Are the upstairs interior walls vertical or slightly slanted? I nearly bought a house like this but it kind of bothered me that the walls were slanted so you couldn't really put up any artwork on the exterior walls.

That said, this is an inexpensive way to get a lot of living space in a 1-1/2 story house, because it is really 1-3/4.

But my short answer to the question can you change it's appearance without ripping off the roof (and completely reframing the walls upstairs as well) is: No, this house is always going to look like a mansard roof house as long as it still has this roof. It's a very strong feature. I think they have a certain charm but if you don't like it, you don't like it and I would pass.

palimpset -

Good question on the walls - I don't know. I can't physically inside to see one. As soon as my better half sees the roof, he takes it off the potential list. This one has art on all the outside walls in the listing pics, so my guess is they are vertical.

Thanks for your opinion. Mansard roofs don't send me running for the hills, but I don't like the look very much. I guess we'll just limit our search to non-mansard styles.

Well, I prefer the darker color because the roof doesn't stand out so much. But the interior is lovely and looks very liveable. The thing about the exterior is that it's really your neighbors who have to look at it. You really just see the style when you drive up, then enjoy the spaciousness when you're inside.

Is resale a consideration? I mean will others hesitate to buy a home like this in this area? Will everyone slowly change their roof lines so you'd have to in order to resell? Guess you can't make your husband like it if he doesn't - unless you can get a great price and make it worth it to him.

The way to integrate it the best is to use cedar shake (or a good faux) as the roofing and siding material and reframe the dormers into arched ones. Maybe add a porch to it with more details. Accent the Victorian or French interpretation of the mansard. Since that would be about as expensive as reframing the whole roof, it's a moot point.

Other than the price point, I don't think resale is a huge issue; there are enough around that they don't stick out or anything, but they are harder to sell - similar to the split levels -- those are also priced less than others home styles of comparable size.

If WE bought one, we'd stay put for a long time. I can see the stairs from the garage to the main floor (especially for bringing in groceries,etc) being a negative in 35 years, but not now. More than half the houses in the neighborhood have detatched garages behind the house (ours included), so an attached garage of any type sounds like heaven to me.

hollysprings - holy cow, now that's a mansard roof! Unfortunately, I think we'd both be a little unnerved living there! Here's our current house - talk about the opposite of that house.

mamattorney, as far as mansards go, that yellow house is not bad. I think that house could easily be made to look spiffier by painting the front door black, removing the awning over the front door, getting larger and more "European" style light fixtures, and putting some formal-ish topiaries on either side of the front door.

The next level of "improvement" I would make would be switching out the diamond pane windows to some that would match the upstairs windows, and replacing the retaining wall with something less rustic.

That said...we live in a split level, and split levels routinely sell for MUCH less in our neighborhood than ranches or two-story homes. If for no other reason than the fact that it will be harder to sell, I wish I had held out for a two-story or a ranch, even if I'd have had to buy a fixer-upper at the same price point to do so.

mamattorney I linked to something on Houzz that might give you some ideas for that house if you are interested. Also, I looked at the listing on Redfin and noticed that house only has 100 amp service - not sure if you caught that. The electrical service can be upgraded, of course, but that's an expense you'd have to be prepared for sooner rather than later. I'm in suburban Chicago, too, (Highland Park) and am surprised at the asking price. Things are picking up here but that much???

Here is a link that might be useful: [Updating a mansard on Houzz[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/how-to-update-my-mansard-roof-home-help-dsvw-vd~119538)

Thanks for that dlm2000; lots of good ideas, but most of them sound expensive. You can get a 4BR two story for anywhere from $600,000+, with comparable sized ones to this coming in at around $700,000 so it's not such a huge discount that we'd want to invest all of our "savings" into the house; we're not that into remodeling.

I did not realize that this house was still 100 amp service. I'm surprised since they did such an extensive internal renovation (enough to get a tax break for it; the 2010 taxes were $2K higher); I wonder if that's a misprint.

Anyway - yes the market is definitely good out here. We had our house appraised in September just to see what our equity looked like and it appraised out for only $7,000 less than what we paid in 2005 (about 1.5% down), and the market seems to be stable/getting better - it helps sellers (which I am one, too) that the appraised values didn't/don't include any foreclosures as comps.

I see you get snow where you are which would make me leery of a roof like that. We've had problems with a tin roof over an addition with a steeper pitch than that. I'm talking about ice damns in a heavy snow where the snow melts during the day and freezes up at night.

What is wrong with your current home? Is it just that you need another bedroom? Would your area support adding on to your current home to get 4 bedrooms?

I'm wondering if the mansard roof houses are less popular not because of the looks (I happen to like the look) but because of how the roof affects the inside of the house.

Like Pal says, you are losing footage on the upper floor because the roof slants in. And as Chickadee says, the majority of the roof is flat, which can be a problem in snow country.

And it looks as if there is no attic or crawl space at all between the second floor rooms and the roof, which means no space for hot air to rise to in the summer, so the second floor could get very hot. Also less space to run wiring and that sort of thing.

I would also like to point out that if you would like to see inside a particular house, there is nothing stopping you from going to see the house without your DH.

lyfia -

There's nothing WRONG with the house, but if I had to point to one thing missing, it is that we could use one more bedroom. We have other things on our wish list that this house does not have (eat in kitchen or breakfast nook, first floor family room AND living room, etc) which are pretty readily available in most 4BR houses in our area and price range.

There's no good place to just add on a bedroom. We could more easily expand the kitchen and add a family room, but then we'd still be short a bedroom. I've consulted with an architect and he basically said that it wouldn't be worth it to add on in a way that would make the house a 4BR, would blend old and new,and would maintain a reasonable flow to the house. It would be more reasonable financially to sell this one and buy an existing 4BR. The house has also been added onto relatively recently - the entire 2nd story was added in 2002.

Keep looking. Both you and DH have to be on board with this purchase.
My only advise is that if you are thinking way down the road, think about a house that you could live in comfortably as an older senior. Example, possible room on main floor that can become a master. Full bathroom on the main floor etc.

I'm from FL, lived in KY, CA, LA and NC, and traveled quite a bit (but never been up north) and I've never seen that type of house before! It's so cute!!! I could see creeping phlox draping down the retaining wall.

This may sound crazy but what about a false gable over the windows giving the roof line some shape.

Too far over the budget? Looks the same school and even same street.

I love Glen Ellyn! So pretty.

Here is a link that might be useful: Grandview

Yes anele, it's the same street - about 2 blocks closer to the school, actually. Thanks for the compliment on the town, we love it here; it's a great place to raise a family. I take it you are from around here?

That house is definitely a possibility, I actually asked about the kitchen on the kitchen board. The price range I feel comfortable with is $750K max. So, the house itself as described is not necessarily out of our price range, but new construction comes with so many unknowns and so many add ons (we previously bought a new construction townhome and even that had a million options and add ons - upgraded cabinets, upgraded carpet, padding, tile, painting all the rooms if that's not included, landscaping, lawn, virtually all the hooks and organizational things. They all add up and we'd have to be really careful to keep in line with the budget. I do really like the looks of it though and it's tempting, very tempting. If it were priced at $650K we wouldn't be having this conversation and that would probably say "under contract" :-)