Do you live in a "cookie cutter" neighborhood?

[Bob Slydell]

Yup, we own your basic suburban nightmare. There were 6 or 7 choices, with 3 elevations each, so most of the houses are pretty recognizable. There were 11 siding/trim packages you could choose from. We're light gray, because I'd rather live in a boxcar than anything beige or taupe. Ick!

Sounds like our development as well, but the builder did a pretty good job of limiting what models/elevations/colors were near each other so it's hard to tell that they're all one of 9 models.

 

[grlpwrd]

Our house is 6 years old and when we bought you had the choice of different elevations and colors except the rule was you had to choose different colors and different models/elevations/roof pitch/etc than the neighboring house. They still all look the same to me, though.

Living with a HOA is a pain, too, and I hope to move to Williamsburg soon in a non-HOA community.

 

[ducklite]

When my town was first built almost 60 years ago it was the original "cookie-cutter" town. There were two types of houses: capes and ranches. Then there was about 3 styles of each cape or ranch. When I was younger everyones house was the same. You always knew where the bathroom was in all of your friends houses.

Ahhh, Levittown. THere is also one in PA. Levittown was originally designed for veterans returning from WWII who needed housing as most married their sweetheart and started a family immediately on returning home, and there was a terrible lack of modest affordable housing at the time.

There have been quite a few great articles written about Mr. Levitt, you can do a search on the Internet for him. (I "think" his first name might have been Joseph, but could be really wrong)

Anne

 

[cardaway]

Sadly, yes. There was supposed to be more forced variety between 5 different floor plans, but towards the end they let people choose and they all chose the same as ours. It's called "Napa" so we call our area the Napa Valley.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Here in Ohio, it seems that different builders buy the land in a development and each puts up a few models, so there are houses that are the same, but there are lots of different kinds of homes.

As I was voting, I realized that if I were to vote on our Cape May home, yes, we own in a development of look alikes. However some are singles, some doubles and some quads, we own a quad.

Bobbi

 

[puffkin]

Technically no we don't. Our development has over 20 different models to choose from. However, most people seem to choose the same two or three models and basically the same color siding (shades of tan). Plus most people use the builders standard light package, so the houses can appear rather redundant.

When we built our house, we stuck with a common siding/shutter/brick color scheme because it did look the best. But we ended up picking a model where there are only 3 in our whole development so far. We also upgraded our outside lights (such a cheap upgrade!) and it made a huge difference. Our house has much better Curb Appeal than many in our neighborhood. I have noticed a few of the newer homes though copying our lights

 

[ZachnElli]

We are moving into our cookie cutter house this weekend, we are suppose to close on Friday. Our first 2 houses were also cookie cutter, the next 3 were custom. The one we just sold will probably be the niceset most expensive house we will have ever lived in. But stuff happens. Dh lost his job. We moved back home, he's starting a whole new career and you have to start somewhere and it's better than my parent's basement (where we are right now!)!

 

[Stitchfans]

around here we have a lot of tear downs. so here sits my tiny little cracker box surrounded by these mansions. talk about a small fish in a big pond.

 

[ducklite]

around here we have a lot of tear downs. so here sits my tiny little cracker box surrounded by these mansions. talk about a small fish in a big pond.

That's actually a good place to be. You reap the vaue of the larger homes while still paying for a smaller one.

We are the smallest home in our section. We are surrounded by 5000+ s/f homes worth in excess of $1M each. It's fine by me, keeps my property value up, yet my taxes are half what they are all paying.

Anne

 

[mickeyboat]

I live in an old town and in an old house. There are three farmhouse style homes on our street, but they have morphed so much over the years that they don't look the same.

Denae

 

[Stitchfans]

That's actually a good place to be. You reap the vaue of the larger homes while still paying for a smaller one.

We are the smallest home in our section. We are surrounded by 5000+ s/f homes worth in excess of $1M each. It's fine by me, keeps my property value up, yet my taxes are half what they are all paying.

Anne

you are right when I think about it. just feels funny though looking at all these huge houses and coming home to my tiny one. but its mine and thats all that matters.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

Ahhh, Levittown. THere is also one in PA. Levittown was originally designed for veterans returning from WWII who needed housing as most married their sweetheart and started a family immediately on returning home, and there was a terrible lack of modest affordable housing at the time.

There have been quite a few great articles written about Mr. Levitt, you can do a search on the Internet for him. (I "think" his first name might have been Joseph, but could be really wrong)

Anne

Mr. William Levitt. Since I live here, I learned all about him in school. He did a great thing. These houses are still standing strong and the town is doing really well. When first built, everyone thought Levittown would turn into a slum. Boy were they wrong. It is funny though seeing pictures of the original town. Fences were not allowed. There were no garages. All of the trees were little. Now, everyone has a fence and most people have a garage. The trees are all grown. Some of the original features are still standing. All 9 of the town pools are still operational and two of the Village Greens still exist.

 

[ducklite]

Mr. William Levitt. Since I live here, I learned all about him in school. He did a great thing. These houses are still standing strong and the town is doing really well. When first built, everyone thought Levittown would turn into a slum. Boy were they wrong. It is funny though seeing pictures of the original town. Fences were not allowed. There were no garages. All of the trees were little. Now, everyone has a fence and most people have a garage. The trees are all grown. Some of the original features are still standing. All 9 of the town pools are still operational and two of the Village Greens still exist.

I know a few people who own the original Levitt homes in LI and southeastern PA, and all of them say the same thing, the homes are still solid. The PA Levittown isn't as nice as it once was, unfortunately it's become a bit rundown and a slow creep of not so good surrounding areas has made it's way in.

Anne

 

[Poohgirl]

Nope, no cookie cutter here, not even a neighborhood! I live on a "road", which around here means a house every few acres, and lots and lots of trees!

 

[MissBubbles]

No...my house was built in the 1920's and has bright yellow siding (from the 70's/80's?). My next door neighbors are painting their house robin's egg blue - we're going to look like Easter eggs, right?

 

[dcgrumpy]

Not really, most of the houses on my block were built between 1914 and 1930. My house is actually the oldest house in the entire town. Ours is a colonial, but a lot of the other houses are small capes. Most of them have been renovated recently so they don't resemble each other at all anymore.

 

[Buckalew11]

Nope, we live on a road that is a one lane "Lane". Everyone's house is different on my street (and only on one side of the street the other side used to be cow pasture) and we all have at least 1 acre.

Now the cow pasture is full because a subdivision went in. Those houses are all different and huge! I guess that is good news for my basic ranch.

 

[dcgrumpy]

around here we have a lot of tear downs. so here sits my tiny little cracker box surrounded by these mansions. talk about a small fish in a big pond.

That's what's happening around here too. All of these little houses were built on double lots so people are just teraing them down and building new ones. Which is fine with me our house value went up over 30% in less than a year. The house next door was empty for over a year. There are now contractors adding on and completely gutting the place. I can't wait to see how much they sell it for.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

When my town was first built almost 60 years ago it was the original "cookie-cutter" town. There were two types of houses: capes and ranches. Then there was about 3 styles of each cape or ranch. When I was younger everyones house was the same. You always knew where the bathroom was in all of your friends houses.

Now since everyone is renovating and dormering, all of the houses are changing. But most people are using the same company that specializes in my towns homes. So they all have their slight differences but they have a similar style. Some are very nice, some are huge, and some are just horrid. Two houses here think the grey stucco look fits in well with the NE. Or the man who thought he could turn his little 800 sq ft home into a McMansion with pillars and all, egads! That has got to be the ugliest house ever.

I believe we're in the same neighborhood. We just renovated our home.
There are a few "basic capes" on the block. Mostly owned by people who have been living there since the 50's.

 

[gate_pourri]

I voted 'no' but I probably should have voted yes.

I live in a high-rise and all the doors look the same. We all have the same door knocker.