Home Style and Thoughts
I was puttering around on HGTV.com, and came across this quiz, What's Your Home Style.
French Normandy
The impressive, sheltering roofs and decorative wood designs of this style harken to the French countryside. Discovering one of these homes is like stepping back in time to a gentle, romantic era filled with whimsical charm.
Half-timbered wood set inside stucco walls, wide, wooden beams and steeply-pitched roofs are the hallmarks of French Normandy style. The rules are not hard and fast, however. Windows can vary wildly in shape and size, chimneys can be short or tall, roofs can have irregular heights.
This style wasn’t created by a single architect; it flourished in France with regular people building homes themselves that suited their needs. Wealthy Americans traveling the French countryside in the late 1800s created demand for this style in the United States. Architects in the U.S. loved the style because it was flexible to individual lifestyles but oozing with charm.
If French Normandy is what stirs your spirit, you are a true individual. You walk to the beat of your own drummer, but make plenty of time for friends and family.
That house fits me. I like the old, comfortable, lived in house. I don't want to live in something I'm afraid I'll break. The big beams and tall, odd-shaped ceilings. Those are good things to me. They feel like home. There's something about it that reminds you of a time when family mattered. I can imagine seeing a dog running through the house, or a kid on the way to the backyard. It's not quite classic, but it's not modern either. I really like the feel of that. And each one is unique since one architect didn't design them, but instead of was gradual style.
I love that, and that's what I want in a house. I don't want something that I can't walk into every room and have character jump out at me, that I can imagine decorating and picking something up a flea market or little shop with an exclamation of "I know exactly where to put this!" I think part of that comes from my grandpa's house. In Michigan, he took an old house and revamped it with maghony panels that someone was going to tear down in another house, included shelving and hidey places behind the paneling by making some doors. Hell, he has a bar in the wall, literally. It has that feel to it, too. The exposed beams and stucco on what's not paneled. I really just like that type of home.
That's not say I don't adore bungalows and Victorian homes, too. I could live very happily inside any of them. I just have to feel comfortable and warm whereever I am, and I know the more modern designs wouldn't make me feel that way. They remind me of a lack of peace and privacy, and that's what I like. I don't want floor to ceiling windows (talk about a bitch to get window dressings for) on all of them. I'd like to have the ability to walk naked through my house and know my neighbor ain't getting the peek show. Simply things like that.
Pics
HGTV's choice
About.com's choice
Anderson Real Estate's choice
More info available on the Normandy style here.
French Normandy
The impressive, sheltering roofs and decorative wood designs of this style harken to the French countryside. Discovering one of these homes is like stepping back in time to a gentle, romantic era filled with whimsical charm.
Half-timbered wood set inside stucco walls, wide, wooden beams and steeply-pitched roofs are the hallmarks of French Normandy style. The rules are not hard and fast, however. Windows can vary wildly in shape and size, chimneys can be short or tall, roofs can have irregular heights.
This style wasn’t created by a single architect; it flourished in France with regular people building homes themselves that suited their needs. Wealthy Americans traveling the French countryside in the late 1800s created demand for this style in the United States. Architects in the U.S. loved the style because it was flexible to individual lifestyles but oozing with charm.
If French Normandy is what stirs your spirit, you are a true individual. You walk to the beat of your own drummer, but make plenty of time for friends and family.
That house fits me. I like the old, comfortable, lived in house. I don't want to live in something I'm afraid I'll break. The big beams and tall, odd-shaped ceilings. Those are good things to me. They feel like home. There's something about it that reminds you of a time when family mattered. I can imagine seeing a dog running through the house, or a kid on the way to the backyard. It's not quite classic, but it's not modern either. I really like the feel of that. And each one is unique since one architect didn't design them, but instead of was gradual style.
I love that, and that's what I want in a house. I don't want something that I can't walk into every room and have character jump out at me, that I can imagine decorating and picking something up a flea market or little shop with an exclamation of "I know exactly where to put this!" I think part of that comes from my grandpa's house. In Michigan, he took an old house and revamped it with maghony panels that someone was going to tear down in another house, included shelving and hidey places behind the paneling by making some doors. Hell, he has a bar in the wall, literally. It has that feel to it, too. The exposed beams and stucco on what's not paneled. I really just like that type of home.
That's not say I don't adore bungalows and Victorian homes, too. I could live very happily inside any of them. I just have to feel comfortable and warm whereever I am, and I know the more modern designs wouldn't make me feel that way. They remind me of a lack of peace and privacy, and that's what I like. I don't want floor to ceiling windows (talk about a bitch to get window dressings for) on all of them. I'd like to have the ability to walk naked through my house and know my neighbor ain't getting the peek show. Simply things like that.
Pics
HGTV's choice
About.com's choice
Anderson Real Estate's choice
More info available on the Normandy style here.