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These floor plans provide generous floor space, an open layout, and a versatile layout situated beyond its modest façade. The first style, which was the popular pick among early settlers, is the half Cape. It strays a bit from what we consider a common Cape style home today because it isn't as perfectly symmetrical — instead, it features the front door on one side, with two traditional windows to the other side. These were often the jumping off point for new, middle class homeowners to add on to as their families grew.
Defining elements and characteristics of 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. Additionally, Cape Cod house style is notoriously free of any superfluous ornamentation, making them versatile enough for a variety of homeowners. The height of two-story Cape Cod house floor plans will vary depending on the home's design, but at a very minimum, it will be 16 feet.
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Cape Cod house plans are designed as protection from the regional climate that brought frigid temperatures; the home's centrally located fireplace provides warmth and comfort for the occupants. The steep-pitched roof was necessary to avoid the accumulation of excessive snow piles and water drainage, which could result in the subsequent ruin of the home's exterior and 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. Despite the common characteristic of a central door with two parallel aligned windows, these Cape Cod style homes vary in designs and features that mix-match and complement each other.
Cape Cod House: Everything You Need to Know About These Quintessential New England Homes
A chimney is also often right in the middle, dividing the two, and centering the angled attic. The rest of the windows on the house's exterior also mirror one another, adding to the general curb appeal of Cape Cod style. Defining the authentic English style of architecture, these homes became native to New England’s harsh winters. The Cape Cod Houses are designed around a large, open living plan with a symmetrical patterned design. However, you can easily personalize this home style by adding window boxes for flowers, painting your chimney a bold color, putting up a picket fence in color other than white, or adding colored shutters. These small changes can update and modernize your Cape Cod from traditional to contemporary.
The building type enjoyed a boom in popularity and adaptation to modern needs in the 1930s–1950s, particularly with Colonial Revival embellishments. The exterior of a Cape Cod house is in stark contrast from what you might find in a Contemporary style home. Initially, the features of a Cape Cod home were borne out of necessity with a strong eye towards functionality. Most concrete block (CMU) homes have 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 exterior walls on the 2nd story. But the simple, small rooms lend themselves especially well to the cottage-style decor that we're simply wild about.
How to find Cape Cod-style houses for sale in your area
Multi-paned wooden shutter-clad windows flank a central door with simple surrounds. The windows on a Cape Cod play a critical role in creating the charm and curb appeal of this home style. Originally, Cape Cod homes were often built to maximize available sunlight, with the largest and tallest windows facing south. This positioning helped minimize heating costs while taking advantage of natural light.
About the American Cape Cod Style House
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According to Wright, it’s the “cultural knowledge” of what the homes represent that keep them so popular. “The style is so warm and comfortable, and it just says summer,” Wright says. “It just screams summer.” Seen in movies and TV shows, the style is further embedded into pop culture as emblematic of warm weather and easy living. Though the style gets its name from the region where it’s most popular, a home doesn’t need to be in Cape Cod to be considered within the architectural vernacular.
What to Look for in Cape Cod House Designs?
When kids are asked to draw a picture of a house in elementary school, they invariably respond with a rectangular shape that features a door in the center, with a window on each side. This simple – but timeless and charming – architectural depiction is a quintessential “Cape Cod” home. Simple and functional, Saltbox homes are primarily found in the Northeast, where their distinctive rooflines help melt snow to fall off of roofs during cold winters. This style has been updated for more contemporary-looking homes found in beach towns, where simple designs allow the environment to take center stage.
Some of the Cape Cod homes are also large enough to accommodate garages and extended master bedrooms and baths for a larger family. Meanwhile, if there is a bedroom on the upper floor, adding dormers for natural lighting is a good way to enhance the charming beauty of a Cape Cod house. Writer Elizabeth Finkelstein is a self-proclaimed old house addict on a lifelong hunt for her perfect historic home.
And, thus, the Cape Cod architectural style was born, which has remained popular for roughly 400 years. They quickly realized they needed to make some practical changes to this style in order to survive the harsh winters of the Northeast. If you would like to have a builder construct your own Cape Cod style home one of the ways to do this is by purchasing a house plan. Opening into the living room is an eye-catchy fireplace with a large chimney design located as a focal point. These warm and cozy living rooms open out to a pilastered porch overlooking the lush English garden.
Cape Cod homes have a lot of similarities to the more traditional American Colonial homes being built at the same time in colonies farther south. According to Peter, 17th-century Cape Cod structures were modest, one-room deep, wood-framed houses with clapboard or shingle exteriors (which, when weathered over time, turned that quintessential light gray color). "I love the pure geometries of this style, which are almost austere at times," Peter says, "and its connection to the history of early New England." Like many historic residential architecture styles, the original Cape Cod homes were practical structures built with available materials suited to the local climate. The appeal of a Cape Cod cottage is in its simplicity and unassuming design—which makes it a great style of home for anyone still refining their personal aesthetic. Unlike a true Colonial, which may suggest a traditional interior design style to match, Cape Cods are highly versatile because of their clean geometric look.
After World War II, Capes began to get a little bit bigger and families and their needs grew, too. They quickly became a staple starter home for middle class couples and families looking to get their foot in the real estate market door, thanks to their simple style (which translated directly into a cheaper cost). Nowadays, newer, bigger builds of this timeless, budget-friendly option are still popping up along the shores and in the suburbs, it's safe to say this style isn't going anywhere. Meanwhile, the bedrooms are low-height, supplemented with a dormer or a gable window projecting out of the façade to let it ample of natural light.
Cape Cod homes are still popular to this day as simple and efficient starter homes for small families or veterans. Cape Cod house plans are characterized by their clean lines and straightforward appearance, including a single or 1.5-story rectangular shape, prominent and steep roof line, central entry door, and large chimney. Historically small, the Cape Cod house design is one of the most recognizable home architectural styles in the U.S..
Similar to half-cape homes, the three-quarter style capes feature an entry door on the one side with two multi-paned windows as well as one multi-paned window on the other side. The three-quarter was the most popular style cape in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Cape Cod houses originate in New England from the late 17th century to the end of the 19th century. These homes were built with complete practicality, affordability, and efficiency in mind.
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