An excellent resource on the subject is the magazine “Victorian Homes”.

After 2+ years of research on the matter, I’d say that the American wirding DOESNT APPLY to san francisco. Architecture in san francisco is quite unique – part of it being the 25/100 type of lot.

So tomake it very easy, that’s my personal conclusion:

- all the houses are victorian – and the floor plan of a SFH is similar regardless of the facade.

- if the house has a triangle facade, front door on one side and bow window on the other side, it’s a standard queen ann (thousands of them in castro/noe). The most amazing queen ann being those with the touret (ashbury)

- if the house has a square facade, with two over one bow windows, it’s a standard edwardian.

Now in each type, you have to analyze the wealth of the first owner. Blue collar houses are not at all identical to the mansions in PacHeights. The layers of trim (from 1 layer to 12 or even 18), the flat or rounded windows are the best outdoors hints. The presence or not of laces is NOT an indication. To some extends, those laces were cheap – and added or removed by the owners (same goes for the next-front-door stained glass).

So how to choose? I sense that most people will have a preference for triangle vs square. The rest is cosmetic and it’s up to the owner to add or remove the make-up…. with my personal preference of always using wood siding, wood windows, and some reasonable wood trims. A nice facade will NOT cost an arm and a leg, and you can probably get 200-400% back on resell.

And forget about the blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah beige and gray (cf 2740 green which could be … GREEN!! )

[Editor's note: For Green, MLS actually shows a purchase price of $3,611,310 in December of 1997. Asking price was originally $3,400,000 then bumped to $3,500,000, but who's counting...that was in 1997, we're still stuck on an $11,500,000 Stalefish price in 2007. Yes, you are correct, built in 1923...so is it then not Edwardian? Dave?]

I didn’t think you were slamming the house at all. I agree the sellers are out of touch with their price, and I do agree that if the price was lowered to where I would purchase it ($7.5M), there would be a frenzy.

I prefer the deck on the south side, as it is much warmer. North facing decks don’t get as much sun, and they’re susceptible to the pesky Northwest winds we have. That’s just me.

I’d echo what Dave just stated. I own a home built during the Victorian period but remodeled in early 00s to look more Edwardian on the exterior. The exotic moulding on the cornice and windows was stripped off and replaced with a far simpler dentil cornice and trim.

I assume the owner bought the house for at least 4.5 million based on their property tax statement. (TMI, I know) The contractor was Ryan, so they must’ve spent a close to 5 million rebuilding it. So they have already 9.5 in the house. Minus the 700k in realtor’s fees and various holding costs, they’ll only make about 1 million on the house if they sell it for asking at 11.5. Of course, a huge chunk of the profit is lost to taxes… If they sold the house for 7.5, they’d probably lose close to 3 million.

To quote this site: http://www.victorianwalk.com/415-252-9485/vict2.html

The Queen Anne Style Victorians, popular 1885 – 1905, have a noticeably more baroque appearance, comprised of a wide range of structures and textures. Usually a home of this style has a triangular gable facing the street, and often has a spire or tower. Windows tend to be lower and wider than the earlier styles.

The Edwardian Style homes, popular 1905 – 1920, generally have simpler trim. The distinguishing feature of this style is the egg-and-dart cornice work. Also, Edwardian homes were constructed of wood, stucco, brick or a combination, while the Victorians built previously were all made of redwood.

Or try here: http://www.bricksandbrass.co.uk/deshist/edward/edward.htm

Here is a nice link on Edwardian style:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/design/period_edwardian.shtml