There is a lot on the market in an area we like that we're about half considering making an offer on and sitting on for a little while.

One stipulation, these section's deed restrictions limit to 1.5 story homes. So, what is a 1.5 story and where's the threshold to be a 2 story? My sister's last house was a 1.5 story and had a bedroom, bathroom, and game room upstairs. Granted, 2 story homes were allowed in her neighborhood.

The lot isn't huge, 7,500 sq ft. And we'd probably want 4 bedrooms and an office, so it'd be pretty important to be able to do at least one bedroom and maybe a loft area upstairs.

I'm going to assume the second floor needs to be less than half the square footage of the first. (Probably including garage)

If there's this restriction I would assume they do not want any of the second floor to line up with the front facade as well for some strange reason.

Yeah, doesn't seem much consensus online about what a 1.5 story home is. The online deed restrictions don't say a whole lot either...

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B. No building shall be erected, altered, placed or permitted to remain on any residential building site other than one detached single family dwelling not to exceed one story in height and a one-story garage for not more than three (3) cars; except that residences not exceeding one and one-half (1 1/2) stories in height may be erected on any of the lots covered hereby, provided the Architectural Control Committee referred to below approves the lots upon which a one and one-half (1 1/2) story residence building may be erected, in addition to approving the plans and specifications there for.

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Quote:

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The ground floor area of any one and one-half story main residence building, exclusive of porches garages, storage rooms and/or servant's quarters, shall not be less than One Thousand (1000) square feet of usable floor area and the upper floor area shall not be less than four hundred (400) square feet of usable floor area.

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The bold is kind of what scares me, that they just reject any 1.5 story requests.

htxag09 said:

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Yeah, doesn't seem much consensus online about what a 1.5 story home is. The online deed restrictions don't say a whole lot either...

Quote:

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B. No building shall be erected, altered, placed or permitted to remain on any residential building site other than one detached single family dwelling not to exceed one story in height and a one-story garage for not more than three (3) cars; except that residences not exceeding one and one-half (1 1/2) stories in height may be erected on any of the lots covered hereby, provided the Architectural Control Committee referred to below approves the lots upon which a one and one-half (1 1/2) story residence building may be erected, in addition to approving the plans and specifications there for.

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Quote:

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The ground floor area of any one and one-half story main residence building, exclusive of porches garages, storage rooms and/or servant's quarters, shall not be less than One Thousand (1000) square feet of usable floor area and the upper floor area shall not be less than four hundred (400) square feet of usable floor area.

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The bold is kind of what scares me, that they just reject any 1.5 story requests.

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I just read that as 1400 sf is the minimum square footage allowed. I'd look through County records for homes in the neighborhood and see if there are any with a second floor. Some online sites allow you to search by map.

htxag09 said:

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Yeah, doesn't seem much consensus online about what a 1.5 story home is. The online deed restrictions don't say a whole lot either...

Quote:

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B. No building shall be erected, altered, placed or permitted to remain on any residential building site other than one detached single family dwelling not to exceed one story in height and a one-story garage for not more than three (3) cars; except that residences not exceeding one and one-half (1 1/2) stories in height may be erected on any of the lots covered hereby, provided the Architectural Control Committee referred to below approves the lots upon which a one and one-half (1 1/2) story residence building may be erected, in addition to approving the plans and specifications there for.

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Quote:

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The ground floor area of any one and one-half story main residence building, exclusive of porches garages, storage rooms and/or servant's quarters, shall not be less than One Thousand (1000) square feet of usable floor area and the upper floor area shall not be less than four hundred (400) square feet of usable floor area.

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The bold is kind of what scares me, that they just reject any 1.5 story requests.

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Maybe email the Architectural Control Committee and ask if the lot you want is approved for a 1 1/2 store house. They may have already done it and there is a list somewhere.

Think that's what I'm going to do. Was just hoping there was a widely accepted definition of 1.5 story. I also contact a builder in the area to see if they have experience with it.

Fwiw, this home is in the same section. Recent sold so pictures online and looks like at three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.

Maybe not what they mean by 1-1/2 story, but I think of it as a second floor that has no usable space below it, like being over a breezeway or garage.

htxag09 said:

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Think that's what I'm going to do. Was just hoping there was a widely accepted definition of 1.5 story. I also contact a builder in the area to see if they have experience with it.

Fwiw, this home is in the same section. Recent sold so pictures online and looks like at three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.

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My guess is the the 1.5 story is where the 2nd floor is built into the roof trusses so the overall height is less than a two-story. The interior walls on the 2nd floor are offset and the ceiling will typically slope to give head height and the dormers allow the windows. Similar to this.

aggie98infl said:

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htxag09 said:

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Think that's what I'm going to do. Was just hoping there was a widely accepted definition of 1.5 story. I also contact a builder in the area to see if they have experience with it.

Fwiw, this home is in the same section. Recent sold so pictures online and looks like at three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.

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My guess is the the 1.5 story is where the 2nd floor is built into the roof trusses so the overall height is less than a two-story. The interior walls on the 2nd floor are offset and the ceiling will typically slope to give head height and the dormers allow the windows. Similar to this.

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Just got off the phone with a builder in the area and this is the case. He said if you do 9' ceilings on the first floor and 8' upstairs you can almost have a standard two story home. If want 10' then restricted to basically just a game room upstairs.

Edit: ignore the emoji….

4/3.5 1.5 story

Here is the 1.5 story that my dad designed and built in the 60's. It was remodeled a few years ago to open up the formal living room to the family/dining room.

We have a 1.5 story. It's about 3500 sq ft with the main floor covering 2750 and the top floor covering 750.

The .5 story is a main play room, media room and half bath. We were told that if there is a bedroom up there it's a 2 story.

We build a fair amount of one and a 1/2 story homes and it's probably our favorite product. My definition of this kind of house has to do mostly with the roof line. If you're fascia is 20' plus off the ground it's definitely a 2 story home. If your shingles started at a normal one story height but you sneak in living space where the roof gets steep in the center of the house that would normally be high ceiling attic space, I would consider that a 1.5 story home. We can get a minimum of half of the square feet of the 1st floor and up to 2/3 of the sf upstairs so they are fairly economical still. My opinion is this HOA doesn't want 2 story homes because it's trying to avoid the giant tall box looking product that a lot of track home builders are doing these days.

I just looked online and grabbed a few pictures from current listings. The first ones are obviously 2 story homes but in the later pictures it's a lot harder to tell that there is actually living space upstairs. Those are a story and a half homes, just my opinion.

2 story

1.5 story

NoahAg said:

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My idea of a 1.5 story is where the second floor is just one open room, usually a game room, and maybe a bathroom. I.e., there's no hallway with separately divided bedrooms. Also, maybe more important, from the outside the facade looks like it is just one story.

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We have a 1.5 story that's exactly as describe. A 400 sq ft gameroom over the garage plus a wet bar, half bath, and a storage closet with attic access.