Not liking it either. I think it would be a better look to just repeat the gable. Not liking the mutton chops either.

What's a mutton chop [in reference to house design - I know it's a piece of sheep meat otherwise ;)]?

Probably referring to the gable returns. Tract builder's cost-cutting and production carpentry has become so much the norm that anything traditional looks somehow wrong.

Here's what a gable looks like without a return. Typically a blank triangle.

Source: rooferscoffeeshop.com

Probably referring to the gable returns. Tract builder's cost-cutting and production carpentry has become so much the norm that anything traditional looks somehow wrong.

Here's what a gable looks like without a return. Typically a blank triangle.

Source: rooferscoffeeshop.com

Thanks worthy!

I'm kind of ambivalent about those...I checked other listings in my area and they all have those so I'll probably just stick with them as they are drawn. Though the middle one looks a bit bigger for some reason - they should probably all match.

Any other ideas about the porch?

Are either of these better? Squaring off the doors will save us a lot of $$$.

#1 - repeat gable

#2 - hip roof (?)

Have you changed your floorplan? This elevation does't match the last one I saw, which had front facing windows in both the left and right front bedrooms upstairs.

Mojomom - only a tiny bit. The floorplan was reversed to accommodate the lot better and the windows in the upstairs front bedroom will be on the side.

I like the hip roof over the porch better than the gable roof, the gable looks like the pitch winds up being too low to really shed ice, snow, and rain as well as I'd like. As for the mutton chops, I like a gable return like what you have drawn here. Some people call them pigeon stoops, as well. But I also like wide eaves on houses, too, which many builders aren't doing these days either.

Well, I am a big fan of symmetrical...frankly, I would repeat the two story section with the window on the second floor on the right side so it mirrors the left. That probably would completely change things on your interior...but it would make the house look more timeless and classic to me.

The three front facing gables should be organized in a more formal manner or they should be of different sizes. The current gables seem arbitrary or accidental rather than purposely designed. The two gables on the left should either overlap or be pulled apart not just because they will look more natural but because a difficult flashing condition will be avoided.

Such balance and proportion issues have been worked out well in many houses over many decades so studying some books on American Tudor and English cottages, etc. might help.

I would avoid classical/colonial cornice returns on this kind of house (I assume it is brick) unless you give the house more of a Georgian/Colonial Revival appearance. For the current design the traditional detail is to corbel the top of the brick wall outward and flare the roof rake over it to hide the gutter.

Before making final design decisions it is a good idea to render the trim and materials on the elevation drawing or draw it in a perspective program.

Ah, so depressing!

I thought I was making progress!

DH and I picked this because we saw a house with a floor plan that we liked and we thought it was pretty from the outside. The tweaks from the original are mainly just the windows and now the porch.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. I can't design a house with whiteout and a ruler. We don't have an architect. The builder built the other house and thinks it's pretty and wonders why we want to change so much already.

This is the inspiration house:

Not enough information. Show us the inspiration house and tell us what you like about it.

We liked the 3 gables of varying heights and the asymmetry. We don't want a house that is "formal" or "traditional" really. Our builder originally wanted us to change to a 2-story entry and drew it up that way, but we felt this one story one was more comfortable-looking. (That one was also heavily disliked here, FWIW). We also thought the one story entry would offer better protection from the elements.

Maybe it sounds silly, but I could envision this house looking very pretty with Christmas decorations - a small tree in the window above the entry, a second larger tree in the study gable (the shortest one). Wreaths on the door with a spotlight (we made ours a double door). Maybe even some lights on the columns - which I was thinking of making square, BTW.

Honestly, if I had my druthers I'd build a shingled Cape Cod style house, but we don't live in New England and this is fairly typical for our area. So it is what it is. But I'm still open to suggestions on how to improve on it!

Cottonpenny - I have a shingled cape cod house, glad to hear they are still liked by some people (seems every new house built around here today is a colonial).

I think the inspiration house is really attractive. I like the single-story covered entryway, totally agree about the drawbacks of the 2-story covered entry. The only concern I have is a small one: On the left side of the house the second floor looks to have very few windows. Part of that is because the lower gable is in the way, but I would try to put lots of windows on the left side of the house to give that area some natural light. Another difference between your drawing and the inspiration is that you have casement windows but the inspiration house looks like they used double hung.

Is there an area near you that has new homes at a higher price point than yours? Often times people with more money can spend more of it on architects, and you may be able to glean some more ideas from their work. You can also get ideas on how landscaping can accent the home you are designing, and planning for that in advance will make life easier in the long run.

You said you didn't want a house that is "formal" or "traditional" yet every element of the house designs you have shown us is a formal element of one of several traditional American house styles. Academically this design approach is called "eclecticism" and was the basis of many popular house styles of the early 20th century.

But the current use of eclecticism differs from the earlier use of it in that it further corrupts the detailing of the elements presumably for ease of construction, cost reduction, or perhaps just a lack of knowledge and craftsmanship.

The thing that concerns me is that you appear to be intimidated by what others have built in your area. A good architect could help you design a house that serves your needs and deviates from the typical designs of the area enough to create a very personal and special home. Unfortunately, in areas where developers and builders have dominated the design of homes for decades, skilled architects can be difficult to find at a reasonable cost.

The inspiration house has a Georgian/Adam/Colonial Revival roof with a traditional center gable but it is offset from center and asymmetrical Mutt & Jeff gables are added to each side from the romantic American Tudor & English Cottage traditions. The Palladian windows are Adam/Colonial Revival but they are detailed as if the mulled window jambs are supporting the brick arches at their spring points and instead of being single featured windows over an entrance they are repeated at each gable. The portico looks like an afterthought with skinny columns. Larger square columns and/or a curved roof might be better; see some historical references for many good examples. The cornice returns are appropriate for a Colonial Revival house but there are more elegant ways to avoid standing water on the returns than little roofs. The designer overlapped the eaves of the two left side gables and avoided the complications shown in your adaptation.

To me, the height of elegant eclecticism was the Shingle Style which was part of the Colonial Revival era. It's what I would use to provide this house plan with a clearer sense of style, better energy conservation, and lower maintenance cost.

Renovator - Thanks. I'm a surgeon, not an architect or designer in any way, shape, or form. A quick google of Shingle Style turns up some pretty houses, but I'm not sure how to reconcile that with the fact that every house in the neighborhood - almost every house in the city and certainly every "new" and "nice" house is brick. Don't you think a house like that would look funny sitting next to a whole street of houses that look like my inspiration picture?

How are shingles better at energy conservation and maintenance? I have been led to believe the reserve is true.

If I don't change to shingles, I will probably keep the hip roof on the porch and make the columns fatter and squarer. I'll ask the builder about the overlapping gable and what that would mean for the interior.

EngineerChic - Thanks. I will look into the double hung windows. People in this area with more money seem to not build houses that are more attractive, they are just bigger.

You have described where architecture goes to die.

Another vote against the mutton chop. They are horrible. If this were my house, I'd get rid of all the gables and keep a simple hip roof.

If you want to keep 3 gables, then I would make them all 2 story story and get rid of the overlap. This picture also shows an alternative to the mutton
chop:

I gotta admit, being accused of being the death of architecture makes it hard for me to continue, but I have thick skin, so whatever.

I think if the house were actually symmetrical it would open up a lot of options for me. I found another pic of a similar house with the windows more like mine but I still don't love it :( I'd consider flattening the whole front and doing a simple hip roof like pps7 suggested but there is more space between the windows and front door on one side than the other.

I can't figure out how to remedy this - anyone have any ideas?

Other house:

First floor plan:

The alternate eave treatment above is what I described earlier. At some point you will need to decide if you are borrowing design elements from the Colonial Revival style or the American Tudor/English Cottage styles because these elements do not combine well as you seem to be discovering. IMHO, all they really have in common is brick.

In the mid 20's David Adler, with his legendary skill, combined elements of the late Medieval/Tudor and Colonial Revival styles in the William McCormick Blair house "Port of Call". Architectural historians often describe it as Colonial Revival and Shingle Style. Compared to the ones you posted, it is a much more private kind of house that relates well to it's setting.

Renovator - that is a very pretty house, I agree. I have no idea how to incorporate that into my existing design, though. And I can't really start over at this point.

As far as colonial vs english tudor...you're going to roll your eyes, I know, but I don't really like either one. This is a house I like. It's also ours.

(Non sugar coating follows.)

You wouldn't want a fireman to do his own appendectomy, so why are you trying to design your own home? Said fireman can possibly give first aid and CPR, and that's about your level of skill with trying to do your own home design. Hire an architect and let a trained professional do the job correctly. An architect can take all of your inspiration pics and floor plan ideas and create a whole out of the parts. And it won't be a stitched together Frankenstein "whole" either.

If you are going to build custom, you cannot afford NOT to have quality professionals involved in the job or what's the point of doing custom? You might as well buy a builder's spec home or just buy something existing. You money would go further. Building custom is a premium process. Pay the premium now to a professional, or pay it later as existing in a dysfunctional living space.

I did not accuse you of being the death of architecture but you apparently live in an area where it gets little respect; all I know of it is from your chilling description. The example you then show looks like a converted fire station. Homes should look like they are intended for people. Random juxtaposition of different size and height gables is the most most common cliche in residential architecture. You need to take the design in another direction but it should not change the plan much.

Also, you should not take examples of other eclectic homes as suggestions that you copy them. They are presented as examples of how ideas and elements are used to make a whole. That process is the most difficult part of designing buildings and it is natural that it would trip you up.

Livewireoak is right; if you want to fit into the neighborhood and don't want something special and different, you should buy an existing house.

Why do I think I can design my own house?

Because my parents told me I can do anything I set my mind to?

Because my DH would freak at the idea of spending more money already?

Because I don't want to delay the build at this point because I want it to be finished before our lease is up to avoid living in extended stay for a period of time with a And because house building actually isn't like surgery - no lives are at stake. The worst outcome of having an ugly house amongst a lot of other ugly houses in a very desirable neighborhood would not be the end of the world for me. I don't think my plan is dysfunctional, I just think it could be more attractive.

I don't think I need to list the reasons why building this home made sense for us personally, financially, and logistically, but suffice to say we did look extensively at existing houses before making this decision. And this is the best decision to make for our family at this time - though no choice is ever perfect.

So I drove around the neighborhood today and looked at all the other houses. There aren't really any I love - maybe that's related to it being a dead architecture zone and not my complete lack of taste as I thought.

Anyway, here's our left side neighbor:

Our right side neighbor:

Down the road for sale for $150k more than my place:

I thought this one was kind of cute:

Maybe a little traditional, but I thought was nice:

I'm still not really sure where to go from here.

Renovator - funny! :-)

Are all the homes in your neighborhood built by the same builder? I totally see why you are conflicted...it is difficult when your vision doesn't totally line up with what you are presented with. However, you said other factors like floor plan and location are more important to you than elevation...so take this FWIW, but of the photos you showed, the only the last looked like it could possibly stand the test of time architecturally. I am not sure where you live, but those other homes look like homes that were built in our area in the mid-late nineties by Shea or John Weiland homes. Nicely built, but not custom. When we were in the design stage of our build...it was very important to me that the exterior architecture reflected timeless design and be of a style that was authentic to our area. I totally get not wanting to wait longer than you have to...but honestly, the inconvenience of extra cost and time will be more than made up by the happiness you will feel being in a home that reflects your vision. Good luck to you whatever you decide.

To me they're all the same house except for the last one which is a pretty good emulation of the Georgian/Adam style. The steeper gable and the recessed entrance door are restrained modern updates so it is unlikely to be a bought plan. This house would not be improved by additional gables.

Often it's what you take away that makes a design work.

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Nini - the houses on either side of us were built by our builder in the last 1-3 years. The 3rd is new construction by another builder. I'm not sure about #4 and 5, but I'd guess they're a little older based on the more mature landscaping.

I'm not surprised that this area is behind the times trend-wise. We are outside of Pittsburgh, which is not known for it's rich architectural history - at least that I know of. Maybe Renovator will tell me what a Steel Mill revival house should look like ;-)

I did the detailing for a dormitory and dining hall for Carnegie Mellon Univ in Pittsburgh. It was a competition - Italian inspiration - all brick, of course. I was sick of brick buildings by that time but the entry "lantern" and the ventilation stacks were fun.

Fun! I used to drive by there every day on my way to work. They have a crazy life size statue of kids looking at a flagpole that would always fool me into wondering why kids were up and out at 5 am.

In the spirit of Saint-Exupery then, I lost a gable. I increased the roof pitch. I could take or leave the chimney thingy on the right gable. And I like shutters. My drawing of the porch is not so good but I like the gable. No mutton chops. I think it's better than the fire station now.

Well this is an entertaining thread.

I'm just a homebuyer - not an architect, builder, or even a surgeon :). But I know what looks pleasing to me and what doesn't.

I don't like the combination of curved-top windows and non-curved top windows. I see by the example just above, one set of windows on the left side without the curved-top - why? For interest? Novelty? It just looks to me like somebody messed up.

If you wanted to add something different, make it DIFFERENT. Not similar or not quite the same.

Just my opinion, of course, as a layperson.

The combination of curved and straight topped windows was exactly what I liked about the original elevation posted above. But agree on the mutton chops completely.

I see your dilemma when the houses around you are so, so similar to each other, but I think you can actually blend without sacrificing style. I like your elevation a lot - you repeat style elements nicely and yet kept it interesting.

The massing of the house should be settled before worrying about window openings but the mixing of an arched set of windows and a set with a flat lintel is not uncommon in the American Tudor style and quite common in the French Chateauesque style. However, the arches were at the lower floor and worked well with the typical arched entry opening.