Roland's Gothic Homes

Hey all! Rain asked me to do a special for this wonderful autumn month, October! 
What better than Victorian and Gothic style homes? Those homes you drive by and get chills down your spine, the ones you always get the sense from that someone inside is watching you?
While I've personally never designed one of these for any of my clients, I've long been fascinated by them. The ornate building style that keeps even the smallest details in mind, turning them into something that catches the eye. 
Gothic style originated in the 1200s in England and France, but became more popular in the 1600s, with Cathedrals getting the most attention from Gothic architects. 
The style is known for flying buttresses (An arch that extends out from a tall stone wall is a flying buttress, an architectural feature that was especially popular during the Gothic period. The practical purpose of a flying buttress is to help hold the heavy wall up by pushing from the outside—a buttress is a support—but it also serves an aesthetic purpose). Other design details include stained glass windows, pointed arched windows and roofs, large spaces, ornate accents. There are high battlements (A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet, in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals to allow for the launch of arrows or other projectiles from within the deffences), and towers. 
Gothic architecture faded as all styles do, and like most styles, it came roaring back in the 18th and 19th century, where America got in on the building style as well. 
Below are some examples of Cathedrals and homes in the gothic style. 
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Now this next one is purely for the holiday fun of it, but is perfect for the style and the season!
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Old houses, no matter the style, can give you the willies. Think about it. These homes hold in them the lives of the people that live inside of them. They collect every tear and laugh, every pain of the body and mind. Even ghosthunters have theories about residual hauntings, where ghosts are mere reflections of people that once lived inside the walls of the home, going about their daily routines. But even those that aren't simply walking forever up a curving, creaking staircase, there are those that grab your feet when the blankets are pulled away from them. 
Did you ever feel a "cold spot" in your home with no windows open and your AC off? Did you ever lose something, only to find it somewhere that you know for a fact you would have never placed it?
There are some who love to open the door of the closet you know you closed the previous night. The dripping of that sink? Is it really a plumbing problem? Is the groaning of wood really the house "settling"?
​The house doesn't have to look Gothic in style to make your hair stand on end or to wake you in the middle of the night, sure it had to be a dream when someone whispered into your ear...