I grew up with a pipe stem driveway and it was the BEST!

Open first floor. I need rooms to retreat to, and I want my kitchen apart from the living room. I know I'm in the minority here.

Cul-de-sac. Anyplace with an HOA.

Drop-in ceilings. Lead. Basement flooding. Foundation problems. High level of violent crime.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Busy street. My love of silence greatly outweighs any amenity a house can offer. Cannot relax with car noise, sirens, etc constantly bombarding my home.

+100. Or the backyard butting up to a busy street. Small closets, damp basements, split level foyer.

Does the size of the foyer make a difference to you? I'm with you on those little ones where you only have space for two people to stand there, because I want my whole family to be able to come in and take their shoes off at once. If it were a big enough foyer to fit 5-6 people taking their shoes and coats off though, I'd be open to it.

Would not live on a double yellow (a busy street), would not live without a gas stove,
would not live at the bottom of a hill (that is based on experience with water/flooding in the past)

Flight path.
Busy street.

No garage
Slope toward back of house

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.

Anonymous wrote:Where are you finding sunken living rooms? I’m with you on the pipe stem thing. And backing up to a major road. Those were dealbreakers for us.

Lots of them throughout Fairfax County. In townhomes and SFHs.

And yes, we saw a great house with its side to a major street and decided to wait for something further into the neighborhood to come on the market.

Anonymous wrote:Busy street. My love of silence greatly outweighs any amenity a house can offer. Cannot relax with car noise, sirens, etc constantly bombarding my home.

+100. Or the backyard butting up to a busy street. Small closets, damp basements, split level foyer.

Where are you finding sunken living rooms? I’m with you on the pipe stem thing. And backing up to a major road. Those were dealbreakers for us.

Bamboo

Busy street. My love of silence greatly outweighs any amenity a house can offer. Cannot relax with car noise, sirens, etc constantly bombarding my home.

For me, it's a pipestem. I'm not living on a shared driveway. Give me a house on a street like a normal person, where my house isn't hidden off the street behind two other houses where it's difficult to find and you risk getting blocked in by your neighbors when they throw parties. My friends who live on them love them and I just don't get it.

Also, sunken living rooms. There's no benefit to a step down into a room and it just means you can't expand furniture from an adjacent room into that room. When I've gone to open houses that I didn't realize had sunken living rooms, I've turned right back around and walked out. Hard pass.