It's a very promising start but the elements need to be tuned to work together. There no reason a Shingle Style house can't be built in any state. The gambrel roof needs some work to integrate with the main house and so does the entrance.

Look at Ten Acres by Rob Bramhall linked below. It is featured in the May-June issue of New England Home magazine.

Here is a link that might be useful: a New England house with shingles and stone

I like where you're going with this. Of course, being from New England, I'm a bit biased. Glad to see you're still working on your dream.

Jay

Have you seen the post by igsmith? The house reminded me of what you might be thinking of building. It's gorgeous. It should still be on the 1st page. I'll bump it up so you can see it.

Thanks for the inputs.

mightyanvil - I'm glad we seem to be on the right track. I feel so much better about it this time around. I know that one can build Shingle Style anywhere, but this will be a very different look for Upstate SC. From our observations, most of the new construction around Greenville is typical neo-traditional, Tuscan, Old World/French, something called "Mountain" or some type of Craftsman derivative. Even though folks talk about how much they love Shingle Style, people don't seem to build it.

I know that the gambrel needs some work and the entrance has always been problematic. It would likely be easier if we just had a covered front porch, but we were trying for a balance of outdoor seating areas. We have the screened porch and then the area under the deck will be covered on the lower level. I'm no great sun worshiper being a fair-skinned, blue-eyed blonde with freckles from Celtic heritage (quintuple-whammy for skin cancer), but after all these years hiding from the ferocious sun in TX, I would like to be able to have a place to sit to "warm my bones". By having the front terrace and the back deck, we should be able to have some sun for most of the day.

Thank you for the link, the stone & shingles really integrate nicely. I don't want to impose, but are there any general tips you could lead me to for improving the front?

Jay - we stalled for quite a while, but I think we're ready to get going, again. I hit my minimum FERS retirement birthday on Mother's Day & DD is graduating from UT-Austin, tomorrow, so there's not much holding in Houston any longer.

eventhecatisaboy (what a great screen name; I chuckle every time I see it.) - what a super link. DH was looking over my shoulder as I brought it up and he is really impressed with seeing the pictures.

Our problem now, is how to proceed with the architect since our vision is now so different. I'm going to start a new thread for that, but I really need to get my act in gear to head out to Austin.

Thanks - Jo Ann

There are a lot of good shingle style examples on the internet but you need to avoid the pre-packaged plan mills and look at the web pages of architectural firms.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shingle Style

Hi -- love this style of home as well. Good site for more inspiration is http://www.architectsnw.com/

Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shingle style houses

Think your house looks great so far --- One of my favorite homes is this style --- I think the 'bracket' details really define the house. I like how you are incorporating somme of those details.
The one in particular I am talking about is the first one under new construction --- there are several pictures of the house.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shingle home

Since you are in Texas, I would seriously consider using Hardy Plank shingle style siding instead of would shakes, the sun will really be hard on the wood shakes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hardy Plank Shingle Shake

mythreesonsnc - thanks for the link; there are some good ideas on that site. I have to make sure that we give the designer plenty of images with bracket detail since that is one of the things we like about the many Shingle Style houses we've looked at.

suzyqtexas - we're in Houston, now, but we are building in the Greenville, SC area. That being said, you are so right about the TX sun and shakes. Heck its even miserable on our privacy fence. Hurricane Ike did us a favor by knocking the old one down last September and just about everyone in the neighborhood had to rebuild.

After reading about them on this forum, we've decided to go with Nichiha Sierra Premium shakes which are fiber cement but give the look of stained cedar. A distributor was kind enough to send us samples of all of the stock colors & I think they will look great. I know that theoretically natural shakes are no maintenance, but after living in TX, I'm so very leery of insects and other critters wrecking havoc on real wood.

Thanks - Jo Ann

Here is a link that might be useful: Nichiha Sierra Premium

When it comes to shingle style, take a look at Robert Stern's masterpieces.

Worthy - thanks for the link. It looks like the guest house of the project that you linked to is bigger than the home we plan to build. HaHaHa!!!!

Do you have links for Shingle Style houses or houses inspired by the style that are of a more modest size? I've been all over stories about Robert Stern's LIFE dream house as an example to give to our designer since the scale is closer to what we are doing.

The Robert A. M. Stern house from your post is the 6th entry in a slide show on the Architectural Digest site. If you click on the link for the house, there are a lot more pictures besides the ones on Stern's site.

Thanks - Jo Ann

Here is a link that might be useful: AD 2008 Shingle Style Slideshow

I think you'll be glad that you went with fiber cement. SC has some hot sun, too, and the carpenter bees could make your life miserable. They burrow into wood, and they are somewhat impervious to treatments, since they don't actually eat the wood. I used to think I wanted a log cabin, but have since decided that in my 'golden years', I don't want the maintenance. It will be fiber cement siding, and a metal roof for us!