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 Keep those crap slapping tails away!
Posts: 8871
     
Location: Around here somewhere... | Whether you built, bought, or remodeled your home, what do you love, like, dislike, and hate about it? |
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Keep those crap slapping tails away!
Posts: 8871
Location: Around here somewhere... | We want to build our home, and have a lot of different ideas... we want to get other's experiences, ideas, & opinions. We're thinking a huge bathroom with big shower, hard floors throughout the house, in-floor heating (with the water heated by a wood fire), large woodstove, big kitchen with LOTS of cabinets, garage, gun room, mud room, etc.
Edited by Blaundee 2013-11-20 8:45 PM
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1035
Location: TN | I bought an older home and remodeled it. I love that I got to make it my own, but I wish the layout was a little different. I would love it if the door in the carport went straight into the laundry room instead of the kitchen to help keep our muddy boots and clothes out of the rest of the house. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I love my big kitchen and bathroom. We have separate vanities, which I love. Separate closets, which is nice not to have to share. Soaker tub (no jets) and a 4x6 tiled shower. My makeup vanity is nice to have too. The kitchen has 2 islands, one with a raised bar, lots of storage and counter space. Some of my favorite things are the pot filler, instant hot water, walk in pantry, and solid surface countertops. I had a kitchen designer help me with the layout and that was very helpful. My husband teases me that we must have too many cabinets since I have an entire one dedicated to Wal mart sacks. Haha I wanted an open layout for the main living areas, so the living room, kitchen, foyer, and dining area are all one big room with pillars, beams, and area rugs to help break them up. I love it most of the time. What I would change: make the laundry/mudroom and garage bigger--they seemed huge on paper. Shift the wall 3' between the living room and master bedroom to make the bedroom smaller and living room bigger. I didn't make the back porch big enough either, but we were able to fix that fairly easily. It went from 9x19 to 20x19 and now has room for the grill, porch swing, table and chairs, and the dog area. |
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 No Tune in a Bucket
Posts: 2935
Location: Texas | Our house is a two story. If I were building again, it would NOT be a two story. As we age, the knees don't handle steps very well. |
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 Chicken Chick
Posts: 3562
Location: Texas | We have a double wide. While I am content with it because it was dirt cheap there are some things I would change, and when we build a house in a few years these are my must haves.
Shelves or counters in the laundry room, and a bigger space to hang clothes. I have to fold my clothes and pile them up in different spots on top of the washer and dryer depending on whose they are and where they go while I am folding them. I would much rather have a counter or something I could do my folding on. For some reason my husband and son go through a ton of clothes so I feel like I am folding clothes all day. That would just make it more convenient for me.
More counter space in the kitchen, and an island. I feel very cramped in my kitchen because of the layout and how I only have small sections of counter space to work with in each area. I would be fine with the same amount of counter space if it was just mostly in one spot.
I do like how my husband and I have seperate closets and they are both in the bathroom. So you can get completely ready without having to leave the bathroom.
I wish we had more windows, at least on the sides of the house that don't face west. That part of the day is hot and windows on that side of the house don't help when we are trying to keep the house cool. We have about 1 window in every room, and I like to open all the blinds during the day while I am cleaning or whatever... and it just isn't enough windows for me.
I want a covered porch on both sides of the house and that is in the works.
I wish our food pantry was bigger, the smallest closet in the house is bigger then our food pantry lol. That is aggravating. Especially when I have to hear my husband complain because all of the canned vegatables aren't in seperate rows. They are all just piled in there on top of each other and you have to dig through them to find what you want usually.
I also wish we had a mudd room. Not because we have mud or anything here, but because it would be nice to have a place to take off nasty shoes where they aren't piled in front of the door, and you can hang your coat up or whatever.
The layout of the house isn't ideal. We have a hard time rearranging furniture because in most rooms there is only one way you can place furniture without blocking a door, closet, walkway. Even then it just doesn't look right, it looks like that is the only place we could find for the furniture, and it is lol. There is also a lot of space that is wasted. Like this dumb little built in tiny desk in a cubby hole that is piled sky high as a catch all. That space could be taken out completely and added onto the back of my closet, which I would much rather have.
I do like how niether of the kid's bedroom windows are on the front of the house. So if anyone wants to get to their window they have to be in the back yard with the dogs to do it.
That is all I can think of right now. |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | I wish I could figure out how to share my "For the Home" Pinterest board!!
I've only rented, but I have my wish list: - Lots of counter space by the stove.
- I love it if the stove faced the TV in the living room.
- Cabinets designed for pots and pans.
- I would DIE if there was a remote controlled section of the counter that raised and lowered that contained the toaster, blender and whatnot. They could stay plugged in on their platform, but once you're done, they disappear into the countertop (or below it rather).
- i like the idea of the closet and bathroom together--nice to keep the sleeping area free of clothing.
- one story, high ceilings.
- An entryway/foyer. Where you put down your stuff, put your coat away and THEN enter the house.
- Separate sinks. Separate vanity would be even better. Exposed bathroom sink area, and toilet/bathtub/shower off to the side behind a door.
That's all I can think of right now. |
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Expert
Posts: 1543
Location: MI | We built, and it's unique :) I'll add some in a bit... |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| We are meeing with an architect next week. I like to see out so lots of windows, lots of closets, big back deck for entertaining with another fireplace, grill. This is what I have drawn up for him: 3/3, open floor plan, one living/dining area, floor to ceiling windows across the back wall, windows instead of upper cabinets in kitchen. I tis just down to my husband and me, I want what will be the guest bathroom to have freestanding bath tub and furniture. I want a mud room seperate from my laundry room, office for my husband and a weight room you can access from the master bath and the hall way. BIG master closet with built ins. I have also hired a kitchen designer and a friend of mine who is an interior designer to be sure we get this house right as hopefully it will be our last. These pictures are from a website houzz.com. Going to copy the living room pretty verbatim and tweak the bathroom just a little.
Edited by rodeomom3 2013-11-21 1:34 PM
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 Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | I like mine because it has an open living room, a nice kitchen, and a big master bathroom. I don't like that it doesn't have an attached garage or a mud room. |
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Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | RocketPilot - 2013-11-20 10:02 PM
Our house is a two story. If I were building again, it would NOT be a two story. As we age, the knees don't handle steps very well.
Our house is also a 2 story, but we built it with old age in mind. Everything we need is down stairs, and the kid area is upstairs along with attic storage. So we can basically shut off the second floor when we get old and just live on the main floor. |
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 Baby Blue's
Posts: 7306
Location: Texas | Single story
Closets with BUILT INS
High ceilings
Bathroom access for every bedroom -- so either a master, jack and jill, or it services a bedroom and a "public" area
No wasted bathroom space - why is there SO much space with no purpose these days?
Bonus room
No formal dining or living room |
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 Special Somebody
Posts: 3951
Location: Finally horseback again.... | We built ours two years ago.
I LOVE my house but there are a couple things I would add next time.
I have porches all the way across the front and back
Huge kitchen open to the living room
Big closets in the bedrooms
I added a toy closet for our son( keeps toys from being scattered everywhere)
I love the walk in shower with no door
Love my clawfoot tub
outside door into the laundry room
No wasted space or hallways
I have windows all the way across the back of the house.
I wish I had made the laundry room bigger, it is 8 x12 and still not big enough
I have one coat closet but should have made it bigger for more storage
And I would have made the master closet even bigger. It is 10x14 with built ins, which I love, but with both our stuff in it, its still not big enough.
I would also add a safe room if possible, for gun safe and tornado shelter.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 984
Location: Southwest Minnesota | We built our house 10 years ago. My Entry, Living Room, Dining Room, and Kitchen are pretty much one great room. I love that about my house because no matter what my family is doing, homework, cooking, watching TV, computer, we are all together. I like that everything is on one floor and the doors are all wide enough to accomodate a wheel chair should my hubby or I ever need one. We have a big mud/laundry room which I love. I definitely would have more storage/bigger closets. Now, that might be okay once my girls are all out of the house. But, until then I don't have enough. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 823
Location: East Texas | My wife loves the gas log fireplace in the bathroom. A microwave that mounts under the counter with slide out drawer. I am tall so we made the counter top heights taller than standard in my bathroom and kitchen. Laundry room with an island for folding, sorting, etc. |
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Location: Philly | here's the stock plan of the house we "were" going to build. made a bunch of modifications, took out the angle in the house, made living room larger and more open to the kitchen, made mud room larger, second laundry room (a must if you have a number of kids) and so on. then the appraisal came back $80k less than the cost to build. We knew what the house was going to cost, but were being fed incorrect info from the banks. Have put everything on hold as we can either come home 7 days a week to a "nice" house or have enought disposal income to do what we want on the weekends (horses)
keep that in mind as you go through your process of drawing out your plans.
http://www.garrellassociates.com/featured/amicalola-cottage-rustic-...
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 823
Location: East Texas | My wife loves the gas log fireplace in the bathroom. A microwave that mounts under the counter with slide out drawer. I am tall so we made the counter top heights taller than standard in my bathroom and kitchen. Laundry room with an island for folding, sorting, etc. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 502
Location: United States | Lots of windows, good closet space, easy accessibility to the laundry room. Pantry. A mud room, or a well designed garage for boots and winter jackets. |
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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | Don't really have a dog in the fight because we rent. We live in a double wide, never thought it would be enough room. The kitchen has plenty of space, three great sized bedrooms. Medium sized closets and the bathroom are big. Eberything is easy to clean and because its kind of a small house it forces us not to keep a bunch of crap. If i could i would add a pantry and make a better walk in area with a small seperate laundry area that seems to be the biggest probelm for us. But i forsee us getting a double wide with either a basement or adding on or something of the sort. Makes so much sense for us!
Excuse my typos,im on my phone |
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Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| bocephus's mama - 2013-11-21 7:55 AM Single story
Closets with BUILT INS
High ceilings
Bathroom access for every bedroom -- so either a master, jack and jill, or it services a bedroom and a "public" area
No wasted bathroom space - why is there SO much space with no purpose these days?
Bonus room
No formal dining or living room
I agree, some masters are likemausoleums they are so big. I also love my roll out shelves in the bottom cabinets in the kitchen. Had them in the house we just moved out of and really miss them. |
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