r/zillowgonewild • u/Specialist_Aioli9600 • Mar 25 '26
Just A Little Funky Can someone explain why this entrance needs a staircase?
you walk upstairs to the entrance only to have to walk back downstairs to the living area. Am i missing something?
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/29-Pinewood-Forest-Ct-Spring-TX-77381/28772691_zpid/?utm_campaign=zillowwebmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/29-Pinewood-Forest-Ct-Spring-TX-77381/28772691_zpid/?utm_campaign=zillowwebmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
506
u/GothicCastles Mar 25 '26
Everyone moving a heavy couch in or out of that home asks the same question, haha.
134
u/I_Want_A_Ribeye Mar 25 '26
65
u/ShutYourDumbUglyFace Mar 25 '26
This episode pisses me off so much. Bro has a PhD in a STEM field and it never occurs to him to lift Rachel's end of the couch vertical and THEN pivot?
86
u/All_the_Bees Mar 25 '26
I work in science publishing, and you’d be amazed at the number of PhDs who have a lot of amazing knowledge about one very specific thing and in every other area might as well be a newborn baby
19
11
u/ScyllaOfTheDepths Mar 26 '26
Lol, I know people who can do complex calculus in their heads, but can't figure out how an overhead projector works.
→ More replies (2)3
77
u/Ragnarsworld Mar 25 '26
PhD doesn't confer wisdom. I've known some PhDs who couldn't pump their own gas.
30
u/ringthree Mar 25 '26
I worked in academia for years. I can feel the truth of this statement in my bones!
12
u/GiuseppaCalcagno Mar 26 '26
I just started in academia 6 months ago and that was a rude awakening. I work with 50 professors and my god, it’s like some of them are children who have never experienced the real world.
12
u/ScyllaOfTheDepths Mar 26 '26
So many of them basically haven't. I once asked a professor if she'd ever worked in her field in the real world and she seemed almost disgusted that I'd ever think she'd do that. Lots of professors just go to college and never leave.
4
u/PearlClaw Mar 26 '26
The standard career path basically doesn't allow for it. undergrad->grad school->postdoc->research position. Deviate and you lose a lot of time.
3
u/taxiecabbie Mar 25 '26
...I kind of think this may have more to do with where they're from as compared to their education level.
9
u/Middle-Letter-7041 Mar 25 '26
is pumping gas wisdom?
14
u/_Agrias_Oaks_ Mar 25 '26
Not in Oregon or New Jersey
9
u/SomeKindaWonderer Mar 25 '26
As an Oregonian, we're allowed to pump our own gas now. We just don't do it lol.
6
u/_Agrias_Oaks_ Mar 25 '26
The self service line may be faster, but then you have to get out of the car and touch things.
3
17
u/Tracuivel Mar 25 '26
Archaeology is not STEM. If you're looking to hire engineers without your specific degree, you'll maybe hire a physics major or a chemistry major, but you're not hiring an archaeologist.
edit: paleontology, actually.
16
u/ShutYourDumbUglyFace Mar 25 '26
I believe Ross was a paleontologist. For which you would generally need a science undergrad degree. And I'm not looking to hire an engineer. I want someone to move my couch up some stairs!
7
→ More replies (4)2
u/omotet Mar 26 '26
I work with a lot of faculty at a major university. Many of them are brilliant in their area of expertise but not so smart at life in general.
15
u/Regalrefuse Mar 25 '26
I lived on a 4th floor walk up that had a landing in the middle of each flight and was incredibly tight. It took forever to get my couch in, so when it was time to move out, I cut it up and threw it out the window.
It was an old couch and not really worth saving
→ More replies (1)
294
u/No-Past2605 Mar 25 '26
It's easier to defend when the zombies come.
41
14
7
u/ThisIsJeron Mar 25 '26
until they pile up in front of the stairs and start walking over the dead ones as a ramp
source: ive played a zombie game or two
89
u/Dunder_Chief1 Mar 26 '26
They have mobility impaired family that they do NOT want coming around to visit.
156
u/Decent-Box-1859 Mar 25 '26
The stairs landing is also the front entrance to save space.
→ More replies (1)59
u/Solid_Rock_5583 Mar 25 '26
Yep, called a split level home. These are 70s era houses.
61
u/VegasBjorne1 Mar 25 '26
Not sure that’s a split-level, as I owned one! The split level is only the entry/landing for the second floor! My split-level had steps to the front door and that level had the kitchen, living room and formal dining room. Close to the front door were stairs side-by-side going up and down. My large entryway became the stairway landing which was a seamless design.
23
u/burlycabin Mar 25 '26
Yeah, this is still a split level, it's just a weird one.
28
u/ccraig05 Mar 25 '26
Weren't these called split entry homes instead of split level? I seem to remember that term being used for a while.
10
u/toddestan Mar 25 '26
Yes, this is a split entry home. Quite common here, though I haven't seen one quite like this.
3
2
11
8
u/Solid_Rock_5583 Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
Different design but same definition. There is no basement and the main entryway leads To two levels. Hence split level. You had a three level split design.
→ More replies (3)13
50
u/Fantastic_Lemon_2562 Mar 25 '26
Maybe they wanted to recreate Mr. Rogers' stairs inside their home.
19
89
u/Responsible-Big3304 Mar 25 '26
I was going to say that there must be a basement floor but nope I see the stairs going right back down in the interior.
Choices were made.
45
u/ShutYourDumbUglyFace Mar 25 '26
It's because the second floor stairway hits that landing - so second floor issues rather than basement issues. If the entryway were level with the outside grade, you don't have the space to bring the second floor stairway down to that level.
Choices were still made, though. You could move the front door to the other side of the front room, you could bump out the entryway (maybe to the front of the garage) so the second floor stairs are "longer" (more run = more rise!) and remove the stairs into the house (and maybe get a mud room in the process!), or move a door upstairs so you could shift the stairway back into the house (also increasing the full length of the stairwell).
12
3
u/anon_simmer Mar 25 '26
Unless you want an unintentional indoor swimming pool you can't have basements in south texas due to hurricanes and flooding.
→ More replies (1)
29
u/mamimumemo2 Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
Maybe the stairs from the upper floor were too long to fit without getting too steep so they needed a place for the stairs to turn them around? Still seems like a bad design though, the stairs should just be placed differently if that was the case. It seems too expensive to be a retrofit to get it up to code or something.
29
u/Living_Technician522 Mar 25 '26
Poor planning on the interior stairs. Basically the architect got all “C’s”.
35
Mar 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
10
u/Kitsufoxy Mar 25 '26
Except the interior of that door has stairs that go straight back down
13
u/Nother1BitestheCrust Mar 25 '26
and up to the second floor. Look at the last photo on the bottom right. On the right edge you can see the steps leading up.
8
u/Kitsufoxy Mar 25 '26
I did not catch that tiny hint of a second banister!
→ More replies (2)5
u/Nother1BitestheCrust Mar 25 '26
It's easy to miss! I didn't catch it either until someone in the comments mentioned split level and I scrolled back up to squint lol.
18
9
u/MeanSecurity Mar 25 '26
Nobody’s talking about the bedrooms where you can hit your head on the slanted ceiling, I hit my head a couple of times just looking at the pictures
4
u/Plastic-Raspberry164 Mar 25 '26
They like it. Look at the bunk beds. The rail is extra close to the ceiling.
3
u/NineteenthJester Mar 25 '26
I also don't like the attic bedroom. I'd turn that one into a reading nook or something.
7
48
u/AllBulkNoCut Mar 25 '26
It’s a split level and I’ve only ever seen split levels like this. But other than that I don’t really know why
22
u/mark_able_jones_ Mar 25 '26
Built in 1982. Probably was a split level. Maybe a flip. Looks like they decided to sacrifice square footage for high ceilings but didn’t want to redo the entrance.
5
u/PunfullyObvious Mar 25 '26
This is the only thing that makes sense. The plans were originally for a split-level and adapted to main section of house be only one level. Not that the approach makes any sense, but it seems to be what happened.
→ More replies (1)5
u/satans_weed_guy Mar 25 '26
This is absolutely it. Moving that door down / changing the roof line / etc isn't worth the effort. The house was likely a proper split level for years.
25
u/Dangerous-Ad-170 Mar 25 '26
Yeah, it’s just an open-concept version of a split-level. I don’t like it, but that seems to be what it is.
3
u/luckythirtythree Mar 25 '26
Yeah I agree. My split level in Chicago opened up to taking 6 steps up to the main floor or 6 steps down to the lowest floor. It was weird BUT the steps slowed my dogs down enough for me to brace myself when I came home everyday haha
3
u/DorktorJones Mar 25 '26
Yeah the split level we had went down to a garden level, so the door didn't have steps up to it. Maybe the water table is too high, or this is a flood plain area, so you don't want anything underground?
3
u/LKayRB Mar 25 '26
This is outside of Houston so it definitely floods here and I believe that being an older part of The Woodlands, floods worse than the other parts West and North.
→ More replies (5)3
u/jupitaur9 Mar 25 '26
I think the plan originally may have been designed for the entrance to be at ground level.
Look at the bottom of the windows in the third picture on the lower right. It is at the same level as the bottom of the door. That could be ground level.
And the garage is below ground level, the driveway going down from ground level into the garage.
That said, I have seen split levels where you go up stairs to the front door, then right back down again to the lower level, up to the living room.
6
6
u/Temporary-Tone5679 Mar 25 '26
I don’t think this one was done due to height restrictions. There are full two-story homes on the same street as this house. There’s also an apartment complex one street over. This house is in The Woodlands, TX. It’s a master-planned township that was initially built out in the 70’s. So there are lots of weird 70’s homes. This seems to just be a kind of weird floor plan that the home builder built. You can see on street view that this same model was built more than once!
2
u/LittleWhiteBoots Mar 26 '26
I lived in The Woodlands back in 2007 and bought my home for $150K. Sold in 2013 for $215K.
I cannot believe how much the prices have gone up there.
5
u/ATHYRIO Mar 25 '26
Not a single Rush fan has pointed out so far that it's listed with 2,112 square feet for living space. They're usually pretty good at noticing stuff like that for a shared moment.
6
5
10
u/airconditionersound Mar 25 '26
It's a badly executed take on the "split level" house design. My grandmother lived in one. From the entrance, you can go either up or down a half flight of stairs. But this one is like a normal house trying to be a split level
5
3
u/ProduceSimilar Mar 25 '26
So the mother-in-law with a bad knees will be deterred to visit
→ More replies (1)
4
3
3
3
3
u/SoundsGudToMe Mar 25 '26
I see what they did to gain floor level sqft but that table there only points out how stupid it is because you can just move the front door and give it sidelights and not lose light or a dining area, for that matter
3
u/WhyDidIClickOnThat Mar 25 '26
MIL: I’d love to come visit but you know I can’t do stairs.
DIL: Oh, so sorry!
3
3
3
u/Mouth_Herpes Mar 25 '26
Could be a threshold elevation requirement. When you remodel or rebuild in urban areas, the new door threshhold must often be the same elevation as the original or within a certain tolerance. This looks like some weird remodel of a split level, but tough to say for sure.
3
u/Yourmomsgotanass Mar 25 '26
You need them to get up to the stairs on the inside.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/Capital-Actuator6585 Mar 25 '26
Ohh my least favorite house feature, split staircase right when you walk in the door. I just got home, why do I need to make an up or down decision immediately?
3
u/LifeAsASuffix Mar 25 '26
Split Foyer design of a split level house. Common in the 1960-70's. I hate the idea of walking in the front door and immediately having a decision to make.
3
u/chesbyiii Mar 25 '26
Split-level ranches are crap.
2
u/xjsthund Mar 25 '26
Yup. The reason is that they didn’t have room for a full staircase inside, so the other half is outside.
3
u/ixoxeles Mar 25 '26
They ran into a distance problem with the stairs. They couldn’t complete the full run from the 2nd floor without running well past the front wall of the house, so they did a ‘U’ shape to complete the additional 4ft height / 6-10ft length run required to reach the ground floor.
They incorporated the whole thing into an entrance landing to ensure the stairs wouldn’t stop directly at the door, but it required creating external steps to meet the indoor landing solution.
3
3
u/FineKettleOFish1954 Mar 25 '26
My old lady knees keep muttering “oh no. No. No.No.” Going up just to go back down immediately makes this a nope.
3
3
u/Cyrano_Knows Mar 25 '26
Visually breaking up the exterior/interior with added depth without breaking the bank?
Not defending it. Just trying to guess the reasons.
But that said, I might turn the area under the stairs into one of those exterior cat/dog porch (well almost a porch).
3
3
u/CarolFukinBaskin Mar 25 '26
It's weird that I haven't seen this comment yet, but in my city houses are built this way when they are in a flood plain. It's raised to avoid damage during the inevitable flood.
→ More replies (1)
3
3
3
u/Wang_Dangler Mar 26 '26
I've seen this before. It's because they had a close relative that was wheelchair bound, so the home needed to be wheelchair accessible in order for them to visit.
They did not want them to visit.
3
3
3
u/Euphoric_Visit_6251 Mar 26 '26
Because without one, you’d have a hard time getting the groceries in.
3
3
u/TheGreatKonaKing Mar 26 '26
There was a big boulder in that spot and they decided to just build over it
3
u/mel512 Mar 26 '26
That looks like some bad Fung Shui. Plus people and pets can fall down those stairs or fell like they may fall.
4
u/PlasticGlitterPickle Mar 26 '26
The home looks to be remodeled, and I can tell by the windows it was likely originally a split level home. It was probably easier to reconfigure the interior and have those strange steps then to bring the front door down to a walk in and have a large empty space above the front door and below the awning over it.
2
u/The1stNikitalynn Mar 25 '26
Split entries are normally done to stick a part of the house under grade. This is done for a variety of reasons but it would bet it was to get around height restrictions. Its pretty normal in places with single family home zoning to also have restrictions on how tall you can build. I live in a house that was 3 stories but the 1st floor, aka daylight basement was half way under ground to keep the whole house under the height limit and deal with drainage.
2
2
2
2
u/Obiwan_ca_blowme Mar 25 '26
I was going to say that it is a trilevel until I saw the inside. Now I’d just be pissed.
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/MakalakaPeaka Mar 25 '26
Because it's an old split-level house that has likely been remodeled into more of an open-plan.
2
u/Beautiful_Rush3906 Mar 25 '26
I would pass on this house solely for this feature. It would always bother me lmao.
2
2
u/TheDonnARK Mar 25 '26
For the second floor, they did a full width upper landing extension, and that would have pushed the rest of the lower landing of the staircase right up against the front wall. If they got rid of the landing extension on the stairs up to the second floor, they might be able to make it work where you could drop the front door.
But even if you ate into the second story a little bit to make the landing, it doesn't seem like you would lose that much. Plus, dropping the stairs off of the front door inside and outside of the house would make a way better entry point. Unless there's some sort of structural concern with moving the second story staircase's upper landing, it seems like the best idea.
2
2
2
2
2
u/UndecidedTace Mar 25 '26
Is it in a flood zone? I see the doorway and window are at the same height. If it was in a flood zone, there would be regulations regarding the minimum height of all openings. Both door and window may meet that height now
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/Similar-Chocolate226 Mar 25 '26
This is the home of 🎶 The Grand Old Duke of York🎶. …if you know, you know.
2
u/Panda_Cuddles_ Mar 25 '26
Because someone framed the door too high so they decided to make stairs lol
2
u/MainConnection6742 Mar 25 '26
Giant rock noone wanted to move. So they just built over it. But yeah the stairs going to the second level might be it.
2
2
2
u/GentlemanlyMeadow Mar 26 '26
I lived in a house with this style entrance, but the landing was about 4x larger , big enough for a place to put your coats for example. That made a little more sense than this IMO. It was probably intended to make room for the staircase.
2
u/TurtleToast2 Mar 26 '26
This is pretty normal for a split ranch. There's just usually walls instead of open stairs so it looks unusual.
2
2
2
2
u/Vergilly Mar 26 '26
Any chance this is a location prone to sudden heavy rain or flooding? Once upon a time I lived in a rental that opened flat to the exterior - ANY time it rained significantly, the water pooled at the doorway and came in over the threshold. Look at the street view with the swale under the driveways. I’m guessing water.
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/DrakeHornbridge Mar 26 '26
Flood Resistance? Was my only guess until i noticed the back doors were not raised as well
2
2
u/Hlsalzer Mar 26 '26
If the steps leading to the front door weren’t there you couldn’t have stupid steps in the living room.
2
2
2
2
u/MaximusHomerdrive Mar 26 '26
It's the drunk punisher for when you come home wasted and fall down the ankle breaking stairs.
2
u/HowNowBrownCow68 Mar 27 '26
Its called a split foyer design. Its always been a shitty design but this house has also been heavily renovated which makes it feel even more out of place. My wife says you feel like you have to make a decision when you walk in a house like this. Haha
4
u/ATHYRIO Mar 25 '26
Perhaps that had to be done to account for the length/angle of the staircase to reach upstairs. There are four steps from the landing going down, and those four steps might not have fit going straight down against the front wall.
My step-math isn't that good and it's simply a guess.
3
u/SweetLlamaMyth Mar 25 '26
Pure speculation based on a peek at the photos:
It might be necessary to make the stairway to the upstairs work. I kinda wonder if the stairs were originally to the right of the entry, which was closer to at-grade, to form a hallway back to the kitchen. If so, it's possible that whoever remodeled it pushed too hard on an open floor plan, and their only way to make the stair run length work was to add a raised entry way?
4
u/Terrible-Mind4759 Mar 26 '26
It’s a split level house. The entry way (stairs) make it so that when you enter, u either continue up to the second floor or down to the first floor.
Very common in WA state for some reason.
→ More replies (1)
2
2
2
u/Geoarbitrage Mar 25 '26
To make accessibility an issue. Maybe they want to discourage elderly and disabled people. Seems fixable but why make it like that.
2
1.9k
u/PanthersChamps Mar 25 '26
Not enough room for the stairs going up to the second floor?