Community Chat

[ZoetheCat]

My husband and I built our house 24 years ago.  The only thing we still have that I really don’t like is a narrow back deck.  It’s not very functional and we rarely use it.  We do, however, have a large wrap around front porch that we use all the time (well, as much as we can given our short summers here in New England).

The wrap around porch was a must for me, as was a good sized kitchen.  My husband insisted on high ceilings and we both wanted one floor living as we never plan on selling this house.  We lucked out in having the kitchen and living room open concept, since that wasn’t really a “thing” at the time.  I know not everyone likes open concept, but we love it.  We have a separate dining room, which we didn’t want at all when we built, but now we are glad we have it.  We are part of a dinner group with friends and we also host dinners with family fairly frequently so the dining room gets a decent amount of use.  I do wish it was open to the kitchen/living area.

The funny thing is, when you build a house, you think you’ll end up with everything just as you want it, but in reality (at least for us) there are still things we would have done differently.  We definitely would have added a screen porch, for example.  In fact, we are in the process of gathering quotes for that and will probably add that next spring, and in the process extend that narrow back deck. I wish we had a dedicated laundry room and as we get older, I wish we had a smaller yard to maintain.  We have 2 plus acres to mow, as well as many flower beds and a huge vegetable garden.  My parents gave us the land where we built, and my sister and her family live across the street (actually a private way).  My dad has passed, but mom still lives in the house where I grew up, just 300 yards in front of our house.  So, although the maintenance is a challenge, we are eternally grateful to my parents for what they gave us.  Obviously, it has been financially beneficial, but even more than that, living surrounded by family has been wonderful.  Challenging at times, but still wonderful.  I am truly fortunate, and I never take my house for granted.  

[Group 5 minus 1]

Smaller yard? One of the things I like about our stuff is we do not have a yard.

[Group 5 minus 1]

I meant to say lawn.

[iwrite]

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@Snoopp wrote:

@iwrite I loved my deck but over the years I got tired of the maintenance, so now I prefer a patio.  I’m in the midst of doing maintenance on my deck right now.  Ugh.

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@Snooppi feel for you having to tackle the deck.

i'm starting to think that items in a house are just "big kids" toys. we get them, use them for a while, then put them in the corner and move on.

don't get me wrong, i am beyond grateful to have my house. i just need something that better meets my needs.

just thought of something that i don't like - STAIRS ! ! ! !

they were fine, until i fell down and up a flight, several times.

when i'm ready for my next house, i will not even look at a house that has steps, even if the owner has put in an elevator! ! !

have a great weekend!

[ID2]

We built our cottage 5 years ago and its perfect in every single way! The only thing I suppose I'd change is I would have made it bigger! We downsized and I'd rather live in a bigger house. (more to decorate! )

[denisemb]

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@Snoopp wrote:

@iwrite I loved my deck but over the years I got tired of the maintenance, so now I prefer a patio.  I’m in the midst of doing maintenance on my deck right now.  Ugh.

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Agreed!  A former residence of mine had a gorgeous 1,000+ s.f. two level deck with built-in benches, planter boxes, trellis, etc.  The beauty and our ignorance made us buy it.  Only took the first time cleaning & re-staining it to show what an ordeal was involved. LOL.  And we were in our 30's then.

The moral of my story is live and learn.

[Financialgrl]

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@Snoopp wrote:

I have hardwood in my kitchen and next time I want to find tile or the vinyl planks.

I have a long shelf in my foyer that is too high to dust.  I never want another dust collecting shelf again.

i want a bigger laundry for my next house.

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I have the exact same list minus the shelf.  I wonder for those that have wood floors what happens if you need to replace a few planks bc I know they can stop making them.  

I'm in a single family home (one level) and wood floors were standard they were put throughout the whole house except the bedrooms (carpeting).   Also the wood floors are over a cement slab making it hard on your feet and back (unless I wear padded slippers) while inside.  I asked why I never had that issue in my last one level house - reason is bc it had a crawl space.  I'll never make this mistake again.  

[AuntG]

@Sooner When you find him, share him with me.

[lovesrecess]

We need to downsize but stay in our part of town.  Have found almost every home we have looked at has sunken living rooms and huge, space-wasting wet bars with three walls. DH cannot do steps...so the sunken living-rooms are a dealbreaker when there is almost no way to eliminate them. We even had a contractor look at one and he said due to the ceilings the floor could not be raised to eliminate the step-down. As you get older, stairs and even a single step-down can be a problem. DD has a sunken den and more than one older family member has fallen on the step-down. Even the grandkids, when they are toddlers, have a hard time. The wet bars are a waste of space, especially when we don’t even drink. We have one in our house now and never use it. Many have turned them into office or computer space, but I don’t want to eliminate the sink in ours. Can’t imagine why these became so popular back in the 70’s-80’s. Another amenity we see a lot of are atriums...waste of space. Skylights we have and would never want them again...too bright, leak, and are the first thing to go in a hail storm,

[SahmIam]

Nothing. We're in a townhouse and hate it but we've been priced out of our county so....we're stuck. Sadly, we'll never have the home we thought we would once own. That's Life.