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Anyone care to critique our listing?

14 years ago

Please have a look!

Here is a link that might be useful: Our house

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Comments (14)

graywings123
14 years ago
Lovely, just lovely. Nothing could get me to move to South Dakota, but it is a lovely house. Best of luck at the open house!
akrogirl
14 years ago
Wow, just wow. I only wish we could find houses like that in our area for that price. I absolutely love what you have done with it. The only room where I would change anything at all would be the child's bedroom, and that's only because we don't have any two-legged children, lol.

Seriously, I think it shows extremely well and I would definitely snap it up if I were looking in that area.
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Thanks! I've already done away with the wall at the end of the island, actually. We do need a column there but it can be narrow. I think we do need a column someplace along the sink wall. It's the original exterior wall of the house so very load-bearing. I think without it we would need a very huge new header, and since the ceilings are already very low (7'9") I don't want it to get too deep. Plus, this new design, while it solves a LOT of problems, is actually shorter on storage than our original plan (which had a remote pantry no longer possible with new layout). And- in the old plan I had a hanging pot rack over the side window for pots and pans. In the new plan, since it's dominating the house, I don't think I want the pot rack hanging in the middle of everything... so that means I need to give up substantial base cab space for those items. Anyway I am getting nervous about lack of space so I made that pantry full-height to compensate. However, to accomodate the structural column it can only be 18-20 inches deep, which is a pricey upgrade. Maybe it's not such a great solution. Can you guys think of any other ways to gain more storage while still keeping the openness? I am also having a heck of a time figuring out the detail of the end of the run of uppers (to the right of the range.) Is it totally weird that they'll have to end 4" or so in from the normal location, to accomodate that header? The backsplash would continue along 4 " before terminating at the corner. Weird, huh? Actual measurements are just slightly smaller than what's drawn on the plan above. I'll scan the larger scale drawing. Actual dimensions from the OUTSIDE of the stud wall next to the fridge, to the OUTSIDE of the new header (I lined the back of the bases up at that point to squeeze inches out, even though it looks a lot better to place then INSIDE that line) is 9'11" If I allow 8' from the fireplace wall to accomodate the chairs and traffic flow between them and pulled-out stools at the island, (allowing 39" aisle between range wall and island) it's only 10' wide. So basically 10 x 10. Can I make the aisles narrow than 39" since it is such a small kitchen? 36" would help... Any other suggestions? One thing is that I don't need cookbook storage, since they can go in the adjascent bookcases.
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You have a pretty house. I think there is too much stuff, and I bet you have already de cluttered, but you need to do more. If you remove things, the effect is a more spacious house, and buyers want that. I would remove the office chair in the living room, the little table in the master bath by the shower, the throw rugs all over and the desks in the bedrooms. You have little tables and benches here and there against walls that are not part of the main furniture, and so remove them. Get rid of all the plants and the book case in the breakfast nook. Make it bare to make it look spacious. This post was edited by sheilajoyce on Sat, Mar 1, 14 at 18:18
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Comments (18)
Honestly, I find little to like in this house plan. I'm 100% sure you can do better. My thoughts: - The exterior has so many little jigs and jogs -- so many that it'll make for an odd-looking exterior, and it'll drive up the cost. All for no purpose. - Still on the house's exterior, I agree that you don't want to have the pool equipment outside your bedroom window. I think you do want it nearer the pool. If you don't have your children yet, I suggest you hold off on the pool a while; toddlers + pool will mean terror every day. - Have you considered guest parking? Since your driveway will pull up to the right side of the house and your entrance is on the other side, this could potentially be confusing. - The rooms are large and out of proportion. For example, using the kitchen cabinets as a guide, I'm looking at the dining room and estimate that you have 5' on one side of the table and 7' on the other side. This is very wide, and a 3-3 1/2' table will look puny. Other rooms are also over sized: You have more sf in the downstairs hallways than in your kitchen or your dining room. At approximately 7' wide, the pantry will have a 5' aisle in which to walk. The mudroom is approximately 10x20. You're talking about a 6000 sf house; to put that into perspective, an average house in America today is 2000-2400. You're keeping resale in the back of your mind; an average family can't afford to buy the house you're buying, so you're slashing your field of potential buyers. - My best advice on right-sizing rooms: Start carrying around a tape measure. Measure other people's rooms. Measure hotel rooms. Measure showers. Measure closets. Keep notes. Bigger is not better. Right-sized is bettter. - Still on the subject of over-sized, but a different topic: When you build houses with large rooms, it's expensive to change anything. We have this problem (to a lesser extent), and we call our house the $4000 house. No matter what we want to do, it seems to cost $4000. For example, changing the carpet in our great room was $4000 -- and it wasn't top quality. Same thing when we replaced our countertops. Same thing when we had a leak in the bathroom and ended up replacing the floor. We are going to have more moderate sized rooms in our new house. With oversized rooms, the reality is that you usually end up with builder-basic materials because of price. - Don't worry about the kitchen being dark. With two window-filled adjacent rooms, you won't need to keep the lights on all day long. No, you won't have lovely sunbeams filling the room in the morning, but neither will it be a dark cave. - The great room is the best room in the house. With windows on three sides, it'll be bright and airy. - In the large powder room (over 8' wide -- why?), you want the toilet and sink on the same wall. Why? Because it allows you to have water in only one wall: A water wall must be slightly deeper than a standard wall. The more walls that hold water, the more places you could potentially have a leak. - The mother-in-law's master suite is in a lovely spot and will have great windows, but the bathroom is ridiculously large and spread out. Instead of being luxurious, this bathroom's just going to be inconvenient. Yet in spite of all this space, the tub is causing a pinch point. It's also going to cost a fortune to tile, even if you stick to the most basic builder-quality. - The upstairs bathrooms are also poorly designed. The master bathroom has so much empty floor space in the middle of the room, yet your two sinks are crammed into little "hallways" that'll feel cramped -- I'm thinking you'll end up pulling your elbows "in" while you're using those sinks. I also don't like the idea of walking through the closet to reach the bathroom. - The bedrooms could be cut down significantly without any loss of quality. - Where you're not oversized is the garage. 28' wide is not a three-car garage. Most people on this board will tell you that 24' is a nice, comfortable two-car garage -- enough space to open the car doors, have a bit of storage. You'll be able to drive three cars into a 28' garage ... but it'll be like my friend's garage: She has to stop in the driveway and let her kids get out of the car, then she drives in, scooting all the way over to one side so she'll have enough space to open her car door. Honestly, I suggest going back to the drawing board.
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chrisk327
14 years ago
great house. I'm a little confused with the 2 dining rooms. I'd love for such a nice house to be priced at that in my market.
lyfia
14 years ago
It looks wonderful imo. The only issue would be the colors of the close up of the entry on the exterior, but I highly doubt that will keep you from getting showings.

Don't know anything about your market though. Is it Ohio?
xamsx
14 years ago
The inside of your house is lovely, a little sparse, but truly lovely.

The outside landscaping could use some help. You have two very large trees/bushes in the front that are hiding the front of, what I suspect is, a very beautiful home. Anyway to cut those back? Also you have 15 pictures, but only one quasi-shot of the backyard. Maybe swapping out the kitchen dining area for a backyard picture?
jane__ny
14 years ago
Wow, what a price! Can't even get a small condo in NY for that price. How much property?

Beautiful home.
Jane
deanie1
14 years ago
In my part of the country that's a fairly normal price for your kind of house, so the price doesn't blow me away as it does for some others. The thing that jumped out at me was all the hardwood. I think your dining rooms and maybe the master could use some warming up with a rug. And like xamsx, I'd like to see more outside detail. Looks beautiful.
cintijen
Original Author
14 years ago
Wow, thanks everyone for your kind words. I find it so hard to be objective since it is our house, so I really appreciate the positive feedback.

Graywings, we're in Cincinnati, OH, not South Dakota. It's a little too cold there for me, too! ;)

xamsx, we've discussed taking the evergreen down many times. We'll defiinitely keep it under consideration if we feel we're not getting the showings we want. You mentioned backyard and this house actually doesn't have one. We're bordered on three sides by streets. The backside of our house has a three car garage and a parking pad large enough for three cars. The side yard is very nice, though, and that is what you see in the one shot. Unfortunately we're limited to 15 photos on the listing.

Jane, we're on .5 acres, so a nice size lot for an urban neighborhood.

deanie1, we've considered rugs many times in the 5 years we've been here for the rooms you mentioned. I personally have decided I don't like rugs under dining tables, but i agree for showing it would be nice to have one. The problem is both those rooms are 19x16, so it's not like we can just go by an 8x10 rug to fill the space. If you have an idea where we could find an inexpensive 12x15 or so rug, let me know!

Thanks again everyone! We had our first showing today, keepng fingers crossed that more will follow!

cintijen
deanie1
14 years ago
Carpet Capital of the world -- Dalton, GA. Right down I-75 from you. Yeah, it's a drive, but if you're ever headed that way anyway ...
lyfia
14 years ago
I wouldn't worry about rugs right now to be honest. Although it would make the rooms look, you are selling and showing off the full hardwoods isn't a bad thing either.

Good Luck!!
booboo60
14 years ago
Such a beautiful home!!! If anything, and this is really small, I would replace the tablecloth in pic #7 for placemats and some brightly colored dishes or just a pretty bouquet of flowers on the table. The tablecloth just seems to "overtake" the table a bit but like I said your place is really lovely!!!
Good Luck!
Billl
14 years ago
The house looks great. The only thing that confused me was the 2 dining rooms. Depending on the layout, you might be better off staging 1 as an office or something.
loves2read
14 years ago
all in all -- lovely home--renovations are stylish without being too personal for most people's tastes--
good light in most rooms and the pictures show without being too dark...

storage is usually desireable element even in larger home and not always present in one built in 1926

I might actually consider showing interior of garage and/or shot of master closet if it is large and has good storage built in--or shot of kitchen pantry if there is one

take the shot of the backyard facing TOWARD the house and making it look as large as possible
or if having large parking areas are desireable feature for off-street parking then I would show driveway area vs the angle shot into backyard...

most people are looking for linked living/kitchen areas--IF that is feature of this house--can you take the photo of the living area FROM the kitchen so that people can tell they are co-joined...because it looks like the kitchen is NOT open to the living area to me...

it does show a little sparse but you have done good job of taking out the clutter which is off-putting to most buyers/viewers...and the wood floors are a great feature
I guess they are not original to the house which might be selling feature worth mentioning
spacific
14 years ago
Your house is exquisite. That price would buy a 900 sf basic craftsman-era bungalow in my neighborhood! I agree with the other posters about the yard and to swap the yellow dining room photo with a garden photo. Then in the description, mention exactly what you said ".5 acre --- a great sized lot for this urban neighborhood."

As for the rug, if a 9 x 12 would work under the table and still leave a bit of border around the chairs, there are some reasonably priced jute rugs that I think would work to offset the beautiful hardwood, but not interfere with your simple, elegant decor.
Good luck with the sale.

Here is a link that might be useful: west elm jute rug

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