A ranch style or single story house can have many attractive features that make them more appealing than two story homes. Whenever you are thinking about buying a new home you should consider the pros and cons of living in a one story home. Your physical mobility, children or no children and ease of cleaning are only a few consideration you should take into account when deciding on how many stories your home should be.
1. Safety of Children and Seniors
The older adult population can have great difficulty with staircases, and if you want to buy a house you can live in for a long time, you will need to consider the challenges or climbing stairs to a second floor bedroom. Similarly, a staircase can be hazardous for toddlers who are just learning to walk or crawl.
2. Heating and Cooling
During the winter months it may be nice to have a second floor as heat rises, but during the summer it will be difficult to cool the second floor of your home. A ranch style home is more efficient for cooling down fast in the summer months. Your bills will most likely be costly with the attempt to cool down your second floor. Most 2 story homes require two heating and cooling units in order to keep the house at a comfortable temperature throughout. A ranch home is cooled and heated more evenly and the thermostat will remain at a more constant temperature without overworking your units.
3. Easier Cleaning
In a home with a second floor, you can develop dust in many odd places that will make your cleaning efforts difficult. You will have a flight of stairs, more corners and baseboards, etc., which can be very difficult to clean. In a single story home, you will be able to easily walk through the space and see the areas that need to be cleaned. With the exception of the ceiling, a ranch home is much easier to clean. More importantly, it will take less time to clean, which means more time doing things you want to do.
4. Indoor-Outdoor Flow
Ranches are usually built on slabs, so they're level with the yard, and are often laid out in U or L shapes, making them especially conducive to indoor-outdoor living. Take advantage of that by adding French doors, folding doors or retractable sliders.
5. Better Resale Value
Typically it will cost more to build a one story home, but they also tend to sell for more. Resale value is always important even when you do not intend to sell. Your financial or family life can always change and you will want to get the most money for your home if you end up needing to sell. In most cases, you will be able to list your single story home for more that two story homes in the neighborhood.
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Burrillville Cumberland
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Johnston Lincoln
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