subject: Home Styles USA [print this page] Home Styles USA Home Styles USA
Let's say you're in the market to buy one of the many available Salt Lake City houses, or a home in Pennsylvania or even Texas, where do you begin? No matter what part of the country you're looking in the best place to start is by first deciding what type of home you like. If you can narrow down your search by eliminating certain types of homes that you don't like, you've just made your search a whole lot less difficult.
Home styles can be loosely broken down into five general categories; Colonial, Romantic, Victorian, Modern, and Craftsman. Obviously there are sub categories dealing with specific regional differences, but the general house style will usually fall into one of these five categories with the most popular three being Colonial, Victorian and Arts and Crafts.
Colonial Homes
There are many types of Colonial Homes and they are called so due to the period they were built in. In the early 18th century there were French, Spanish and English colonies scattered throughout the US and the homes built during that period reflected the styles of their original homelands. This spawned such familiar styles as Georgian Colonial, Dutch Colonial, Early Classical Revival, First Period English, Federal and New England Colonial. Despite the diverse influences in colonial homes they do have similar features that make identification relatively easy and they include very symmetrical architecture, narrow side windows flanking the front entrance, and more often than not, paired chimneys.
Victorian Homes
Much like Colonial Homes, this building style is more of a historical period rather than an actual specific type of build. During the industrialization of the western world architecture saw great change and innovation. These changes resulted in Victorian style homes like Queen Anne, Shingle, Stick, Richardsonian and Second Empire. Some indentifying features include irregularly shaped roofs with steep pitches, textured shingles and exterior finishes and asymmetrical porches and facades.
Arts & crafts Homes
Originally headed by John Ruskin & William Morris this style of homes was designed to highlight individual craftsmen rather than mass produced goods of questionable quality. Homes paid particular attention to detail and some identifying features include exposed rafters, decorative beams and braces, intricate built-ins and low pitched roofs with wide unenclosed eaves.
Given the vast difference in home styles you might want to think twice before calling your realtor and saying something as general as "Find me something amazing within Salt Lake City homes" because before they can find your perfect home you need to know what "perfect" means to you.
