Alright, I'm just going to ask.

Why don't you buy the white brick ranch...with the Christmas tree in every window??? :)

For me it's overgrown landscaping. It ages a home quickly. I detest tall buses and hedges. I would love to be the secret hedge trimmer. Just go around trimming hedges.

I agree on the windows. Windows were very expensive back when. Today you can get a massive amount of glass for a relative pittance. Though some people still don't want to see outside so they put in tiny squat windows in new builds. People do strange things with their windows. I think "Palladian" windows are going the way of the dodo.

The brick on my parents 1969 house was awesome! I've looked for the bricks in the past - they would look so contemporary today! But alas...

Personally I like the open concrete blocks...they still use them in the tropics.

Agree on the fake stuff. The fake dormers you see out there on new homes are going to be out out out. There's one of those federal shaped things on the house on the corner...with an eagle on it! So even some fake stuff seems to find a home in every decade.

Agree on the stacked stone. Hello, people, not everybody has to have it everywhere!

Well, it's not for sale. It's just the house that caught my eye as I was driving, and it got me to considering WHY it still looks "current" while others built in the same era look "dated".

Totally agree about the overgrown landscaping. To add to that, clutter in and around the yard is just as bad. Another oddity that I never noticed as a child: More than a few houses in our small rural farming community have -- this is going to be weird -- fakey Dutch touches. I never really noted all the concrete "little Dutch girls" kissing ... well, usually just the air, two small fake windmills, and odd trim. Like so many people in this part of the South, the majority of the "old residents" here are of Scotch-Irish descent, so what is up with the Dutch stuff?

Stacked stone on a one story looks very odd to me. I've seen like stone on one stories in Indiana. Looks good because it's native. In Florida stacked stone is weird. But I also do not care for pools with stone and boulders and caves surrounding the pool area. Just weird and a complete waste of money to me.

What you said about proportion. It's also about proportion to the land, so it looks like it rises up from the land, not plopped down. New houses that look classic have that feel.

And restraint. How many and what size/dimensions gables and dormers and rooflines in relation to faces on the house.

I think some houses, even those that embraced current trends looked more classical from the get-go and some of them didn't. The more tasteful-classic ones tend to stand the test of time, and the ones that were trendy but ill-proportioned or awkward, or had too much going on at the time don't stand the test of time (it wasn't as noticeable when they were in style just how ugly some of them were, I think). However, some houses that are trendy/awkward/ill-proportioned/ugly end up getting appreciated in some sort of historical context.

I think there are a lot of houses being built now that are really going to fall out of favor rapidly, but there are a couple millennial styles that will be appreciated in the future.

Agree. As I said, I'm from a small, rural area, and we are known for our extreme thrift. As such, it's not uncommon for a family to move in with grandma and grandpa to help them in their old age ... and to add on a family room to make space ... and then to stay on after the grandparents have passed away. Growing up, many of my friends lived in old farm houses that'd seen 3, 4, 5 additions.

In fact, that's the type of house in which I grew up. My grandparents built in, then they "took in" the screened porch to enlarge the living room ... then my parents took it over; and they removed some walls and created a larger, open kitchen; eventually another enclosed porch and two more bedrooms were added ... then after we were out of the house, our parents redid the kitchen, keeping it the same size but making it nicer ... and now one of my brothers owns it and has put his own touches on it.

Looking around yesterday, I could see that some families have added on gracefully -- while others haven't.

I totally agree that some of today's houses are going to "fall out of favor" in future years. I tend to think it's the overly-done types that're going to be labeled "dated" in the future. I suspect Craftsman will stand the test of time, but -- oddly enough -- I didn't see even one of that style in all the neighborhoods I drove through yesterday.

Mrspete, I really enjoyed your post- I felt nostalgic about the little ranch, and I've never seen it! If I may make a suggestion, I think you should drop a little note to the owners. Not in an attempt to buy it (well, unless you want to!), but just as a show of appreciation. I had a couple of strangers stop by my last house on different occasions to tell me how much they enjoyed our landscaping, and it just thrilled me to no end. I bet the owners of that little ranch (who may very well think it's "nothing special- just an old ranch") would love to know that someone has such appreciation for it.

No oversized garage sticking out in front. I'm curious, does this white house have a garage?One that would fit an SUV and a truck?

Proportions are important. I think many of the ranches of the 60's and 70's are smaller and it is difficult to have an attached garage of today's expected size look good on one of them.

I think the worst offender of homes that "won't last" are the ones that only have architectural details (usually haphazard and incongruous) on the front of the house and nothing on the sides and back. They look like slices of cake with frosting just on the front!

KiwiGem, that's a nice idea. However, I never said it was a "little ranch". It's actually quite large! I live in a 2400 sf ranch, I'm sure it's larger than mine.

It has a garage, but I can't say how big it is inside. I agree that you don't want a too-small garage (thinking of my friend who has to stop her car in the driveway and let her family get out because she has to scoot all the way over to the side, preventing the passenger from opening their doors). If you want an oversized garage, you can place it towards the back of the lot, and it won't overshadow the house, or you can split it into a two-car garage attached to the house and a separate garage towards the back. If you must drive an oversized vehicle, you don't have to build an ill-proportioned house to enclose it!

Oh yes, I hate houses with features only on the front! It looks cheap (sorry if I'm stepping on people's toes). That's not such "a thing" in my hometown. As I said, we're know for our frugality (though we're rural and working class, our county has the highest savings rate in the state), so it's no surprise that people tend to build smaller houses ... but use real brick all the way around! We country folks know value.

Oh! Got it. I think the preciousness of the memory "cuted-up" (shrank) the house in my imagination :-)

off topic, but a friend of mine in Belgium sent the following link. pretty interesting IMO. hope y'all enjoy!
http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News/1.2290161