it. Our builder had a license for the plan (he has several homes posted on the original house plan website) so we used a local architect for our modifications. We completely re-did the interior floor plan so that it is totally unique for us. It was the exterior look that we wanted.

Hope this helps.
Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: some ideas in the gallery

Oh my, I must be really backward because I think it is possible to find a really nice stock plan that fits your needs without hiring an architect. We certainly did.

Look at this website for some nice ideas. My neighbor just finished the Landsdowne Place and it is stunning. Lots of European homes on this website. At least a good place to start.

ccing--that house is interesting. The right front roof looks like some of it just "fell off". Not, my taste but it really is beautiful.

Susan--feeling a little grouchy and over the hill today.

Here is a link that might be useful: homes

Cameron, that's the one. Thanks.

Red Lover, I looked at numerous websites for plans - none worked the way we wanted for our lake lot (taking in the views, floor plans, features) and I agree with Chisue. A lot of them just look the same to me - all dormers, raised/coffered ceilings, too busy.

ccinga, you have a great start with the photos. Is the house in your area? Do you know who the architect is so you could contact their office? ...Is it in the states - looks to be but it also looks like a real thatched roof on the right side. For me, I would remove the turrets - too overdone these days and the front would look more inviting without them. You could even add your porch.

I just had to post one more. I love looking at houseplans.

Red, what's up girl? Have a birthday today with some numbers you don't like? We can cheer you up!! Here's a Margarita:::::Passing the chips too:::::

Here is a link that might be useful: Pretty European

Have I mentioned how awesome this site is? We have a picture of a house we like but I'm not sure how to get it from my pics to here. It is not too European. I'd say it has European style but it was under European in the house plan site. We want around 3500-4000 sq ft, master on 1st, 3-4 BR on 2nd, open kitchen, family/ great rm area. Not too sure about everything else yet. Hope this helps-you guys have been SO helpful!

Before you make any decisions on style alone, get a budget number in mind and stick with it. All the homes everyone has posted are gorgeous, but if you looked at the prices, they were million dollar homes. Of course location makes a difference, but not really a huge difference. Make sure your architect sticks to your budget as well. Know what 3500-4000sq.ft. includes. Cost per sq. ft varies depending on what materials you choose, sometimes depending on your builder or location or all of the above. Architects, at least the ones we interviewed cost anywhere from 20k to 100k and some included different services than just the design. We opted for a home designer that cost 5k. Was it a mistake or was it just this particular home designer? Maybe it was both. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones and you don't have a budget, but if not, you don't want to have a beautiful dream home on paper that is useless to you. Research this and other websites. And if you are on a budget, know now what you can live and live without and don't let dreamy websites make your eyes bigger than your wallet.

Hindsight stinks. Been there, doing that sitting somewhere between depression, desperation and hating to admit my naivety and stupidness. I guess I chalk it all up to a good problem to have, but it still stinks. Good luck!

Missstaceyh, If you load up your photo on a website like tinypic.com, then you'll be able to copy/paste the address into the link button below your response. Or you can put a photo directly into your message by using this code
img src="website address here"

Use a at the end.

So, if you have a plan that you like...what other help do you need? Does it not have all the elements you were asking for?

lol Sorry, misstaceyh! I posted to ccinga thinking she was the OP of this thread.

If you upload it to photobucket, select the URL to copy here. Place a at the end of the URL. (There is a space between the img and src, fyi. ;) )

Sorry to hear about your troubles, eventhecatisaboy. Yes, architects can be expensive but some are not near that much. I think we spent about 10K purchasing a set of plans then working with them on changes/additions. We could call him if needed during construction, at no extra charge. We only called him twice. We never met in person, mostly via emails and on the phone a few times.

I think we spent $5k on our plans (extremely modified stock). I know folks who spent a whole lot more working from scratch with an architect.

As for hindsight -- we started out wanting to downsize to a 2,500 sf house with a detached 2-car garage. The "rough estimate" came in (cough cough) and we decided we couldn't afford to build that particular small house. So, here we sit in a 4,000+ sf house where the rough quote was the same as the smaller house. No kidding. Stacked space vs. a foundation and roof for two separate buildings.

Cameron

This house was our inspiration, loved the exterior, and at first glance liked the floor plan, but after making our list of must haves, including a 2nd garage, larger family room, butlers pantry, larger kitchen pantry, no grand stair case, no kitchen desk, but small home office nook off kitchen.. etc, etc.. we ended up with over 6000SF! Nixed the whole plan and started over from scratch. Still love the looks of it though!

After looking through I think EVERY floor plan online! We then brought in at least 4 different floor plans ... liked parts of each. As well as a dozen exteriors & pictures we had taken and our list of must haves. Put that all together with a talented architect~ we got our dream house! Fees paid, about 15K, worth EVERY PENNY!

We started in 02/05 with a builder and first plan, after we realized that plan wasn't working out, and neither was the builder we started over in June 2006. We are now owner/builder, our new plans were done Jan 07, broke ground July 07. Its been fun! GOOD LUCK!

Here is a link that might be useful: inspiration house

lindy--How did you know? ;-) Yes, yesterday I had a birthday I would rather not have and on top of that I only lost one pound at WW. Grrrr.

Pass my two margaritas please. Thanks ((())).

Sorry all for being a grouch.

Aww Red...we all could use a pick me up every now and then. Cheers to better days ahead!

misstaceyh,

Check out Charmichael and Dame plans. They are a designer/architect out of Austin. We are building their KemptonCourt
http://www.designbasics.com/plan/plan.asp?PlanNo=9169

Below is a link to all Carmichael and Dame Plans on the DesignBasics website. You can also click to their "Start New Search" page and select specific European Styles (inc. French Country, French Eclectic, Mediterranian, and European)

Here is a link that might be useful: Carmichael and Dame Plans

I'm probably late on this, but just got internet yesterday at our build site. :o)

Allison, I just bought that magazine last weekend. It has some really gorgeous homes in it. I highly recommend it. Great eye candy.

ccinga~ where did you get those photos of that house? I'd love to see the floor plan. Do you have a link to share? :o)

Good luck finding a houseplan/architect that works for you. I think eplans has some great european houseplans! That's what I would recommend. :o)