I wanted to find Craftsman details to punch up our simple ranch a bit. Although I did find plenty of inspiration photos, I had the best luck driving through neighborhoods of real, vintage Craftsman homes. Do you have any areas near you that have the 'look' you're after?

I use Realtor dot com and my local MLS. Filter new construction listings.

Google is your friend. Type your specifics in and revise as needed.

When going through houzz looking for inspiration don't worry about size. You're looking for ideas, not a finished product, so if you are excited about the board and batten on one house and how they created the entry on another, add I to your idea book, even if the house is larger than you want.

The thing is to collect ideas, not finished products

When it's time to bring to your architect, he/she will be able to create something you like in scale for how you live

I agree with MsLindley - check out real homes for sale. I go to zillow.com

Giving giving a $$ figure as a search parameter is of no use unless you tell us your general location. A $400,000 house in Southern California would, I assume, be small or a fixer upper. A $400,000 home in my rural Midwest area would be one of the top ten fanciest homes around here.

I agree with mushcreek. Drive through developments that were constructed in the time period you are looking for. I had a client that wanted a Shingle Style summer home. I looked at homes designed by the architects McKim, Mead, and White; they were the major developers of the style.

MushCreek. Good idea about driving around...so far no luck...perhaps I'm trying to find something way to specific..

Mslindley...Pensacola...great ideas realtor.com. I have tried to google no luck so far, I'll keep trying.

Hi doc...thanks so much for the sending photos...:)

Yes, don't focus on price and/or size ... those cute little CA ranches in the photos, posted above by doc, are around $1 mill+

Cp. thanks, advice much appreciated and helpful

Mo142...I'll also try trulia

Little...chispa...so true about my price range as it varies depending where one lives. its amazing how many tear downs there are with values over 1million...

Mark...things are a bit different in my next of the woods. Developers here, buy huge tracts of land, develop it, and build the homes. So we have full neighborhoods with cookie cutter houses...as the developer may have about perhaps only 8-10 styles to chose from. And historically there once were very few developers...this has changed over the years...

Until I grew up and moved away, I thought that's how the world was. Lol

You can look through one of the many books out there that identify architectural styles. Many of the homes built in the last 50 or so years are bastardized variations of established architectural styles. Personally I find it interesting finding out how styles developed and the architects that helped develop them, check out Bernard Maybeck.