How to Make Your House Feel at Home Where It Is

For those looking for homes in a particular style (or who want to avoid certain styles), you might like to try the Houzz photo filters: http://www.houzz.com/photos. Choose traditional, eclectic, modern, the size you like, etc., then hit the search button to see photos in only the categories you want. Here's a guide (click on the link under the photo):

If it's a particular style of home tours you want to see, go to Ideabooks, click "Houzz Tours" on the left, and then your style. Here's a link to all that: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/Houzz-Tours

I hope that helps!

Despite how modern it is, the first house seems to have sprung up in that spot, so natural does it seem in situ. I also like the way the Missouri home appears to have almost "rolled" into place (photo 5), The view from the Melbourne house is breathtaking (photo 8). Finally, the house in the wooded area in Sydney (photo 9) seems both modern and traditional, probably due to the way it fits so well into its surroundings. I am not a modernist, but I clearly found a lot to like here.

natural materials, I am a firm believer in using materials that will age gracefully. that is often the point in Modern architecture .

You may not like the design element, but raw materials, wood, metal and concrete can be forever products.

I will leave to explanation of wood options that can age in the environment to another longer article, but this is not your old soft wood building materials from years gone by.

Also the patina on metal is surface, and is not the same as what you experience with an old rust bucket. longer conversation needed on the science side.

You may not like it personally, but modern architecture is more about sustainability and often cost efficiency, tolerance to nature's wrath, and much much more.