GTKY: Your Realistic Dream House

[ajetter]

After much discussion DH and I feel we need to move back to the city we lived in when we were first married. We moved back home last year, but it just doesn't feel right. So we're trying to figure out how much cash we'd need to save to build our dream house. Not an unattainable dream house, something realistic.

What would you need to have in a dream home or forever home? What random things do you wish your current home had?

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

Some things I wish I had right now:

A mudroom area by the garage entrance

An actual walk-in pantry

A double-oven

A backyard patio (we have a 3-season room)

Washer/dryer on the 2nd floor (or whatever floor the laundry typically goes to)

A sink in the laundry room

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

Also, there is such a range of what people consider "yay!"

Are you talkin' plenty of land house, half-acre house, condo?

The house size I can afford will determine the things I splurge on.

[Deleted]

My dream home is anything that's not an apartment. I would love to live in a Victorian style home. 2-3 bedrooms. Preferably running water and electricity.

[ajetter]

Jan 31, 2017 19:07:53 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Also, there is such a range of what people consider "yay!"

Are you talkin' plenty of land house, half-acre house, condo?

The house size I can afford will determine the things I splurge on.

were looking at building in your basic suburban neighborhood. .3-.5 acres. Some of my wants are a mudroom, playroom (eventual teen space), open concept kitchen/family room with breakfast nook plus a separate dining room. Also a three car garage. I'd love a mostly flat lot.

Would just love to hear other people's wish lists. See what I'm missing. We most likely wouldn't move for 2.5 years, so we've got a decent chunk of time to save and dream!

[ohinvrtedworld]

What I wish our apartment had:

- Bigger kitchen with an island
- Kitchen has more open floor plan, not closed off from dining room
- Walk-in pantry
- Walk-in closet
- Bathtub that's actually deep enough to keep my body warm
- More overhead lighting and ceiling fans (old house)

[scoutradley]

Open floor plan. I hate being closed off in a kitchen while family is in the living room. TWO BATHROOMS! We have one tiny bathroom with no storage at all except one cabinet under the tiny sink. I'm so sick of living in older homes with one tiny add on bathroom. SICK AND FREAKING TIRED OF IT. Also, I am planning to home school so I'd personally want a room dedicated to being a school room/library (avid reader here). In a absolutely perfect world I'd have a large pantry and a full laundry room (not a closet). I'd like space to make sure I could have an entertainment center but one of those that closes up so you don't have to see the tv 24/7. Oh and a dishwasher. I don't have one and I wish I did. I'm sure there are other things, but those are important to me.

[thechickencoop]

MUDROOM

omg I wish we had one. Right now you just walk in the door and BOOM in the house. No where to put shoes, coats, etc. It's like my biggest gripe.

Garage
Open kitchen
Laundry upstairs with the bedrooms
Big soaking tub

[teraiin]

We are in our "dream house" or more accurately the closest to our dream house that we can get (and afford).

Things I love:
Laundry on the same story as where the laundry goes (am I working hat right? Like very little up and down the stairs)
Wooded lot (although I wish we had more land)
Attached garage
Two decks
Finished basement
Plenty of storage

Things I wish it had:
- another 1/2 bath (we only have two full baths)
-new counters/cabinets/flooring in the kitchen. (Love the layout and the appliances, hate the "80s" cabinets, etc
-better mud room set up. It's super tight and carpeted. I think tile probably would have been a better choice because that carpet gets nasty.
-bigger shower in the master bath

Probably my biggest pet peeve is the master bath because I find it incredibly awkwardly laid out, I didn't realize how awkward until we moved it. It has a large jetted tub which I love. The shower however is a very tiny corner shower that is claustrophobic and short. You seriously hit your elbows in there guys. Instead of two sinks they decided to frame the vanity with a floor to ceiling cupboard on each side. Great for storage but almost too much storage. I'd rather more counter space...

Tl;dr I want to reconfigure the master bath but it's laid out so awkwardly
I'm not sure how it would be possible with out spending $$$$$$

[kellybenelly83]

I love our house, but there are some things I'd definitely change. Mainly it's location. It would involve a lot major changes to move to the location we want (2 provinces away)
If we manage the move, ideally I'd want an updated kitchen (I'm living in the original 70ies kitchen, there's a lot of brown and yellow) I'd like a shower upstairs. Right now we have a bath and sink in our main floor bathroom, to shower you have to go downstairs to the second bathroom, which involves walking past the front door so it's cold in the winter to shower and come upstairs all wet. We can add the shower, and we will, it's just a matter of $ and time.
I love bay windows. I'd love to have one. And a much bigger lot.

[Deleted]

We're in a house that's probably as close to my dream home as I'll get for a long time. Some of the things I love:
-open concept kitchen/family room with huge island (our friends nicknamed it a continent)
-home office that's not just a converted bedroom (I work from home)
-close to hiking trails
-beautiful views from the backyard
-lots of good spaces for entertaining, both formal dining and more casual in the open concept part

Some things I wish we had:
-finished basement. We'll probably finish it out eventually, but it will be an expensive project
-better deck/patio for BBQs
-sink in the laundry room
-more counter space for appliances in the kitchen. We have to keep pretty much everything (mixer, blender, slow cooker, etc) in cabinets because despite our huge island we don't have much perimeter counter space to leave some of these out. So the appliances I really don't use all the time, like the juicer and dehydrator, are stored in the top cabinets in the laundry room. Inconvenient.

[butlerfan]

Things I love:

laundry shoot from upstairs hallway by bathroom down into basement by laundry so no hauling dirty laundry downstairs

Pantry area (could be better designed but stores our canned goods and flour, sugar, etc)

ice and water in fridge

dishwasher

Wash sink in basement by laundry

Bathrooms on every level (main floor and basement have half bathrooms, upstairs there are two bathrooms)

Deck/Patio area

Large yard

Garage

Small entryway area to take shoes and coats off/hall closet

Storage areas (if in laws crap was gone we would have enough storage areas anyway)

Pool (needs to be repaired but love the pool concept)

Gas fireplace in living room

Family area on main floor and basement


Things I hate (besides in law crap there):

Bathrooms-cleaning them is a pain but still love having that many

Steps to come into every entrance in the house

No separate entrance into basement which would be nice

No bedrooms on main floor-all are upstairs

[joy]

What would you need to have in a dream home or forever home?

- 4 bedrooms, two bathrooms, two living rooms.
- Updated kitchen and bathrooms.
- A beautiful staircase.
- I love older homes (like 1900 or before) so I want it to still have those touches. Our current home was built around 1900 - we still have the original hardwood floors, the original staircase, and you can see the footprint of the house before kitchens and bathrooms were added. It's so cool!

What random things do you wish your current home had?

- A SECOND BATHROOM
- a second living space
- one more bedroom

Our house would be perfect if it had those things!

[scoutradley]

joy I +1 the second living space!!

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

Feb 1, 2017 9:56:47 GMT -5 butlerfan said:

Things I love:

laundry shoot from upstairs hallway by bathroom down into basement by laundry so no hauling dirty laundry downstairs

OMG, add this to the list of things I wish I had (if I couldn't get laundry room on second floor).

My aunt and uncle have had one for years, and as a kid I always wanted to try going down it. LOL. Never did, though. Too chicken shit.

[madamewaffles]

Feb 1, 2017 12:00:59 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Feb 1, 2017 9:56:47 GMT -5 butlerfan said:

Things I love:

laundry shoot from upstairs hallway by bathroom down into basement by laundry so no hauling dirty laundry downstairs

OMG, add this to the list of things I wish I had (if I couldn't get laundry room on second floor).

My aunt and uncle have had one for years, and as a kid I always wanted to try going down it. LOL. Never did, though. Too chicken shit.

My house growing up had one. I dropped a Barbie down it, whilst playing with my nerf gun (aka shooting galley style). I thought I could just reach down and grab it rather than hoofing downstairs since there was a pile of clothes in there and #lazy. Nope. Went down head first and involved my dad having to dismantle part of it and the wall to get me out. I was banned from being even near it after that. 😕

[ajetter]

Feb 1, 2017 12:00:59 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Feb 1, 2017 9:56:47 GMT -5 butlerfan said:

Things I love:

laundry shoot from upstairs hallway by bathroom down into basement by laundry so no hauling dirty laundry downstairs

OMG, add this to the list of things I wish I had (if I couldn't get laundry room on second floor).

My aunt and uncle have had one for years, and as a kid I always wanted to try going down it. LOL. Never did, though. Too chicken shit.

we had a laundry chute in our old house and I miss it so much truthfully it kind of weirded me out at first but it was so nice to have. Now I have a giant laundry room but it's as far away from the bedrooms as it can be.

[billyhorrible]

What would you need to have in a dream home or forever home?

- 5 bedrooms, 2.25 bathrooms

- front porch.

- entry way

- master suite

- yard space

- dining room

- eat in kitchen


What random things do you wish your current home had?
Our home was built in 1954, and hasn't been updated very much, so I hate most of it.

- walk in closet, or an extra closet, or a closet that held more than 20 items that I share with DH

- coat closet

- a bathroom that is larger than a closet

- cabinets in the bathroom

- separate dining area

- non galley kitchen

[kayladawn91]

We currently live in a 1400 square foot home in a rural subdivision. I love a lot about it but there's some things I would change.

My dream home would include:
-At least 2500 square feet
-At least 2 acres in a rural area/the country
-4 bedrooms
-At least 2.5 bathrooms
-Mudroom
-Kitchen with island, double ovens, and walk-in pantry
-Patio
-Cathedral ceilings (currently have this and love it..so do my dogs when we play catch)
-Open Floor Plan
-Master Suite with walk-in closet, separate tub and shower
-Large laundry room
-Wood burning fireplace
-Attached 2-3 car garage
-Basement (finished or unfinished doesn't matter to me)

[madamewaffles]

We are in the baby stages of building our dream/forever home. We just met with our draftsman to start the blueprints. Our lot is flat and well located on the outskirts of the city with access to a running/biking trail and city playground less than a mile away.

On our list:
-~2000 sf
-3 bedrooms on main level
-2 1/2 baths (master, secondary, and guest 1/2 bath)
-master suite with deep soaker tub and tile stall shower and TWO sink vanity (MH and I need our space to get ready in the morning/evening)
-9 foot ceilings
-laundry on main level
-expansive counter space
-walk-in pantry
-wide hallways
-basement that will house a family room, bedroom, and 3/4 bath
-entrance to stairs will have an actual door (not open area)
-kitchen island or peninsula with standard counter height for eating area (no raised snack bar)
-gas range
-1/3 / 2/3 sink, undermount
-quartz countertops
-2 stall attached garage, separate doors for added space
-windows, windows, windows. My current home lacks serious natural light and it makes me so gloomy especially in the winter
-closet space! walk-in in master, closets at all entrances
-mud room with built-in storage for shoes and storage
-nice size deck on back side
-tray ceilings in living room and master bedroom
-tiled bathroom and entryway floors and wood everywhere else
-special to me: zero stair access into the house as I have a disability that makes stairs difficult to manage. Never in my life have I lived in a barrier-free home. I'm so excited!

There's more but those are the main things.

[achromia]

We moved into as-close-to-our-dream-house-as-we'll-get-for-now this year, and it has so many great features that I love:

- proper entryway (front door does not open into living space)
- attached garage
- mudroom between garage and house
- open floorplan
- lots of kitchen counter space
- second floor laundry (same level as the bedrooms)
- fireplace
- high ceilings
- windows, windows, everywhere
- killer master bath with dual showerheads in shower, deep soaker tub
- separate master bedroom closets (if DH wants to be messy about how he stores his clothes, at least I don't have to look at it!)
- jack and jill bathroom between two of the bedrooms (this will be more important later if we have a second kid)

[ajetter]

madamewaffles that sounds pretty awesome!