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No, I actually moved this summer to Sudbury. I also have a basement now with a 2 car garage. I don't know how I ever lived in a slab house to be honest. I don't even need a shed anymore and I can park both cars in my garage. What a concept - using the garage to park cars!
Great description of living in an old, smallish, cramped slab house: storage is just "where you put it": A small room (mine are almost all small) may serve as a storage room. A garage is another huge issue for me. I only have a 1 car garage, but man it's 10,000 times better than no garage. I see a lot of nice houses FS (online) in New England, (even VT!), with no garage. Unless there's a ton of land room to build one; I don't want it.
B/C of the old hot water heating pipes (radiant heat) buried in the slab in my house that have now sprung a leak (in one area only, so far), I live in fear of the kind of scenario that Austin23 described. I now have a couple of portable electric heaters that I use more, instead of the central heat with the leak, & may get another one.....
Great description of living in an old, smallish, cramped slab house: storage is just "where you put it": A small room (mine are almost all small) may serve as a storage room. A garage is another huge issue for me. I only have a 1 car garage, but man it's 10,000 times better than no garage. I see a lot of nice houses FS (online) in New England, (even VT!), with no garage. Unless there's a ton of land room to build one; I don't want it.
B/C of the old hot water heating pipes (radiant heat) buried in the slab in my house that have now sprung a leak (in one area only, so far), I live in fear of the kind of scenario that Austin23 described. I now have a couple of portable electric heaters that I use more, instead of the central heat with the leak, & may get another one.....
Woody: Any chance you have enough equity in your house (in Lexington right?) to sell and move up to a 2-story home? I made nearly 6-figures on the sale of my Natick ranch in just 5 years (including principal payments), and got a couple promotions along the way so I was able to move up. I figure Lexington should be similar or even better.
I wouldn't buy a slab house unless it was a real bargain, and this house doesn't sound like one. There are reasons they don't usually have slab houses in New England. Digging a basement lets you put stuff underground where it won't freeze. Furnaces and water heaters outside of the house are more vulnerable to extreme weather (which will probably become more common in the future.) If these things are in the house they take up living space. Even an unlivable basement provides storage space.
I find people are starting to make slab houses to save money they can use to build an awesome kitchen (Which photographs well and looks good in property listings). This strikes me as penny wise pound foolish. (It's easier to renovate your kitchen ten years down the road then fix foundation problems or add space.
EDIT: It occurred to me this is only half of the decision. If you ever build a house, you find there are endless numbers of things you want your house to have and limited funds. You have to compromise on something. If the choice was between a slab house and an identical slab house, it would be easy. You are choosing between a slab house and...what? What's the other option? Inevitably it comes down to a choice about what you will compromise on.
As for the guy who built a house in the South and was told he had to let go of Northern prejudices...my point exactly. What kind of house makes sense depends on the area and climate. One place people get in trouble is by trying to pretend there is a national real estate market. Practices from other climates don't always travel well.
Last edited by EdLincoln86; 10-15-2013 at 01:48 PM..
I wouldn't buy a slab house unless it was a real bargain, and this house doesn't sound like one. There are reasons they don't usually have slab houses in New England. Digging a basement lets you put stuff underground where it won't freeze. Furnaces and water heaters outside of the house are more vulnerable to extreme weather (which will probably become more common in the future.) If these things are in the house they take up living space. Even an unlivable basement provides storage space.
I can't say I've ever seen a slab house where they put the furnace or the water heater outside. I think even the worst builder would recognize that as a poor decision. It's very common to find these items in a closet inside the house, in the attic, or in the garage instead of in the basement in a slab house.
I can't say I've ever seen a slab house where they put the furnace or the water heater outside. I think even the worst builder would recognize that as a poor decision. It's very common to find these items in a closet inside the house, in the attic, or in the garage instead of in the basement in a slab house.
In my old house it was in the garage. After the garage was converted into a family room, it was in an sound-insulated closet off the family room.
I can't say I've ever seen a slab house where they put the furnace or the water heater outside. I think even the worst builder would recognize that as a poor decision. It's very common to find these items in a closet inside the house, in the attic, or in the garage instead of in the basement in a slab house.
Correct. In my last new build home the gas hot water heater was in the garage and the gas furnace in the attic. In my present new build home, they are both in the attic. Most attics here have pull down stair access. There actually is an external hot water heating system/enclosure. It is very costly to do so and I am not sure it would work outside a temperate zone such as in MA. One of my neighbors has it. Ironically they are a Yankee who was paranoid about a hot water heater in the attic.
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