Someone explain the big houses in the burbs to me...

[Anonymous]

Building up seems more environmentally sustainable: You use less land and the heat travels upward. Also, I'm in the city (in a 3-level house) and would never want to worry about so many street level windows.

[Anonymous]

If you're going to build big, at least build up rather than sprawl.
And I agree about the privacy aspect. My ILs' house is about the same square footage as mine but all one level vs 3 and no matter where you are in the house, you can hear what's going on elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Ok I'll be honest...I want plenty of space between the master bedroom and the kids' and au pair's suites. There is a bedroom on the main level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To me the big house thing is almost always justified by parents who want space for their children.

And I always think, when people say this to me, about the gas/oil/electricity it takes to heat, cool, and wire up this house, about McMansion developments that take up available green space, etc. Don't you care about what kind of world your kids will inherit more than whether they have specially designated spaces for the 15,000 exersaucers, jumperoos and play kitchens that you bought them?

Does.not.compute.

Some people spend money on fashion, on trips, on fancy cars. None of those things appeal to me. A big old house? Yup.

[Anonymous]

I loathe 1 story houses. I like bedrooms on an upper level.

[Anonymous]

It all boils down to cost. It's cheaper to build a smaller footprint and build up. The trend these days is to put the master on the first floor and the rest of the bedrooms on the second floor. It's cost effective and helps age in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loathe 1 story houses. I like bedrooms on an upper level.

It really depends on layout to me. I prefer all bedrooms on the same level, so the slightly cheaper split levels and cape cods we saw in our recent house hunt didn't really appeal to me. A slightly cheaper monthly mortgage payment would have been nice, but I just really disliked the idea of the bedrooms split up in such an odd way. I could never do a 1st floor master, either.

We did a little househunting in TX. The houses like the ones posted did NOT appeal to me at all. The TX Ranch, I call it. I also didn't like the ridiculously huge McMansions. But we did see some 1 and 2 levels there we liked, but it all had to do with layout. There was an updated and modified 60s ranch we saw in downtown Austin that we fell in love with - it looked nothing like those newer TX Ranches. It was something like you might have found somewhere near here, except without a basement (they just aren't done in TX).

[Anonymous]

I would love a sprawling ranch style home. Oh to not have to drag laundry up 2 flights of stairs.

There are parts of the area that have ranch homes but due ton the grade of the land, there's a sizable walk out basement and rec room. I would love one of those, I don't care if it does look like a trailer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love a sprawling ranch style home. Oh to not have to drag laundry up 2 flights of stairs.

Second-floor laundry room! I know some people have horror stories, but it's never happened to me, so therefore it's a good idea.

Oh, and my parents have a large single-story house. Their laundry hamper is on wheels to get it from one end of the house to the other.

[Anonymous]

I don't really like one-level houses. Where I'm from (the Midwest), one-level houses are generally old and small and shabby, and built in a pretty bleak time period for architecture.

I do appreciate that one-level houses are good for temperature control and for people who need accessability and no stairs, but I prefer a nice colonial or cape cod. Here in DC, there are fewer ramblers than in the midwest or south because land is pricier here.

[Anonymous]

Wow, those houses are hideous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loathe 1 story houses. I like bedrooms on an upper level.

Yeah, I used to feel that way, too. Wait a few years, hon.

[Anonymous]

I love rambler/ranch style houses. I grew up in one (with a basement), I live in one now, and if I move, I would like to live in another one. My house does not look like any of the ones pictured, so I guess it probably looks like a trailer to some people. I just think of it as a regular old suburban house. And my kids have told me that they love our HUGE house (it's 1500 sq ft), so I'd say we must have plenty of room for them.

[Anonymous]

I agree the houses are ugly-looks like Florida

[Anonymous]

There are some very appealing one-level mid-century style homes in the Pasadena, CA area. That's where I fell in love with them - too bad you can't find many of them here.