Varied Housing Styles Reflect the Region in Which They Are Found

Each area of the United States has one or more regional styles of architecture that might be called stereotypical. By stereotypical, I mean a style that the average person pictures mentally when they think of the area. It is common to the area but not ubiquitous. The regions I am thinking of are the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, Northwest, and Mountain. Telluride Colorado real estate falls under the Mountain category and a Telluride real estate agent can help you to find the mountain home of your dreams.

Let us start with this mountain-style architecture. The most noticeable characteristic of Colorado architecture is the amount of glass in the houses. They have a lot of windows. The reason for so many windows is obvious. People choose to live in the mountains, in part, for the stunning natural beauty of the landscape. They are stereotypically outdoorsy people who want to feel comfortable in their cozy, warm home while still having the feel of being outdoors. They also want their house to blend into the beautiful scenery. To accomplish this blending-in, they build their houses of natural materials such as wood and stone. And the wooden portion of the structures is often varnished rather than painted to show off the natural beauty of the wood. Steep roof pitches are required for practical reasons. It snows a lot in the mountains, and steep roofs allow the snow to slide off. A flat roof would accumulate the great weight of the snow and eventually cave in.

Homes in the Southwest also blend into their habitat. Being in the desert, they take on the look of the desert in the ground-based adobe or adobe-like materials. Also, being in the desert, they are usually painted in desert colors of tan, ochre, brown and rusty reds. Since this area is close to Mexico and is home to many people of Mexican descent, the architecture resembles that of Mexico or hearkens back to the Spanish days and Spanish missions.

When we think of the Northeast, we usually think of New England and Colonial days. One style of architecture is even named after a quintessentially New England area, namely Cape Cod. A Cape Cod house normally has two stories. On the front side of the house, the roof slants from the top down to the first story. Often, dormers provide windows to the front upstairs bedrooms. In the back, the roof comes down to the top of the second story so that, from the back, you can see that it is a two-story house.

These are just the most obvious examples of architecture that is defined by the area in which it is found. Other examples are the small, light houses of California. These houses lack the solidity of Northern houses because they do not have to keep out extreme cold. These are often in pastel colors with a high wooden fence surrounding the backyard for maximum privacy. Another type is a newer development. In the Midwest, the most commonly found type of house these days is what is often referred to as the “McMansion,” large and spacious in front but blank like a barracks in back.

Connor Sullivan recently worked with a Telluride real estate agent and was thrilled with the selection of properties available. He and his wife bought some Telluride Colorado real estate property to use as a second home.