Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

For us a high ranch was out bc MIL has MS and it is a good possibility she will not be able to go up and down the stairs eventually.

Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

I live in a hi ranch and love it! I grew up in one as well. For us the house had everything we were looking for in our price range:

Income potential
Den as part of our living space
At least 1.5 baths in our living space
Some kind of storage (we have attic, garage, and lots of closet space)

I feel like we own this huge home, we currently only live in the upstairs and one room downstairs and really have a whole second living space that we don't even need to use currently. I like that in the future we will have all this extra space.

If you are concerned for value in future, just make sure you are purchasing based on similar style house comparables.

Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

HATE it. Hate it. Did I mention I hate it.

And we are not going anywhere soon. It's mainly the layout I don't like, especially since I have kids. 3 of the 4 bedrooms are on the main level and I wouldn't put my small kids in the downstairs bedroom alone just yet, until they are older. The kitchen is small and the LR and dining room connect. It's not an open layout, so each room is small and since the bedrooms are on same floor, noise travels!

I don't mind the stairs, I kind of gotten used to them. Our layout is really hard to explain, since the house is built where the back is higher than the front. So on my upper level in the back of the house, there is a deck off the kitchen/dining room that go out to the yard. It's not a second story deck, it's basically ground level. That means my lower level is half underground. Which means there is no access to the back of the house from the lower level. Only way to exit the lower level is up the stairs to the front door our out to the garage to the front of the house. I told you it was a weird siting.

So that is one plus... I have a grill on my back deck which I can easily get to from the upper level kitchen. I let the kids play out back and can easily see them from my kitchen window.

What I do like about the house:
4 bedrooms
3 full bathrooms (lady before us put a full one in downstairs since she had a tenant down there - we don't). This includes a bathroom in the master bedroom, although it's just a big shower stall, not tub.
easy access to back deck/yard
formal dining room
attached 2 car garage
lower level family room with fireplace (we recently had the entire lower level gutted nad re-done)
lower level guest bedroom with full bath (shower stall)

My cons:
small kitchen (not really big enough for table, so not really an ideal EIK)
bedrooms on same floor as LR, DR, kitchen (nothing like going to bed at night, your head hitting the pillow, and having it smell like the onions you fried for diiner!)
No attic
No basement
small bedrooms

I'll have to see if I can post a picture of the back of the house so you get an idea that the upper level is closer to ground level than most.

Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

I didn't live in a high-ranch but my aunt and uncle (we were over their house all the time). Like PP said, the up and down stairs is probably the biggest drawback but I don't see it as being a big problem if you love the house.

Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

I loved my wide line hi ranch when i bought it, 6 years later..ehhh

Mine is open layout, which I loved at first.
Now I feel like I only have 1 big room. The kitchen,dining area, livingroom are small. Before kids it never bothered me, but now I would kill for a bigger dr, kit, living room and to have seperate rooms.

My master bedroom is big, I like the bathroom entrance from my room. I grew up with 1 bathroom, so I'm fine with this set up. I have the bathroom downstairs as well.
extra bedrooms are small.

Backyard entertaining is annoying, walk 2 flights of steps, carrying stufff to bbq outside.

W/D in garage, thats annoying.

Up & down with groceries never bothered me. I guess Im used to that.

I do like that I can go into our bedrooms, kids bedrooms without going up and down stairs all day.
I sometimes enter the house from the garage, so I can get the kids into the house faster.

IF I could add 10-20 feet onto the top floor, expanding the dining room, living room area. Add a deck with sliders off the back so I could access my backyard.
That would be perfect.

Now that someone mentioned it, I do feel very safe with my kids in the house. Baby gate keeps them from front door, no rear access out of the house. Having a pool in the backyard, this is HUGE.

But the grass is always greenier....I grew up in a large cape, always doing flights of stairs. Lots of seperate rooms.

Now Im not doing flights of steps all day, but feel cramped and trapped in 1 big room.

Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

I grew up in a hi-ranch and I HATED it.

It always felt like 2 houses to me. Granted, we always had a tenant living downstairs but when I go back to my parents' house, it just feels very small to me and very separated.

Its just a matter of personal preference though. I know people who have them and love them.

Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

Posted by Lucky09

Good friends of mine have one and I LOVE it. It is a perfect layout for kids and entertaining. Upstairs they have 3 bedrooms, kitchen, living room. It is perfect for when the kids are napping, you can be in the kitchen and still be close. There is no running up and down the stairs all the time (we have this in our colonial and I hate it).

It is great for entertaining because downstairs they have a HUGE den, fireplace, bar, second small kitchen, bathroom, 4th bedroom for guests, playroom and it all leads out to a covered patio. It is so nice because ALL of their kids stuff is downstairs and it doesn't feel like a basement at all because it is level with the ground.

The ONLY negative I see with the layout would be carrying groceries in - because you would always have to carry them upstairs. But I am lazy. I honestly love the layout so much more than my colonial! Best of luck to you!!!

Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

I think a big thing to realize, which i have from reading this thread, is that not all high ranches are the same. My high ranch is a lot different than some of the ones described in PP.

Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

I live with family in a high ranch. it is not wide line. i am not a fan of it.

i grew up in a dutch colonial.

the part i like and don't like is that there is no basement. i feel there is no storage in the house. also i wish there was a deck off the 2nd floor of the house.

Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

i live in a high ranch... it was my grandparents house so sentimentally, there was no question about whether or not we would take it.
had we went looking for houses, it would not have been my 1st choice - we would have liked a fireplace, ours doesn't have; a basement which we are without; 2 full baths (ours is 1.5) and bigger bedrooms.
but if you find a house with the space/features you want/need - i wouldn't rule out a house just based what others on this site say. you're the one that's going to be living in it.
this is our forever home so i'm not concerned about resale value etc - it's too far away to worry about.
i'd say the biggest con that i agree with others about is the outside entertaining - bc it is a paint to have to carry everything from the 2nd floor kitchen, downstairs and then outside.
but other than that, stairs don't bother me at all. i grew up in a 2 story home so it makes no difference to me whether it's 2 sets of 5 stairs or full set. big deal i have to carry the groceries up 5 stairs once a week - the calories i burn won't kill me
we have an awesome back yard with a perfect view of it from the kitchen, 2 car garage, laundry room and nice walk in closet downstairs that i love.
we are about to start a family and i think i will like having the nursey, my bedroom, kitchen and living room all on the same floor. i think i will like that layout as the kids get older too.

Re: Pros and Cons of a High Ranch ?

I have 1 of those rare high ranches with a basement, so three levels of living space plus an attic for storage. Stairs dont bother me, I grew up in a colonial with stairs!

We also have an open layout, 4 bedrooms, including a master with 3 huge closets and bath.

Our home is fine for entertaining because we have a family room with a tiny kitchen area so we have a counter space and fridge right by sliders to yard. Our upstairs is good for entertaining too because we have an island everyone likes to stand around when we have people over, lol. We dont really entertain much so but if we did we could put all BBQ items in the fridge on first floor and use counters to put out or prep. We just renovated this family room and added a fireplace which I also think is not too common in a HR.

I love having the 2nd tiny kitchen because when we renovated it I added a ton of ceiling height cabinets so I can store so much in them. Some of them are actually empty so I need to buy more stuff!