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Now that I think of it, I don't think I was going after the American Dream. I wanted some place to run the various experiments I had thought of through my life.
Now, maybe my castle (and head) is in the clouds for I am still unpacking after a year, but on the other hand, as I type here on a Sunday morning, drinking my tea as the sun rises, I am living part of those dreams, nevertheless.
So maybe this too is part of the American Dream, just down in those sections that are never disclosed, never talked about, but nevertheless, make part of it up.
And who knows? There may be elements in those dreams that are programmed into us by our TV & Movies that we see so often, we want them, but don't realize it. A house away from the city to get away from it all (woman airline pilot in an episode of "Hunter"). "Take me to the Alpine Room......I want to see the dawn."--Tracey in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Okay, the chalet was quite a house. I want to be able to welcome a man to my house ("Green Ice") and lead him up the stairs ("Cat People"). I won't because of security concerns, but I dream of it. This place is built like the Wayne Manor in "Batman". "Who designed this house? Smith and Wesson?"-Tina in "The Silencers". Maybe even a small segment of the Playboy Mansion in my house.
It is kind of hard to do all that in an apartment so maybe we dream of a place of our own where we can eventually play some of our imagination.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jazzcat22
Yesterday I visited a new friend in his home. He's single, lives by himself. Five bedrooms, 5.000 square feet. Very nice neighborhood and fantastic wooded lot right by the river. Nice features like a deck AND a screened-in porch. He earns a high salary and can easily afford the home. But what blew my mind was walking in---the first two rooms you see when you walk in, one on either side, were completely empty. Not one piece of furniture. It just looked so weird to me. Basically he lives in his bedroom, den, office, or kitchen. I can't imagine paying for air conditioning and heating all that extra unused space...
Hmmm, reminds me of Laura's place in "The Thief Who Came To Dinner".
Well, at least, his place is not like the old joke.
A soap company was running a promotional to supply furniture for their product bought. A friend came to visit the young couple and complimented them on their wonderfully furnished living room. He then wanted to see the rest of the house but couldn't........it was all filled with soap.
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 06-10-2018 at 06:30 AM..
No, I don't think it's overrated. I love our house. We are a family of four living in a 3700 sq ft home on a half acre lot. We have 11 rooms. Parlor, 4 bedrooms, loft (playroom), hobby room (hubby's "man-room" and secondary family room), kitchen, dining room, family room, laundry. While we are not in them simultaneously, all of them are mostly used. Right now, one person is in the master, the two kids are in the rooms, and the other is in the hobby. People migrate to other rooms as the night wears on. No thanks, I wouldn't want to live in a smaller home right now. We have just the right amount of space and the home is not open, with pocket doors, so there's an intimate feel rather than a string of boxy rooms or one big box of a room. I was raised in NYC, I don't want to do the shoebox living ever again.
The house is also pretty much fully furnished too.
I'm not worried about resale, people around here like bigger homes on bigger lots.
3700 sqft on a half acre? That is a small yard for such a huge house. How much space between your house and the neighbor’s?
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jazzcat22
Yesterday I visited a new friend in his home. He's single, lives by himself. Five bedrooms, 5.000 square feet. Very nice neighborhood and fantastic wooded lot right by the river. Nice features like a deck AND a screened-in porch. He earns a high salary and can easily afford the home. But what blew my mind was walking in---the first two rooms you see when you walk in, one on either side, were completely empty. Not one piece of furniture. It just looked so weird to me. Basically he lives in his bedroom, den, office, or kitchen. I can't imagine paying for air conditioning and heating all that extra unused space...
The entry sounds like my house. As you walk in the formal dining room is to your right and there is another equal size room like it to the left right opposite of it. I'm not sure of its purpose, maybe a sitting room? Until recently both of them were empty and I am single in 5200 sq ft.
In the back of my mind I was going to the two rooms as working areas for my photography business, but have put that on hold.
His lot sounds great. I know sometimes if you want particular features like lot preferences, you may not have an option on a home size.
3700 sqft on a half acre? That is a small yard for such a huge house. How much space between your house and the neighbor’s?
Actually that’s a large yard considering I live in a suburban subdivision and not a rural exurb.Most people would think so. I don’t know how much space I have but it is plenty. The lot holds the house, an ample front yard with trees, an ample back yard with a pool, decking and landscaping, a 400 sq ft rose garden, and a large turf grass area and there are also six mature trees with large canopies.
There are a handful of one acre lots in our neighborhood but we are too busy to deal with the maintenance and for job purposes we can’t move out to the country, where acreage is more common.
Also the house doesn’t feel that huge to us. It’s all about layout it has a traditional floor plan
"Big" homes are in the eye of the beholder. For me, a big home would be overrated - it's me and two cats (who require a lot of space! LOL). My 1200 square feet was plenty enough for my husband and I when he was alive. My old house, at 1000 square feet, would have been too small for the two of us because of the way the rooms were sized and configured.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stockwiz
Dining rooms and porches are wasted space.
Sez you. I spend every morning and evening on my porch in good weather (and sometimes in bad), and eat every meal in my dining room if I'm not eating on the porch. I have a kitchen table, but it's usually too cluttered to eat at; the dining room table is always set with dishes and ready to go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocko20
The concept is pretty hilarious. Living room, dining room, family room.
I always watch house hunters and they say “wow this is a lot of room for us to entertain guests” in reference to the dining room, as if they’re going to pull out some pool tables and 70” flat screens for their guests or host cocktail parties in their $200K house.
What?
Dining rooms are for dining; usually these remarks are made in the context of hosting large family dinners or similar events. It takes a large dining room to seat 12 or more people. My dining room, at 13x12, is tight at 8 people, which is the max my table can hold.
I like the graphic, OP. When I think about how I use my house, I realize how much of it is "wasted" space. I live in my living room, office, (converted bedroom) and bedroom. I've used my dining room less than 5 times in the last 5 years. So, the foyer, back parlor, and dining room, are little more than circulation rooms between the "lived in" rooms, and utilitarian rooms.
I wasn't looking for all the extra space, though. At 1700 s.f. this was one of the smallest houses in the neighborhood I wanted to live in.
I like the graphic, OP. When I think about how I use my house, I realize how much of it is "wasted" space. I live in my living room, office, (converted bedroom) and bedroom. I've used my dining room less than 5 times in the last 5 years. So, the foyer, back parlor, and dining room, are little more than circulation rooms between the "lived in" rooms, and utilitarian rooms.
I wasn't looking for all the extra space, though. At 1700 s.f. this was one of the smallest houses in the neighborhood I wanted to live in.
I remember living rooms as being mainly for entertaining, not for daily living, so much. Back when families dined together, dining rooms were used daily, in the evenings. Kitchen tables were for breakfast, and lunch on weekends. The "den" was for the TV, and for board games, kind of like a family room, before family rooms were invented. My observation at home, and with friends & relatives was that all the house was used, except for the living room, which tended to be a special-occasion kind of a thing, and for the adults in the evenings. Kids generally weren't allowed to play in the living room.
And now? Who can afford a house with a dedicated dining room? Those seem to have gone out of style, for various reasons. And just for the record, fwiw, I HATE this trend toward having the kitchen open onto the living room, or worse--having it as a sort of utility corner in a combined living/dining room.
[quote=Ruth4Truth;52157579]I remember living rooms as being mainly for entertaining, not for daily living, so much. Back when families dined together, dining rooms were used daily, in the evenings. Kitchen tables were for breakfast, and lunch on weekends. The "den" was for the TV, and for board games, kind of like a family room, before family rooms were invented. My observation at home, and with friends & relatives was that all the house was used, except for the living room, which tended to be a special-occasion kind of a thing, and for the adults in the evenings. Kids generally weren't allowed to play in the living room.
And now? Who can afford a house with a dedicated dining room? Those seem to have gone out of style, for various reasons. And just for the record, fwiw, I HATE this trend toward having the kitchen open onto the living room, or worse--having it as a sort of utility corner in a combined living/dining room.[/QUOTE]
If I can see my sofa from my kitchen its an automatic deal breaker.
We have a dedicated dining room but only because our house is old. There are so many homes I see that get flipped with walls torn down and a big all purpose open concept room that necessitates a sofa up against a kitchen island. No thank you.
Yeah, but that was 60+ years ago - 71 years ago for the first houses (I grew up going to the Levittown school district although not in a Levitt house).
People's tastes and standards have changed. The average new home size keeps going up, so I think it's a fair statement to say that in general, the home the average American dreams about is larger than what someone imagined in 1947.
That doesn't mean everyone shares that dream, of course, but if people didn't want bigger houses, builders would be building more smaller ones. They build what they can sell for the most profit they can get, and if the bigger houses sell, it's what they build
In my area big houses sit on the market for months at a time. It's the smaller homes that sell fast. Yet all they build are big homes.
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