Poll: Which is more desirable?

nessbrown · Jul 26, 2009 2:29 pm

I know I'm commenting a little late on this one

but I would like to ask one main thing of people who opted for the big land over house with everything......

Is your idea of house with everything a house that takes over the whole block?

Reason I ask, is I personally would love a house that had everything (never spend much time in the yard, spend a lot of time at work/restuarants/cafe's/parks/movies etc etc) so I like the home to be as close to everything as possible with all comforts, however, I also don't think that a home with everything has to take up a whole block.

Ignoring my curent build (shoebox on a nature strip: re 240m block with a 100m house :lol:

at least i'm on a corner across from a nature reserve and 15minutes from CBD) I classify the perfect home as a 2 storey house that has all luxuries BUT doesn't have a billion rooms for 1 or 2 people. Rather, a modest 3 bed type home maybe 200m2 with enough rooms for lifestyle (decent kitchen/dining/living/study/guestroom) but leaves enough room on the block for outdoor entertaining and enough room for a dog.... maybe land at 600m2. The house would also then be close enough to fit the 'living out' lifestyle too

I love the idea of a huge house as well as the idea of a huge garden but at the end of the day.... someone has to maintain them, and I would rather be doing other things (except for a veggie patch and couple of big trees, I'm even doing that in this build!!!) :z:

Or does that make me a wannabe mcmansion set? :th:

King willy · Jul 26, 2009 3:26 pm

Hi
Im on 4000m2 1 acer. Its all relative. Some people will say 800m2 is big. To me a 350 2m is the same as a cell in H block. Its all about money. People want the big house, the look at my house feeling. They get it and a 3 meter back yard. By the time their kids can walk you cant drive down the street with out fear of hitting 1 or 2 with your car, as they all play on the street, no back yard.

I drove down a street in the west and I did not understand why everyone was out in the street playing bikes on the road, BBQ on the nature strip. I was thinking maybe its some stret party. Then I realized 650 blocks and 35 sq homes. Also guys working on cars on the street, no room in the garage and no room for side access to the back yard.

I can not live like that. They go on about caged chickens. Some estates have rules about windows and what direction they must face. Because the blocks are that small and close together they dont get any natural light in the house.

Give me plenty of room, a shed, a cloths line, a tree, a vegie patch and a savage dog and Im happy.

I vote for room. This is Australia not Hong Kong (well not yet).

KW...........

serge44 · Jul 26, 2009 4:21 pm

big house with everything I want on small block for me. I want to enjoy the house instead of spending hours tending to lawns gardens fences etc. been there done that and found leisure time and yardwork are completely different. I want to go to the surf club for a feed and a frothy, I want to take the kids to footy/cricket and then come home and rest, put feet up and crack a tinnie - not fire up the mower and the whipper snipper.

My kids couldn't keep a ball in a 4000m lot without kicking a ball over the fence anyway so why not use the council maintained facility designed for just that purpose.?

thorney · Jul 26, 2009 4:34 pm

We designed our dream house first (though it certainly does not include everything that we would've like to have had) and because it ended becoming quite a large home, a big block was required so we still had a decent amount of back yard. Our 994sqm block provides this

We could've bought a block in better estates but we would've struggled to fit out home on it or we would've had zero backyard as the lot sizes were small (500-600). Larger lots in better estates exceeded our budget. So we did compromise a bit with location, although our estate is not one of the more upmarket ones in Wodonga, funnily enough, the location works out perfect for us as we will be much closer to our sons new school (when it's built) and high school. The CBD and Albury CBD is also only a few minutes drive away.

King willy · Jul 26, 2009 5:09 pm

One thing Im concered about is the grass. But Im happy to cut or pay a kid to do it. Im used to the privacy and openness of the counrty. I spend most of the time a sleep or out side in a shed ( some say its the best place for me).

I guess it diffrent for everyone. But for me a smaller block was not in the question at all. Happy to more for a large one and cut back on the home, witch I did. Went down from 28 of living to 25. Ive got a 100m long back yard. Most of it will be waisted as I dont whant my shed that far away. Ive got a 18 meter set back also. Anyway thats my choice in life style. No correct formular only personal choice.

Good topic.

Cheers
KW...........

mulibear · Jul 27, 2009 12:04 am

i prefer to maximise my land and have livable area rather than a nice garden or backyard which requires maintenance etc.

Helyn · Jul 27, 2009 9:35 am

Quite apart from land size or budgets, there is an assumption on this thread that a 'dream home' is neccesarily large - we didnt want a large house anyway and deliberately chose to build a relatively modest size house as that is all we wanted for our household of almost empty nesters.
For town areas, on a good size block of 707m2 - with a 23 sq house that still leaves room for shed and good garden size.
That's the perfect balance for us

As King willy said, everyone's priorities are different :wink:

serge44 · Jul 27, 2009 6:28 pm

the next house (empty nest) won't be big. deliberately so :twisted:

yvette72 · Jul 27, 2009 9:32 pm

for us after having owned 5 different homes over the years. We had to have it all 20,000sqm block and 350sqm home with everything lounge/dinning 4 beds,family,meals ,rumpus,thearte room ensuite of course 6 car garage, pool etc.Has taken us about 18 years to get this dream build this way as I hope it will be the last home .The only one we have had build all the others were established homes.

Helyn · Jul 27, 2009 9:37 pm

Ah, Yvette, see, a 6 car garage would be useless for us as we have no intention of ever owning more than 2 cars and we definetely do NOT want a swimming pool :lol:

yvette72 · Jul 27, 2009 9:43 pm

we have three cars two of ours and one company car,we have others for storage etc motorbikes,bikes,sitting on etc.

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Biff Costanza · Jul 27, 2009 10:43 pm

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For me it is all about position. Single fronted Victorian terraces in inner Melbourne generally don't come with a lot of land and for us it was all about being 5 minutes from the beach, 15 mins from work/city, multiple transport options, local cafe/village strip etc. My house is certainly not my dream home but nothing a substantial renovation can't improve!

mandystoj · Jul 28, 2009 2:10 am

Helyn is right, it all comes down to someones own situation. Ofcourse someones age, lifestyle, wealth, personality, past and likes/dislikes will affect what they build. For me the first thing I wanted was a pool, coz for the past 21 years at home i have had a large pool! But I dont want a large pool, I want a cute 4x7m pool! Helyn on the other hand most def does not want a pool for her own reasons! Its not jealousy.

Yvette72, a 6 car garage is great for storage! My parents home has 4 garages (2 at one side and 2 on the other-corner house) and we still have a car on the driveway each night!

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kb46 · Jul 28, 2009 11:48 am

My dream house is one that cleans itself and stays in perfect order without me lifting a finger!
(Somehow, I think I'll never get that, so a large block gets my vote! Give me a whipper snipper over a vacuum cleaner any day. :wink:

)

Ari · Jul 28, 2009 2:25 pm

I'm jealous of the size of Helyns mortgage

lisanne · Jul 28, 2009 2:48 pm

Ari

I'm jealous of the size of Helyns mortgage

That's one thing I certainly am jealous of! Hopefully in 15-20 years I will be in a similar situation as Helyn

Helyn · Jul 28, 2009 2:49 pm

Im not sure where Ari read about my mortgage (you've been stalking my posts, Ari ::wornout::

- only jokeing :wink:

) but, yes, we have a modest size house but owe very little on it.
Cost was not really the issue for us with house size but made a personal choice to build the size that suited us.

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Eager · Jul 28, 2009 7:48 pm

edited by mod

This is MY thread and I reserve the right to reply to any of the respondants to the original question, or the discussion that follows.

My personal view is that if anyone needs a 6 car garage for storage because of all the sh1t they've got laying around, then they haven't got their life in order.

mattwalker · Jul 28, 2009 8:58 pm

On topic please

Eager · Jul 28, 2009 10:29 pm

I understand your reaction completely Matt; just as yvette72 should have understood this, from my original post, had she read it:

Eager

I'm always interested in what people really desire with, or around, their new homes. Obviously some are in a better position than others to build their ultimate dream home, and I'm not writing this to instigate a 'mines-bigger-than-yours' war, or a city-vs-country thing, or even a blokes-vs-sheilas debate. But since I appear to be one of the few country people here, I'm curious to know exactly what it is that suburban people would get with their homes 'If-only-they-could.'

On this matter I will play nicely from now on.