Ideal house?

Kaeldrasmommy · June 2012

So DH and I are trying to get together a rough draft of the house we would like to have so that we can decide if we are going to order a modular or just look for a new house next year. Tell me what you would like, I need some ideas, we're having a hard time thinking out of the box (literally, we've both spent far too much time in mobile homes).

shabamwam · June 2012

I've never really liked the thought of having a sink/stove on the island in the kitchen. We have a big island and love the space for food prep and set up.

valerieanne9015 · June 2012

I love having 2 separate living areas. we have a separate living room and family room, and it will be nice, when DD is older, that she can use one as a play room and we can have the other as our space. I also think having multiple full baths is overrated. We have 1.5 baths and it's perfect. the full bath is upstairs with all the bedrooms, and the half bath is on the main floor. You can get ready in either one, and the half bath is there if someone is using the full bath.

bmcapra · June 2012

I am not sure I will feel this way when DS is a teen but right now I wish the bedrooms were on the same level. We have 2 up and 1 down. Ideally we want 3 kids and I can't imaging moving DS downstairs by himself when he is only 6 or 7 years old.

Chan4dra04 · June 2012

The sink MUST be infront of a window!!!!!!! Ours is currently facing a wall so doing dishes, since we do not have a dishwasher (FML!) sucks to just look at nothing but the wall. It was so much more fun going to my parents' house and doing dishes while looking at the big yard. Now....boring.

smilelari · June 2012

Our goal is to be into a new house sometime in 2013, so we've been talking about this a lot. Our big debate is location. DH really likes the idea of a treed lot with about an acre of land. I worry about the commute from something like that and I like communities that have a community center, pool, fitness center, etc plus I have very little desire to change daycares. Our ideal house is a 3000-ish sq ft ranch floor plan with a 3 car garage, 4-5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, some kind of separate play area and a low maintenance yard. I think I'd like an eat-in kitchen

errica720 · June 2012

A yard with a fence, a garage, I agree that 1.5 baths is good enough (and who wants to clean 2 tubs ugh) - but the one bathroom would have to have a double sink! So two people have space to brush their teeth at the same time. I would never live without a dishwasher and garbage disposal. Lots of light

Storage space. That's all I can think of for now

Lara0802 · June 2012

We bought a house 7 months ago, right before DD was born, and we were very particular about a few things...

Bedrooms all on upstairs level. Or at a minimum, 3 bedrooms up and 1 in the basement. (We have 4 bedrooms). We really like the fact that our living space is separate from our sleeping space. Guests have no reason to go upstairs, and it keeps things private.

A master bath, plus an extra for the LO's. As we expand our family and as they get older, it's nice that they will have their own bathroom. Plus we can keep medicine and cleaners in ours so that they are off limits.

1/2 bath on main level for guests. Again, so guests don't have to go upstairs.

A formal dining space. I really wanted this to be able to entertain. I ended up with the best of both worlds, a large eat-in-kitchen area where we have a table for 6, and then a formal dining area.

Open floor plan. Our living room flows into the kitchen, which I love.

Basement - enough room for a living space and a playroom. Again, we really lucked out. Our basement is finished. Not only do I have enough space for a living room area and a playroom area, but a craft room and a bar.

The other thin

RedCamaro · June 2012

I second the bathroom with a double sink! Since I'm a neat freak, I'm all about storage (closets and kitchen cabinets mostly). I also hate low ceilings; something about them makes the home look so much smaller to me.

JKTTC1 · June 2012

We have carpet in the living room and bedrooms. Hardwoods everywhere else. I LOVE carpet in the living room and bedrooms but now I wish we had hardwoods with a god rug. The carpet is getting dirty from LO's drool and everything else!

Also, we have a garage but n garage door.

1. hardwood floors

2. garage door

3. storage/work building for DH

4. at least 3 bedrooms with an EXTRA playroom for the LO

5. Master with great bathroom and hotel like shower!

NNGnome · June 2012

We just moved before LO was born, and these are the things that were on my must have wish list:

Double Garage - so I can get in and out of the car easily with LOs when there is only one car in there, and a door fromthe garage to the main living area ( I live in Canada, so I didn't want to have to deal with snow and the LO.

Eat in Kitchen - this has been great as now LO can sit at the table and watch while I cook etc,

Hardwood floor throughout - My previous place was all carpet and I have 2 cats, now when LO spits up or the cats throw up everything is wipeable...which I love.

Lots of storage in master bath - as pp said so we can keep things away from LO

Nice size yard..but not too big. My parents had a huge yard and it was so much work maintaining it, I like that our yard is big enough to play, but not huge.

This we didn't get (ours unfortunatly is straight), but I would have liked a foldback or angled staircase, so when the LO is older if he does fall down the stairs there is not so far to fall.

I also think a big island inthe kitchen is great just as a worktop.

rubycitrine · June 2012

Designing and building my own home is on my life list. Here are some of my must-haves:

4 bedrooms
Dedicated home office
Open main level floor plan where the living area flows into the dining and kitchen areas
Breakfast nook
Large kitchen (I love to cook)
Detached three car garage connected to the main house by breezeway
Well-designed entry
Jack and Jill bathroom between two of the bedrooms or each secondary room with its own bathroom

Michellemybelle28 · June 2012

We are currently building a house with my parents, they have their space in the basement and we will be on the second floor and the kicten and family room on the first floor will be shared areas. The things I wanted was a house that is big enough to accomodate all of us plus any children wel will have in the future, I also wanted a bathroom in the master bedroom and at least four bedrooms, and an open floor plan. GL with your house search!

Kaeldrasmommy · June 2012

Thanks everyone! I'm really wondering whether we will be able to find a house that is really what we want, especially after thinking about all the things we would like to include.

So far we've got:

U shaped kitchen with bay windows instead of corners

Seperate dining room

laundry room with counter, utility sink and cabinet space

media room

game room (DH wants a pool table)

small but 2 story library/office

4 bedrooms upstairs

master bath with fireplace between it and master bedroom and double sink

second full bath upstairs for the kids and a half bath on the main floor

So far it stands to be around 2000 sq ft. It's the reason why we will likely be ordering a modular, because buying a finished home like that is outrageous in our area.

gracefulruby33 · June 2012

The most important thing to the both of us was location. We chose a very small area of our city (6 total blocks) to narrow down our search. Once houses went for sale there, we would look at them. The area had exactly the type of houses we liked (historical and charming) and was in the school district and area that we wanted for our future family. We also know that houses in our area hold their value VERY well and we're in the area of our town that's most wanted when it comes to looking for houses.

As for the house itself, I really just wanted lots of space (we have a very large family room as well as a room for a formal living area that we use as our office), a garage, 3 or 4 bedrooms and to be in good shape. We lucked out because we bought during the housing crisis and got a pretty good deal. If I could change anything it would be that our bathroom (the only one at that) was bigger (it's only 6x6' and that's probably being generous; it's TINY). It would be nice to have more than one bathroom for guests, but it really isn't at the top of our list in any way.

My advice would be to prioritize what you want not just in a house, but also in the area that you want to live in. We're on a quiet street with a park a block away, a bike path a block away, etc.