It's Been a Long Road

[LJ3]

It's REALLY not as big as all that. It's no McMansion. It's not 6BR. Just 4. We moved some stuff around with the floor plan to fit us a little better. The boy is making the finished den in the basement his BR and 3 girls bedrooms are up with ours and then the loft. Which will be half guest room half office.

I do love having the laundry on the same level as the BRs. Makes life way easier.

We don't have a parlour but I am trying to get everyone to call the living room the Conservatory. So far it's just me.

[Thumper]

Cool house! Congrats Ticboy.

That upstairs laundry is the tits ... until a hose or seal breaks!

[BarryBobPosthole]

What room does the upstairs maid sleep in? and what does her uniform look like?

BKB

[Thumper]

Ummm, she IS a French maid .... correct?

[LJ3]

She's brazillian and uniform is optional the washer is in a drainage tub to catch all leaks and I have usaa homeowners unsuraance so I ain't worried about jack shit

[Buckrub]

Yeah you are.

Mortgage.

[LJ3]

Well... theres' that

[Niner]

LOTS of stairs! Hell's Bells, there's even a set of stairs in the master bedroom. If yer not careful, on a late-nite trip to the bathroom, you could slip, trip, flip and bust yer lip!!!

[Sunshine]

My next home will have an elevator.

[Thumper]

The house we had in Mississippi when I was in high school had an elevator. It went from the downstairs to the master bedroom.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Having grown up in homes that were all one story ranch style, I always wanted a house with multi-stories. Now having lived in a multi story house for 16 years, I think if I ever build again it'll be a ranch-slit level lkind of on the design of Larke's house. If you ain't seen Larke's house, too bad loser.

Built in to a hillside type deal with a drive way in back that goes into a garage that's under the house and that's where his hidey hole/shop/man cave is/

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

I was just thinking that with my creaky knees and my wife's MS, if I ever buy another house it'll be one level.

[Thumper]

I grew up in 2-story houses and have only owned two houses in my lifetime. The California house was a single-story 4br/2ba house that I owned for 10 years. I now have a 2-story that I've owned for 25+ years. I'll never own another 2-story.

You really need dual "everything" as far as HVAC is concerned or you just have to live with cool downstairs and hot upstairs ... or freezing downstairs and cool upstairs. Then there's the fun of an overflowing toilet that ends up meaning a new ceiling downstairs. And there's the stair part ... when I got out of the hospital, I couldn't go up and down stairs for about 6 months. That was NOT fun. I think I've had my fill of 2-story houses.

BTW ... I think the thought of a laundry room upstairs, although convenient, would give me nightmares ... whether the washer has a catch pan or not. Pop a supply hose when you're not home and that pan ain't gonna do nuttin'!

[BarryBobPosthole]

I have a semi-annual chore of opening and closing registers upstairs and downstair every spring and fall in my house just to keep the temps semi-normal. And I have three air handlers. go figure. The people who designed the heat/AC must have been busy that day and let someone's three year old design it.

BKB

[Thumper]

I have an older home and it just has a single a/c unit (heat pump). I play the "register game" constantly.

[LJ3]

Hehehe, I got news for you. Even the two system design requires some tweaking between seasons. In case you guys missed it, physics called and left a voicemail. Warm air still rises and cool air still sinks.

[Thumper]

Understood ... hence my comment above about cold downstairs, hot upstairs.

To compensate, I close the registers downstairs and open them upstairs when the temps are high during the day. Next thing I know, Lynn is cooking and has the oven going and it's a bazillion degrees downstairs and sub-freezing upstairs (the thermostat is in the frigging KITCHEN of all places). Start cooking and get the kitchen warmed up ... and ice cubes start spitting out of the upstairs registers. It's a constant game of catch-up.

[jb]

I design about an equal number of one story and two story homes. Majority of each have walk-out basements.
The house we built for ourselves about 28 years ago was a two story with walk-out. Four bedrooms 2 full baths and 2 half baths.
Now that we're here all alone you'd think it would be to big, but every room has it's purpose and just don't know how'd we downsize.
We both know we could be one day away from not doing stairs, but until that happens we're happy where we are.
As for a Len having a laundry on the bedroom level, that's very in right now, I'm also doing a lot of homes were there are two laundry areas,
a main one for the house then a stack w/d built in the master closet.
The design of Len's home would go well up here.

[Thumper]

Yeah, we went to the "Parade of Homes" a few months ago and the upstairs laundry room was prevalent in most of the 2-story homes we looked at. It does seem to be the "in" thing these days and couldn't be more convenient really. I've just had so many water leak disasters over the years that I'm a bit gun-shy with any extra plumbing above the main floor. Even an upstairs water heater makes me nervous. Maybe I'm stuck in the Dark Ages.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I've had one insurance claim from when my kids were teenagers and stopped up the toilet upstairs and the water ruined my kitchen ceiling. I kind of made the same vow that I'd never put another bathroom upstairs again. That's really not practical when you have upstairs masters and such though.

BKB

[jb]

With most upstairs laundry rooms, the good builders build the laundry room floor similar to a tile shower, rubber membrain covered with CT on the floor and about 6" up the wall and all sloped just a little to a floor drain. They will put a 3/4" marble sill under the laundry room door.
If done correctly there should be little concern is a leak occurs.

[Thumper]

Thanks JB ... that explains it. The only catch in your description are the words "good builders". Guess which one I'd prolly get stuck with!

[jb]

With all the internet sites and the cable TV shows about building, flipping, decorating, etc, it's getting hard to find clients that do not know exactly what they want.
Some of them come to me with a portfolio in a three ring note book with pictures and spec's they want in their new home.
The builders I work with use their pictures to do the finish work, build their fireplace, or create their kitchen. All these pictures really make my job easier as I don't have to do much more than make the house look like the picture.
There are a few builders,even up here,that want to cut every corner they can, but they don't last long once the word gets out.

[LJ3]

With most upstairs laundry rooms, the good builders build the laundry room floor similar to a tile shower, rubber membrain covered with CT on the floor and about 6" up the wall and all sloped just a little to a floor drain. They will put a 3/4" marble sill under the laundry room door.
If done correctly there should be little concern is a leak occurs.

Perzackly how they did ours.

[Niner]

Ours is a 1.5 story.....at least that's what "they" say. Kitichen, great room, master + bath, laundry, and a half bath downstairs. Additional BRs, and a full bathroom upstairs. Two HVAC units (heat pump), and all sitting on a full ("unfinished") basement. The "great room" has a cathedral celing (I think that's what it's called) I can look out of the skylights from my easy chair. Ever since I got sick, I am SO glad the master is "on the main". It was a long time after I came home until I was able to climb stairs.....in fact, I rarely go upstairs nowadays.

Since we're empty-nesters, we keep the upstairs thermostat set pretty high during the summer,and low in the winter. My goal during the winter is to keep the fireplace instert/wood stove stoked up, so the heat pump doesn't turn on.

Also, we have a full length front porch and rear deck (with "deer stand" )

[BarryBobPosthole]

I'm kind of like JB on the empty nest thing. We rattle around in here when its just the two of us but its usually like grand central station around here lately and getting readyto get even busier. Its nice to have the room when all the kids are home too.

BKB