Whether it’s your first home, your forever home, or your retirement home after the kids have left the nest, you’ve always got to answer one question when you start shopping for a place to spend your life: one story vs two story homes?
What are the pros and cons of a two story house and what kinds of benefits and drawbacks can you expect in a one story home? Each kind of home has many desirable and less-desirable qualities. The choice really comes down to your own needs, preferences, and plans. For now, though, let’s look at one story vs. two story homes and see what some of the considerations are for each.
Benefits of a one-story house:
- You don’t have to climb stairs. You’re going to especially appreciate this when you’re first moving in, as no one likes to haul a bed or a bunch of boxes up and down flights of stairs.
- No upstairs also means no noise from upstairs rooms.
- Depending on the makeup of your family, not having stairs can be a major benefit. No stairs means fewer falling hazards for small children. Having everything on one level can be a real advantage if you have family members who have limited mobility.
- If you want to paint the exterior, it’s fairly simple to do it yourself without climbing up and down tall ladders. The same goes if you want to install a skylight, say, in the kitchen. You may not be able to do it yourself, but it’s still a lot easier to do in a one-story home.
- In the event of an emergency—perish the thought—it may be easier to get the whole family out of the home quickly and safely if it’s only a single story.
Drawbacks of a one-story house:
- The big drawback of a one-story home is the same as its advantage in some ways: Everything is on the same floor, including your kitchen and bedrooms. That can mean less privacy and fewer opportunities to separate a cozy sleeping environment from, say, a bustling kitchen or family room. It also means fewer opportunities for aesthetic touches such as high ceilings.
Benefits of a two-story house:
- You’ll enjoy beautiful views from your second-floor windows. You can even add a balcony to the master bedroom so you can sit outside and enjoy the sunrise or sunset.
- Two-story homes offer opportunities to expand your living space in different ways, as well as greater separation of bedroom space from the rest of your living space, which often means more privacy and less disruption.
- A two-story home offers some aesthetic opportunities that a single story can’t, such as higher ceilings in certain rooms, not to mention the stairwell itself.
- It can be more cost-effective to build a two-story home in some cases.
- One advantage that many overlook is that a two-story house gives you plenty of square footage but with a smaller footprint. This may mean more yard space if you’re building a larger home. It can also make it easier to add an additional bedroom or other room onto your existing home.
Drawbacks of a two-story house:
- Stairs. Pretty much every drawback associated with a two-story home comes down to stairs. The stairwell takes up square footage that can’t be used for much else, and you may have to drag things like laundry or the vacuum cleaner up and down the stairs.
- Those same stairs can also offer potential safety concerns if you have little ones or family members with mobility restrictions. Plus, you’ll have the added noise of all those little feet running up and down the stairs.
- A two-story home can also be more expensive to heat and cool in some cases, though creative lifestyle hacks may be able to mitigate the differences.
- Finally, it’s not as easy to paint the exterior or to get up on the roof to do things like inspect the gutters.
While there are definite pros and cons of two story houses and one story homes, what it ultimately comes down to is what you really want from your home. How fast is your family growing? What are your future plans? How much do you hate hauling laundry up and downstairs and how much do you love stringing garlands along the banister around the holidays?
When you get right down to it, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to one story vs. two story homes. It’s just a matter of what’s right for your family, what fits your personal preferences, and what works for your budget, your living situation, and your current and long-term needs.
Whether you’re looking for a one-story or a two-story home, you’ll find the home of your dreams at Mantua in Van Alstyne, Texas. We’re a community for families who are seeking an enriched lifestyle nestled in the natural beauty of the Texas landscape, with prices ranging from the $300s to the $600s. Fill out the form to learn more about the home you’ve always dreamed of!
