We built our home 14 years ago and spent about a year doing research on building the perfect home for us before we started building. We read many books; talked to many friends and family members who had built homes; and interviewed numerous custom home builders. We spent a lot of time evaluating was was important to do during the building process (thicker exterior walls, tilt-in windows on both floors, wiring for future landscape lighting, etc.) and what could be changed out later (upgrading appliances, paving the driveway, etc.). We're really happy with the choices we made. Our plan was and is to stay in this house until the kids are all off on their own and we just don't feel like investing our time and money to the upkeep of this house any more. Then DH & I will move to a 3 or 4 bedroom condo in some type of retirement/over-55 community.
As for this house, there are too many pros to list but my highlights are:
1. Love the lot and location. We aren't in a development -- just on a quiet road in the country. Everyone on our road has 2-4 acres (we have 4). We have a 400 acre cornfield across the street yet we are less than a mile out of town; less than 5 miles from a major highway; and less than 45 minutes outside of a major city. We have a beautiful view. We worked with the excavator prior to construction to find the perfect spot to put the house on the 4 acres we had to work with so that we'd have a great view but more importantly so that we wouldn't get water in our basement since we planned to make that additional living space.
2. We have 6 bedrooms (plus one more room that *could* be a bedroom but we prefer to use it as storage) and 4 full baths. We located the guest room on the first floor (along with a full bath and the laundry room) so that we can live on one floor if/when we need to. I love having the laundry room on the first floor. That was a priority for this house. I've lived in houses where it's been in the basement (no fun dragging wash baskets full of clothing up and down 2 flights of stairs) and upstairs with the bedrooms (hated having the noise if I threw a load of laundry in at night before I went to bed and did not like having to run up and down the stairs to shuffle laundry from the washer to the dryer and then to empty the dryer and fold). Once I lived in a house with laundry on the first floor, I knew I would never build or buy a house without that feature. Everyone carries their dirty laundry down in the morning and I line up the baskets of clean clothing at the bottom of the steps for them to take back up later that day or the next day. Easy peasy.
3. While we have a very open floor plan on the first floor, we also put in pocket doors between some of the areas so that we can create smaller, more intimate spaces when needed. Those doors have gotten used a lot!
4. We put a door in one of the bedrooms to allow us to walk out to the attic space above the garage. That has proved to be invaluable. If we hadn't done that, we would have to use a pull-down ladder in the garage to access the space all the time (which would mean we'd have to back the car out every time we wanted to use that ladder). It's so much easier to just open a door and walk out there. We also have another 1,000 sq. ft. of attic space above the house that we don't use.
5. We added an extra 6 ft. of length to the garage. This gives us plenty of storage space in the garage for bikes, extra refrigerator, storage cabinets, garbage can and recycling bins, etc.
I don't really have a lot of cons... I think my biggest con (and it's really not a big deal at all) is that because of the size of everyone's yards, there isn't really the ability to have any of those "across the washline" chats with the neighbors. If I want to talk to them, I have to call them on the phone. It's not really a "neighborhood" -- we're all just living in homes along the road. Which, based on some of horror stories I've heard people tell about their neighbors (not in this thread -- just in general), I probably should list the distance between houses as a "pro". I really only know the people on either side of us -- they're the only people who ever bothered to come over and introduce themselves when we were building.
My other con (or more of a peeve) is the wildlife. While I love seeing the deer, foxes, rabbits, squirrels, coyotes, etc. roaming through our yard, those darn deer have destroyed/killed numerous trees we've had planted. We purposely didn't do any significant landscaping in the far areas of the yard where they like to gather but I think they just seek out our "new" trees and kill them. Our back yard is surrounded by wooded areas but the deer don't want anything to do with those "free" trees. They just like the ones I paid to have planted.
) But your house sounds perfect!
I'll answer. Yes, some do, from the older generations - people who bought their primary homes when prices were still reasonable and could later afford to buy another. Many of them maintain homes in both places. Less and less people now are able to afford such luxuries, especially from the younger generations who paid through the nose for their homes after prices in the northeast soared in the 80s. Those people either might stay put or buy a home down south but maintain just one. Many stick it out up north because they don't want to be too far from family.Eliza61 said:
)
Well dang! Now I have a new dream house!!!This is our third house and we think of it as our dream home. Even so, there are some things I don't love. We bought it when it was just being sheet rocked so we were able to pick out most of the finishes and fixtures.
The style is country French-the plan is by Jack Arnold-a well known architect. http://www.jackarnold.com/images/banner_pp_lp_cfc.jpg
This is a similar style-ours is flipped the other way with a few additions but this gives a good idea.
We fell in love with it the second we pulled into the driveway after looking for a few years at literally hundreds of houses in 6 different states.
Pros:
It's pretty big-5700 SF with 5 BDR and 6 baths with a great open layout-it enables us to entertain a lot-(maybe that is a con, actually
Just about four acres with old stone walls running about and nice privacy-the only window coverings in the entire house are wood blinds in the bedrooms and bathrooms
Dark hardwood floors through out with the exception of the foyer, mud room, 3 of the full bathrooms-(the master has part wood/part tumbled marble) and the basement
Awesome kitchen/family room-one big space with a fireplace, sage green painted wood window fronted custom cabinets, granite counters, Wolf oven, dark brown wood island with large stainless sink and lots of counter space and bar seating for two (not an eat- in kitchen so that is great for quick mornings)
Breakfast room with covered patio in front of house that gets a lot of sun in the morning
Lots of French doors everywhere-kitchen, great room, breakfast room, master bedroom
Floor to ceiling windows along much of the house
Covered veranda in back
Hydro Air heating/cooling system-so no baseboards, etc
Master living area is on the first floor in its own wing, while the rest of the bedrooms are on the second floor in another wing on the other side of the house-great now that my kids are teens-LOL
Lots of nooks and separate areas-wet bar, butler's pantry, lighted wall niches to display art/holiday décor
2nd floor kids family room for their desks, tv, etc
Beamed ceilings in dining room, kitchen family room, great room
Wood shingle roof and stone front
Three car garage with an extended shed roof with columns on the front
We added a 1400 SF barn with a loft and an additional shed to the property two years after we moved in so good storage space for some items.
Cons:
Ridiculously high heating bills with all of the glass doors, windows and high, cathedral and vaulted ceilings everywhere
Not enough closet space-is there ever? LOL We had a house less than half the size in RI and the closet space was almost the same as here, given the two additional bedrooms
Water pressure is on the low side-we would have to dig a new well and there are no guarantees that would work
Oddly small and ill equipped laundry room given the size of the house-we are finally putting a new, much larger one in this year with a sink, cabinets and storage areas
The tax bill-ugh-pushing $24,000 a year.
Electricity goes out way too often-the first three years we were here we had week+ long outages every year. We did buy a generator finally and the power company took down a lot of the tree branches that were causing the problems but it still goes out more than normal. It is a very heavily wooded town with lots square acres vs people so we are always last on the list for emergency repairs.
Fairly far from any decent shopping. The nearest grocery store is a 20 minute drive-closest mall 45 minutes.
Overall, the attention to detail is fantastic and we are more than happy with it.
We will downsize once ds (freshman in hs) is in college (dd is a college sophomore now) and more than likely buy a smaller home in the area here and then another one either in FL or CA (depending where the kids end up) and do the snowbird thing.
My dh loves this part of CT because there are a ton of hidden dirt bike trails-he rides weekly. I love it because we are just about an hour and a half from NYC so easy to go down to see the Yankees and concerts and shows, even just to dine, close to the shoreline and a little over an hour from RI. With all of that, there are lots of things to do (except shopping) and see within easy reach so we take lots of day trips.
