What is the meaning of the Japanese character on the website homepage
Japanesecountryhouses.com?

That Character means HOUSE or HOME in Japanese.

It's a Chinese character, "kanji", used in Japanese alongside two
different syllablaries - katakana and hiragana -  and also "Romanji" -
our alphabet.

There's a joke that Japanese will slowly evolve to include all the
writing systems on the planet.  At present, Japanese commonly uses the
four scripts angy mentions, kanji, hiragana, katakana, and romaji
(sorry, angy-ga, no "n").  Up in the north in Hokkaido, there are also
places that commonly use cyrillic for street signs, but that's mostly
due to the presence of lots of visitors from Russia -- I don't think
cyrillic is actually used anywhere in regular written Japanese.  If
you're interested in the writing systems, have a look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system.

(Incidentally, those Richard Leitch "Japanese country homes" don't
look terribly "Japanese" to me, but then some of that is a good thing
-- fusuma sliding doors let in quite a draft and offer little
insulation, and the kitchen pictures on the site look a good bit more
convenient than the old 'iro' sunken hearth you'll find in real old
country houses.  But I'm saddened to see no mention of the ofuro --
those great big tubs for soaking in, where you can reheat the water. 
Ah, well, I haven't the budget for one of these houses anyway. :)

Cheers,

        Eirikr

It's a Chinese character

?
mean HOME

HOUSE not correct

because Jia has a strong emotion

own home , a place make people safe and warm

eg. A Chinese song ????? "I want a home"
far from "I want a house"

It definitely means "home" rather than simply a house.  The style and
the outlook of the "kanji" can tell the origin of this chinese word.

You can imagine a woman standing under a strong shelter with a baby on
her back.  That is exactly the picture a working male thinking of from
the word "HOME".

cowball

I'm an the author of White Rabbit Press "Japanese Kanji Flashcards"
Volumes 1 and 2. Our cards are the top-selling kanji flashcards on
Amazon.com and in major bookstores across Japan.

The character you reference means:
"a house; one's home; family; a household; a residence"

It can also mean "specialist" (as in senmonka)

It can be read as KA and KE (Japanese readings); or,
IE and YA (borrowed Chinese readings).

It has 10 strokes. Scholars hold that the upper portion represents a
ROOF and the lower portion means PIG (not a woman with child as
another has proposed here).

I don't agree they the others here who say this character cannot mean
"house" as well as "home". Lookup ???? (goukanaie) which translates to
"a luxurious [an elegant] house; a mansion". "Home" wouldn't be
appropriate there or here: misuborashiiie (???????) meaning "a
dilapidated [ramshackle, shabby] house; a hole; a dump". Also ??
(kaji) means "housework"; (homework is shukudai). ;)

"uchi wo deru" can mean "to leave home" or equally "to leave the house"

Feel free to post any other Japanese related questions to our web site forum:
White Rabbit Press
www.whiterabbitpress.us

As maxhodges-ga wrote, in Japanese, that character can certainly mean
house. It may mean something different in Chinese, just as the meaning
of same word read in French or English may differ.
 The houses on the website - how are their bathrooms?  That's one room
where I'd love to see a lot of Japanese influence on American or
European architecture.