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1. Home on a slightly busy road(marked with two yellow lines because there is a school down the road) but not very busy Vs home in a very calm and quiet neighborhood.
2. Home with 2 car garage Vs no garage
3. Colonial Vs Cape
4. Home with marble flooring in the family room, kitchen and dining room Vs tile floor in the family room and kitchen.
5. Ordinary ceiling Vs Cathedral ceiling in the family room.
6. Home with 2 full bath and one half bath Vs home with one full bath and one half bath
7. Home with fronatge less and very big backyard(this is for the home on the slightly busy road) Vs home with big frontage and a medium size backyard(quiet neighborhood)
8. Home with very small kitchen(8*12) with a separate dining room Vs big kitchen(11.5*22) with a separate kitchen. (I know obviously everybody would prefer a big kitchen but is 8*12 really small?
We are planning to remodel the kitchen. We want to make it big. How much does it cost to make a kitchen bigger and put up more cabinets in it? There is a wall that parts the foyer and the kitchen. Could that be a supporting wall? How can one identify a supporting wall? We are not going to demolish the supporting wall but we are planning to build an opening with a door. Is that ok to do on a supporting wall?
My opinions....
1. Calm and quiet
2. 2 car garage
3. Cape
4. marble
5. cathedral
6. 2.5
7. big backyard
8. big kitchen
I'd budget $50,000 for the kitchen remodel, higher if you are going to use high end materials and make it a "gourmet" kitchen. I would suggest you have your plans reviewed by an engineer so as not to compromise the structural integrity of your home. I am not sure about NH, but when I lived in WA, that was a requirement.
1.This is a no brainer... calm and quiet neighborhood.
2. This is a no brainer... Home with 2 car garage
3. This is subjective, my pick would be the cape
4. Flooring is subjective, what if its an ugly marble vs. a good looking tile?
5. I would take the cathedral ceiling only if it isnt super high and large, at that point its going to be too much of a pain to heat.
6. This is a no brainer, who would choose the house with less bathrooms?
7. This is subjective, huge frontage does nothing for me, I would rather have the usable backyard space, hell my driveway is about 300 feet through the woods with no frontage... but the quiet neighborhood would superseed the frontage question.
8. 8x12 is pretty small, our kitchen is about that size and the wife hates it, Im not a huge fan either because as many updates as we do, we cant really make the room bigger.
Too many variables here to answer that question. but im guessing alot of money...
Why is it that everyone suggests a Cape? Previously we had given an offer for a Cape home but backed off because it wasnt a colonial type. When we compare homes in the neighborhood, my agent always says that we should not compare a Cape with a Colonial because the latter one has more value.
Calm and quiet neighborhood is good, I agree but will nobody prefer a home on a not so busy road especially when the home has no frontage. But I am sure there can be no noise heard inside the home.
Colonials are highly desirable, but there is a glut on the market currently. The newer 'McMansion' style colonials are not as big and luxurious as real antique colonial style homes.
A cape style can be just as big. I would never have backed out of a deal because of some one else's personal taste.
A garage is always preferable. Who cares what the frontage is? Most house lots in NH have a minimum of 1 acre, enough to keep the majority of people happy.
[quote=nairshiba;30852796]Chris and Mike, thanks a lot for the replies.
Why is it that everyone suggests a Cape? Previously we had given an offer for a Cape home but backed off because it wasnt a colonial type. When we compare homes in the neighborhood, my agent always says that we should not compare a Cape with a Colonial because the latter one has more value.
quote]
Cape vs. Colonial is really just a personal preference.
I find colonials to be kinda boring personally, in general they are rectangular shaped 2 story houses and the interior layouts are usually the same. A cape is more appealing to my eye with the many different styles and combinations with dormers, full dormers, bump outs, angled walls on the second floor (some find these as a a negative of a cape, but i think it gives the rooms more charachter,
Too me the proportions of a cape are more appealing and the feel of a cape is more "homey" and not as grand and "look at me"
Quiet areas are good. Being on a busy street, not good.
The more bathrooms there are, the better, unless you live alone.
Cape vs Colonial - There are nice homes of both styles. When we were looking we saw a good handful of both. We ended up with a Colonial because that particular house met most of our needs and wants. But I wouldn't rule either style out. Our main floor is open except for a partially closed dining room. We have a smaller kitchen, but it is open to a large living area, so it doesn't seem small. It wasn't the "gourmet kitchen" of my dreams, but I love it now, because the openness of it allows me to not be out of the action.
We don't have much land in either the front or the back of our house that is officially our own. However, our backyard backs up to conservation land, so we make believe the woods behind us is part of our property. The woods are beautiful and make our property much more private.
Unless you have a house built to your design and specifications, and you pick your own lot, you will have to make compromises in most cases. Think about what's most important to you and start there. Good luck!
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