Customer Reviews

Shingle Style: 165 Home Plans from Classic Colonials to Breezy Bungalows

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This "book" has the exact same format as the home plan magazines you can buy in the grocery store for $5: 4 designs in the front that have actually been built and decorated and then had 2 interior and 1 exterior photos taken, and then 151 other plans with only an exterior photo or pencil drawing and the floor plans. The only thing that makes this a "book" is a slightly thicker paper cover.

However, my primary concern is that the houses depicted in the book are not actually shingle style houses. Virginia and Lee McAlester in "A Field Guide to American Houses**", describe the shingle style thusly:
"Most Shingle houses were built between 1880 and 1900... The Shingle style ... was a uniquely American adaptation of other traditions. Its roots are threefold: (1) From the Queen Anne it borrowed wide porches, shingled surfaces and asymmetrical forms. (2) From the Colonial Revival it adapted gambrel roofs, rambling lean-to addtions, classical columns, and Paladian windows. (3) From the contemporaneous Richardsonian Romanesque it borrowed an emphasis on irregular sculpted shapes, Romanesque arches, and, in some examples, stone lower stories." p. 290

Only about 10 of these designs could remotely be classified as Shingle Style. [Pages 55, 61, 76, 137, and 142-147 for those interested. I think the exterior details of the house on p. 142 is the best example of a true shingle style.] The vast majority of these home plans are the standard country, colonial, and craftsman homes that you see time and time again in the home plan magazines. They have been redrawn with shingle siding instead of lap siding, thus allegedly making them "shingle style."

Finally, I was specifically looking for an urban shingle style house that I could build on a vacant city lot in Indianapolis. The standard city lots in Indianapolis are 40' wide by 110'-180' deep, leaving you with a maximum home width of 30'. There are only 3 plans in this book with widths of 30' or under. Then there are an additional 11 plans with widths between 30' and 40'. However most of those are found in the "coastal creations" section, and are apparantly designed for narrow waterfront lots. The vast majority of the plans are designed for suburban lots that are wide and shallow with garage entry on the front.

Thinking that I might possibly be able to salvage some of the money that I spent, I scoured this book for examples of shingle style exterior and interior trim and details. However, for the most part the exterior trim details are a mish mash of non-shingle styles, and of the four houses that show any interior details, they are all decidedly country.

In conclusion, take a look at this "book" if you are looking for a home to fit on a suburban lot that is CLAD in shingles. Stay away from this book if you want a true shingle style home.

** I strongly recommend "A Field Guide to American Houses", also sold on Amazon, as an excellent resource for those interested in traditional homes. You will learn the difference between Georgian, Adams, Early Classical Revival, and Greek Revival homes which are all classified simply as "Colonial" by house plan magazines and realtors. Similarly, it describes in detail and with accompanying illustration and photographic examples the differences between Victorian Second Empire, Stick, Queen Anne, Shingle, Richardson Romanesque, and Folk homes.

Don't bother to order this book, It was of no use to me.