To the winner of November's presidential election go the spoils, including a cushy new address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

President Gerald R. Ford lauded his White House accommodations, calling it "the best public housing I've ever seen," according to the White House Historical Association.

And in her book "My Turn," former first lady Nancy Reagan said President Ronald Reagan called the presidential living quarters "an eight-star hotel," and described how the residence’s staff catered to her family and guests.

The White House has served as the home to every U.S. president since 1800, when President John Adams and wife Abigail moved into the unfinished executive mansion.

Since Adams' days in office, the building has expanded greatly, most notably during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency with the construction of the West Wing in 1902.

The West Wing housed, and continues to be the location today, of the White House's presidential offices. The move cleared the way in the main building's second floor for expanded living quarters for the first family's residence.

Roosevelt, who had six children, also converted the White House's third floor from storage space into more rooms. That level was further expanded by President Harry Truman.

Today, the third floor still contains bedrooms, in addition to living quarters for White House staff, a billiards room, a workout room and a sun room, according to the online encyclopedia Encarta.

Altogether, the White House's second and third floors feature 12 family or guest bedrooms, 31 bathrooms, five kitchens, four dining rooms, a medical clinic, a bowling alley and a movie theater. There are also 28 fireplaces, 12 chimneys and three elevators.

Abraham Lincoln used the room now known as the Lincoln Bedroom as his office and cabinet room. It was there he met with Union Army generals during the Civil War and signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

In the mid-1990s President Bill Clinton was criticized for using the Lincoln Bedroom as a perk for donors, rewarding contributors to the Democratic National Committee by inviting them to spend nights in the historic bedroom.

Various presidents have added their own elements of style to the residence.

In 2004, President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush remodeled the Lincoln Bedroom, restoring it in Victorian style.

And President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton conducted nearly $400,000 in renovations throughout the living quarters, according to a 1993 Newsweek article. The money for the work was raised through private contributions.

At the center of the second floor is the Yellow Oval Room, which Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman used as a study and President John F. Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline, remodeled to be a sitting room.

Today it is used for formal private visits with heads of states and other important guests, according to Encarta.

Floor plans of the White House living quarters' second and third floors as they have evolved throughout the years can be viewed at whitehousemuseum.org, a privately owned Web site not affiliated with the U.S. government that chronicles the history of the White House.