Remember that @wolfpup is in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), where prices have gone crazy over the last twenty years or so. Demand outstrips supply, driving all prices up. Even in the surrounding areas that are regarded as suburbs of the GTA (Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Vaughan, Markham, Pickering, etc.) if you want a standalone house with a front and back yard, you’ll be paying in excess of $1M. If you want a one-bedroom condo in a highrise, you’ll be paying at least $500K, if not more. And you’ll pay more if you want to be anywhere near downtown.
Some years ago, I sold my father’s house in the old City of Toronto. It was like winning the lottery.
Interesting and probably very astute analysis of housing in rural America. Regarding the interior of that house, I don’t have your eye for detail, but most of it looked OK to me, at least superficially. Some things like that pet washing station were real oddities, though – I’d never build something so obtrusive for something that would normally be used so rarely – unless the property is frequently muddy or dogs frequently get skunked.
But the outside of that house definitely conveys your concept of “cheap”. That either wasn’t designed by a professional architect, or at least not a very good one. There’s no hint of elegance there – it looks less like a house than a small manufacturing plant that makes brake rotors for GM. But I still think the interior has some interesting spaces, though it could use more and larger windows.
OK, but is that sad? It sounds like they spent money on the things they really cared about and got to live life the way they wanted to rather than fit their hobbies into one-size-fits all, cookie cutter tract homes. It would be sad if they invested a ton of money building special purpose rooms and then immediately lost interest in the hobby the minute the room was completed, which does happen. As long as they know exactly how much the room is actually costing them, in terms of depreciation of resale value, and they have the financial freedom to absorb it, it sounds like one of the better uses of money.
That plus, the value of any property always has a floor of [the value of the land] - [cost to demolish the existing property]. The value of the land is always going to be the biggest factor in any long term real estate speculation. It could be that, by the time they sell it, the most desired use of that land is to subdivide it and turn it into tract homes, in which case the most timelessly beautiful built house in the world and their strange creation would be valued exactly the same.
I just about died when I saw the price on the listing. In my not- particularly- desirable neighborhood, a 1400 square foot semi-detached house on a 2000 square foot lot gets listed for a million. In some alternate universe where there was something like a 10 acre lot around here , that house would go for tens of millions
Yeah, if you are happy to live in the boondocks, and have the money to build a house that matches you exactly, this seems like a great use of money.
I know a guy who built a gorgeous Japanese house in the midst of attractive Japanese gardens. He imported Japanese workers to build it. He said he didn’t pay them a ton, but he took them out to eat steak dinners and drink American whiskey every night, and they were happy to have the gig. It had a giant, climate-controlled library in the basement to house his enormous collection of rare books. The library made the most use of the available space by featuring rolling bookcases, so there were tons of long bookcases, but only one aisle, you had to decide which aisle you would walk down. It had a large room to hold his puzzle collection, and a large formal dining room. One of the bathrooms had custom-made gold fixtures as a F-U to his ex-wife. He hosted a large party once a year that i was invited to, and probably hosted others, as well. Oh, and the whole large estate had a single bedroom.
Yeah, he didn’t build that to resell it.
Also, he died a few years later of cancer, having enjoyed the house until the last days of his life. I don’t think it was a bad use of his money.
And that’s the biggest problem with that house. There are lots of weirdly designed houses out there, and lots of big new junk. But this one is no place.
I’m with you on the open space. Especially with respect to the kitchen and dining room. I need shelves and cabinets to put all the stuff that one uses in a kitchen but that can’t live on the counter if you want any counter space. And in order to have shelves and cabinets, you need walls for them to be on.
And at least for my house here in the mid-Atlantic, cooling in the summer doesn’t cost much, but heating in the winter costs a lot. So I look at those high ceilings as space where the hot air will rise into, and only after I heat all that huge overhead space do I actually heat the living area near floor level. That would double or triple my heating bills, which are already my major electrical expense. So forget that.
I kinda like the loft, but not enough to outweigh all the disadvantages of high ceilings.
This thread reminded me of the guy who built an elaborate stereo system in his home and alienated his children in the process. Gift link in the attached thread.
I don’t think that’s sad. What I think is sad is people who design/renovate/decorate based mostly on resale value rather than what they want. It’s one thing to take that sort of advice if you’re the type of person who moves every 5 or 10 years. But not everyone does that - I’ve been in my house 38 years and expect at least 10-15 more. If I had decided to bump the kitchen out or take some space from a bedroom to expand the bathroom , even if it lowered the resale value - who cares? I’m sure I would have gotten more enjoyment out of living in the house I wanted for 40 or 50 years.
This. My parents have been in their house (the only one they have ever owned) since the 1970s. My grandparents lived in their home from the 1950s-2000s. You make the house you want to live in. Not some hypothetical other person you may sell to decades later.
The lofts I’ve seen, you’d have to be careful about where you stand to not bump your head. The one I’m thinking of in particular is more like a cozy nook over the living room where you can follow the conversation below without having to be part of it.
So I like the idea, but you need high ceilings for something like that, and I’m not going to pay to heat all that overhead space during the cold part of the year.
Now that would be a nice new hobby! Faking impossible homes and putting them up for sale on-line.
Start with a kitchen with a toilet beside the sink. A golden toilet, maybe.
M.C. Escher style stairs that lead nowhere and are partly upside down.
Windows bricked shut.
Chimneys that vent inside the room.
What a pity that I am too lazy! Could be fun.
Yes! A butcher’s table in the basement with meat hooks hanging from the ceiling would look nice too.
If you set the price high enough nobody would bid and there would be no problem.
And you all think this house is weird? You should visit Belgium some day:
