A new house today rambles in and out with bay windows and extensions invariably coupled to an elaborate roof line, reminiscent of the grand old Victorians that still line Main Street in small towns all over the country. One could charitably call this national trend a stylistic amalgam, but a more honest appraisal would be a stylistic mish-mash that looks to the past. In a cruel, heartless, and often harshly competitive world, we seek refuge in the comfortingly familiar, and we want the aesthetic equivalent of chicken soup. If we need a new box, we want it to look like the old one. Flooring that looks like wood but is made of the same plastic laminate as kitchen countertops is an increasingly popular upgrade.
Many purists find windows on new houses especially distasteful.
The authentic Colonial window used by America's first settlers was made of wood. The wood muntin not only gave a look, it also added texture and light and shadow to the facade. Today's more energy-efficient windows have two panes of glass. A muntin big enough to hold two pieces of glass in place, however, is unacceptably big for most people, as well as unacceptably expensive. Some more upscale projects have wood windows with snap-in plastic muntins to create the look.