Single Family Home Build (house, neighborhood, new construction)

[travbo]

A recent home renovation/expansion on a lot nearby. 700 sq ft. 2/1 home now is a 2000 sq ft. 4/3. Asking over $430k.

Do the following design features and properties issues seem odd?

Master on 2nd floor
2nd floor carpet/1st floor hardwoods
Washer/Dryer on 1st floor
Rear Driveway, Accessible via rear easement

[testa50]

Originally Posted by travbo

A recent home renovation/expansion on a lot nearby. 700 sq ft. 2/1 home now is a 2000 sq ft. 4/3. Asking over $430k.

Do the following design features and properties issues seem odd?

Master on 2nd floor A little odd depending on character of home
2nd floor carpet/1st floor hardwoods Not odd at all
Washer/Dryer on 1st floor Not odd at all
Rear Driveway, Accessible via rear easement Need to see site plan, but probably unimportant

.

[evannole]

Originally Posted by travbo

A recent home renovation/expansion on a lot nearby. 700 sq ft. 2/1 home now is a 2000 sq ft. 4/3. Asking over $430k.

Do the following design features and properties issues seem odd?

Master on 2nd floor
2nd floor carpet/1st floor hardwoods
Washer/Dryer on 1st floor
Rear Driveway, Accessible via rear easement

Our house, also new construction but a bit larger than 2000 sf, has all of these features. The first two were must-haves for us, and the last two were not must-haves but were certainly our strong preferences. So, in my view, none of these are odd at all.

My wife and I both agree that we don't even want to think about a master-on-main until stairs are too difficult for us, and hopefully that's many, many years away. We much prefer an upstairs master as it allows for a larger entertaining space - unless you have a large ranch or a two-plus story house with a large footprint on the main floor, chances are that a master on the main is going to eat up a lot of your main floor. We saw this the other night when we were over to a neighbor's house for dinner... Their house actually is slightly larger than ours, but they have a relatively small entertaining space because about half of their main floor is taken up by the master suite. Perhaps even more importantly, having the master upstairs provides important noise and visual separation from the public part of the house. If I want to have friends over for football or something, we can watch the game and cheer without disturbing my wife upstairs, if she's not interested in the game.

Carpet and Hardwoods are also personal preferences, of course. I prefer the look and feel of hardwood on the main level, but when I get out of bed in the middle of the night, I prefer the feel and warmth of carpet on my toes.

Washer/dryer on the first floor comes down to personal preference as well. I can't see a situation where you'd have the laundry upstairs and the master on the main, so if the laundry is upstairs, the master probably is, too. This is undoubtedly a bit more convenient from the perspective of hauling laundry, but it might also be a noise issue for you, particularly if it is right next to the bedroom. Moreover, if there's a washing machine overflow or broken hose, you're probably looking at much more significant damage to your home if the laundry is upstairs... Gravity is not your friend in this situation. (My parents are in the fire and water damage restoration business and this is probably their most common water damage job. People go out of town for the weekend, washing machine hose bursts upstairs, ruins upstairs floors and then the ceiling downstairs falls and everything downstairs is severely damaged, too.) Of course, this can largely be avoided by turning the washer off after each use, but most people don't bother to do that. (We do.)

Rear garages are unusual here, but preferable in my opinion. Nothing messes up the curb appeal of an otherwise attractive house than slapping a big garage door on the front, as far as I am concerned. If you're lucky enough to have an alley behind your house, or a driveway off to the side on the front but leading to the rear, a rear-entry garage is the way to go, in my opinion.

[sedimenjerry]

Master on 2nd is the predominant style near me including my house. I'm up til midnight while my parents are in bed no late than 10. Really helps from a noise standpoint.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by travbo

Rear Driveway, Accessible via rear easement

We have an additional rear driveway and I really like it. It's only partially paved and I like the "dirt road" feel more than the front driveway.

[AtlJan]

None of these sound odd to me. I prefer master on 2nd floor bc I have young kids and I need to be where they are. Rear drives are not unusual near me in our 100 year old neighborhood. Many streets were designed with an alley and driveways in the back.