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A lot of terminology is local too. On Long Island there are split levels and hi-ranches, but I suspect most people would call both split levels.
On LI, when you walk in a house and there are stairs immediately going up to the main level, and stairs going down to the basement, that's a high ranch.
When the stairs are in the middle of the house, and facing the sides of the house, that's a split.
Then there are "front-to-back" splits, which I thought were the coolest houses ever as a kid - so NEW!!! LOL. Walk in and there's a room on the right or the left. Walk up a couple steps and there's a big combo living and dining room, and kitchen. Go up another staircase that's open to that level, and creates a balcony, with all the bedrooms off the balcony.
Your house, to me, is a ranch, since all living is done on one level, regardless of where the garage is.
Very true! Our first home in NJ was called a bi-level. You walked up five steps outside to reach the front door. Once inside you were on a "landing" with a choice to go up or down five or six steps. Going down brought you to a family room, laundry room, bathroom, entrance into the garage and sliders to the backyard. Going up the stairs from the landing brought you to everything else : )
The term bi-level was what the builder used but relatives who lived in NY called it a split level
Was there a purpose behind the 'raised' ranch style home, with the bottom floor below or partially below ground leveL? Just curious.
One purpose would be to allow bedrooms in the lower level due to the code requirement for "egress" windows.. Also based on my own house hunting/buying experience from 1971 to 1986, nobody wanted full 2 story homes like their parents owned. Ranches and tri-levels are what sold in new developments.
FWIW I owned 2 ranches on slabs, and 3 tri-levels
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