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I recently purchased a house that comes in just under 7400 square feet, and will be putting an addition onto it either late next year or in the summer of 2012. Why? Because I like having the space for if I entertain, I love being able to have different areas of the house with different themes, and, frankly, I like working my way through the driveway and seeing something nice on the horizon that I know is mine.
Driveways for me was a huge issue. I'm used to living in a town with street parking, and the last house we owned didnt even have that. The new house I ended up with has 2 driveways, one for us, and we use the other one for deliveries.. When we had a party last year it was great having room for 20 cars to park and no one tripping over each other waiting to use the restrooms etc..
Quote:
Originally Posted by parfleche
closets did not exist then you had your own wardrobes that you owned. my home has 2 15x15' bedrooms with 10' ceilings you could land a small plane in. the real deal
I wish I had 10 foot ceilings.. Dont know off hand what this one has but I think its 8.. The master bedroom though is too large. It was 900+ sf when we carpeted it. Dont recall the actual size but it was up there. to the point its almost non functional as a bedroom.. We ended up moving the bedroom furniture to half the room and setting up a tv and couch on the other side just so it didnt look so retarded with a bed in the middle of the room.. If you look at the photo on #8, the 2nd story, with the white siding is all the master bedroom.. Like I said earlier.. size isnt everything.. sometimes its to dam big to be usable for most people and it becomes a negative, meaning its cheaper to purchase.. We had to go through 4 banks to get this financed because each bank was worried about having to repo it and hold onto it for 2+ years while they tried to unload it again like the last bank..
I never dreamed of owning a big house because all it represents to me is a lot of cleaning. A lot of property, though, is a different story.
If you can swing a decent sized house, you can swing 200 dollars every 2 weeks to have a maid come in to clean it.
I never lift a finger aside from messes I make in the kitchen. I've got a robotic vacuum to clean the carpets between maid visits, a robotic mop to mop the floors, a robotic gutter cleaner, etc.
We have a 6,000 sf home, and I'm closing in the screened in patio to make a 4 season room and turning the basement into a theater to add another 1500 sf total. The size drives my gf bonkers.. The 1,000 sf master bedroom/bath for example left us wondering what on gods earth we were going to do with all of the extra space. I mean a bed, dressers take up x amount of space and with the walk in closet, there isnt much need for extras.
She hates our home, the cleaning that needs done, the neighborhood because she feels out of place, (she's black, white neighborhood), and the amout we're putting into it to "finish" what I want because she knows there isnt a chance in hell we need a 7,500sf home and selling it is going to be a big pain the a$$ since it sits in a neighborhood of 1500 sf houses..
good for you.I completly insulated my 1400 sq' home and highest heat bill was 40$ last year prop tax is 600$. not bad for an 85000 fixerupper that I saved from the developer flipper crowd
Wow.. a $40 heating bill.. I wouldnt know what to do.. haha..
I have 3 furnaces with zone heating, plus a gas fireplace on the patio and heated garages. looked at putting in geothermal but I'd need 2 units, and would still need the gas heaters for the garage (unless I spent on a 3rd geothermal) because you cant have the same heating systems with the house/garage. They have really nice tax credits which would be nice but for me the payback is something like 25 years, even with the credits.. Just cant justify the cost of $40K with about $12K back in credits, especially considering I'd still have a gas bill for the garage and patio..
Driveways for me was a huge issue. I'm used to living in a town with street parking, and the last house we owned didnt even have that. The new house I ended up with has 2 driveways, one for us, and we use the other one for deliveries.. When we had a party last year it was great having room for 20 cars to park and no one tripping over each other waiting to use the restrooms etc..
I wish I had 10 foot ceilings.. Dont know off hand what this one has but I think its 8.. The master bedroom though is too large. It was 900+ sf when we carpeted it. Dont recall the actual size but it was up there. to the point its almost non functional as a bedroom.. We ended up moving the bedroom furniture to half the room and setting up a tv and couch on the other side just so it didnt look so retarded with a bed in the middle of the room.. If you look at the photo on #8, the 2nd story, with the white siding is all the master bedroom.. Like I said earlier.. size isnt everything.. sometimes its to dam big to be usable for most people and it becomes a negative, meaning its cheaper to purchase.. We had to go through 4 banks to get this financed because each bank was worried about having to repo it and hold onto it for 2+ years while they tried to unload it again like the last bank..
that was the whole idea back when people were smart. 10' ceilings x double hung windows,crack the top and lower window ,heat rises and as it exits the upper window draws cool air from the lower one, houses today are quite stupid, gotta love the roof drainige near doors and in front of the garage. real carpenters only put doors on protected gable ends with covered porches they had brains today you have money
Seeing as how I hate to clean and perhaps your girlfriend does as well, your list would be quite long if I had a say.
My house is approx. 3400 SF, way more than enough, if fact, it's too big. I "live" in about half of it. Next house will NOT have a formal living room.
This home is far too big as well. I have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms we've never even used and they sit vacant. If it wasnt for the office space the home wouldnt work for us.. Plan is to sell off the internet company in 1-2 years after I finish building it back up to pre-broken wrist days and then sell it off, leaving this house massivly oversized for us.. And of course when the kids move out I definately wont need a 5 bedroom home for myself (and the gf if she's still alive at the time)..
We went shopping for office/storage space with house attached, rather than just a house. Main stipulation was I needed equity on the purchase because of the market being the way it was. When the sales price came in at 1/2 the appraised value, that was all I needed.
Cleaning, well it gets bye.. kids are getting old enough that they each have a few things to do daily and starting to realize if they make a mess, they simply have more chores to do.. If I hired help (which I probably couldnt afford), it would just make them think they can make a mess without recourse.
that was the whole idea back when people were smart. 10' ceilings x double hung windows,crack the top and lower window ,heat rises and as it exits the upper window draws cool air from the lower one, houses today are quite stupid, gotta love the roof drainige near doors and in front of the garage. real carpenters only put doors on protected gable ends with covered porches they had brains today you have money
I was designing the patio recently and looked at doing that very design with the windows. This brings up the problem with the fireplace because it sucks heat out of the house at an alarming rate that we have to close all of the doors in the house or the furnace runs non stop.. Stupid designs for stupid large homes. This guy just added on here, added on there.. and I'm left scratching my head and undoing the stupid things he did to make it useful..
If I hired help (which I probably couldnt afford), it would just make them think they can make a mess without recourse.
Not really, if they are taught right off the bat not to take advantage of it.
I grew up in a 6500 sf house, my parents both worked full-time.
My mom had someone come in once a week to clean bathrooms, etc.
Our bedrooms were never touched, except to be vacuumed.
If we made a mess, we had to clean it up, no ifs, ands, or buts.
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Chore lists here we come.. 
