This is the 3rd of a 7-part series. Enjoy!
3. A “Good” house lavishes money on things that matter to its owners and spends as little as possible on things that don’t matter to them.
“Bad” houses are both timid and overly generous in the way they spend your money. They are timid by using cheaper materials and details in high use or high value areas where a little more money would mean that costs would be far less in the “out years”.
A perfect example of this is eaves. Many very expensive spec homes are virtually eaveless, having gutters form the only coverage for the entire area of wall that is beneath them (even vinyl can prematurely age and need replacement, and even the most expensive windows have their life shortened by the unrelenting bombardment of sun and rain that eaveless designs create).
“Bad” houses also spend money where owners don’t care. Why have ceramic tile in a laundry when vinyl flooring will do? Why have a fireplace in your master bedroom if you don’t want one? Why have that extra “rumpus room” when all the activity you need and desire can be accommodated with one less space? Spreading money evenly over the entire house frustrates heartfelt desires and throws money out the window for unneeded features. When you spend the vast majority of your savings and thirty or forty percent of your income month after month, year after year, and don’t have the window you’ve always wished for or the kitchen countertop you’ve set your heart on, is the “affordability” actually worth the cost?
