It was a nice house, but it wasn't a very nice house.
Yesterday afternoon, on a whim, we went to an open house at a local development. The houses are small, and attached, two to a unit. We knew that the builder was a high-end builder, so we expected that we would see a very nice house that was on the small side. Not quite.
The first floor was nicely laid out, the second, a bit barren (it had one bedroom, a large bath, and a very large open area whose purpose was not clear). The kitchen was small but pleasant (very large cooktop on an island; SubZero refrigerator, high-end GE appliances) and the architectural details were good (crown molding, archways, hardwood floors pretty much throughout). A small butler's pantry connected the dining room with the kitchen, no less than three bathrooms dotted the house. A full-house sound system played music throughout, including the outdoor sunroom. Overall, the quality was very good, yet, in an odd way, not any better than I'd seen in other new houses. Newer, yes. Better, no. Even when it was pointed out that the house had features that ours does not have, and which I'd like -- solid-core doors, for example, to cut down noise transmission, with 'ball bearing hinges', or a microwave that didn't block access to the range -- it didn't seem all that much better than ours.
The builder's plans showed that the model we were in was larger than our house, with about 2100 square feet on the first floor, and about 900 on the second floor. I wondered where all that space was, as the space felt snug to me. And the cost of the house was, to my mind, astronomical. Even given that a new mass-market house can easily cost about 60 percent of that house's cost, it seemed a staggering amount.
It gave me things to think about...and made our current house look much more attractive.
2 comments:
I toured a house trailer the other day. Not your father's tornado bait, nosir! This was very nicely laid out, made maximum use of the space, and though snug, it didn't seem small. I was trying to get some ideas of where I went wrong...why my huge house barely accomodates the two of us.
I tried to lay out traffic patterns, "golden triangles" of activities, but I am stuck with a design laid out on a work table in 1867. The upstairs hallway is designed for women with big hoop skirts and it is the biggest "room" in the house. My living room has its entrance door on one side, and stairway on the other, so you cannot block the room with furniture...it MUST be against the wall. I prefer cozy little groupings to the furniture pressed against the wall like a high school dance!
There is no basement, no useable attic. Every room is a different height...people continually trip when they go from one room to the other!
Oh well...it will turn out okay...right about the time I start pushing a wheel chair in the "manor".
I offer the comment made to us by an architect, years old: "Houses are plastic. You can do whatever you want."
He neglected to mention the 'paying for it' part....
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