What's an absolute "No" in your house search?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The benefit to step-downs is a higher overall ceiling height, so there is a benefit. It also provides a separation of space in cases where floor plans are open, which is probably why you see it more starting in the 70s into the 80s when floor plans opened up a lot.

Fair point about the ceiling height, though I'd argue that an extra foot is not really doing much. I'm short though, so maybe it's more of a benefit for tall people? As for separation, the ones I've seen are still pretty integrated with the rest of the house in a way that should just flow, but can't because of the step.

Then you haven’t had a sunken living room. Maybe it’s only a foot, but it feels like 3 or more somehow. If you don’t have an open floor plan (we don’t, I hate them, pandemic proved me right ), then the con isn’t there, and the pros are many: separates the space, elevates the height, allows for enormous christmas tree, allows for dramatic tall cabinets, and at least in our house, is set apart by a back way with three sets of custom french doors that wouldn’t work without the height. So…we like it.

Every sunken living room I've seen is next to a dining room and if it weren't sunken, you'd be able to expand a table into the living room for Thanksgiving and large dinner parties, but you can't, because there's a step.
Maybe I'd appreciate the extra height for the 3 weeks of the year I had a Christmas tree if I celebrated Christmas? I suppose we'll never know, because I'm still walking out of any house with a sunken room.

I’m not trying to sell, so it’s no concern to me that you’d walk out of my house. My sunken living room is not next to a dining room. It is a giant room at the back of the home, separated from other rooms—it’s its own room. It’s at the end of the main hallway, so it’s a place you “enter into.” it looks over a garden and my pool, and the height adds to my view of my trees. You won’t ever get my house (i’m not leaving ), but I hope one day you find some place where your dealbreakers strike you differently, if for no other reason than variety is fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Neighbor with giant poster “Stop the steal.”

Bingo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The benefit to step-downs is a higher overall ceiling height, so there is a benefit. It also provides a separation of space in cases where floor plans are open, which is probably why you see it more starting in the 70s into the 80s when floor plans opened up a lot.

Fair point about the ceiling height, though I'd argue that an extra foot is not really doing much. I'm short though, so maybe it's more of a benefit for tall people? As for separation, the ones I've seen are still pretty integrated with the rest of the house in a way that should just flow, but can't because of the step.

Then you haven’t had a sunken living room. Maybe it’s only a foot, but it feels like 3 or more somehow. If you don’t have an open floor plan (we don’t, I hate them, pandemic proved me right ), then the con isn’t there, and the pros are many: separates the space, elevates the height, allows for enormous christmas tree, allows for dramatic tall cabinets, and at least in our house, is set apart by a back way with three sets of custom french doors that wouldn’t work without the height. So…we like it.

Every sunken living room I've seen is next to a dining room and if it weren't sunken, you'd be able to expand a table into the living room for Thanksgiving and large dinner parties, but you can't, because there's a step.
Maybe I'd appreciate the extra height for the 3 weeks of the year I had a Christmas tree if I celebrated Christmas? I suppose we'll never know, because I'm still walking out of any house with a sunken room.

How many people have large dinner parties that involve making a single table much larger (and have the piece to do it) and don't already have a large enough dining room? I understand your concern, but I'm guessing it applies to maybe 100 people max.

NP but this isn't a "Defend your sunken living room" thread

DP but now I want it to be a "Defend your undersized dining room" thread. I'm trying to remember if I've ever seen an open floor plan with a dining room right next to a sunken living room and coming up empty.

[Anonymous]

HOA. Everything else can be fixed with money.

[Anonymous]

Dealbreakers:
Yard that slopes down into the house (making the house kind of lower than the street, like the houses in north cleveland park)
A house where a road comes “at” the house at a T (bad feng shui)
Low ceilings in basement, and worse yet, low ceilings with pop out tiles
Mold
Foundation issues
House at the bottom of a hill or midway down a hill
Multiple mixed materials in exterior (stone + wood + brick + glass side = developers have gone nuts)
Low ceilings anywhere
Bad light
Munitions under the house/land
Well-integrated former cat smell
>10 minutes from my child’s school
>15-20 minutes from my office
Shared driveway
Open floorplan

Turnoffs that would have to be changed at the start (but not dealbreakers, of course—most things are fixable):
Faux paint
Gray walls everywhere
A tuscan kitchen
Swiss cheese ceilings b/c of big can lights
Kitchen cabinets that don’t go to the ceiling
Faux shutters: if shutters can’t close, or if they did close WOULD NOT COVER THE WINDOWS, they are fake and tacky and must go
Hollow doors or semi-hollow doors
Cheap door hardware

Turnoffs I wish DC would fix:
ALL THE ABOVE GROUND POWER LINES
Overcrowded parking on narrow streets
Allowing street parking across the street and behind everyone’s driveways

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cul-de-sac. Anyplace with an HOA.

Why no cul-de-sac?

Because they're dangerous for kids (chance of back-up accident increases by a significant margin), aren't safer from crime (harder for emergency responders to access), are horrid for the environment (they encourage driving everywhere) and generally are filled with suburbanite cretins.

None of this is true whatsoever. We live on a cul-de-sac and love it. It has significantly less traffic than neighboring streets, no cut through traffic, super safe for kids to play in street as there's little to no cars, and the environmental point is just silly. We walk to school and theater frequently. No difference in how we would walk vs the street over. PP sounds miserable.

We purposefully sought out a cul de sac and avoided busy streets, thoroughfares, connecting streets and/or similar because we like kids playing away from cars.

[Anonymous]

No foyer, just walk in and *bam* you are in the living room. WTH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dealbreakers:
Yard that slopes down into the house (making the house kind of lower than the street, like the houses in north cleveland park)
A house where a road comes “at” the house at a T (bad feng shui)
Low ceilings in basement, and worse yet, low ceilings with pop out tiles
Mold
Foundation issues
House at the bottom of a hill or midway down a hill
Multiple mixed materials in exterior (stone + wood + brick + glass side = developers have gone nuts)
Low ceilings anywhere
Bad light
Munitions under the house/land
Well-integrated former cat smell
>10 minutes from my child’s school
>15-20 minutes from my office
Shared driveway
Open floorplan

Turnoffs that would have to be changed at the start (but not dealbreakers, of course—most things are fixable):
Faux paint
Gray walls everywhere
A tuscan kitchen
Swiss cheese ceilings b/c of big can lights
Kitchen cabinets that don’t go to the ceiling
Faux shutters: if shutters can’t close, or if they did close WOULD NOT COVER THE WINDOWS, they are fake and tacky and must go
Hollow doors or semi-hollow doors
Cheap door hardware

Turnoffs I wish DC would fix:
ALL THE ABOVE GROUND POWER LINES
Overcrowded parking on narrow streets
Allowing street parking across the street and behind everyone’s driveways

So basically you are in the market for a single house? Where is it?

[Anonymous]

We just bought earlier this year. Instant nopes were

Cul-de-sac
Corner lot
Pancake flat yard
Basketball goal anywhere near, especially if rolled out on to the street

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you walk in the front door and are confronted by a staircase a few feet in front of you. I hate that. It makes me feel claustrophobic.

+1
Also low ceiling in the foyer as you walk in the front door. I need the full open space of a floor to ceiling foyer, and in my neighborhood, many people have a closet on the first floor attached to the master bedroom that is directly on top of the foyer. No, no. no

[Anonymous]

House next to a cemetry.

[Anonymous]

Cul de sacs are all the rage amoung families I know. It's a lot safer and kids can play easier. The other streets are thoroughfares of traffic and it can be dangerous. There's usually a social island, too. Farther away from everything? No. I have no idea what that means. What does that even mean. I get out just as easy as on any street.

A lot of city families became suburban families in these last 2 years. And suburbia is great. I can PARK, lots of kids, sense of
community, amenities like parks, playgrounds, pools, sports fields, paths for walking and riding, dogs, and there's shopping where I need it.

[Anonymous]

Busy road within one lot.
Easy access to a main road, so someone can nab my kid and be gone in a millisecond
Requires a complete gut job
Musty smell
Obvious tear down, clear cut and new build
Brown 90’s tile in bathroom
Excessive carpet
No lawn in the back

[Anonymous]

House near a community pool. Too many cars and random people can come near your house, block the driveways etc.

[Anonymous]

I would not buy anything that's flipped.