The colour, the crisp white trim, and the nice contrast between the angular gables, rectangular windows and trim, and the curves in the portico, window, door and roof line.

The softening of sharp angles with curves & decorative windows plus contrasting paints.

when I first looked at it I thought what the? as I kept on looking I thought it worked beautifully..

the details that went into the home..the contrasts in colours..shapes..a good marriage ..

We all like to look at it as long as we don't have to paint all that trim!

Well, Tribble, that's the difference between life in the glossy mags and life in the real world ;)

all the details....makes most of our more modern homes look a bit boring :)

I had a cottage with a lot of trims. Lots of brush painting. Mind you I was a lot younger then. I think as girls we are programmed to like the dolls house look.

Girls maybe but grown women maybe not...each to their own ;)

The colours, the gables, just the overall style & setting. Pity we don't have more American style homes in Australia.

Personally, I think it is a bit over the top but I admire the craftsmanship. The brain likes complexity and exploration. It is also interesting because it is like a great big piece of furniture rather than a residence solely.

I think it is the beautiful detailing and finishing touches. Perfect gable finish etc. It looks perfectly complete.

This house has a story. Although the paint scheme is very contemporary and the trim detail is meticulous It subconsciously emanates the perfect home , happy family, wonderful childhood and happy holiday family gatherings like Thanks Giving represented in so many American movies. From the lush garden to the welcoming lights on in every room. It is a well loved home full of pride and joy. It is a safe haven.

It's lovely, it looks inviting and warm. My favourite thing about it is the verandah, hands down. It's perfect.

Just stunning. Beautiful trims, lovely colour contrasts. Picturebook perfect

everything... the house is gorgeous and the gardens too.

It just looks like a happy house, safe, comfortable where life is peaceful & happy. Probably because it's an old traditional style from when life was simpler.

The house is just perfect in every way, the paintwork, lovely colours, the sparkling clean windows, a neat as a pin garden and the welcoming glow of the lights, both inside and out!!

Aside from the look of the place, I think its popularity might have to do with a whole lot of people having grown up in places where houses like this were the kinds of houses we dreamed about. I know, in my (Canadian) childhood, there were a lot of older (say 1890s) houses in older areas of my city that looked like this. We lived in bog standard 50s and 60s "ticky tacky boxes" so something like this was a dream.

It's because it embodies what we see in the old story books - a romantic imagination of a 5yo that stays with us throughout our lives. I agree with the comment above that in Australia we don't have the character style base in our architectural style - like the Americans do, going more for practicality than aesthetics.

It depends what suburbs /towns you go to. Places away from the rail lines have often kept their charm, away from the march of progress.

@Em Bee - well as to stairs, why do so many new developments consist entirely of two-storey "box houses?'' Where I live, there's an aging demographic but most of the new homes being constructed, at least the ones close into town on brownfield sites, are two floors, so no better than the house in the story, and much less attractive. Won't someone please think of the oldies? Hrmmph.

@EmBee - oh, I was just having a grumble. I do understand the issue with limited land availability and pressures on housing stocks - and of course housing affordability (I once lived in Vancouver!). However, when my better half and I decided we needed to move from (very) small town New South Wales to be closer to a bigger town with better facilities, we had the devil of a time finding a single-level house that wasn't a horrible little unit or 10 km out of town. We did finally find a builder who'd just torn down an ugly 60s house close in to the town centre, and was planning to put two singles on the lot. We snapped it up. But it took two years to find him and it. Our neighbours in the other house he built had much the same tale of woe. And yet the demographics of this particular town is very much on the middle-aged and senior side of the scale. The builders aren't building for the people who actually live or want to live here. Hrmmph again! And that's my rant for the day.

It's right, I'm hearing it from the baby boomers. There's competition between them and the first home buyers and overseas investors, for single level dwellings. Stands to reason it will get worse unless governments do something.

@Tribble - the situation is the same in Em Bee's part of the world as in ours. Aging demographic, lots of immigration and also internal migration, and of course offshore buying. But where I live, the issue isn't so much competition, as the inability of builders/developers to read the market. Our own builder (small builder, one project at a time, some of them industrial, not housing) told us that the two-story houses in our town were simply not selling that quickly, whereas the one-story houses were listed and gone. (He sold us our house before he tore down the old one, and sold the other house on the block about 3/4 of the way through the build and before it was ever listed. The two story house around the corner from us was on the market for 8 months).

I'm not a huge fan of government intervention in housing (I saw public housing in the UK and that was not a good thing) but I do think strong regulation on foreign property buyers is appropriate. That said, I also think the builders need to get their heads together and recognize that there's a boomer population that has a bit of money and wants something different than the bog-standard two-storey box house. Time for the developers to catch up. Okay, sorry, second rant for the day.

The type of windows and grand entrance and different roof pitches. Basically it is not a square box.

It's the whole package. Its colour scheme is timeless. It's not just a box, it has interesting shapes and angles but looks cosy and inviting.

If only more Australian building companies (Sydney) took this on board and built this style of home instead of the typical contemporary styles we're stuck with. Estate after estate being built with the same old boring houses. I'm over it! This house is clearly what people seek... it's stunning! C'mon Aussies... be more interesting. Build us what we really want!!!!