If it were for the sake of design, I wouldn't have a single ceiling fan in my house. I'm not wild about them and it's hard to find any I like.

HOWEVER, I live in Houston. Without ceiling fans, my electric bill would easily double or even triple in the summer, and summer here = April through October, including some days here and there in the other months as well. IOW, ceiling fans are a must have here, no two ways about it.

Doesn't say where people want ceiling fans. We have them on our lower veranda, upper screen porch and the sunroom. None in the bedrooms or living areas (don't like them). We're in the hot, humid south but most of my friends do not have them in their homes. imo, it really depends on the price range you're looking in.

Most of us here and/or in the Building forum have seen "the great room" discussion take place. We have one and love it.

Given our outdoor ceiling fans, we have everything on the list. Living in a horse community with hiking trail for horses and humans, along with two lakes. We're covered up with "lush greenery" and everything that lives in it. We saw our first eagle today, watching him fish for almost an hour.

The former owners RE agent touted the many ceiling fans in our new to us place as a big selling point. The fact that my husband runs hot year round, I was happy to see them. It really didn't come into play when deciding what home to buy though. In fact, I thought the ones they picked were downright ugly but I figured it would be easy enough to change and they would save us $ on the AC bills. Of course when we moved in there was a hundred more important things I wanted to change (still on about the 5th thing now)-- but after 8 months if looking at them, I can NOT wait to get rid of most of them. I hope when the time comes I can find something I like that doesn't cost an arm and a leg or I just may be replacing them with light fixtures and turning the AC down a couple of notches. The ones they put in the secondary bedrooms look HUGE in there with the 8ft ceilings.

We have everything on that list. we also have though a formal dining room. We contemplated about not having one but didnt know what to do with our beautiful dining room furniture. I know we could have sold it on craig's list but for a fraction of the cost we bought it for so we decided to include a formal dining room, oh well.

I read that in last week's paper! DH said "Good news, hon, we've got 9 out of 10!"

"10 "must" features in new homes.

1. Large Kitchens, With an Island

"If you're going to spend design dollars, spend them where people want them -- spend them in the kitchen," McCune said. Granite countertops are a must for move-up buyers and buyers of custom homes, but for others "they are on the bubble," Cardis said."

We've got a 13x16 kitchen with a 9ft island - no granite though (maybe when kids are older).

"2. Energy-Efficient Appliances, High-Efficiency Insulation and High Window Efficiency

Among the "green" features touted in homes, these are the ones buyers value most, he said. While large windows had been a major draw, energy concerns are giving customers pause on those, he said. The use of recycled or synthetic materials is only borderline desirable."

Good insulation, windows, a geothermal heating system, and thinking about solar hot water this year.

"3. Home Office/Study

People would much rather have this space rather than, say, a formal dining room. "People are feeling like they can dine out again and so the dining room has become tradable," Cardis said. And the home theater may also be headed for the scrap heap, a casualty of the "shift from boom to correction," Cardis said."

We have a 10x13 study upstairs *and* a 13x14 formal DR. Not sure what constitutes a "home theater" but our LR is pretty much dedicated to the (42" plasma) TV, we don't "entertain" and when we do have people over we tend to stay int he kitchen/FR "great room" where there's more seating (and food!).

"4. Main-Floor Master Suite

This is a must feature for empty-nesters and certain other buyers, and appears to be getting more popular in general, he said. That could help explain why demand for upstairs laundries is declining after several years of popularity gains."

Nope - but we put PR next to 13x17 LR so perhaps LR could be changed to MBR with en suite bath in the future.

"5. Outdoor Living Room

The popularity of outdoor spaces continues to grow, even in Canada, Cardis said. And the idea of an outdoor room is even more popular than an outdoor cooking area, meaning people are willing to spend more time outside."

Working on it...

"6. Ceiling Fans"

Yep, though if I knew GT was going to be so efficient at cooling I would have skipped the one in the FR (put in to circulate heat from planned wood stove). Still nice to have in BRs for white noise, I think they look nicer than a plain ceiling fixture too.

"7. Master Suite Soaker Tubs

Whirlpools are still desirable for many home buyers, Cardis said, but "they clearly went down a notch," in the latest survey. Oversize showers with seating areas are also moving up in popularity."

We have a 4ft shower with a seat, but only plywood floor so far so haven't used it. Also have soaker tub but no deck/faucet - maybe ths summer?

"8. Stone and Brick Exteriors

Stucco and vinyl don't make the cut."

We've got vinyl siding, but does my stone under the porch count LOL?

"9. Community Landscaping, With Walking Paths and Playgrounds

Forget about golf courses, swimming pools and clubhouses. Buyers in large planned developments prefer hiking among lush greenery."

No community landscaping (or much landscaping at all yet), but if you want hiking and lush greenery we've got 96 acres of it!

"10. Two-Car Garages

A given at all levels; three-car garages, in which the third bay is more often then not used for additional storage and not automobiles, is desirable in the move-up and custom categories."

I think they mean 3-car garages. We've got an oversized 2-car, it's almost 28 ft deep so we have a 6ft overhead door on the side, about 21x7 area for storage (not counting 3x7 area b/t mudroom door and back garage door since we need it open for door swing and stairs).

Interesting article --
And we did pretty good (9/10 -- master will be upstairs...)

We do not have a master suite on the main level. All bedrooms are on the second floor. We joke saying one day we may need to find a loveseat lift so we can go up and down the stairs together.

We do not have a stone or brick exterior, but the style of our home wouldn't fit either.

We don't have any walking paths or playgrounds, but all but one household are empty nesters. Our neighborhood is in the country so we all do our walking on the road. Oh and it was a tree farm so there's loads of beautiful trees throughout the area.

We've got most of the features also, INCLUDING the ceiling fans. In my area of the south, you see them in many homes, including upper price scales. There are so many more styles of ceiling fans available now and nice ones at that. Yea, sometimes I think about having a beautiful chandy over our bed, but I LOVE having our fan on when I sleep. I'd really miss having it if we got rid of it.

We built our house and we included the big garage - 4 car+, which includes my hubby's play (oops I mean work LOL) area.
In our area you see quite alot of the larger garages.

No community trails, community landscaping, etc. here as we're fairly rural, but with plenty of property, lush greenery, wildlife, etc.

tina

Our new home will have 9/10. No community landscaping. It's an old neighborhood, not a new development.

I like ceiling fans in the bedroom, not in the living areas. But we will have one in the outdoor living area.

Heh. Clearly I am a loser. I have absolutely NOTHING on that list. Oh well.

*wanders away chuckling*

We're in the hot, humid south but most of my friends do not have them in their homes. imo, it really depends on the price range you're looking in.

Hmmm, we live in the hot, humid south and just about everyone I know has ceiling fans. Like Tina said, that includes the upscale homes. A cooling breeze is a cooling breeze ... indoors or out. I'd die without a ceiling fan in the bedroom ... especially on those rare occasions when the a/c goes out and that's ALL I have for comfort.

We have 9/10. The 10th being community walk paths.

We have acreage and do not have community walk paths as we are not in a neighborhood but the subdivision behind us thinks our land is their community path. LOL

My small kitchen has a peninsula, not an island. Our bedroom is on the main floor because the upstairs isn't quite finished and doesn't have a bathroom, but we don't have an MBR suite, much less a soaker tub! So I've got the big L on my forehead too!

This is really a suburban checklist, I think. I sometimes think that urban, townhouse, and condo families live in a different world from the suburban outlook. Both have their appeal.

KarinL

Clearly they haven't seen "my" brick! ;)

But having said that, we have 9 of the 10 wants on the list, but I would hope that living on the water would be a good substitute for not having community hiking trails, we have a private lane for that.

Kat :)

Oh no!!!!!! We live in a very nice, affordable, golf course community, what ever will we do?!?!?!?!

BWAHAHAHAHA!

OK, so we have 7/10, LOL!
But we have #3 x 2, and some might argue #5 x 2 ;-)
BTW, I think I've mentioned this but, I have 9 working ceiling fans in my house, I have one more idle one I need to CL sell/trade for an outdoor rated fan.

We live in a colonial in New England. I think this list really depends on where you live. I've got 4 out of 10. Sidewalks here where I live are rare except in main areas of town. Stone and Brick exteriors are another rarity; folks here want wood siding or vinyl that looks like wood siding; many home associations actually have codes against things other than wood siding to maintain that true New England feel. We do have an outdoor living area though and of course, ceiling fans.

Ceiling fans are wonderful here when it's warm and humid but you really do not want to shut the house up tight to turn on the a/c. We have one over the dinette in our kitchen and have one in each bedroom upstairs. Even with the a/c on in the summer, the ones in the bedrooms make an incredible difference in the circulation of air at night.

If it wouldn't require a major undertaking to redo the ceiling and new electrical in our family room, I'd have two ceiling fans in there as well. It would keep the room cooler in the summer and circulate warm air from our fireplace which is run 24/7 in the winter.

Too funny. The house I am likely to put an offer on only has 3 or 10. It does have a 2 car garage. It's a small brick basement rancher... so all the bedrooms are on the main floor. They're small. And so are the bathrooms. It doesn't have formal dining at all, and a galley kitchen with no island. And I love the floorplan just like it is.

The outdoor spaces, it definitely needs and I'll work on that. With 3/4 acre, there's lots of room.

Ceiling fans... I'm unsure. I like them in theory but in reality I rarely used them even when I had them in every room. I'm not sure I'll put them in; with 8' ceilings it can be a bit claustrophobic.

I think that article is written from a regional perspective, and the region is not New England.

Sidewalks here where I live are rare except in main areas of town.

I didn't read "Community Landscaping, With Walking Paths and Playgrounds" as meaning sidewalks. fwiw, our community landscaping means simple and not overdone, "in keeping with nature" is part of our motto. The horse/walking trail is anywhere from 5-15 feet off the road, depending on the route through trees. No playground here either. We don't even have gutters, curbs or streetlights, which all but one in the neighborhood loves. Not sure why he bought acreage here!

DD2 just bought a new home with 4 ceiling fans. She's already replaced MBR fan with chandelier and will be removing the other 3 shortly. Many of the homes we viewed in her price range had ceiling fans in numerous rooms. My earlier comment was my observation for ceiling fans in the homes of my friends and family and those home in my neighborhood (present and past). Hence, the "imo." It's a huge personal preference thing for homeowners. It seems Contractors used them in mass during the building boom.

Another New Englander here with 4/10. No garage.....HUGE attached barn (finished, heated rooms) and if someone wants to shore it up to support the weight of the cars, we'll leave it to them.

5 ceiling fans...couldn't live without them in summer. Many homes here do not have A/C due to their age and although we put it in 3 yrs ago, it is rarely used. We love the breeze from the fan at night in bed and in the FR.

I found it interesting they didn't even mention clapboard siding (which is what our home has)...this is certainly a regional poll as was mentioned. Even new homes here ususally have wood siding or higher quality vinyl siding.

NO soaker tub.. standard yawwwwn combo tub/shower in a typical, small NE master bath. (Personally I LOVE small baths...why all the empty floor space that the ensuites have??) I'd love to get rid of the tub period when we remodel soon. I know only ONE person who takes baths...you know who you are...lol. We have another tub...maybe two eventually if we throw one in the PR which is also getting redone.

I'm pretty sure our patio off the sunroom doesn't qualify as an "outdoor living room" lol. I've never seen one in New England. Screened in porches...yes, yes, yes.

Sooo, we have ceiling fans, an office/den, nice appliances, new windows and a pretty nice new kitchen. We're in twouble I guess! But we luvvv our barn, l l/2 acres of woods/gardens in a small town, coastal area.

I agree with you KarenL. I think the article is written for suburban living and not urban communities or older homes/neighborhoods. Having gut renovated our old home, we only have a few on the list. We do have new windows, insulation, 4 zone heating system, new appliances, two car garage( that probably wouldn't fit two cars), new eat in kitchen with peninsula, no soaker tub but 4 new full bathrooms, expensive vinyl siding that looks like real wood shingles, no master suite, no walking paths but we are a block from the beach, and yes we have ceiling fans. It's a must for us living so close to the beach with humid summers. We hardly ever need air conditioning in our bedrooms at night, which saves us plenty of $$$ every summer. When I look at some of the newer homes posted on this site I envy the size of some of your baths, family rooms and kitchens. That being said, I do like the character of living in an older home. For better or worse it's our home and I am glad we are fortunate to have one.

What does "they are on the bubble," mean?

I'm in the frozen north and we installed ceiling fans in all the bedrooms two years ago. Previously I had never liked the way they looked. Then I had stayed as a guest in a few houses with them, during the hot summer, and decided they were worth it, even though we had no ceiling light fixtures to begin with and had to have them wired from scratch. I don't like air conditioning and use portable fans instead all over the house: I just like fresh air. The addition of the ceiling fans meant we could sleep in comfort during the heat of summer with the windows wide open. We shopped around a lot before choosing ones we thought would go with our antique furniture.

(Personally I LOVE small baths...why all the empty floor space that the ensuites have??)

I can't wrap my brain around that either. And yet, it's something that's on every list like this one.

We have most of them, too -- not an outdoor kitchen, but eventually will have something close to that. Our exterior is a combination of stone and vinyl -- wanted Hardiboard but the vendors here gave us such a bad time that we gave up. Our "community" is 65 acres with just our house on it . . . will eventually have 4 or 5, and we'll have walkways between us and the two "next door" houses (our daughters and families).

Ceiling fans: oh, yes, almost everywhere. We're in mid-Tennessee, and I figured if I used them daily in northern Indiana, I'd REALLY use them here. I even sacrificed cool lighting over the island in favor of a ceiling fan because I LOVE being able to cool down the kitchen when I'm cooking. We even wired our huge porch for future fans if we decide we need them. Cheapie light fixtures are holding those places for future fans.

I guess I've never noticed ceiling fans in people's homes. I don't walk into a room looking up at the ceiling. lol. They just don't stand out to me.

But I did get my first CF last year in the LR, and it's been a lifesaver, especially coming in from working in the flowerbed.

10 "must" features in new homes - I thought we did okay with 10 out of 10 until I read the comments about dining rooms, home theaters, and a general preference for smaller homes. Oh well. Maybe when dh retires/transfers, our RE agent can find a family with 6+ kids (rare as those are these days.)

1. Large Kitchens, With an Island
Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing. The length of our island (11'4") is fine, but the width (5') is too much for me to reach across to clean. I have to remind my tall dh to wipe it down, since I can only comfortably reach about 20" from either side (unable to stand on tiptoes.)

2. Energy-Efficient Appliances, High-Efficiency Insulation and High Window Efficiency
Not long after closing, I splurged on having an ERV installed (thanks to EnergyraterLA for the great advice she's posted.) Also, when we had to replace leaking french doors, I paid extra for low-e glass and can tell the difference. We'll probably never recoup the cost of those improvements, or the extra insulation, but we do appreciate the increased comfort.

3. Home Office/Study
Dh has a study/den on the main floor that has direct access to the master suite. I put a sideboard in it to use as a bar, and he has some comfy H&M Austin chairs in which to enjoy a cigar in front of the fireplace. We use a basement bedroom as our real office, since it has a lovely view from its french doors.

I like a formal dining room so I don't have to see the mess we make cooking, and I still see them in homes in our area. Sorry to read that home theaters have lost favor - hoped that would be a selling point when we move after dh retires. We are too spoiled to go out to movie theaters any more. I need to keep my feet elevated as much as possible, and the power recliners in our HT are so comfortable.

4. Main-Floor Master Suite
Yep, that was a must for us (bad feet, ankles, knees, hips - oh heck, we're just falling apart.)

5. Outdoor Living Room
We have three patios, one of which has a stone firepit. I never thought of them as outdoor living rooms, though, maybe because we don't have cushioned furniture. I love the comfort of an outdoor sectional, but worry about upkeep.

6. Ceiling Fans
We may be a little over-the-top on ceiling fans, but we love the way they feel. So far we have 10 (6 in bedrooms; not in the master bdrm. but in the master sitting rm. & bath) and are thinking of replacing the hearth rm. chandy with a nice fan. Dh installed two last yr., while the others were installed by the builder. We removed two from the basement game room both because of the ceiling height and a need for better lighting, otherwise we'd now have an even dozen. All of the light fixtures we've replaced have been stored in case a future owner would prefer them.

7. Master Suite Soaker Tubs
Both the master & one other bathroom have deep jetted tubs, and they get used a couple of times a week at least. The master shower is huge, as is one of the guest rm. showers. That's handy when a shower bench or wheelchair is needed, but they are a pain to clean.

8. Stone and Brick Exteriors
Yep.

9. Community Landscaping, With Walking Paths and Playgrounds
I miss the community pool we had in a previous state, but they aren't very common here despite the warm climate. The walking trails, lakes and playgrounds are very nice, although I haven't walked much since our dog died.

10. Two-Car Garages (agree w/ ajsmama that they meant 3-car garages.)
This house has two main level and two basement level garages; a double & a single up, a single and a tandem double below. We use the large basement garage for storage & workshop space and have never parked in it. When I finally trade in my ancient van for a small car, I'll park in the lower single so that dh can move to the main level double that he covets. ;-)

I'm glad my family and I don't make decisions about what's best for our home from some silly article. Luckily ceiling fans are something easy to install should a homeowner find the need.

It's good to know if you are putting your place up for sale, though. Not that you can do anything about a 2 car vs. a 3 car garage and some of those things. It's still a buyer's market around here and I see people having to do a lot to make a sale. If that's what people want and that's what the competition has...

I designed our house 3 years ago, based on the 18-yr old Colonal we *had* been living in. It had a cathedral ceiling in FR, also a wood stove, but was horribly hard to heat/cool even with the ceiling fan. So no cathedral ceilings in new house (8ft ceilings, though I admit the FR ceiling seems low but I guess I got used to higher).

We added ceiling fans in all the BRs since there was no AC (we put window units in MBR, kitchen, and loft over the garage open to FR trying to make it usable). So new house we put ceiling fans in all BRs, study, and FR (where we *were* going to put a woodstove but now seems too small and also chimney would be too close to master bath window).

We had a large kitchen in the old house but the eat-in part was in front of large doorway to FR and other side of peninsula so we just couldn't seem to make a table work. Only 3ft of counterspace to left of stove, 2 ft to right of fridge (which is where we put the MW so I have no landing zone). I ended up putting a MW cart in the middle just to have landing zone/prep area. So new kitchen has large island for prep and eating (peninsula only sat 3).

Garage had 8 ft doors and was shallow, with stairs into FR so we had no room for storage, could barely fit Explorer on non-stair side, and I often banged mirrors. So new garage is bigger with 9ft doors and a door into the backyard.

We had a bath off the master that we had remodeled to put in 2 sinks and a whirlpool tub. I found I didn't use the jets that much, DH used the shower down the hall, so new house has a non-jetted tub and a 4ft shower. Can't wait to get tile and faucets in so we can use them!

DH had used the loft as an office until DD was born, then it became guest room. So when I modfied the stock plan that had 4 BRs we made the closet i the smallest BR the attic stairs (old house had hatch in DD's closet, not even pulldown stairs so really no attic storage). DD used it as a BR (and we put the antique furniture in 2nd largest BR) until she moved out of a toddler bed and then she moved into the larger BR. DH is still trying to set up the office, but at least we have all (but one that's in Ds's room) the bookcases from the old house in there.

Never could get into home theater since we're not big TV viewers and didn't want to dedicate sf to that, but after having TV in FR at first, then LR in old house, I decided new house was going to have FR totally open to kitchen so could watch little one (had big doorway in old house but still a blind spot) and that the LR was going to be capable of being closed off for TV viewing since old LR was near stairs and open to foyer, TV too loud for sleeping kids. We also plan on staying in this house forever, so with French doors the idea was that LR could become MBR when we get too decrepit to handle stairs.

The old house had PR off foyer (near kitchen) with a laundry closet - I decided to have a mudroom/laundry and change builder's stock plan (that looked like my old house, but PR/laundry b/t garage and kitchen) to put the PR in the large open foyer with coat closet opposite. Since the PR is on the LR side we can expand the PR to make it a full bath, and if we close off the hall b/t the closet and PR we could have a good sized "stand in" closet (6x7), though you would then have to walk through the DR to get into the kitchen (or could make closet smaller and lose my pantry).

We have vinyl siding (after living 15 yrs with cedar that had to be powerwashed and stained every 3 years or so). The porch (not screened) has a Trex deck instead of the pressure-treated that required yearly maintenance. I built 40ft of stone wall under the porch to hide the supports, and will add more around the flowerbeds and walkway. I'm also thinking of building retaining walls down the sloped from the front yard to the basement door, to make mowing unnecessary and control erosion. Luckily, we have plenty of stone. We're still trying to figure out what to do outside our back sliding glass door - whether it's an outdoor "LR" or not, we would like to make it more than just a deck and a gas grill, since we also have a lot of wood and enjoy sitting around the fire with family and friends. I'm also trying to furnish the front porch with comfortable pieces so we can sit out there and enjoy the view and the sunsets. Like the Tim McGraw song Where the Green Grass Grows we "point our rocking chairs towards the west."

I know I'm not going in order but we also chose to make this house as energy-efficient as the upgraded modular specs would allow (so no SIPS but upgraded insulation and windows), and put in a geothermal heating system with a desuperheater for hot water so that we don't have to depend on (or pay for) fossil fuel.

Landscaping - what's that LOL?

So we didn't design our house based on what we thought the "hot new trends" would be 3-5 yrs later, we designed it with our family and lifestyle in mind, within our budget, and trying to incorporate "lessons learned" from all the other places we've lived. In the case of "landscaping" and "outdoor living" doing all the work (so far) ourselves and with materials we have on hand. Of course if we add a sunroom or deck we'll have to buy materials and will probably hire out at least part of the job.