Wasted space in houses? Or some kind of usefulness?
I’m getting tired of living in this tiny shoe box apartment and I’m thinking that next year I might be in a position to buy a house.
When I was with the wife we rented a couple of homes in the Austin, TX, area and I noticed they had a “feature” in common that I couldn’t wrap my head around. This was space that couldn’t be used.
For example, one house had a dining room that was a fair size. Not huge, not tiny. It was on the first floor and it didn’t have a ceiling. There was empty space all the way up to the second floor ceiling.
I always though that if they put a floor up on the second floor you could get a larger family room, or make slightly bigger bedrooms or (if you had four kids) another bathroom.
I could only think of two reasons for having it this way: aesthetics and, maybe, during the summer months all the hot air would pool up into that empty space (in practice, this didn’t seem to happen).
Is there another reason why nearly every home down here since 2000 has been built this way? With huge empty space? Or is it really down to the look of the thing?
I will mention two other downsides to this kind of floor plan: during the winter doesn’t all the hot air you want to heat the house end up in this empty space (if it worked for the summer, that is)? And, from personal experience, cats can fall from these heights and children sometimes try and brave death by jumping (successfully stopped in my case).
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42 Answers
There is a trend toward high ceilings especially two-story ceilings in spaces. I have always wondered about it, because I can’t imagine having to clean up there.
It’s just a trend….people think it looks cool. I, personally, don’t like it.
@marinelife Oh, yeah, cleaning… There were two windows up near the top. One of the cats fell, by the way, when trying to jump on to the window ledge there. Thankfully, he landed on a couch down below (we didn’t use the room as a dining room) and was fine, if shaken. But the kids also got stuff stuck up there, like paper airplanes and whatever. This required using long poles of some sort to get off. There was also a chandelier that hung to just about the middle of the space, meaning you couldn’t get to it from above and couldn’t reach it from below without a really tall ladder. It was determined early on that any light bulbs there would not be changed.
If you spend much time on cruising yachts then you have a whole ‘nother appreciation for “wasted space”. I always wanted to hang cabinets, or at least install shelving, above the sofa and other furniture along the living room wall. After all, it won’t be a head-knocker there (as I use the room) since no one is going to stand on the couch (same reason kitchen cabinets work, since no one stands on the counters there).
But I agree that I never appreciated the “atrium” effect in most single-family homes. It’s just more conspicuous consumption, in my eyes.
I assume you are talking about one of those McMansions in the cookie cutter neighborhoods that have sprung up like like mushroom colonies around here over the past decade or so.
It’s all about marketing and supplying what is perceived to be opulent at an affordable price. Those high open spaces give the appearance of a home being larger than it actually is, especially to the casual observer doing a walk through of floor plans. It’s not until you actually start living with such a floor plan that you come to realize that it is just a bunch of wasted space.
@YoBob Perfectly said. I prefer cozy, rather than lost in space, myself.
@WasCy I can see doing shelving in the dining room, but you can still have a ceiling for that. I thought about a cabinet but then realized that a cabinet would look really bizarre just hanging on the wall with nothing above it.
@YoBob McMansions, yes. Mansions for the common folk. I suppose they did look pretty impressive when the house was empty. And, yeah, they are all over the place. I’m just browsing around now, but it’s hard to find a house that doesn’t have all that empty space. I’ve started looking at houses built in the early 1900’s but they’re usually pretty far away from civilization. But that’s also beginning to look preferable.
The house I lived in with my ex has a two story foyer. I thought this was exceedingly cool, at first. And yeah, I pretty much hated it after a while. Can’t reach the window, which has a deep ledge underneath it, that you also can’t reach, and the stupid chandelier that you can’t change the bulbs in. Total waste of space, all for looks.
Have you considered an older South Austin neighborhood?
I personally prefer that weird South Austin character to those cookie cutter McMansions with their draconian neighborhood associations. Sure, you will probably have that guy with the creative lawn art down the street along with that guy who collects a particular model of old automobile and as such usually has a couple of parked around the side of his house for parts. OTOH, you generally get nice sized lots with real yards. Many of the older neighborhoods still have individual mailboxes rather than the dreaded postal kiosk. Additionally you are likelier to find things like real sidewalks and fully grown trees.
As for the people, it also boils down to personal preference, but I tend to get along much better with Billy Joe Bubba Bob than I do with the overly excitable high tech transplant from California who is likely to shit a brick if you do something radical like paint your garage door a color that hasn’t been pre-approvied by a ⅔ majority of the local nosy busy body association or choose a landscape plant that wasn’t in the original architectural plan when your home was built.
Oh, forgot to mention that you can often get a much better bang for your buck in the older South Austin neighborhoods as well because they are generally overlooked by those who prefer that cookie cutter neighborhood thing.
@YoBob I haven’t, but only because my mother lives in Marble Falls and I was hoping to find a place roughly halfway between there and where I work (North Austin-ish).
Actually, a lot of things are going through my mind. Like, I’d be willing to move further away from work and my mother for a place with a lot of land, like 5 or 10 acres with a shack.
And I hate HOAs, so I wouldn’t mind living next door next a person with a purple garage door.
It’s pretty darned easy to get to Marble Falls from the South side of town. OTOH, I live south of Ben White and work up on Parmer. I can tell you from first hand experience, the daily commute up and down MoPac SUCKS (but well worth the trade off for all the pluses you get living in “bubbaland”).
@YoBob Yeah, that’s what I’m doing now but in the other direction. Round Rock to Braker Lane via MoPac.
Easy isn’t as much of an issue as time is. I love 1431 (loved it a lot more before they ‘fixed’ it), but just takes so long by 1431, 29/281 or 71/28. But the alternative is living in Cedar Park or Liberty Hill, neither of which thrill me.
I’ll start looking down there, though, and see what kind of things pop up.
I can’t stand a vaulted ceiling either.My brother was a builder and that is exactly the kind of homes he built.Ugh.
Not only are they wasted space,they have a certain cold,empty,“office building lobby” feeling to them that does not appeal to me in any way.
Craftsman homes? Now those are beautiful,well thought out houses.:)
It’s so you think they’re even richer because they can afford all that wasted space.
@mrentropy -Yes! They used to….I would give my right arm for one of those! :)))
Did you get a free replacement if the house broke? Do you have any examples of these houses?
Very large houses lose intimacy and don’t seem like home. It seemed to be a trend to build them bigger and bigger as some kind of status symbol. Think of the huge kitchens some houses have, They look great but how practical are they for actually cooking in. Who wants to walk a distance from shelf to cooker to freezer. Small can be beautiful.
@flutherother I don’t mind big houses. Right now I’d seriously consider giving up an appendage for a kitchen you describe. My mother, bless her heart, keeps giving me kitchen things that I don’t have room for but would like to keep handy in case I ever felt like using them.
On my counter now I have a microwave oven, a coffee maker, a dish rack, a Crock Pot and a toaster. And that’s all I have room for.I would like to put my Kitchen Aide mixer on the counter and use that, but then I have to shuffle something else off to make room for it. My apartment is so small I don’t have room for a table (i.e. dining table) so even a temporary shuffle is too much bother. Even juggling my pots and pans has become such a nuisance that I either only use the Dutch oven (like, what else could you ever need?) or eat frozen food.
Yes, ladies, that’s right—I am a guy who likes to cook, even trying new things just to see if I can get it right and I’ve yet to be told I’ve made something hideous.
So, big house is okay having 60 feet of air above me is not so cool.
Except when it comes to cooling and heating bills. Then we have a problem.
@mrentropy—Here are some examples.The bungalows and English cottage styles are the cat’s pj’s. :)
You could buy the plans (supplies too) and do-it-yourself! That sounds like a blast!
@mrentropy
“Sears builds houses?”
You laugh, but you used to be able to order a house kit from the Sears catalog and have it delivered by rail.
@YoBob -That’s what I’m talkin’ about! I’d love to own one! :))
Damn. I’m going to call them up and see if they have an old kit stuck in a warehouse, somewhere.
2 of my last 3 houses had the cathedral ceilings and I really like the look and feel especially the way the skylights flood the entire room with natural light. Almost never have to turn a light on. I feel in a better mood when I sit there and read in all that wonderful light and space. I sit in an office all week and to have that room above me is not wasted on my squeezed stressed spirit.
@Cruiser That’s when I go outside and take in nature. But none of the houses I’ve been in had skylights, just ceiling with windows really far up.
@mrentropy I am outside more than most people I know for the same reason….but nothing beats lounging in my boxers in my rocking chair sipping coffee on a Sunday morning bathed in full morning sun.
Oh, did Sears ever build houses!!! I’m with @lucillelucillelucille and @YoBob…..my dream home is a Sears house from about 1920. Stunningly crafted, gorgeous fixtures and built as strong as an ox with materials that could not be reproduced now for 20 times the cost now. I have lived in a few and am pining for one still. The space and the style were just (and still are) unbeatable.
I think that in Austin, the place you find this house would be in the Hyde Park area….and you cannot touch a 3 or 4 bedroom there for under (what now? 800K?) The Sears (and affordable) mecca is the Midwest as this style was fuelled a lot by the prairie style house of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Oh, and about those ceilings. I agree, the all the way to the second level entry or family room is simply to trick the eye into thinking that the house is more spacious than it is. It’s quite silly, really, because you are cutting out usable space….but it makes you think you are getting a bigger house.
I am a bit impressed with how the South Austinites have made cookie cutter tract houses (from the ones I knew back in the day) into really nice living areas with tile and beautiful gardens and add-ons. Cozy and chic…is South Austin now. It’s come a long way since the old days….when South Austin was undiscovered and a mecca for the struggling artist like me :)
@DarlingRhadamanthus Yep, you are correct, there are tons of those houses in Hyde Park. Of course, that particular trendy zip code will cost you a bundle. However, you can find those little jewels scattered all over our city in the older but lest trendy parts of the city as well.
What really impresses me are those little “craftsman” details like the mill work on the porch columns. It’s amazing how much quality and detail they packed into a kit.
Speaking of we South Austinites (aka. residents of bubbaland). My home of 20 years is one of those little cracker boxes stamped out in the early 1970s. However, with some minor changes to the floor plan, the addition of a game room, and a transformation of an aging backyard pool into a hill country waterfall oasis has turned my inexpensive little South Austin “starter home” into a place I hope to never have to leave (and I love my artsy South Austin neighbors!).
@YoBob….I agree!! I loved the integrated wooden benches next to the stairwell, where you could sit to put your shoes on. Or the integrated bookcases that separated the dining room from the living room….in that beautiful oak….<sigh>. Sometimes, I have found houses that had benches built into a little nook next to the fireplace…where you could sit right next to the fire….just…...gorgeous. I am a big, big, fan of this type of house…and I read everything I can on these.. Sears (and Montgomery Ward) houses…there were other kit house companies as well (as you must know).
@YoBob…You are in the best neighborhood….I miss, miss, miss S.A.!!
shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh don’t tell anyone or hollywood might find it lol
South Austin is awful…..crowded, lots of noise, neighbors are not friendly. No place to shop.
:)
If it helps my social life it might be worth it…
@DarlingRhadamanthus And don’t forget those hippie types that put in those gawd awful xeroscape lawns, and all of those blasted musicians in that part of the city… ;)
@YoBob….But you know what I lurve about South Austin? The annual “Put-As-Many-Plastic-Gnomes-And-Flamingos-And-Trucks-On-Blocks-In-Your-Front-Yard Contest”...what a glorious event…and I love how all the neighborhoods love their lawn ornaments so much, they keep them up all year…huh, Bob? It’s hard to find the front doors on some of these houses…and I love that!!!
that ought to keep the migrating hordes away lol
I’m still a Texan through and through…no matter where I go.
I live in a Craftsman-style home, built in 1929. It’s the first house that has ever truly felt like home to me. We got the wide moldings, the tapered porch pillars, and a great staircase, but missed out on the built-in goodies like benches, bookcases and fireplaces. It’s practically falling down around us, but I still love it. :)
Oh...@augustlan.......Allow me to be green with envy (in a good way). But I agree, having lived in both a Craftsman and a Sears house….they are houses with “soul”. Can’t be described any other way. (Now go kiss a molding for me, will you?) :)
@YoBob…..You are most welcome!
I love my cathedral ceiling. It makes the space seem larger and people always comment on how much natural light my house gets. If I didn’t have a two stories worth of windows, I wouldn’t have nearly as much light in my dining and kitchen areas.
My sister just added a loft to her two story foyer, as she ran out of play room for her kids. I think it’s just a matter of taste.
@Taciturnu….. I do have to agree in some way with you….because if you live in an area where light is a luxury (i.e. rain-soaked UK or Seattle) ....lack of natural light can be really depressing. I’m all for more light in situations like that.
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