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What Is Cape Cod Style House

What makes a house a Cape Cod house?

Generally, Cape Cod homes have a steep roof, shingled exterior, symmetrical façade, and large chimney in the middle. While Cape Cod houses can have multiple floors, most residences are single-storied. Nowadays, Cape Cod house style falls into one of three categories: a full Cape, three-quarter Cape, and half Cape.

What style is Cape Cod?

Cape Cod architecture is one of the most instantly recognizable home styles in the U.S. At its core, an original Cape Cod house is a small, rectangular, unadorned one to one-and-a-half-story cottage with a steep pitched roof to keep snow from piling up and side gables.

What are Cape Cod houses called?

Full Capes (also known as double Capes or Colonial Revival Capes) came about later, and may be more in line with what you picture when you think of Cape Cod homes: symmetrical and with a centrally located front door.

What is Cape Cod style interior?

A Cape Cod house is typically single- or two-story, wide and rectangular-shaped, and features symmetrical windows on either side of the central front door. Cape Cods are often defined by their practical gabled roofs with dorm windows, which are composed of two sloping sections that meet in a roof ridge at the top.

What is the difference between a Cape Cod and a colonial?

Colonial-style homes are similar to Cape Cod homes (which can be considered a sub-type of colonial architecture) with their symmetry, side-gabled roofs and centered chimneys, though colonials typically feature multiple stories and a larger number of windows.

What is the difference between a Cape Cod and Cape Ann style home?

A rectangular house, commonly one or one and a half stories high, that is similar to a Cape Cod house, but has a shingled mansard roof rather than a shingled gable roof.

Are Cape Cods good houses?

If someone asked you to envision a classic American cottage, the picture of a Cape Cod house surely comes to mind. The charming yet simple homes are so closely tied into our American vision of home—and for good reason. Cape Cods are a manageable size, efficient to heat, and conducive to additions.

What do Cape Cod houses look like?

A Cape Cod house is a low, broad, single-story frame building with a moderately-steep-pitched gabled roof, a large central chimney, and very little ornamentation. The space above the first floor was often left unfinished, with or without windows on the gable ends.

Are Cape Cod houses popular?

Cape Cod homes have been around for centuries, yet they continue to enchant us. This type of home, which is now synonymous with beachy style and weekends away, comes from very humble beginnings but still remains popular.

Where did the Cape Cod style house originated?

Colonial Cape Cod Home Though the style is quintessentially American, the first Cape Cods were developed by early settlers from England in the 1600s. Partially inspired by the simple, thatched cottages common in Britain, the settlers adapted the style to keep out the harsh New England winter.

What is a half Cape Cod house?

There are three types of Cape Cod houses: a half-Cape, ¾-Cape and a full-Cape. The half-Cape has two front-facing windows and a door off to the side. Three-quarter-Capes have two windows, a door and a single window on a smaller end of the house.

Do Cape Cod houses have attics?

The sloped ceiling sections usually rise to meet a narrow horizontal ceiling in the center of the house. Most Capes have triangular attics behind the second-floor kneewalls and a tiny third-floor attic that is too cramped to stand up in.

How do you modernize a Cape Cod exterior?

What’s unique about Cape Cod-style homes? Add or replace the fence. Put in bigger windows. Add planter boxes to windows. Upgrade to new exterior shutters or repaint existing ones. Simplify outdoor decor. Throw in a pop of color to your landscaping. Reveal the original siding.

How much does it cost to build a Cape Cod house?

Cape Cod. The average cost to build a Cape Cod home in California is around $350 to $500 per square foot.

Do Cape Cod houses always have dormers?

Rain on the Cape This Cape Cod home seems very traditional—no dormers, a center chimney, and not even any window shutters. Upon a closer look, in addition to a shed-like front door shelter, rain and snow can be redirected away from the house by gutters and downspouts and window lintels.

Is Cape Cod a colonial style?

The simple Cape Cod Revival style was one of the last house types of the American colonial era to be revived as a building form. Utilized exclusively for dwellings, the model for the style came from dwellings in Massachusetts and New York fishing villages.

What style homes are popular in 2021?

The Top 10 Architectural Styles for Custom Homes in 2021 Cape Cod. Characteristics of Cape Cod style are steep, slanting roofs with cedar shingles, large chimneys, and shuttered windows flanking the front door. French Country. Colonial. Victorian. Greek Revival. (Contemporary) Craftsman. Cottage. Mediterranean.

What style house is most popular?

While you might not be surprised to learn that ranch homes are the national favorite, with 34 states claiming them as most popular, you may not have expected them to beat out the second-favorite style by more than double (modern homes are most popular in only 15 states). Americans love single-story living!.