American neo-eclectic I believe.

Welcome to my garage.

Agree with jn3344 - it's neo-eclectic in style.

.... which to me means a hodge-podge of unrelated elements, catering to what contractors perceive to be a desire for something imposing, done as cheaply as possible.

It looks like an older home heavily remodeled with the garage as an addition with all those projections too. If that is the case, I'm not bothered by it.

Oh, it's not a "heavily remodeled, older home"...it's a shining example of 90's Neo-eclectic. Note the massing of the hipped roof(s) and the gable within a gable details. And I don't believe that one can determine from these exterior shots how well-built the home is. It could be rickety, builder grade materials slapped up inside, or a well-crafted home that just happened to be built in the 90's when this style was prevalent.

It looks really pleasant nestled into its setting.

(I am from the part of the world that doesn't think a front-facing garage is a horror. We look at that and think, "Lucky! Three-car garage!!".)

Is the garage-on-the-front-of-the-house thing regional? I'm always a bit puzzled by comments alluding to that being a bad thing, because where I live it's the norm and always has been.

I don't mind "showcasing" our garage, now that it has a pretty new floor. It's one of the cleanest and most organized spaces we have! Plus, I think it's pretty from the outside with its cedar-clad door.

Most of us have garages and we utilize them daily. Sort of the same thing with the TV in a room. If you have it and use it -- if it's a part of your daily existence -- why should we be compelled to hide those things?

Fori :)

In my world, a front/forward facing garage is the reality. There's really no other place to put it. Every day I give thanks for having my very own two-car garage, a space that I'm strangely attached to (no pun intended).

This home looks well situated, and, other than it being too big for me, looks like a nice place to live.

Ida, your garage is sickening!!! Just kidding. How do you keep it so pristine and perfect?

To some folks, a forward-of-the-house garage is undesirable. I didn't know that till I read it on GW. I'm of the mind that if it's out there in the front, there ain't no way you can make it disappear. Better embrace it and make it look nice.

LOL, Linelle! I tell ya, we are so darn proud of our little garage! We've never had a space like this; in fact, our previous garage was detached in the back of the house, straight out of the 40s with a sliding barn door, and absolutely disgusting with bamboo shoots that tried to come inside to grow, and more than a fair amount of rat poop. Give me a front-and-center, clean-as-a-whistle space to park our cars over an out-of-sight, neglected and unusable garage any day.

The house looks to me like a 1970s split level that has the lower level garage turned into living space and a new 3 car garage added. The bedroom on the upper level was bumped out and some other additions made to the other side of the house. I've seen similar in my neighborhood.

I was thinking it was a split level as well. Not sure I agree with the addition or remodel concept, but it definitely looks like a split level or tri-level to me.

In my neighborhood, forward facing garages are not allowed. A few people have done them anyway - free-standing ones at the back of the property line when they turned the existing garage into a family room. Neighborhood was built between right before WWII and most in 1948. A tornado came through in 1973 and many houses were rebuilt at that time.

Front facing garages don't bother me if they are a function of the lot size.

And depending, I would rather have an attached garage out front if putting the garage around back is going to have a negative impact on the outdoor space in back.

You see lots of beautiful front lawns that never get stepped on except by whoever mows them, and then the friends stand out back on the driveway in front of the garage if you entertain outside. That doesn't make much sense to me.

My favorite is a side load garage in which the doors are neither in front nor in back but that takes a wide lot.

I guess my biggest dislike of front facing garages is that unlike Ida's so often the drywall has never even been painted, and it's full of junk and then people leave the doors open. If you keep it closed, it's just another part of the house.

And honestly, everyone knows if you live in the suburbs you probably have a car. You probably have three, and you have to get in it to do practically everything. I don't think a discreet garage fools anybody that you are usually walking. It's kind of like elaborately hiding a TV. I am not sure I see much point, especially among those people who then leave the doors open all the time anyway. Of course any of this can be done in moderation.

As for the house style I would put this fairly early on in the neo-eclectic period because it only has 4 different front facing gables and the house still hunkers down in it's environment instead of being a big vertical puffed up facade made to look even larger than it is.

McMansion. All roof. Garages with cars in them don't bother me, doors open or closed. What drives me INSANE is a two/three car garage FULL of storage and the cars all on the driveway.

In snow country, front facing garages make sense. Also, the narrower the lot, the better they are. Far less impermeable soil (concrete) to increase pollution and runoff issues.

You guys are tough crowd. hodge-podge, cheap, mcmansion? Looks like a nice house to me, but what do I know. Front facing garage, oh the horrors we see on this forum...

Front facing garages are typical where I live. Side facing is more rare here even on larger lots where there is enough room to come in from the side. I'm so used to it that when I see a home where the garage doesn't face the front it doesn't look right to me and I always think it would look better if it faced the front. Both of ours face the front, sheetrock unfinished/unpainted, not too full of crap, just cars. The city garage we keep closed for security reasons - the country garage we often leave open. It's not visible from the road, not that most people around here really care what it looks like inside. I notice more and more people expoxy-ing their garage floors around here these days though. For us it's just a garage for storing cars and yard stuff - no need for a pristine look.

Actually the thing that bothers me about this house is the three, different sized, utility vents or pipe prominent on the focal area of the roof right over the front door. That is a really careless detail. Surely they could have be routed elsewhere. It's like putting the electric meter right by the front door. (Actually now they are often right by the side door right where all your friends come in) For neo-eclectic, otherwise, maybe it's not so bad. The inside could be fine. It could be a nice house to live in.

But it says something about our culture that a well-proportioned rectangle of a house with a nice classic facade is considered "boring" by a lot of people. But beyond that, I think a lot of people buy what's available at their price point that meets their checklist, in the location they need. They aren't that concerned about how many gables or roofs it does or doesn't have. They might buy a plain rectangle on the same lot. It's just that that's not what builders have been building very much of for the last 25 years.

When I was a kid, my parents house had a front garage but the drive was curved and door faced towards the neighbors house. That design had a lot of pluses, it left a large part of the drive for extra parking, it was more private when the door was open and it still offered a fairly large yard (for a subdivision) in front like this example. I don't see this set up in the newer homes ever, but it makes a lot of sense.

But imagine that with a 3 car garage! :)

I don't mind my garage taking up the front of the house. If you think about it, an attached garage is something that cuts off windows for a chunk of house. I'd rather have that in the front where I'm likely to keep windows and window treatments closed anyway. It makes for a better house on the inside.

I did once have an excellent garage in a '20s Tudor revival. The house was on a corner so the garage was side entry--into the basement. That was pretty cool, especially since most of the other homes in the neighborhood had detached garages. In Detroit. Now, THAT is in fact a horror (CA people don't like snow).

I've nothing against front garages if they make sense, but this one is too wide and..I don't know..too hovering over the rest of the place. I wouldn't be attracted to this house at all, but it's very far from being the worst or something. Some houses just make you wonder, and not in a good way. This one at least looks like a house.

Anyway, wanted to ask..is there a difference between neo-eclectic and contemporary, in terms of architecture? Because I often see the word "contemporary" when reading the listings descriptions..and it gets a bit confusing sometimes

PS IdaClaire your garage is everything I want our garage to be:)

cmarlin,

re: this being a harsh crowd...I dunno, I think the opinion is mixed at best about front facing garages with most people acknowledging they make sense in a lot of situations.

With regards to "cheap" I think that is an assumption and it's related to this style coming to prominence when building quality in general was not at its' best...but it is an assumption. I've seen very well constructed houses built in this style. There is amount of custom building going on in the Building a Home forum in this style.

But with regards to "hodge-podge"...I don't know, is there a better or kinder word to describe massing like this?

It's not restrained, it's not particularly well-balanced or proportioned. It's just not. If you look at the work of Victorian architects like Frank Furness and Wilson Ayre, who dabbled in the baroque/grotesque and must have been creating stuff that was intentionally ugly on some level, they designed without restraint but there always seemed to be an underlying rhythm and balance to the design. You've seen the design process for houses like the above. Start in the middle and add rooms as needed and if there is 30 corners on the perimeter, so be it and figure out the roof at the end. Seriously, it's "put this here and put that there".

And I disagree that builders build this because that's what the consumer really wants. Okay, some consumers wanted this at the beginning. It was a high end sort of style at the beginning. But then builders started borrowing the elements for the most basic sort of house. The house came first. What's the evidence for this opinion? Look at other design.

Did consumers in the 1950s start welding tailfins on their cars spontaneously and the auto industry took notice? No, the fin was there first. Maybe seven to ten years ago, aqua and brown were a color combination. Did people go to their weaver and say "I want a fabric woven in aqua and brown, thanks" No, some group of designers and marketers got together and this combination was presented to the general public. And for a lot of people who have no set particular taste, but will go by the trends see this color combination and think "Somebody better at design than I am came up with this combination, so it must be good. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me."

If you have been around design forums long enough you can see this happening. Many many people had pink in their interiors in the 1980s and 1990s. In the 2008s suddenly it wasn't pink anymore, it was ugly flesh tone, it was "bandaid" it was "hot dog vomit".

Since 2016 it's been reappearing as "Blush" and it's suddenly not so bad anymore, because "Somebody better at design than I am came up with this color, so it must be good".

And it's the same with these houses. Somebody wanted this at the beginning. Builders took off with it and started building it, and people bought it because that's what was being built and then people started seeing it and thinking, "well other people seem to want this and like it, so it must be good" or, like I said before, they buy it because that's whats available.

I cringe at the thought of the gutter cleaning process and the eventual cost of the roof replacement.

That may not be my favorite house in the world, but I have seen much worse.

Palimpsest - I always learn something from you. Thank you. Sometimes I don't have a good eye - but other times I know something is "off" and I lack the vocabulary or insight to explain why. Really appreciate the time you take to explain the "why".

I would very much like tail fins to make a comeback.

Pal,

After seeing your markup, I am more and more convinced that the house started out as a 1970's split level with a garage on the left, the kitchen, living room and dining L in the mid section, and a two story portion on the right, with the bedroom level over the family room. The 3 car garage was added to the front of the family room, the original garage on the left was turned into living quarters, with additions in front of the garage, and the front bedroom was enlarged with a bump out.

This house used to be exactly that kind of split level:

April, you can't really go by what listings say, and besides that there really aren't great descriptions for houses built from 1980 til now unless they are built in a historic style or are a very specific style like "Modern Farmhouse"--pretty much everybody would know what that looks like.

The OP house is definitely contemporary in floorplan. By strict definition it's "contemporary" because it is "belonging to or occurring in the present" --this sort of thing is being built presently.

But architecturally "contemporary" tends to mean something sort of like this:

It's really late modernism, but it's definitely not mid-century modernism as we think about it. It gets called "contemporary".

The house in the OP may get called "traditional" in the listings because it has a lot of traditional details. Many houses that have two stories get called "colonial" in listings and they are not colonial at all. Listings tend to get some styles right and others very wrong.

Thank you, Palimpsest, of course I know I can't go by listings' descriptions(and not only regarding architecture lol), so I thought I'd better ask you. That's a very interesting subject.