Why are houses in America so...ugly? (Sacramento, Davis: 2009, construction)

[Reivax]

Originally Posted by MapleLeaf

What i don't like in Cali homes:
1. I've never seen basement (in Canada I've never seen house without one)
2. Too much carpets and in the best case laminate (no hardwood). To have carpets in dining room is insane IMHO

I agree, and that craziness is not limited to California. Carpet under the table you eat at is just asking for stains. I've seen bathrooms with carpet too. Personally, I don't think carpet should be downstairs at all. Hardwood floors are my preference for the whole house, except tile for bathrooms.
As for basement, I wish I could have one, but Houston and basements don't mix.

I prefer the garage is not attached to the house, but I don't really care so much. I don't have snow here, but plenty of rain, so our garage has a cover between garage and kitchen back door.

[hellaslover]

gym? Nah! We have Jenny Craig! Plus we can get a treadmill and save gym membership costs and gas...which will end up next to that ab roller we haven't used since we bought it. lol

To be honest i would prefer to have a detached garage (or even no garage at all, just room to park my car) even if that means walking to the house in bad weather. And in California weather is not really a problem. Even though i like my car i don't think it deserves its own home...having a garage in the house the way houses are build is like saying "my car lives here, but i also live here and my car deserves to take up the nicest part of the house right in the front"

Good point on the carpet. I HATE carpeted floors. The same way i hate wallpapers, but thank God that's old fashioned.

[MapleLeaf]

Originally Posted by hellaslover

Good point on the carpet. I HATE carpeted floors. The same way i hate wallpapers, but thank God that's old fashioned.

I got surprised when we visited model home in EDH (area known for NOA issue). Nice , big house for 500K with upgrade in tens thousand $$$, but still carpets are everywhere.

[Reivax]

Some people like carpet, I think those people either don't have kids or they don't personally have to keep the house clean, lol.
If where you live has snow and rain, I would hate to have carpet downstairs, or at all.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Reivax

Some people like carpet, I think those people either don't have kids or they don't personally have to keep the house clean, lol.
If where you live has snow and rain, I would hate to have carpet downstairs, or at all.

I feel the same and hate white tile as well. We have laminated floors in our dining room, entry, all halls, and kitchen as well as bathrooms. They are the easiest to keep clean, carpet sucks except in bedrooms.

Nita

[MapleLeaf]

Originally Posted by nmnita

I feel the same and hate white tile as well. We have laminated floors in our dining room, entry, all halls, and kitchen as well as bathrooms. They are the easiest to keep clean, carpet sucks except in bedrooms.

Nita

We have laminate only in basement (it's cheaper, same cost as carpet), in living room - hardwood. Believe me , it's much nicer to step on hardwood than on laminate

[Wayneb]

Originally Posted by hellaslover

I read in your previous post that you lived in Glyfada. Truth is that Glyfada is one of the more upscale areas in Athens. Not many Greeks speak so many languages or even fluently English. I am guessing you didn't stay long enough to fully understand Greece and its people, if not, can you make a comment on our culture? I have always wondered what people thought of Greece after living there. (if you had a bad experience that's ok, but be honest)

Yes, I know where I lived the people were pretty well off for the most part, my neighbor spoke a lot of languages because he did business all over Europe. I had a hard time trying to learn Greek because everybody wanted to practice their english with you, I am pretty sure english was the official second language of Greece then having replaced french.
I knew many people who studied in London and spoke with a brittish accent. Many people also had family in the U.S.

The area I lived in was great, I was about 2 blocks from the beach and the area reminded me of So. California except the beaches were more like Florida. The people seemed very friendly and easy to get along with, it was funny to see people get into a minor traffic accident and then get out and yell at each other and then one would invite the other over for dinner.
I did see poverty in some areas I visited but Greece was much poorer on average then here so I was not surprised.

I really liked Greece but lately everytime I see a poll they have an unfavorable view of us so I doubt I would ever go back and visit.

[Jimbo15]

In areas where it gets cold in the wintertime, the soil will freeze and when it does you have different expansion and contraction gradients between the soil and the pipes with fuid in them. If the pipes are regularly freezing, they will crack and leak. If you were to move to the parts of the US that freeze a lot like the midwest, the building code there still requires basements.

If you go to the older neighborhoods in Sacramento, you can still find homes with basements. That is a historical legacy caused by the fact that a lot of these homes were from kits sold by Sears Roebuck, that basements were cooler and used for storing perishables, that when people relied on iceboxes for refrigeration and coal for heating, that those things were located in the basements.

In this region a basement is more of a design flaw than an advantage. Because of the rivers, the local water table is very high so basements have problems with seepage/drainage. Also because of the rocks and soil in the area, they tend to have problems with Radon gas collecting in the basements. So here people have bigger garages and no basements.

Radon | Indoor Air Quality | US EPA

[MapleLeaf]

Originally Posted by Jimbo15

In areas where it gets cold in the wintertime, the soil will freeze and when it does you have different expansion and contraction gradients between the soil and the pipes with fuid in them. If the pipes are regularly freezing, they will crack and leak. If you were to move to the parts of the US that freeze a lot like the midwest, the building code there still requires basements.

If you go to the older neighborhoods in Sacramento, you can still find homes with basements. That is a historical legacy caused by the fact that a lot of these homes were from kits sold by Sears Roebuck, that basements were cooler and used for storing perishables, that when people relied on iceboxes for refrigeration and coal for heating, that those things were located in the basements.

In this region a basement is more of a design flaw than an advantage. Because of the rivers, the local water table is very high so basements have problems with seepage/drainage. Also because of the rocks and soil in the area, they tend to have problems with Radon gas collecting in the basements. So here people have bigger garages and no basements.

Radon | Indoor Air Quality | US EPA

Probaly you are correct. However, majority of home owners over here are not using their basements for storage, but finish it and using as home theather, game room, gym, even sauna.... we finish our basement and got additional living room, office room, bedroom, full bathroom and small storage room....

As per rivers in Cali, don't think this is a reason, as all houses on shores of Great lakes (Ontario, Erie, Huron, Superior) have basements

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by MapleLeaf

Probaly you are correct. However, majority of home owners over here are not using their basements for storage, but finish it and using as home theather, game room, gym, even sauna.... we finish our basement and got additional living room, office room, bedroom, full bathroom and small storage room....

As per rivers in Cali, don't think this is a reason, as all houses on shores of Great lakes (Ontario, Erie, Huron, Superior) have basements

I think the point he was making was the rivers and the soil. Here in NWA we have lakes and rivers plus basements, but the soil if very different than in California. I do not think he meant basements are used for storage only, I took it as meaning you have more room for storage with the extra space. I know when we lived in the D.C. area most of us had basements, they were finished as you pointed out but we did use them for storage as well. In most cases our homes in the east had the game or rec rooms in the basement, in Ca rec rooms or family rooms are on the main level. It is a matter of design.

Nita