Housing Styles

Roof Styles:

Front Gable

Side Gable

Gable Roof: The triangular section of a wall formed by the end of a pointed (gabled) roof.

Gambrel Roof: A roof with two slopes on each side, the lower slope having the steeper pitch. Often  found in Colonial revival houses in the "Dutch" style.

Gambrel 

Hip Roof: (hipped Roof) A roof with slopes on all four sides. The "hips" are the lines formed when the slopes meet at the center.

Hipped roof

Saltbox

Saltbox: A frame house with two stories in front and one in back, having a pitched roof with unequal sides, being short and high in front and long and low in back.

Mansard

 

  Mansard: a hip roof having two slopes on  each side

Housing characteristics: 

Bay Window

Bay Window: A set of two or more windows that protrude out from the wall. The window is moved away from the wall to provide more light and wider views.

Casement Window

Casement window: A window that opens by swinging inward or outward much like a door. Casement windows are usually vertical in shape but are often grouped in bands.

Clapboard 

Clapboard:Also known as weatherboard or siding. Long, narrow boards overlapped to cover the outer walls. Used in Colonial style frame houses.

Dormer

Dormer: The setting for a vertical window in the roof. Called a gable dormer if it has its own gable or a shed dormer if a flat roof. most often found in upstairs bedrooms. 
Eaves: that portion of the roof that projects beyond the wall. I call it the "over hang" 

Eaves

The windows on the garage door are Fan lights

Fanlight: A semicircular or arched window above a door
Palladian window: A three part window featuring a large arched center and flanking rectangular sidelights.

Palladian Window

Pediment: A triangular crown used over doors, windows, or porches. A classical style.

The triangle on top of the porch is Called a Pediment

Portico

Portico: A large porch usually with a pediment roof supported by classical columns of pillars.
Rafter: A roof beam sloping from the ridge to the wall. in most houses, rafters are visible only from the attic. In styles such as craftsman bungalows and some "rustic"  contemporaries, they are exposed.

Rafters

Turret

Sidelight

Sidelights: Windows on either side of a door.
Turret:A small tower, often at the corner of a building. Common in Queen Anne styles among others. A turret is a smaller structure while a tower begins at ground level.