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2-story converted from a Ranch here. Obvious difference - you move all the bedrooms up to the 2nd floor and your entire 1st floor is now for entertaining. Home office, Den, big play space, high ceilings, open kitchen... the works. My kids even played sports in the living room. Also you can do a finished basement from a ranch for even more like a home theater.
My parents had a basement, yeah. Their house isn't very private though.
We have no basement now but it is just me and my husband so I don't mind it but when I was in my awkward teen years, it would have been nice to be able to have a guy over without my parents being like literally 'right there'
IDK we bought our ranch now because it was in budget and not like super huge. It's just us and we don't want kids so honestly something gigantic and stately just really doesn't make sense.
Well, I hated the cape cod and I lived there until I was 25. The first thing I did when I got my first job, out of high school, was to buy a car. The second thing I did was to convince my parents to take out a loan in order to double the size of my room and add an outside entrance to it, LOL. I contributed 50% of the monthly payment until it was paid off in a couple of years. In my defense, said room was about 7 x 9 or 7 x 10 originally. Only enough room for a twin bed and a small chest. (House was built in 1950) I've seen bathrooms bigger than my bedroom was.
Honestly from a house style perspective I'd have to say the high-ranch was my favorite. I know that goes against the prevailing sentiment; many people loathe high-ranches but IMHO they have several advantages, one being that they are on a slab base and thus no issues with damp basements or crawlspaces. (But that's assuming that the builder did NOT run any of the plumbing through the slab itself, as some did during the 1960s.) Also I like the fact that the principal rooms (bedrooms, kitchen, living and dining) are not at ground level; typically only the family room, a bathroom, the utilities and maybe (depending on house size) an additional bedroom are ground level. When my son was growing up it was great that the playroom/family room was on the separate lower level, especially with the noise factor. I also like the split staircase; instead of one long staircase you have two shorter sections. However, this also makes it a PITA if you ever need to add a stairlift.
That said, unless a high-ranch approaches 3000 sq ft, the bedrooms (and hall bathroom) can be too small. The one we had during the 1970s and 80s was 3400 sf (four bedrooms up, one down) which was a good size. And it was the wideline type, with a 2-car garage; those narrow row-house-shape high-ranches are a horror. You couldn't give me one of those for free.
Layout-wise my favorite was the colonial BUT it was custom built by the former owners and so was not your typical cookie-cutter. All bedrooms on the second floor. The house was big enough that the staircase was wide and not steep; I've seen some colonials with a staircase so steep that you can get vertigo by just standing at the top and looking down.
From a practical (read: Baby Boomer age) standpoint the ranch, which is what I have now, makes the most sense although at a gut level it is second only to a cape as my "most disliked." The only steps are from the garage floor to the house interior and if I need to convert that to a ramp in the future it could probably be done, although it would cut the partial one-car garage in half. Can't use it for a car anyway, at this size. :-/ It has a full unfinished basement which I hate because it's musty. I regard it as "a crawlspace with an abnormally high ceiling." I do not like the fact that all the rooms are at ground level; I would rather have at least the bedrooms on a second floor. But I am also mindful of the fact that a second level will be a problem for me in X number of years. Heck, there were days when the stairs in the colonial were difficult (wonky knee, fussy lower back) and plenty of times I got sick of carrying stuff up and down constantly. So from a mobility perspective the ranch wins over the other three styles.
I do wish this ranch was larger; it's only about 1400 sf of living space, plus a 10x12 Four Seasons room that's not really used. I was hoping to end up in a ranch with closer to 2000 sf (2400 would have been ideal) of ground floor living space but the budget (either purchase or taxes) simply did not allow that, nor will it ever from now on.
We lived in a split level/high-ranch that had a basement. All of them in that neighborhood did. It was probably less than 1500 SF.
We lived in a split level/high-ranch that had a basement. All of them in that neighborhood did. It was probably less than 1500 SF.
Well, nomenclature-wise a "split level" is not the same as a "high-ranch" ... at least not here on LI. I've seen the term used interchangeably in other parts of the country though.
Splits do often have a partial basement. I've never seen a true high-ranch with an actual basement ...meaning a fully enclosed room that is entirely below grade and below the level of the lower (garage level) floor of the structure. I have seen high-ranches where part of the back wall of the lower level is a couple of feet below grade though.
I'm really curious, where was the neighborhood where the high-ranches have an actual basement? I'd like to google and see if any are for sale and have pics on Zillow etc.
I grew up in a ranch and I live in one now. I found there wasn't much privacy with my parents and sisters in such proximity like ALL THE TIME.
At least in a house that is not a ranch, if family is in the living room or a kitchen, you can go upstairs and it's a bit quieter, more private.
My parents house is a tiny ranch - we were up in eachother's grills a lot, lol
Yeah, I think that's the thinking with a lot of people with families. But if it's designed the right way, it's awesome. And it's great to have everything on one level. But I "get" the feeling of not being able to "Get away".
Basements are usually very large too.
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