Like this? But with a hipped roof?

{{gwi:1505786}}

Also sounds like a georgian wihth a hipped roof. This house is bigger but similar shape. Suzanne Kasler's house...

Cost of the house comprised of:
prints
permits
site survey
excavation
foundation
Rough framing
roofing
siding
plumbing
electrical
hvac
drywalling
cabinets
appliances
finish carpentry
doors, windows,
fireplace
painting
flooring
insurance
etc.

If you get my drift 2500 sq ft would cost about the same to build with simple roof or more complicated roof - you pay per square.

Fake stone came down in price and easy to install, that is why you see it everywhere. Almost any house can be converted back to a box. I don't think there is a challenge with box and simple gable and architect not going to win a prize for the box design.

Enter "colonial revival" in your preferred image search engine.
You can see a sample in the link.

Some have a bumped out porch with columns.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1505782}}

Our house is totally simple, we wanted it to look like an old house. We have the "5 over 4 and a door" facade (with small matching bump-outs on each side.) It is a tad more complicated in the back, but due to the way our lot is situated we were able to put our big ol 3 car garage rear entry, which keeps the front facade much simpler and smaller looking. We also have our master wing on the back, which keeps the front tidy :) Our roof is gabled, though, not hipped like you want. We get tons of compliments on our house, it looks nothing at all like anything else in our custom home neighborhood. Most of our neighbors have craftsman, English Tudor, or some sort of frenchish/European type look. Very large, pretty, but certainly not simple. I totally get what you are saying.

Nini,
Can we see pics of your home? If you have the floor plan would be great. Thanks

Google "not so big house" and/or simple "colonial house".

Good luck with your project!

Sure, here are a front and back pic. I only have the blueprints on paper, not in a computer file.
Here is the front, you can't see the matching little bump out on the left, but it is there.

Here is the rear.

Here is a "simple" colonial, a reproduction house of a 1600s-1700s colonial, update with a garage and back deck/patio. In the background of the front elevation (to the right) is a small colonial barn, turned into a "folly", adjacent to a small pond where frogs and waterlilies reign supreme.

Next post is the rear elevation.

Rear elevation here:

Nini, what a beautiful home. I love the undestated elegance.
Is that painted brick?
Thanks for sharing.

Here's a house I've been looking at longingly - smaller than yours since the lot is only 50 feet across and no window above the front door, but a low hipped roof (I don't know what the numbers mean for roof pitch) and symmetrical. I love the "shotgun-esque" style floor plan - that you can see the back door to the deck from the front door.

Here is a link that might be useful: House for sale

mamaattorney, that house for sale appears to be a retro'd American Four-Square. Lots of information available about four-squares.

It's not a "dog-trot" where there was an open, exterior space between two enclosed dwelling elements.

Thanks, Naf Naf. Yes, it is painted brick.

Nini-I'd never before seen your rear, beautiful. Ok, no matter how it sounds;) stunning home!
Newby-I know you don't have an elevation yet but do you have a floor plan? I think many times it helps for a cohesive look when the style is carried throughout.

You have described a hipped-roof center entrance Georgian colonial house, one of the most popular house styles in America and particularly popular in the South although the roof should be steeper for practical reasons if not for appearance. Try Southern Living first then try some of the architect owned southern home sites.

Here is a link that might be useful: Southern Living

Thanks for all the feedback and for sharing photos of such lovely homes!

I've been looking at photos online (branching out from Houzz helped a lot, thanks for the push to do that!) and I think that given we are building in the woods in Minnesota, and that we casual people building a casual home, the Foursquare/Prairie style is a better fit for us than Georgian. I can be a little rigid in my thinking, but the people living in Minnesota during the Georgian era were Native Americans, and they weren't building Georgian homes, and so I'd feel silly trying to build an authentic Georgian home here. I know our house isn't square, but any of the styles would need some adjustment because we are limited to using vinyl siding (if we have an extra $10-15k, it's going towards a screened porch, not hardiplank or brick).

My husband has been modeling his vision for how our house should look. I'm sharing it here with some trepidation-- its not traditional, and we're aware of that. I am the less visionary of the two of us, so it's taken me a while to come around to his ideas. The colors of the siding aren't right here-- a downside of the software he's using is that we can't adjust the hue. The green will be greyer than it appears. We haven't gotten an elevation yet from our architect.

Renovator8-- why do you say the roof should be steeper? Our builder's standard roof is 5/12, so I know that pitch does ok with our local snow load, but I'm not sure what else factors in with roof design. I don't want to go a lot steeper because there's a development near us with lots of very steep hipped roofs and the houses are all roof (in that case it doesn't help that the development is in a narrow gully, so I always approach the homes from above).

Houseofsticks- I posted our floorplan here: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/build/msg101210455016.html The blueprints are toward the end of the discussion.

I've been trying to keep our elevation relatively simple because I feel like the more details we add, the more there is to mess up. If I had an extra million dollars, I'd love to build an authentic shingle style house with a tower, etc... but since I don't I'm trying to focus on keeping things simple and making sure that what we do build is done in a way that works.

Someone here on GW linked this several months ago. I think it's a great option for the many that are restricted to 50' city lots.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thinking Inside the Box - Builderonline

There's a house for sale near me (can you tell I am in a "should we/shouldn't we" move stage)? It was built in 1979 and maybe having multiple colors as you've selected are more current, but it reminds me a lot of yours:

Whallyden is building a home similar to your husband's rendering right now. There's another poster here with a similar home, as well, but I can't think of their "name". Maybe Whallyden can point you to their pictures?

Check out September's progress thread and you'll find Whallyden's posting close to the bottom.

Here is a link that might be useful: September progress thread