Chipsa, if one climbs stairs from one habitable level to another habitable level there are two (2)habitable floor levels. What we may have here is a real estate/consumer terminology vs. the building code/architectural terminology. In determining floors, it matters not if the second level is under the roof, has pony walls or full height walls. Horizontal or sloped ceilings have nothing to do with the number of floors. The historical Cape Cod simply was an economical approach to a 2-story house, with the second story in the attic, under the existing roof framing! Dormers may or may not have been added for light on the rake side of the roof. But it was clearly a 2-story house with habitable floors on two levels. History is full o examples of buildings with unusual floor definitions. The mansard roof, for example, was a device to add a floor in Parisian houses without having to pay taxes for another floor in the house (it was under the "roof", not a normal floor enclosed by walls as defined by the tax regulations). Today, no one questions that it was a habitable floor despite the fact that it was under the sloping "roof" and illuminated by dormer windows. To determine floors, just count the floors connected by stairs--it's that simple! If there are stairs connecting two habitable levels it's a 2-story building. Conncecting three habitable levels means a 3-story house. The definition of floors really has nothing to do with wall types, wall heights, types of ceilings or types of windows. The only way one would have 1.5 stories is if one floor is only a half level above the next. Sometimes these are called "split levels", but even these most generally have a portion with one habitable floor above another. All of that said, it's really not that important whether one prefers to call something 1.5 stories or 2 stories. It's just important to remember whether one is talking in marketing terms or in terms of the building code and design/construction. Whatever floats one's boat!

Happy Father's Day, FOAS and all the other fathers. I'm missing my own father a little today... As for potty training, Amanda trained herself at 16 months, dry at night and not an accident. She was prissy and didn't like to be wet and would bring me a dry diaper so I could change her immediately. Ashley? She could care less, and when she was nearly 3 my mother asked her when she was going to use the potty. Her response? "Never, never, never, never, never." She finally did, because the babysitting bribed her with M&Ms. Annie

Ladyvixen, we were in our 30's in 1985 when we bought our 1898 house. Looking back, we were very young. Neither my husband nor I had any skills or knowledge at all about how to work on houses. All we knew was that our house was nearly intact, was very inexpensive, and that we loved it. I had always wanted an old house, and had been buying things such as light fixtures, hardware, etc., for years before we bought the house. We bought the house "as is". Fortunately we were both employed and had no children. We had to hire almost everything done, and it needed a lot of work. We did not take a vacation for years. Then came a time of around a year or two that my husband was either unemployed or underemployed. During that time, the house just didn't get worked on. We didn't care that we lived in an unfinished house; in fact, I thought it was beautiful from day one. We have a corner in the dining room where all the little balls the cats play with end up, but you don't notice the slope otherwise. It has taken us over 25 years, and we are almost finished, but still have some work to do. We should have it finished by now, but are in our 60's now and do like to take a vacation now and then. Also we sometimes didn't have work done even when we had the money, because we were tired of the mess of having things torn up. We lived with a practically non-existent kitchen until about 2004. I said all along that this house was my dream house. People would look at me funny, but it was and still is my dream house. Don't let others talk you out of your dream. Make the decision based on what you want and what you think you can handle. If you think you can live with an unfinished house for years, go for it. If you have to have everything finished and perfect, you shouldn't buy an old house. I have the ablility to not even see the unfinished stuff until we get ready to do something about it. I meant this to be an encouragement to you, but reading back on it, maybe this will scare you because it has taken us so long. Don't let that scare you--you can do it faster than we did! I will try to attach some pictures if I can.

Oh, that IS impressive, Steph. I can remember when I was about 3.5-4 years old, we stayed at a dude ranch in AZ for a week. I was constantly walking into the wrong little cabin, I walked in on a man and his red-haired son in all stages of undress so many times, they learned my name and knew that I was supposed to go 2 cabins further down. I was paying attention to the scroll work over each door instead of the number. lolol Every cabin had the same scroll work! I kept walking into #4 instead of #6. Obviously, Grant is smarter than I was. lolol He's a smart little cookie, that boy!