Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Our agent agrees with our logic. She also reminded us that a fancy outdoor space could be added onto a future house, but that it’s much more difficult to modify the bones of the house.
Some agents will say anything if it means there's a sale in the near future!
Building outdoor living areas is not cheap!- You're better off buying a house that already has it.
"modifying the bone of a house" is no more difficult than an addition/remodel- it's only a matter of how much money you're willing to throw at it. And a lot of those things are not giving favorable ROI's- so finding the house that has all those things will be the better buy. But never discount Location and Schools here in the ATL!
We are house hunting, and we saw a terrific house over the weekend. It's in an awesome location in a great subdivision, in our desired school district. The finishes are excellent. It's 5 years old but looks like it's brand new. The backyard is beautiful also.
However, it also has a 2-story family room and foyer (with catwalk upstairs). While the 2-story family room looks very impressive, it's not something we were hoping for. I know it has a Wow factor, but honestly we don't entertain much so it's just family most of the time.*We'd much rather have a media room/bonus room above it.
I'm doing some research and it sounds like the vast majority of people think it's not ideal. Mainly due to heating/cooling costs (we are in Atlanta so it's mainly hot but does get into 20s in winter), but also due to cleaning issues. We have 2 kids and I'm also concerned about the lack of privacy (between upstairs and downstairs) and noise, especially when they are teenagers.
What do you think? Would you consider this a dealbreaker, even though the rest of the home is great? The other factor is that the house is at the high end of our range, so I hate having to settle on something like this when we are paying that much.
Our other option is waiting and seeing what else comes on the market (we just started our search last month).
It would not be a deal breaker to me if I was young enough to live in a house with stairs (I'm not).
But it sounds like GoBlue99 has his or her reservations about it. GoBlue99, if you still are not sure this is the house for you after reading this thread, then I'd keep looking! A house is the biggest purchase most people ever make, so it's important to be sure this is the house you really want.
I hate those types of spaces/ceilings with a passion. I currently have a couple of areas in my home with high ceilings, and it makes cleaning and maintenance so much more complicated. Currently the fan in our master bath and the air return vent in our stairway are coated with dust because we cannot reach them (even with the ladder I have and the extended vacuum/broom/duster), and the thought of hiring someone to bring an extended ladder and clean them for me makes me and so I just keep putting it off.
Never again will I own a house with ceilings taller than 10'.
I understand that some people love that feature for reasons of their own.
We don't have children either. It's not a noise issue for us, it's a cleaning/maintenance issue.
Reasons why I love:
-upscale feel/look
-airy space
-we have nice paint, the main wall with mantle is painted gray which matches everything else and goes well with other paint. It looks so nice I didn't even notice it was painted until a month after we moved in.
-very nice mantle that has 12 feet of space above it, allows us to have a huge painting above mantle
-smart colored lighting is much more dramatic, we have a thing behind the TV which shines light 19ft high, and a strip on the mantle, same effect
Things I don't like:
-dust we can't reach
-very, very bright during the day from the second story windows (motorized shades can fix this, but would cost a fortune)
-A/C has to work harder to cool this large, bright room.
But, overall this room sold us on the house. That and the corner lot.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
