Yesterday morning my realtor called to give me the weekly pep talk, you know, the one that goes, "I know things have been slow, but they're sure to pick up soon. Just hang in there, continue keeping your house spotless at all times, and I'll talk to you again next week." (Okay, not exactly, he's actually a really nice guy, but home selling feels like a dentist visit that lasts for weeks, maybe even months). One of the things he said during our chat yesterday was that he'd had a call on the house the day before, but that the person decided not to look at it after finding out that the master bedroom is upstairs.
Apparently, here in Texas, having an upstairs master bedroom is, like, totally uncool.
A few months ago, someone in the ward who had been considering taking a look at our house before it went on the market reconsidered for the same reason. Our realtor says that his unscientific experience is that 4 out of 5 Texans favor downstairs master bedrooms. When I was pregnant with Maren, we had some friends over for dinner. The wife (also pregnant, but with her first) wanted to look at the baby's room, so we went upstairs. On our way down, I realized I'd forgotten something up in the bedroom, so I ran back up to grab it. Once I got downstairs she said, "Oh, it must be terrible to have to go up and down those stairs all day long."
"Oh yeah," I thought. "Climbing a single flight of stairs ten times a day is so much harder than carrying around a toddler, chasing two other kids, or, for that matter, running four miles a day." I realize that I sound like a brat. That's why I didn't say it, I just thought it.
The funny thing is that when we bought the house, the thing I liked best about it was the fact that all of the bedrooms were upstairs. Our kids were 5, 3 and six months at the time, and we planned to have one more, so I didn't want to risk having them fall down the stairs on their way to the safety of Mom and Dad's bed after a bad dream, and certainly didn't want to have to wake up any more than was necessary to feed a crying baby in the middle of the night. In our floor plan, the master bedroom is on the north side of the house, the three kid bedrooms are on the south side of the house and there's a big playroom (called the game room here) in the middle, so it's not like we're right on top of each other or anything.
Maybe it's because I grew up in New England, where there seems to be a more distinct division in people's minds between formal and informal space, but I really don't think I'd like to have my bedroom downstairs, where any UPS man or friend who decided to drop by could wander in and see my unmade bed piled high with laundry, where anyone might glimpse the unpleasantness that is me running on the treadmill with no shirt on (it's hot in Texas!). I like the idea of having public space on the main level and private space upstairs or in the basement, not that I have a basement here; if you dig deep enough down to plant a bush, you'll hit the water table.
Have you noticed regional variations in house preferences based on where you live? As someone moving from the land of glossy white woodwork and brick all the way around the house to the land of the highly speckled granite countertops and knotty alder kitchen cabinets, I've been surprised at what seems desirable in a house changes from place to place in America.
10 comments:
I heard about the master bedroom upstairs thing, weird if you ask me. I bet you would be hard pressed to find a place like that here. I think the other weird thing about Texas is the breakfast bars. I don't think we looked at one house there that didn't have one. I don't really like them. They are too high to sit at comfortably, are you suppose to stand at them? I just really didn't get it.
I bet she would have felt really bad for me and my two flights of stairs while I was pregnant.
When we were house hunting last year, that's one thing that struck me. That, and the obligatory fireplace. I initially wanted a house with the master bedroom upstairs, but our realtor strongly recommended against that. So our master is downstairs, and we're living in the 3rd upstairs bedroom until the kids are all old enough that I won't have to worry about them rolling down the stairs in the middle of the night anymore...
yeah I grew up with all the kids upstairs and the master down. My dad had an architect draw up the plans that way. When we were house hunting and decided on a 2-story house we orignally wanted the master downstairs. But not many houses were that way actually. And then when I walked through this house I loved it and it didn't matter that the master was up. And we have our room on oneside then the gameroom then the kids' rooms so we aren't all over each other either. And now I'm glad we got a house w/bedrooms upstairs b/c when company comes over I can just clean up the kitchen, living room, dining room and guest bath and call it good. Good luck with the house selling
My brother and sister-in-law had the hardest time finding a house in Dallas because they insisted on having a master bedroom upstairs. Hopefully, you will find some buyers soon we are the same way. Good luck.
Our master is up, but we also have knotty alder cabinets. ROFL.
who wants the master bedroom downstairs? so strange! we're house hunting in WA, and what i find a little odd is that the laundry rooms are all upstairs.
I think the master downstairs has something to do with heat rising (at least in Houston). I really like the idea of all the bedrooms on one level and the social rooms on another level, my parents have all bedrooms in the basement and it was so much easier for entertaining/cleaning purposes (as mentioned). But I think that here in Houston I'd melt into oblivion if we had a second level and I had to sleep up there...
That's so funny you blogged about this. When we were out looking at new homes in the Austin area, I quickly realized that a master bedroom on the main floor (if there were 2 floors, obviously) was something I did NOT want. There were very few requirements, but this was one of them. I thought it was so incredibly strange to see so many model homes w/the master on the main level. Who does that?
Now the LAUNDRY upstairs makes more sense to me...given that that's where most of the clothing is put on, taken off, thrown into a hamper, etc.
Maybe Texans on average are a little more, ahem, adventurous in the bedroom and would like to have the difference in floors so they won't be overheard. Just a thought I had the other day...
Both of my in laws have 2 story houses with the Master Bedroom on the 1st floor. They love it because when all their kids are gone they just shut off the upstairs by turning the air/heat off and it's like they're living in a 1 story house. So when company comes they have room but save money when they're not there.
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