Question about a house. I'm not sure what one would call this type of house

[Justice wanted]

My mother had a friend with this type of home but I'm not sure what it would offically be called.


The Front door opened onto a landing. Stairs that lead up into basically a ranch style home with three bedrooms living room kitchen dinning room. The other stairs leading down lead into a finished basement that had a second kitchen and a "family room guess room(bedroom) and a door leading to the attached garage.


Thanks for the help

[mzteris]

1. Split level nt

[a kennedy]

18. Yup,it's a split level....

really enjoyed ours.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. Splancher --- cross between a splitlevel and a ranch.

[cyberswede]

3. Split Foyer, I think. nt

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. yes, that too... I was just coming in to edit my post.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Yep..split level.

Lived in one. Quite a few on my street here, too. Built in the 60's here.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. a true splitlevel's front elevation looks like this

the picture in the above post is a splitfoyer or splancher

[cyberswede]

9. Is this one also called a side-split?

...that is, the split stairway is to the side of the entrance? My sister lives in one...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. sure, that would work and by that case you could call the other a front split

why not... works, right

on edit: do make note that the side split has 3 levels whereas a front split only has 2 levels...the foyer is in the middle and a person is forced to make the immediate decision to go
up or down upon entering the thresh hold.

[cyberswede]

7. Lots of my schoolmates lived in those;

they were popular in the 70s - there are whole neighborhoods of those in my home town.

I personally despise them, but I guess it was one way to enable a 2 car garage without making the footprint of the house larger (compared to a ranch).

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. I hate them, too but then I hate most things suburban.

love your avatar, btw.

Saw Hugo last week and it reminds me

[cyberswede]

15. Thanks

I chose the avatar early in DU3 when my old one from DU2 wasn't available.

Then a few weeks later, my 9 y.o. and I started the Hugo book - imagine my surprise!

[Justice wanted]

8. Thanks everyone. Didn't know if there was a special name for that type of house other than

split level

[Canis Mala]

10. I believe it's called Swiss Chalet.

At least that's what I've always heard. Having the main living area on the second floor maximizes heat use. These houses are also good for a yard with a slope, a half-dozen steps to the living area while the lower part is at ground level to the back yard.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. I've heard that called a "raised ranch."

[one_voice]

14. Around here we call them...

raised ranches. They're different from 'split level'. I live in a split...you come in my front door and you're in a big foyer, keep walking and you end up in a big family room and a powder off to the side backdoor and door to basement steps.

Or when you come in and you're in the foyer to the right are 4 steps that lead to the living room, kitchen/dining room, slider to the deck. off the living room are the steps to go upstairs where the bedrooms are.

Only one kitchen. that's the difference, I think.

[nolabear]

16. Split Entry here.

Funny, eh?

[femmocrat]

21. We call them split-entries in PA, also.

Our first house was a split-entry.

[blue neen]

22. Yes, there are many split-entries around here.

We live in a split-level, which is actually quite different than the split-entries.

[HopeHoops]

19. Split-level. I lived in one as a kid.

[MadrasT]

20. Around here...

What you are describing is called a "bi-level", they look similar to this:



They are two stories with the entrance foyer located in between the two levels.

A "split level" looks like this:



They are one story on one side, two stories on the other, and the entrance is usually in the one-story part. It is called "split level" because the one-story level doesn't match up with either level on the two-story side. (There are usually 6 or 7 steps up to one level, and 6 or 7 steps down to the other.)