Downsizing the family home

[barkley]

It's truly something that's regional in the US:

interesting-it shows my state as slab but it's got a wealth of basements. what i realy found surprising looking at homes here was the difference in what is considered a 'crawl space' vs. what i grew up with in california. in california a crawl space was literally that-something you had to get on your belly and crawl into, here it can be something akin to what we have which is 6' high (and wired with a light and outlets) so it can't qualify as basement but is sure much more user friendly for anyone needing access below the house (and doubling as spectacular storage).

 

[soccerdad72]

interesting-it shows my state as slab but it's got a wealth of basements. what i realy found surprising looking at homes here was the difference in what is considered a 'crawl space' vs. what i grew up with in california. in california a crawl space was literally that-something you had to get on your belly and crawl into, here it can be something akin to what we have which is 6' high (and wired with a light and outlets) so it can't qualify as basement but is sure much more user friendly for anyone needing access below the house (and doubling as spectacular storage).

We have what’s considered a crawl space in our lake house. It’s one or two courses short of being tall enough to finish it. We use it for storage and I can stand up down there, as long as I’m in between the beams (I’m 5’ 9”). Not sure why they didn’t just build up a little bit more, but I assume they couldn’t dig any lower due to the water table.

We have a full finished basement in our primary home - pretty much all houses around us have basements.

 

[bluezy]

What you show in your picture is called a split level here. When you walk i the front door, you are in the living room and do not go up or down steps. from the living room, you can go ether up to bedrooms or down to bedrums/garage.

Here is a typical split foyer with the entrance opening to a small "foyer" and you immediate have to go up or down to get to anything. Hence, the foyer is split. Usually there are bedrooms and/or rec rooms in the partially submerged basement and kitchen, living space and bedroom(s) are upstairs.

View attachment 993369

My house is this layout except that the entire thing is above grade rather than the lower level being half below grade.

I grew up in a house like the one in this picture and exactly as you described...and here it's called a bi-level.

 

[ronandannette]

Very rare to not have a basement in our city.

Almost non-existent I’d imagine. It’s not a matter of preference or expediency or cost. Building science dictates that in climates like ours, slab-on-grade is next to impossible due to the frost-heaving that inevitably occurs when the ground freezes 8 or more feet deep once or more per season. For a stable foundation, footings must extend very deep into the ground and you might be surprised to know that your basement floor doesn’t “rest” on the grade beneath it. It’s tied into the deep foundation exterior walls and supported by steel rebar. It floats to prevent it from crumbling due to the forces of expansion and contraction. The concrete is actually poured in after the house is built; it provides no structural support. Same with your garage floor and driveway.

Where I grew up, it was for the expediency of contraction and making the homes affordable. They could pour ten slabs on Monday and start framing ten on Wednesday

Where I am now, there are some basements but its is not super common. Part of it may be because of the water table being high and part is that a lot of our county is in areas that are at risk of flooding. Neither of my houses have ever been close but other parts of the county.

My spare house (that is what we are calling the rental that we are trying to sell. Is a split foyer and the tax records call the first level a "basement" but the entire structure is about two feet above grade. You literally have to walk up to get from the garage into the "basement".
View attachment 993321

 

[lovesmurfs]

We actually upsized when we moved from Chicagoland to Florida last year. We had three bedrooms, two baths, and an unfinished basement (about 1,800 square feet total, three floors).

Moved to a 4 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath (two bonus rooms), all one floor, just over 2,800 square feet. Yes, it's big, but it's fantastic when family visits. And I have my own office I don't have to move out of when they come.

That said, it's a lot of space when it's just DH and me. At some point, we may downsize, but I'm enjoying the space for now. It was good to get rid of a lot of the more sentimental stuff with the move last year. Most of what's left isn't stuff our kids would have a problem getting rid of.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Where I grew up, it was for the expediency of contraction and making the homes affordable. They could pour ten slabs on Monday and start framing ten on Wednesday

Where I am now, there are some basements but its is not super common. Part of it may be because of the water table being high and part is that a lot of our county is in areas that are at risk of flooding. Neither of my houses have ever been close but other parts of the county.

My spare house (that is what we are calling the rental that we are trying to sell. Is a split foyer and the tax records call the first level a "basement" but the entire structure is about two feet above grade. You literally have to walk up to get from the garage into the "basement".
View attachment 993321

We used own a house like that when we lived in Massachusetts, and it was called a "split entry", at least in our area.

 

[MillauFr]

No, because we know too many people who did and regretted it*.

And the idea of paying over $30,000 in real estate commissions and fees to get LESS house seems stupid.
We bought our house as our forever house. 1,754 square feet, 3 bedrooms 2 baths. Bought it 42 years ago. Kind of out grew it, and looked at getting a bigger house, 30 years ago. But again, looking at the crazy cost of real estate commissions, we added on a bedroom laundry room, and half bath bringing the house up to 4 bedrooms 2 1/2 baths and 2010 square feet for a quarter of the cost of selling and buying a bigger house.



*An example. Some friends sold their home of 28 years three years ago. Replacement home was toooo small, so after a year they moved again to a bigger house, that is still about half the size of their original home.

Also in California you are grandfathered in with low property taxes. You would be foolish to give that up.

 

[Jeannie]

We did... sort of, lol! We purchased a 4 br, 2.5 bath colonial with a 2 car garage and full basement on 1/3 of an acre in 1991. Around 2001 we added on a 750 sq ft apartment for my mother. In 2015, when our kids were out of the house, we gutted the 4 bedrooms down to 3 to extend the master, increase the master bath, and create a large walk in closet with built ins.

In 2023 my mother was no longer with us, so her apartment was empty. We never used the living room as we spent time in the family room, and the two spare bedrooms were almost never used. We were heating and cooling empty space! Most importantly, our kids and grands were about 30 minutes away... which doesn't sound terrible until you're stuck in rt 80 traffic and now it's an hour drive.

In 2023 we went from 3000 sq ft to 2000 sq ft.

We purchased a 4 br, 2.5 bath split level with a 2 car garage and partial basement on just over 1/2 an acre. It also has a built in pool. Since our former house had been remodeled and updated to our preferences, we did the same here. Went from 4 bedrooms to 3, but did keep part of that room as a small office, and created a large master bath and walk in closet with built ins. We put in a new kitchen, baths, hardwood flooring, tile, paver patio and pool surround, and landscaping.

We love our house, neighborhood, neighbors, and best of all - being 5 minutes away from one daughter and 15 minutes from the other.