This has nice windows and symmetry.

Another great example of what I mean about windows and doors doing a great dance together.

I love your examples and European inspired, but I think your plan looks to busy to me. I would simplify it and consider all three of those garage doors in the front of the house. They take up half the house from the front.

You're not going to get there from here unless you can do a side load garage. Pick a wider lot to get the side load, or pick a different inspiration that has front load garages.

The ratio of wall area to window area in both of your inspiration pics is greater than in your elevation. Therein lies the problem. Windows are too big for the wall spaces they reside within.
Casey

Thanks for the responses!

The pictures I posted were just meant for the window and front door relationship. I liked how they lined up and were pleasing to the eye.
Unfortunately, our lot is not wide enough to have a side load garage, and lot prices have gone up tremendously so we can't change that.

Casey, thank you for the specific information. Nice to be able to pinpoint my issue with the elevation.

The houses you posted are known as "French Eclectic" or "French Inspired" and were invented by American architects between 1915 and 1945 using architectural elements from many centuries and different kinds of French buildings.

Your house design is not of this ilk but is called "Neo-Eclectic" because it takes the earlier popular style and adds ideas that are popular with developer/builders today like huge multiple hipped or gables roofs built with trusses. When the earlier French Eclectic designers wanted to add some drama they put a round tower at the entrance of the house.

The grand houses you posted have a single main house element and roof with flanking elements but your house is deep and half of the front facade consists of garage doors. It's a tough design problem.

Renovator8, thank you for your post. I must tell you I have so enjoyed reading your responses in other threads. Seems I always learn something interesting, your information appears spot on and I like that you always are nice!

I have tried to quiet down the garage door part by simplifying the doors themselves and by minimizing contrast with my paint choices. Maybe I need to choose beautiful garage doors and just drink my lemonade! Perhaps I can lose some of the busyness by smoothing out the roof line? I really like the simple lines of the houses above. Oh well, back to the tracing paper.

Thanks again,
tulip

Tulip,
If you want your house to look like the ones on the pictures you posted, you have to start over and work on the floor plan - also, some compromising is needed.
You need to separate the garages placing them at each end. The garages can be front load or side load (to the center of the house) if you have some sort of driveway/court in the front or your home.
Looks like your house is a one story home so probably it will look closer to the first picture.
The second picture is a 2 story house, it will not look like this but maybe you could use this color scheme and use the window type/french doors if that is what you like.

Could you enter the garage from the side?

Renovator,
The OP said that he does not have room for a side load garage.

No we don't have enough room with the current configuration. Naf_naf's suggestion about having the garages on either side would be great, but not sure our lot is wide enough. Right now, we have 5'on one side and just over 10' on the other. If we made the garage two wide, we would have to extend the garage into the back yard. Maybe I can get a site plan and show how the house is currently situated. Thanks for suggestions.

Jack Arnold has some home plans that I thinks are European and have very nice details.

http://www.jackarnold.com/

Allison's house is great!

Here is a house my architect did. I don't have a shot of the whole thing but it is gorgeous in person. It is also very big...but the angle hides the full size. It has 3 cars front facing due to the lot restraints, but they are recessed and and are very lovely to look at. This pic simply does it no justice, but it's all I have.

If you slid the garage wing back from the facade by at least 6 to 8 feet, it would recede somewhat. Of course, this means reworking your floor plan. But you would need to do that anyway, as naf-naf said, to allow symmetry in the facade.

How deep is your lot? Do you have enough room to provide a turn-around for a rear entry garage? If so, you could widen the house and put a driveway down the side ... and of course, totally rework the floor plan! If you have a beautiful view to the rear, this plan is not a good idea.

Splitting the garages would block the bedroom windows, so that's not an option with the current floor plan.

This is not the french look you want but it is kinda European/ Belgian. The garage is front facing but recessed. Again my architect...

Both of the inspiration houses you posted are in Atlanta. One is a renovation of an older house (think it was a ranch), and the other is by my architect. The first is by another Atlanta architectural firm - I will google and see if I can find the pictures. I think it is the house of a prominent real estate agent - just can't remember which one.

Both are on multi acre lots which allow a side or rear entry garage.

The symmetry is lost with the front load garage the way it is situated.

Moving it back would make a big difference . . .

Here is a georgian by our architect, who designed your second inspiration picture. It has a front load garage but it is treated separately from the center of the house. Georgian and french houses have some similarities with regard to symmetry, and I think this handles the front load garage well while keeping the symmetry of the georgian exterior.

Here is a link that might be useful: Front load garage

Thanks, Archie123.

One thing I would do is not do the large single garage door - make it two garage doors. I would also use garage doors that have some character - like the ones in gaonmymind's 2nd picture, instead of the plain ones shown.

Since you're meeting with the designer, take one or two (but no more than three) pictures of homes you love and explain what it is you like about them. Also what you don't like about this one. Hopefully, you'll be able to talk it though.

Here is a view of the site. We are about 25' from the street, which is the minimum I believe, and will have about 35' deep back yard. I tried to interest my husband in a corner lot that would allow the doors to face away from the front of the house, or maybe even building a two story that would allow a smaller footprint in general and maybe more options on where the garage could be placed. He is frustrated with me and my need for visual pleasantness. AND I still have to choose paint colors!!! Ha ha ha!

Everyone's response has be so helpful and I feel such relief just by getting some unbiased opinions.

Sorry no picture! Working on it now...

The front facing gables of the house gaonmymind posted are characteristic of the American Tudor style derived from early English traditions and the use of parapets and no half-timbering emulates more formal late medieval English buildings.

Tulip,
If your husband is getting frustrated with your reason, maybe you need a different approach:
Explain to him that this is a big investment and the resale value of this home will be low.
If I was looking for a house in your neighborhood, I would not buy this house as is.

You could also do a 6 car tandem garage with only one double door as Allison suggested.
What really will solve the issue is a bigger lot or a double lot.

If I were...

I was not suggesting a 6 car tandem garage with only one double door.

I was suggesting NOT to use a double door at all. To use 2 single's in its place. Helps to break up the garage door "feel."

Maybe the garage could be positioned like this house has it?

Here is a link that might be useful: House with garage in front

I agree a courtyard style garage can be much more attractive. I would also use seperate garage doors and perhaps even put an overhang over the garage to further dress it up. This is ours (which is on the side of the house but you see the side of the pretty brackets and the edge of the copper roof from the front).