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Semantics aside, there a LOT of those houses everywhere. the photo you have shown is a really nice update for the look but yes that split level house does have stairs to contend with when one is injured or aged. That said my in laws lived in one just like that till they were 86, with hip surgery two times. They loved it, said it kept them young.
I've always understood a split level to be a house where you enter from the street and immediately are presented with stairways doing up and down (sometimes theres an actual foyer, sometimes the stairs are just barely inside the door). The staircases are not full length, like in a 2 story house. Upstairs, is kitchen, living room, dining room. Downstairs is family room, laundry, possibly a study, garage. Bedrooms are sometimes upstairs, and sometimes on an additional level.
I'm not a fan, personally. I think it makes it difficult when you have furniture and large items delivered. Plus, who wants to carry your groceries up stairs, and your laundry downstairs (and then back up again)?
They're also not a good floor plan for entertaining -- and that's something I do a lot of.
I grew up in a split level home in NY. It was built a little later than mid century (1960s). You walked into the front door and there was a small foyer, and a family room that opened to the back yard. You walked up half a flight of steps to the main living area and up another half a flight of steps to get to the bedrooms.
I would not want to live with that floor plan if I had a choice. You could hear the noise from the lower level on the main level and vice versa. You could also hear the noise from the main level in the bedrooms. No matter what you needed to do you have to climb stairs. You also had to walk down the back steps to the patio in the summer when you wanted to barbeque. So if you forgot something it was up and down the steps.
The layout you describe in your OP was called a raised ranch where I grew up. My SIL has that layout. It is not ideal. In her house she has to carry her groceries through the basement to the steps and then up the steps (from the garage) or all the way across the yard and up the steps (from the driveway). When the kids were smaller the noise from the living room kept them up when there were guests in the living room. Now that they are older it isn't as much of any issue because they don't go to bed as early as they did when they were little. She also has to go up and down the back steps whenever she is entertaining in the back yard.
My parents and my SIL bought their houses because that was what they could afford at the time. However, they are not ideal floor plans (IMO).
I'm not a fan, personally. I think it makes it difficult when you have furniture and large items delivered.
Same here. I'm no fan either. Just not my thing.
But YOU like it and that's all that counts.
My only advice to you or anyone else is think about LIVING in the house day to day, year to year. How you live, and how would you get around if your mobility did change. COULD you short term live on one floor for example if you had to for a few weeks, etc....
Some of those bi-level houses are cool; some I don't like. They're all just a little bit different.
My dream house is a quad level across the street from my mom. I'd risk living across the street from my mom to live in that house. When I was a kid, I played in that house; when I was a teen, I babysat in it. I used to daydream about how I'd furnish it and landscape it.
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Originally Posted by warren zee
Nope. That's a high ranch. Different. It feels like you're living in an apartment.
Depends on what part of the country you're from as to what that style of house is called. "High ranch" is a new one on me; I've heard split entry, split foyer, bi-level, and raised ranch. None are right or wrong.
What's the point of having stairs? Unless the lot is so small you have to build vertical. They are both a nuisance and waste of space.
We love our hacienda style home with the master bedroom and it's sitting room, the living room, kitchen and family room all wrapped around the pool area. The office, dining room, garages & guest suites along the outside perimeter for quiet. The only stairs are in the pool.
Brady Bunch house! I love split-levels, esp. if they have that "mid-century/atomic ranch" look
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