I would guess the house is newer than one would expect...late 1990s or early 2000s? or newer?

Mid '80's due to all the polished brass, the cultured marble vanities, globe lighting bars, vinyl vertical shades. Do I win a prize if I am right?

Could have been any one of the multi-choice possibilities, and yes, it's far from magazine worthy, and we'd all want to gut it, but it would be a dream house for many, many Americans and most of the world's population. It would be an extraordinarily serviceable place to raise a family.

It may describe the house of our less affluent gw members.

I don't think it is necessarily about dating a house but it concerns affordability and taste. The taste part is ok if it's affordable and provides the needed space for a family. Most Americans cannot afford carrara floors.

I don't think the OP is at all denigrating the house, just asking what the era was. The house was called well-built, serviceable, and well-maintained. No shrieking about ugly finishes, just descriptions. I don't spend a lot of time in newer houses being an architectural historian, but it sounds similar to the house I grew up in in the 1980s, though those fake facades seem to be a rather 1990s affect.

My guess is late 80's to very early 90s. But if you want to know for sure, just go to your county's online property tax records. Most counties seem to have one now. It has all the information on the property (ie past owners, sale prices, square foot, number of rooms...etc.)

I agree with histokitch, not sure why previous poster felt the need to preach.

I haven't been in other houses, but I would be surprised if the McMansion-sized ones were outfitted much differently. One of my former bosses lives in a gated country club community on a golf course, and the inside of the house had a finish or two that was upgraded from this house and it would probably sell for four times as much because of the location. My sister's development sprang up outside a small town of very old housing stock to meet a need. A $200K house where I grew up would be a $2M house where I live now, its just the way it is--- and the people who are buying the $2M are not making ten times what the people buying the $200K house are. Its just what people in some locations are forced to deal with.

What I am looking at mostly is a possible regional variation in tastes.

1980's. At least it would be '80's if it were in California. Sometimes things start here 5-10 years sooner than they get elsewhere, and sometimes there are trends that never get a toehold here.

Well, based on the fact that my daughter bought a house last year in central PA in a neighborhood that sounds very similar (maybe they're neighbors!) I'm going to guess '90s. Her house is only 11 years old and she's already gutting it room by room (although I think she's going to live with the popcorn ceiling). Can't wait till she gets to the kitch en!!

I am guessing 1995.

This is based on the fact that it sounds a little like our development, only our theming here is more consistant - very traditional despite the disparity of prices, sizes, styles, and details. Our mcmansions did get a few higher end details while the small one stories were exactly like you describe, and those ones were built in 1995.

My guess-1980s. Wall to wall very popular then as were brass fixtures/hardware. Kitchen floors-lots of the ceramic look vinyl back then.

I don't know if it still holds true, but the date the toilet was manufactured was stamped inside the tank. That was a pretty good estimate of when the house was built, provided the fixtures are the original.

First, Palimpsest is a very nice person not given to snobbery. She is a fine kd, generous to a fault with her spot-on advice, and works with all budget levels.

Palimpsest, I do apologize for my criticisms. I was clearly wrong.

In my very young days, with 2 kids in a 4 room apartment, I would have killed for this single family home-but time marches on and I have been fortunate to have had carrara, granite, slate, etc., since 1977. I was remembering, responded without thinking. Sorry, again.

There were only two sentences about the merits. And a list of dated things, which were introduced or representative of popular things of a certain time, all while our country was becoming more prosperous.

I saw them as 'entry level' inexpensive, plastic, likely tasteless if cheaply made, and basic(except for laminate)- NO MATTER THE DECADE-and discordant together.

So I was the money snob and you were merely, in an amusing way, recounting the history of mid America.

I would guess 80's too, although the false facades (my mom calls them "dickie houses" after those old fake cuffs and collars you could put under a sweater) also sounds like alot of homes built in the 70's.

It's great that the home is serviceable and well built. Better to have good plumbing and a roof that doesn't leak than a fancy faucet! (I bet the folks here notice some of the extra touches or high end finishes more than the average person.) We have friends in a wide range of homes, from modest to mansion, and I enjoy hanging out in all of them just the same.

Hopefully she'll have great neighbors and enjoy her house!

Sounds like the house I grew up in, built in the late 70's. It was in the 'burbs in a planned community, so every house looked the same.

Rethinking my choice of 80s. Sounds very much like my house-built 1978.

Hmmm, previous owners of my house renovated in 1991, installing many of types of features in the OP house. But judging from their overall tastes, I would think they were not quite current then. I certainly agree that styles and trends are very regional...

I love the OP's quizzes on dating. They're always so much fun, and there is nothing critical/negative about her posts. She does this quite often on the Home Decorating forum.

I've had many of these features in new homes I bought in the 1980s....I'd say mid-late 1980s....."ceramic tile" vinyl floors, the vertical blinds over sliding doors, cultured marble vanities in the bath, hexagonal entry lights.....

Westsider,

You did make a couple of good points in your first reply: it is a better house than a lot of people could get (I am surprised my sister found it, with her circumstances)--and yes, a lot of people on here would want to gut it:)

Regardless of the age of the house (which I know approximately, and will reveal later) I could do an internet search and find the light fixtures, the kitchen cabinet style, and the vinyl flooring pattern --or their close siblings--all still for sale. I am not sure the larger population has as much of a notion of whats current in interior design as GWers--interior design does not receive the media blitz that clothes and cars do, after all. I once walked into (a now client's) circa 1980s townhouse and remarked that the kitchen had held up remarkably well for the original. (This was about 2003.) She told me, aghast: The kitchen had be renovated in 1998 or so: she had contacted a cabinet maker from her church bulletin who gave her a choice of four doorstyles, two woods (oak or maple) and a couple of hardware styles. He brought over half a dozen laminate samples that went with the current floor. She made her choices from what was provided: before the internet became so ubiquitous--who knew the thousands of options? And many people still don't--and thats ok.

I was going to say what pamies said, the date of the toilet is stamped on the inside of the toilet tank top.

I'm also guessing early 1990's because trends hang around a lot longer in central PA than in areas closer to major cities.

Early 90's too!

from the title of the thread, I thought you were going to write about dating as in ... leading to marriage. LOL.

I'd say mid 90s, too -- based on the fact that my DD's mid 90s house had almost all of those features before DD started adding her touches (and subtracting some of the originals).

Hmmmm,
You said when was this development built?...not when was this house built. Is that significant? You said it was well maintained so can we eliminate 2009?

I'm saying a well maintained 80's

80's. Definitely 80's. We built a home in the late 80's and we chose many of those features. Wall to wall, the ruffled glass lights, gold tone fixures, ceramic tile was just catching on as the flooring of choice instead of vinyl flooring, the hex-glass foyer light, etc.

I think enough people have played so I will tell you approximately how old the house is. First here are some of the fixtures and finishes.

Foyer:
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Dining room:
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Kitchen:
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Baths:
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You may wonder where I got catalogue type pictures of such "old" fixtures. The answer is that all of the above pictures are Current Offerings of major manufacturers.

The house was built in the early 2000s.

Here are a couple of other surprising offerings from Kohler:
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So, the people who started thinking about regional variation were thinking along the right lines. The lighting fixtures in particular are very inexpensive now, so they are attractive to spec. builders. And I think location, square footage and amenities outweigh fixtures and finishes to many people.

So to some extent, I think the polished brass fixture, and the natural oak cabinet with cathedral arch uppers will take its place in history with other things that people couldn't wait to get rid of at one time or other--they will just be part of the historical fabric of a certain type of house.

As for vinyl versus ceramic tile floors, of the dozens of houses I have been in in my hometown, I can remember one with a ceramic tile floor, and none with hardwood in the kitchen. This may have changed in some of the newest houses, but its far from common.

This was a very interesting quiz and the only one of the many you have posted that I thought I could even approximately date. I would have guessed early to mid 80's based on what was widely used in Philadelphia at that time. My bad. By the way, palimpsest is one of my all time favorite words. Keep the quizzes coming!

I would have guessed much earlier, but truthfully those finishes could be from a wide range of eras. As soon as I saw the dining and kitchen light fixtures (and before I saw the date you posted) I knew it had to be fairly recent, since I recognized them.

Brass was a very popular finish around here until about 5 years ago. Now they call it "gold" and you only see it in high end houses. Oh, the irony.

I purchased my house 1 year ago and it was built in 1999. I am the second owner and the first did absolutely no changes to color, fixtures, flooring.....and it is very much like what your first post described. So I am not a bit surprised by the date you gave as the answer.

I love buying a house that is still builder grade because then I can do all the changes and updates without having had to pay for someone else's choices. Since this is my first home purchase I could not go directly into my "dream" house...but I will get there. :-)

One of the houses I did some work in had these fixtures and finishes and it was, in fact, built in the mid-80s as indicated by the toilet stamp :)

Yup. DD's house was built that year too. I bet they're neighbors! We built our house in the '80s, and we had a lot of what you just showed. She said she couldn't believe the previous owners of her house used those same materials in 1999. Definitely an interesting lesson in regional differences!

I think this house was built in 90 and I had the same or very similar fixture in the foyer, something similar to the dining fixture in my breakfast room and I think I've had similar cabinets and fixtures in homes and apartments going back into the 70s and 80s. Those brass fixtures, or a chrome or brushed chrome version of them are the typical builder fixtures of any home in my adult life.

Well that was fun. :) Thanks Palimpsest.

I just yanked that same chandelier (but in a bronze-ish finish) out of our mountain condo, swearing at its hideousness, not realizing that our co-owners had just bought the same thing at H ome Depot to replace the dropped box light fixture in their own house. Oops. That was embarrassing.

Of course, I replaced it with an ORB Potte ry Barn fixture that I'm sure is anathema to most anyone with "real" design sense... ;-)