Why do you love your ranch style house? (how much, buy)

[Nechums]

My husband and I both grew up in colonials and the idea of a ranch style house is very foreign to us. But we're looking to place an offer on one. So, before we do, tell me why you love your ranch! Does it bother you that the bedrooms are so close to the living space (dining room, kitchen, living room)? Do your kids wake up from the noise because of where their bedrooms are located?

Thanks!

[Crookhaven]

Originally Posted by Nechums

My husband and I both grew up in colonials and the idea of a ranch style house is very foreign to us. But we're looking to place an offer on one. So, before we do, tell me why you love your ranch! Does it bother you that the bedrooms are so close to the living space (dining room, kitchen, living room)? Do your kids wake up from the noise because of where their bedrooms are located?

Thanks!

I love my Ranch, easy to heat easy to cool and no wasted space (a peeve of mine)

Front to back, is great if youre on a noisy street.

The LR is the on the opposite end of the BRs so it rarely presents a problem.
We love the efficiency and openness of the floor plan vs the cubby hole colonial I grew up in.

Youll love it.

Crooks





We finished our basement too.

[NCN]

The biggest advantage is the safety of your family. If a two story happens to catch on fire, your chances of being burned up in a two story house are much greater than a ranch style. I was told by a volunteer firefighter that the demonstration of how fire travels in a house was making her think about getting rid of her two story. Add that to the safety of being able to take your childrens clothes to their rooms without falling down the stairs while you are doing it.

I also like having everything on one story for convenience. You can sneak a peek at your children in seconds, not minutes.

Now would you like me to tell you how nice it is when you get old and the steps are hard to climb.

I also agree with the poster above about the lack of wasted space. That stairway takes up a lot of room in the middle of a home. You have less space to heat for the same amount of real living space and it is all on one floor, so no hot and cold areas, except for ones the Northern/Southern exposure create.

[thebobs]

Originally Posted by NCN

The biggest advantage is the safety of your family. If a two story happens to catch on fire, your chances of being burned up in a two story house are much greater than a ranch style. I was told by a volunteer firefighter that the demonstration of how fire travels in a house was making her think about getting rid of her two story. Add that to the safety of being able to take your childrens clothes to their rooms without falling down the stairs while you are doing it.

I also like having everything on one story for convenience. You can sneak a peek at your children in seconds, not minutes.

Now would you like me to tell you how nice it is when you get old and the steps are hard to climb.

True, also note that if you go on crutches, a ranch is easier to maneuver. Also some of them have a combo living/dining room which makes it easier to manipulate a larger couch or larger dining room table. Its the open floor plan that makes it more appealing.

[totallyfrazzled]

Also, you don't need to be "old" to start having problems with stairs. Ask any guy in their 40s who has a bad knee from a highschool or college sports injury how much they enjoy going up and down stairs on a rainy day... or even a sunny one, depending on how often the injury kicks up.

As for other leg-related chronic discomfort (sciatica, arthritis, etc) that can easily start being a problem in one's 50s .... not 70s or 80s which is what most people would probably consider "old"!

Anyone who has tried to wrestle large pieces of furniture up a typical narrow staircase in a colonial, especially if it has a landing or turn such as a splanch or split has, will find a ranch a welcome relief!

The temperature differential between the upstairs and downstairs in summer and winter can be very noticeable unless you use either AC or heat on one of the floors to equalize them. My last house was a colonial and in summer it wasn't uncommon for the upstairs to be up to 5 degres hotter than the downstairs if I didn't run the upstairs AC zone. That stairwell always acts as a heat funnel. You could literally feel it change when you hit the step about 2/3 of the way up. And the house was extremely well insulated too. In a ranch you won't have that problem because there's no heat funnel effect (unless you have a farm ranch of course).

Lastly, if you want to have skylights in your 'public' rooms (kitchen, living room, den, etc) you can do it in a ranch but not in a colonial unless the room in question extends outward from the second floor footprint.

[PONYPULR]

I can vaccuum my ranch home from one centrally located plug!!

[twingles]

I would love a ranch. I insisted on a 2 story when we bought our house - my DH would've loved a ranch. Then my sister bought a ranch and I saw what I was missing. It makes life so much easier to not be going up and down stairs all day!

[disneygrandma]

We bought a ranch because we thought it was a cool concept. I wish I did not buy it. We bought it for safety reasons for the children. Well, after 2 years I would now completely trust them on stairs and I am still living on one level. Foolish move for safety reason alone, the children grow in a blink of an eye. On days that my hubby lets me sleep in I can hear everything that is happening. The children run down the hall yelling, I hear them at the other end of the hall (the hallway seems to amplify the noise). I can never sleep in. We have a decent size ranch too, over 2000 sqft. An L shape ranch may be a little better, but I doubt it. Good luck.

[smartygurl]

In my ranch home, the master bedroom is on the opposite side of the house from the kid's bedrooms and between that is the living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room. So no noise from the kids in the other rooms while in the master bedroom. I like the open floorplan. It is nice and spacious and easier to vacuum/clean in my opinion.

[budsvtec]

I grew up in a ranch home that had been double dormered. The house was built on a cement slab.

I loved that house, because it was Huge. The rooms were big including the bedrooms, the bedrooms were away from the main living space, the upstairs was a nice place to hang out with my friends and there was a full bathroom and an attic up there.

The things I didnt like, was the lay out wasnt really open. The tile floor was so cold in the winter, and there was no basement