How do you describe houses in fantasy?

My story takes place in an ancient setting. The structures present differ from one empire to another. The problem is I m not sure how to describe them as some have real world variants but I can t say that from a pov as it would take the reader out of the world. I can t say three story high since that s a modern concept. I was thinking of using expressions such as eight feet tall etc. Some structures don t have real world equivalents, so how would you proceed?