House's that

Bad title but the best I can do...no good unless you understand cricket so apologies to the USians reading this.
we saw 8 houses last night...from the sublime to the ridiculous...at times I thought I was flashing back to 70's visiting friends grandparents with the way the kitchen and living rooms were set out. Saw many turquoise blue bathroom sets...but best of all, got to see my first 'prom' staircase...a grand curving white wrought iron affair, where the prom princess would make her grand entrance down to meet the date...it's actually called that.
The other high point in interior decor was a luxurious chocolate brown shagpile from the 70's....almost looked like it needed whipped cream on top.
The aim of the game was to look at the types of houses in our min and more than max (as any good realtor will do!) in the area's we are interested in. Interestingly enough the two at the upper end were pretty dissimilar...one was really nicely finished and the other had lots of space but needed heaps of work. Makes us happier about buying lower and doing up.
The area's are nice with lots of tree's (this is the substitute for gardens when you don't get much summer), a lot of the smaller houses are slowly getting torn down and replaced with big monsters.
After years of living in little houses, it felt strange to be contemplating a big 'grown-ups' house, even more cos they were all older (60's/70's)
Still, we know more about what we like (open plan, larger b/rooms) and what we don't...gotta get my hands on one with a prom staircase...that was superb!