The American flag isn't upside down.

the building is crying

the snow melted on the rapunzel tower because they didn't properly insulate the roof at that location.

too much garage.

where do you enter the house?

What's right with this picture?

Here's an ice dam on a historic church near my house. The dam has pushed the water back and down through the attic, which then refroze into dirty icicles down from the soffit. Yeah. 

The people inside of it.

+1 Carrera

It's a bad renovation of a greekish revial ranch house with an awning adding  a cape cod McMansion garage on the side, resulting in two front door. 

I can't address snow damage. That's "normal" in my parts of the world these days.

My dad used to argue that a persons house or the car they drove was no measure of the person... I don't know, but in the 65 years that I tested that out it seems to match pretty exactly.

it is gold and white but is it black and white also?

I think the Architect studies under Robert , Mr. G and somewhere met Mr. Wright.

I wonder what surixurient would think of it ...

Also no protection from snow, rain, sliding snow/ice at the main entrance. Curiously, this fault is found on many salt-box homes in New England which have a bare entry door under a two- story façade with no protection from ice or snow sliding down the roof.

It's a Bitch when you have this condition in Snow Country with metal roofs.  Even those roof guards don't work.

What's wrong with this picture is somewhat subjective. Opinions on exposure, f stops, filters, lenses, etc. can become rather academic or arbitrary. The most glaring issue is the lack of crisp lines or an interesting focal point (rule of threes? ) Maybe it would be more interesting to ask what is wrong with the building shown in the picture? Or perhaps what is wrong with the fence?. ...or whatever

Why no snow upon the trees when there are thick snow stacked on everywhere but trees? 

It appears that the back of the house is facing the street. Looks like a barbecue and a dog house are in the front yard. For me, it is hard to tell from the parallax in the photo what the structural narrative of that garage is.

It is probably either a Roberto Villa Revival or a Colonial L'homme Depu. A thing of beauty that is a joy forever.

Wait a minute, I think there is a car on cinder blocks under the snow. There it is, the home of the short block Chevy.

Theres not enough gables facing the street.

Maybe it is the back yard. That would explain a lot.

Where are the 6 oversized SUVs?

I love how the large window above the door is boarded up to prevent suicide attempts. Genius! 5/5

Merk, I think that was after the suicide.

from a technical perspective:  Roof drainage. 

Over that entry, the water is forced into a narrow drainage basin.  Ice damming occurred and overwhelmed the inadequate means to drain.  So, it's leaking at the entry, creating a ice slick at the front door, and probably getting into the framing system at the projected gable where the flash maybe comes up 4" and is open at the corners. (The ice dam will back water up and over it and through the gaps).  Gutter is set to high and totally inadequate for draining that much roof area.

Same issue on the right.  Gutter is too long.  Also guessing the gutter is set to high and not maintaining 1" lower than the projected roof plane.  The result is ice buildup.  It's built up over the edge flash, and bypassed it.  Possible there isn't even flashing since no one would see it and they just tucked the back of the gutter up against the roof sheathing.  So the water is into the soffit.  Dumb luck in this area that they butted the soffit panel to the masonry instead of the masonry stopping at the soffit panel.  Thus this water is flowing down the face of the masonry instead of into the wall cavity by using the soffit panel as a drip pan.. 

Damages: The soffit panel might survive 2 seasons max; rafter tails will rot out in 4.  Entry is screwed; Everything will need wrapped in a membrane and cricket needed.  All new gutters required to properly gap them lower than the roof plane so when the ice happens, the water can flow over the top of the gutter instead of backing up against the edge flash (assuming it's even there).  Also keep in mind the WRB is coped around the garage roof intersection to the wall over the entry... nice big arsed hole for water to get at that sheathing.  Even if the sheathing resist, the corner cuts leave a gap, so the framing is going to be wet there.  That means that whole corner may need to be reframed.  I see $50k+ of construction defect damages if you wait a couple years for that rot to really take hold.

mighty - that's not masonry.

Miles, where is that book of matches you displayed on the other thread?

mighty - that's not masonry.

lol... I've been doing this too long.  You are correct.  Same issue though.  But because it's shingle, I'd hazard to guess it stops at the soffit and the dumb luck is taking the building felt/paper and sheathing is up above the soffit panel so it's not bad into the framing system. 

This house is only a few years old. I stumbled across it while looking at a nearby project. The neighborhood, which is occupied mostly by retirees, was recently discovered and is being rapidly upscaled. It consist primarily of 1100 square-foot ranch houses dating from the 60s. A few years ago this kind of original ranch sold for $6-700k, now they are over a million and escalating.

The typical development program is to max out the lot as cheaply as possible. This particular house is an excellent example of the kind of shit design and crappy construction prevalent here. In a few years it will sell for $2m or more (if the economy doesn't implode first). As you can see, there are a lot of savvy buyers here.

The house I looked at is a 1960 original ranch, very well-built with 1x6 t&g sheathing, copper waste, solid foundation, no rot, etc. The new owners paid $8-900k and want to replace it with a 5,000 sq.ft. spec house that they think they are going to build for $200/ft (basic construction cost here is $400) and sell for $3m. All the stuff you see in that picture is the result of that mentality. 

Those stains on the sidewalls are because the shingles are saturated from behind.

^ what part of the country is this in?

The fabulous Hamptons.

What's wrong with that is principally the same thing that's wrong with this (not in Alaska and the guy who built this is proud of it)….honestly wants to make me give up, which I guess I have. I still feel all this is a failure of us more than them.

Actually this is pretty good.  Elevated to prevent flooding when the snow melts, lack of windows to keep in heat and keep out the cold and with a propane tank instead of using wasted tax dollars on government heating as well as protection from pesky building inspectors. Looks like the framing isn't 90 degrees, but it does show character. 3/5

Well, compared to some of the totally bizarre modernist Katrina Hurricane replacement houses (that are now falling apart and rotting) in New Orleans.....

Not to invoke a firestorm about style, but when something is well done it doesn’t matter.

PS - Does anybody have Sarah's phone number? Can't decide whether to attach or go detached on this one.

Not to invoke a firestorm about style, but when something is well done it doesn’t matter.

The problem is people - aspiring architects, students and interns especially - think that well done is style.