Living on the ground floor; make the right choice!

Rita Deo Rita Deo
Eigentijds wonen in een rietgedekte villa, Lab32 architecten Lab32 architecten منازل
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Apartment living can be challenging for a person used to a large open garden around the house and large windows bringing in fresh air and sunshine in a small town or farm. The best part of living on the ground floor is the freedom of doing activities like moving furniture and running or dancing around the house without neighbours complaining about noise. In a ground floor flat you can step in and out of the house for several activities like taking garbage for recycling or walking to the nearest grocery store. While there are some risks and travails like noisy street level traffic and dust followed by lack of privacy as well.

Here are some pros of living in a ground floor flat that outweigh by far the cons that friends or relatives living in top floors of high rise apartments will outline for you.

A small garden

When you have a ground floor apartment or home, it gives you the advantage of creating a small garden in the patch of land in front of the house. Check with the building regulations if you can put a fence around the land which will give privacy from passing vehicles, street animals and people on the road. Other options include plants with thick foliage and bright flowers around the periphery of the house like bougainvillea, palm trees or cypress plants that will keep the windows hidden from casual stares by people passing by. A garden can be created either at the rear of the house as a kitchen garden to grow herbs and flowers or in the front depending on your convenience with ferns and flowering plants.

Extra charges

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Living on the ground floor saves you from paying a few maintenance charges like elevator maintenance and cleanliness around the stairwell and terrace as you will not be using them. Although ground floor homes have to bear the sound of noisy neighbours on floors above them the apartment stays cool in summer as the roof above is not exposed to the sun which saves sizeable energy costs. Sometimes moving companies charge customers extra for carrying luggage to the upper floors that do not appropriate elevators to carry heavy objects. Living on the ground floor will save you from these unnecessary charges as everything including special deliveries can be made directly to your door.

No steps, two entrances to the house

The best advantage of staying on the ground floor is that you do not have to worry about walking up the stairs carrying shopping bags, bikes and other stuff on a hot day. As the house faces away from the rest of the building you also have the advantage of different entrance and exit doors which people on top floors do not. With a separate entry and exit door you also can sneak out of the house to get snacks for unannounced guests while another family member keeps them engaged in a conversation. In this tropical style home both the doors have been made on the same level for security purpose that gives it a twin advantage.

No issues with elevators

Living in apartments that do not have elevators is a painful exercise if you are living on the top floor especially after a hard day at work or a long shopping spree. Running downstairs in a hurry can also be dangerous if you miss a step and fall down. Even if you are living in a high rise with an elevator there are chances that it can stop working without proper maintenance forcing children to haul their cycles upstairs. But with a ground floor home you are safe from all these hassles as children and adults can just wheel the cycle out of the door.

Convenient renovation.

Want to make changes to the inside or outside of your house without people complaining about noise and  handymen lounging around the building? A ground floor apartment is the best choice as half the people in the apartment will never even realize that some repairs are going on in the building.  All the raw materials can just be kept around the garden or backyard until the renovation is done without worrying about finding a storage place for them and all repairs can be carried out without causing a disturbance to anyone living in the apartment. The owners of this apartment did not like the railings around the front door entrance so they engaged the services of Probst Thomas Tailleur de Pierre to make the necessary renovations as it was a vintage building. It was way easier for them to carry them out as the apartment was on the ground floor.

Higher burglary: true or false?

A nagging fear in peoples minds with ground floor homes is vulnerability to burglary and theft. While that is a risk only if the apartment is a standalone building, in a lonely stretch and surrounded by trees it can be avoided by having boundary walls in the backyard and front side of the compound. Simple precautions like setting up metal bars on all the windows and an iron grill can keep burglars at bay and inhabitants safe.

Do you want ideas to decorate your city apartment and stamp your individual taste on it? Then have a look at this ideabook.

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