I am somewhat the same way. That’s why I want a loft-type space. The brick isn’t a matter of design, but it is quality. Substantial. Cool. Minimalist.
The biggest beef I have with houses built 1980 to the present is that they are designed to be “nice homes,” but they in general look and feel very cheap. They are an imitation of something, not the real thing.
When my wife and I first explored the Rocky Mountains as a place to live, we looked at buying this place. The decision was complicated, the unknowns were troublesome, but the place was definitely not cookie-cutter:
I was just reading about the paleo diet and hunter gatherers the other day. One thing that’s not debatable about them is that they have disastrous levels of infant and child mortality.
I think what was a historical mistake was the overemphasis on single-family homes and idiocy like lawns. It’s just not a very efficient way to live.
My house is over 250 years old. It’s twice the size we need – we don’t use the entire upstairs which is three bedrooms, a full bath, and a storage room. It is not anything like the house I imagined buying; we bought the property for the privacty, the pastures, the stable, and the access to hiking and riding trails. The house just went with it.
We had to get the whole enormous pile insulated and sealed – it’s still energy-inefficient, of course, you can’t make a 250 year old wooden house tight. It’s filled with long-obsolete features – five fireplaces, narrow steep staircases – and layers of both professional and amateur wiring and plumbing efforts dating from about the 1940’s – before that, it had an outhouse, a spring house, and kerosene lamps. Lots of local people either lived here or their ancestors did. It has heart pine and chestnut floors from primeval trees.
$935k seems rather reasonable for this. I think it would be a huge pain to deal with the pools and whatnot. And what would the maintenance cost be per year?
I’ve been working for a couple years as a translator in a steel mill to a maintenance advisor from Japan. One takeaway is that home maintenance is absolutely nothing compared to what goes on in heavy industry. We replace hydraulic cylinders that cost more than some houses. That $5,000 furnace that is such a big, terrible expense? No big deal.
Another takeaway, however, is this: Everything is always going to shit. We replace expensive new stuff that instantly breaks because it was made wrong or installed wrong. That could be your new furnace. Or your roof or basement could suddenly start leaking, etc. I think it’s funny that people walk away from a house with a furnace running in winter and just think everything is going to take care of itself (most of the time, it does, but…).
I don’t think there is a “perfect” house. Even if you design your home, eventually you’ll wish you had done something different.
Our house is kind of unique. It was part of a New Deal development that was built in the mid to late 30s. There were 82 of these homes built in what was then a very rural area. (Only one is no longer in existence. It was torn down when a new school was built. )They all had 5 or10 acres and a small barn. There was a lottery drawing for the first owners. There are 3 or 4 different styles/layouts, but at first glance, you’d think they were all the same. They all have brick veneer exteriors and are 2-storied. Some are 2 br some are 3. I love our home - it’s a part of history. We have the original red and white oak floors, the original bathroom tiles, and cast iron tub. The owners before us (we are the third owners of the house) painted the woodwork (doors & trim) in the main level. That is something that has always bugged me, but I don’t have the patience to redo them.
I think we will be the last owners to appreciate what the house means. The younger generations will not give a damn about the history. That makes me sad.
I’m with them. My house is fine. I picked it because I like the neighborhood. It’s the neighborhood I grew up in, and my parents still live down the street. It’s the worst house in the best neighborhood. It’s a 60’s raised ranch. I’ve sloooooooowly been making it less bad than I found it since 2005. A couple of upgrades here and there, just to make living here easier. I finally got around to getting a new kitchen last year. Nothing fancy, just the original kitchen was pretty gross. I still don’t have a dishwasher and I opted for laminate countertops.
One thing that sucks about houses is that many of them are not suited for aging in place. There’s a lot of people in my family with mobility issues, so it’s always on my mind. If you want single-floor living there are very few options apart from an expensive new condo. I’m blessed that my parents bought a slab ranch and raised the family there and are still there and can live there indefinitely because it’s mobility friendly. My aunts, on the other hand, are literally stuck inside their homes because they can’t do steps so they can’t get out without great effort, and they can’t find a single-floor residence to move to. Even my house is a raised ranch so it’s close to single-floor living but there’s steps to get in and the laundry is in the basement. My long-term plan is to move to my parents’ house when they’re gone.
My house was built in the early '50s and has had an addition put on. The insulation is great. We lived in in over 20 years without air conditioning since if you cooled it down at night it was comfortable during the day unless it was very hot for 3 days running. The layout is great, since the living room is on the opposite side from the bedrooms and pocket doors let you isolate rooms when you want to.
That it has sextupled in value over 25 years helps also. And space for a vegetable garden.
Well, gosh, do you want a home as a place to live or an investment? That right there is an important question to ask.
I’ve lived in a lot of places. Very few of them (there were one or two) I’d describe as truly terrible. The rest were a mix of good features and bad features. My current residence, for example, is poorly insulated so I am not at all happy about my winter heating bill. On the other hand, it has fantastic cross-ventilation in spring, summer, and fall and lots of natural light coming in the windows. The kitchen is smaller than the place I was in before but it’s laid out a LOT better so functionally it’s better and more efficient. And so on and so forth.
A long time ago I learned that no residence was ever going to be perfect. Even if it was perfect when you moved in things change over time. All places you live need maintenance, nothing lasts forever.
Unless I win the lottery (unlikely, given how infrequently I play) I am never going to have the money to build my “dream house”. So I know what are my must-haves and what I view as optional and try not to be too picky. While I could point out flaws and not-likes in any place I’ve ever lived, aside from that one or two I mentioned I’ve been mostly happy with them.
We just bought our house last year and have made some very minor changes – the bones of the house are great and the changes needed are cosmetic, much of which (repainting, new kitchen fixtures) we’ve already done. It was built in 1967 so the insulation sucks and the windows are still single-pane, but we knew that going into it. It has lots of storage and a big garage and an absolutely wonderful backyard. It’s a great house in an average neighborhood. We can walk the dog to the nearby grade school and the neighbors are mostly quiet. We like it a lot. If – and this is a big if – we ever remodel it would be to update the kitchen and add skylights. It doesn’t have enough natural light.
This is the only issue. Our house has a sunken living room and won’t be wheelchair friendly. I have no idea what we’ll do when/if we get to that point. The previous owner was in a wheelchair – it even has a concrete ramp to front door instead of steps – but I’m not sure how she managed to move around.
I will inherit my parent’s house. It is mobile friendly but it has the big drawback of being next door to my douchenozzle brother. I refuse to live next to him so I will likely sell the house to him and use the money to buy a different place or use it as a rental. Living there is not an option unless my brother is no longer living next door.
This. So, so much this. We take the bad with the good. Usually the good outweighs the bad. Living in your own home usually is better than… well, what’s the alternative? A bunch of roomates? Being homeless? Living full-time in a motel or hostel? A house / apartment / condo beats all of those choices, at least for me.
Do like I did about 10 years ago an design/build what you desire.
I dislike the current trend in most new homes, garage stuck out front, front entry in a little alcove, sometimes 1 1/2 stories with vaulted ceilings. Especially cookie cutter houses that every 3rd house on the block looks the same.
I based my full 2 story house on a “4 square” style with a open front porch (with a porch swing to boot) and the garage set back from the front of the house. Other than the eat in kitchen, open concept was thrown out the window.
That describes my parents’ house as well. And they’re still there with my father at ninety years old and using a wheelchair. They’ve been there for fifty plus years. And I agree that more homes should be built to allow for the possibility of being disabled.
One of the advantages to being in construction is building your own houses and knowing the bones. My wife and I designed this (with help from my Dad, an architect). It doesn’t suck, and certainly is not cookie cutter! It’s got lots of nice features and is designed for aging in place. We have been in almost a year. It cost about $300/foot, with good timing (early Covid) and sweat equity. Probably be $400/ft if we started today. Helps that we are in our fifties and relatively wealthy, of course.
It looks like you have a second story above the garage. Is that accessible only via stairs? (Wondering whether the space would be usable if you were to become disabled.)
More people (and architects) should think outside the box. People get so tied to resale value and therefore make designs generic. You want a boring house? Buy a spec house or tract house–people get so invested in not turning off any potential buyers that they end up building a house that doesn’t actually fit anyone perfectly.
That space is yoga/workout/storage/cool space. The main house is 2400’, so the above garage space is supplemental. Those glu-lams were made by a company in Alberta that can do any shape you want up to 150’ long’!
It keeps the water off my head and the garage keeps the snow off my car and motorcycles. It has a basement to hide in from tornadoes. It’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It’s a place to work from instead of driving to work. I have all the tools necessary to maintain it.
It’s paid for and the utilities are cheap. I live in an area with huge aquifers so water is never a concern. It has natural gas heating so I can run everything off a small generator if the power goes out.
When I finish up some current repairs it will be good to go for many years. When I retire I’ll fuss with the interior to pretty it up.
Maybe I’m easily satisfied but it’s a place to hang my hat with few worries.