What to look for in a new house?

[Lizard Queen]

Apr 21, 2017 12:56:46 GMT -5 swasat said:

Apr 21, 2017 12:33:22 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

That shit would just pile on your counter instead. It's irritating in my case, because that's where I need to prep food, and papers left there not only take up limited real estate, but can get splashed with water or food.

 Oh nos. I am REAL good at keeping my kitchen clean. If its one thing I detest is a dirty and cluttered kitchen. My kitchen can rival Mrs Cawiau's. 

Wanna come over and fix my kitchen? 

(I actually think it's beyond hope until we get to remodel it.)

[swamp]

concrete walls and floor with a drain in the middle. Much easier to keep clean.

[milee]

Apr 21, 2017 12:00:53 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

Apr 21, 2017 11:52:25 GMT -5 Bob Ross said:

I'm gonna go really fundamental and say a house with a solid roof, foundation, modern windows, and furnace / AC that doesn't need replacing anytime soon.

Or you could just ignore all of that and go with granite counter tops, because GRANITE COUNTER TOPS!!!

If I could find a house with a solid foundation...I'd actually prefer having to replace all the rest of that stuff because those houses are such a deal. Ideally, I'd like to find a house that won't qualify for traditional bank financing as it sits, but that has "good bones". That's essentially what I did with this house. The wife would prefer move-in ready because she spent years living in a construction zone (we wouldn't move into this new one until it was done though).

Granite countertops are good, but have you seen the electrical outlets that have the USB charging ports built-in? THOSE are critical.

You probably know this, but those cool outlets are super easy to install.  Don't let stuff that's a 15 minute project to change out drive your house decision.  

[hoops902]

Apr 21, 2017 14:24:41 GMT -5 milee said:

Apr 21, 2017 12:00:53 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

If I could find a house with a solid foundation...I'd actually prefer having to replace all the rest of that stuff because those houses are such a deal. Ideally, I'd like to find a house that won't qualify for traditional bank financing as it sits, but that has "good bones". That's essentially what I did with this house. The wife would prefer move-in ready because she spent years living in a construction zone (we wouldn't move into this new one until it was done though).

Granite countertops are good, but have you seen the electrical outlets that have the USB charging ports built-in? THOSE are critical.

You probably know this, but those cool outlets are super easy to install.  Don't let stuff that's a 15 minute project to change out drive your house decision.  

Yeah, my wife wants them everywhere now, plus some other "tech" stuff like the thermostat that runs from your phone, lights that run from the phone, etc.  I'm using that kind of stuff as the "carrot" to get her to want to move to a new house. 

I set up a couple of those outlets in a few key spots and it was super easy to do.  Unfortunately they didn't have any that were gfi at our local big box, so none in the kitchen where we'd like them.

[milee]

Apr 21, 2017 14:42:15 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

Apr 21, 2017 14:24:41 GMT -5 milee said:

You probably know this, but those cool outlets are super easy to install.  Don't let stuff that's a 15 minute project to change out drive your house decision.  

Yeah, my wife wants them everywhere now, plus some other "tech" stuff like the thermostat that runs from your phone, lights that run from the phone, etc.  I'm using that kind of stuff as the "carrot" to get her to want to move to a new house. 

I set up a couple of those outlets in a few key spots and it was super easy to do.  Unfortunately they didn't have any that were gfi at our local big box, so none in the kitchen where we'd like them.

No gfi at the local big box?  FGI, dude.  Seriously, you're like 20 years younger than I am, how can it be that you don't know to do this?  

[Peace Of Mind]

I never understood the purpose of a separate pot filler.     All you need is a goose neck faucet.


If I were to build again my must haves would be:


Not too big not too small SF (1,600 - 2,100 SF would suit us) one story, min. 3 bdrm. 2- 1/2 baths, split plan, on a lake.

1/2 bath easy to get to when guests are here or I need to make a mad dash from the kitchen while cooking or watching TV. 

Porcelain tile or similar throughout.

Awesome outdoor covered patio/outdoor space that includes a gas fireplace with the outdoor space facing East because we want afternoon shade.

Gas Fireplace in master bedroom and family room area.

Open style where kitchen is close to the patio for easy access to refrig. and stove because I think outdoor kitchen are stupid and wasteful. 

Granite countertops throughout because Bob Ross is right.  

Decent size laundry room but not too big - from the garage and near the kitchen. 

Lots of lighting and outlets throughout house. 

At least one tub - don't care where but prefer it in master bath.

His and hers walk in closets and plenty of storage elsewhere.

42" Cabinets in kitchen with under mount lighting is a must BUT NO ISLAND.  I had one and hated it.  It just slowed me down.

Wheelchair accessible in case something happens as we get older.

Tons of windows but not so big that birds are smashing into them (or landscaping to deter that).

2 - 3 car garage.  If 3 car I'd want the 3rd separate from the other two so it could have a kitty door to keep their boxes.  I am so sick of kitty stench!!!

Metal barrel tile looking roof. 

Not too big of a yard to maintain (about 8,000 SF like we have now).

[hoops902]

Apr 21, 2017 14:50:26 GMT -5 milee said:

Apr 21, 2017 14:42:15 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

Yeah, my wife wants them everywhere now, plus some other "tech" stuff like the thermostat that runs from your phone, lights that run from the phone, etc.  I'm using that kind of stuff as the "carrot" to get her to want to move to a new house. 

I set up a couple of those outlets in a few key spots and it was super easy to do.  Unfortunately they didn't have any that were gfi at our local big box, so none in the kitchen where we'd like them.

No gfi at the local big box?  FGI, dude.  Seriously, you're like 20 years younger than I am, how can it be that you don't know to do this?  

She just stumbled across them at the big box. I make a habit of not finding ways to get her things like that by doing more work...which will then take more work by me to do it. I'm sure they make them, but if she can't just see them, then she won't buy them, and then I don't have to do the work. Also, if she finds them online, then she's going to want to take out the ones I already installed if the gfi ones are made by a different company, so they all match.

[NastyWoman]

Apr 21, 2017 15:11:09 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

Apr 21, 2017 14:50:26 GMT -5 milee said:

No gfi at the local big box?  FGI, dude.  Seriously, you're like 20 years younger than I am, how can it be that you don't know to do this?  

She just stumbled across them at the big box. I make a habit of not finding ways to get her things like that by doing more work...which will then take more work by me to do it. I'm sure they make them, but if she can't just see them, then she won't buy them, and then I don't have to do the work. Also, if she finds them online, then she's going to want to take out the ones I already installed if the gfi ones are made by a different company, so they all match.

Keep DW offline → Amazon has just about everything

[hoops902]

Apr 21, 2017 15:16:29 GMT -5 NastyWoman said:

Apr 21, 2017 15:11:09 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

She just stumbled across them at the big box. I make a habit of not finding ways to get her things like that by doing more work...which will then take more work by me to do it. I'm sure they make them, but if she can't just see them, then she won't buy them, and then I don't have to do the work. Also, if she finds them online, then she's going to want to take out the ones I already installed if the gfi ones are made by a different company, so they all match.

Keep DW offline → Amazon has just about everything

I just tell her it's really complicated so we'll have to hire a professional and it will cost a lot of money and her house will be all torn up. I held off on having to reconstruct our kitchen island and installing a dishwasher in it for years...until we had to call a plumber for something else and he said it would be super easy to do.

My biggest nemesis are people I know, my dad, or other family friends who are in the trades. I could have convinced her that usb outlets are super complicated, but someone would have just said "it's the same as other outlets" and she would have come home and told me to just do it like other outlets.

I had to tell her that the thermostat she wants which runs through wifi/phone isn't compatible with our furnace/ac system...because the thing is $200 and she won't adjust the super simple one we have now. 

Now it's a lot of "we could do that, but we're selling our house soon, we'll never get that investment back when we sell".  I'm sure the new house will "need" to have all these bells and whistles...which is fine...I just need her to decide which ones the first time (right now it's a lot of picking something, having me do it, then for some reason continuing to look at cool stuff and having me take out what I've just done to do something else slightly cooler).  I'm looking forward to doing "cool stuff" to the new house, since so much of the current house was remodeling in terms of replacing flooring, windows, etc...nothing "cool" like iHome type gadgets.  Fortunately for me, my wife is the type who will want a bunch of cool little stuff in the new house, but is NOT the type to say "we need all new furniture for this new house". 

[muttleynfelix]

I have not read everything so take my 2 cents.

1. 2 living spaces. If you have a sick kid, it is really nice to have second living space for a healthy kid to play (if you have 2). The second space can be a basement, just something other than a bedroom. Our first house only had 1 living space and that was a pain when 1 kid got sick.

2. Make sure the guest bathroom has a tub. We compromised on this because the rest of the house worked much better than the other houses we looked at, but ugh, it drives me nuts that the kids bath in my bathroom (in a garden tub at that, which is awful for bathing young kids)

3. I hate light colored tile. Despise it. We have white tile in this house and it looks AWFUL. We had blue tile in our MO house and it looked great even dirty.

4. Large kitchen drawers. So much better than shelves for tupperwear.

5. A wide pantry. The pantry at my current house is narrow and it is such a pain.

6. Basement - leave it concrete and paint it. (My husband is having fun painting our basement floor). We also picked up throw rugs at the Habitat for Humanity re-store. while I hope our sump pump always works,if it doesn't, clean up will be simple.

7. Bedrooms - I've done split bedrooms and all the bedrooms together. For my kids currently 4 and 7, I like having my bedroom right across from them because I hear them getting up. In MO, we had split bedrooms and that was fine, but my kids didn't get out of their rooms back then. Now, I like knowing when they get up. I probably get less sleep, but there is a piece of mind of hearing them.

8. Don't expect it this to be your last house. It may be, it may not. Try not to have expectations.

[muttleynfelix]

Apr 21, 2017 8:30:20 GMT -5 Pants said:

Mud room. It's my #1 item I wish we'd looked for in a house because we live in Chicago and it gets real gross in the winter and spring.

This was one of my big things, not necessarily a mud room, but a space big enough for everyone to sit and put coats and shoes on. We did not have it in Missouri. Here we have a tiled entry with a bench, coat closet and room that the 4 of us and the dog can get ready to go.

[mamasita99]

Apr 21, 2017 12:56:46 GMT -5 swasat said:

Apr 21, 2017 12:33:22 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

That shit would just pile on your counter instead. It's irritating in my case, because that's where I need to prep food, and papers left there not only take up limited real estate, but can get splashed with water or food.

 Oh nos. I am REAL good at keeping my kitchen clean. If its one thing I detest is a dirty and cluttered kitchen. My kitchen can rival Mrs Cawiau's. 

Lol, my kids know that I throw shit away if I look at it too long! I have an open concept kitchen right now, and one end of it is the designated "non-food" area for a cup of pens, fresh mail, and dog treats. That is it. I have a nook upstairs where I keep my desk supplies and printer. The kids do their homework at the table or living room, and clean it up afterwards, eventually.

I prefer a house with a dining room, because we eat most dinners together and frequently weekend breakfasts. So there was no opportunity for my dining room table to become a "catch-all" for homework, mail and crafts. I used my breakfast nook as a small office area for the family, and that worked out great. The kids could use the printer as needed and all my supplies were close by (I'm a teacher, I'm a little OCD about office supplies!) but everything was still separate from the kitchen.

So, my list would be dining room, definitely powder room downstairs, laundry room on bedroom level, double sinks at least in kid bathroom, walk-in shower in master bedroom. Oh, and an outdoor shower, just for fun

[dee27]

We never had a mudroom, but when we lived in the NE, I never used the front door unless there was no power. We would enter through the garage into the tiled kitchen. A mudroom would have been a nice bonus!

[973beachbum]

Apr 21, 2017 14:53:13 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

I never understood the purpose of a separate pot filler.     All you need is a goose neck faucet.


If I were to build again my must haves would be:


Not too big not too small SF (1,600 - 2,100 SF would suit us) one story, min. 3 bdrm. 2- 1/2 baths, split plan, on a lake.

1/2 bath easy to get to when guests are here or I need to make a mad dash from the kitchen while cooking or watching TV. 

Porcelain tile or similar throughout.

Awesome outdoor covered patio/outdoor space that includes a gas fireplace with the outdoor space facing East because we want afternoon shade.

Gas Fireplace in master bedroom and family room area.

Open style where kitchen is close to the patio for easy access to refrig. and stove because I think outdoor kitchen are stupid and wasteful. 

Granite countertops throughout because Bob Ross is right.  

Decent size laundry room but not too big - from the garage and near the kitchen. 

Lots of lighting and outlets throughout house. 

At least one tub - don't care where but prefer it in master bath.

His and hers walk in closets and plenty of storage elsewhere.

42" Cabinets in kitchen with under mount lighting is a must BUT NO ISLAND.  I had one and hated it.  It just slowed me down.

Wheelchair accessible in case something happens as we get older.

Tons of windows but not so big that birds are smashing into them (or landscaping to deter that).

2 - 3 car garage.  If 3 car I'd want the 3rd separate from the other two so it could have a kitty door to keep their boxes.  I am so sick of kitty stench!!!

Metal barrel tile looking roof. 

Not too big of a yard to maintain (about 8,000 SF like we have now).

We really do have almost the same exact taste! 

The only thing I would change though is to skip the granite. I'm so over granite!  Personally if I was spending that kind of money I would go with Onyx.  It is prettier and way less maintenance. 

[zibazinski]

I'm a fan of quartz. Im so over granite.

[sesfw]

We put in granite more than a year ago and now there are several chips out of the edges.  

I'll get them repaired just before the house is sold.  Otherwise I'll spend all of my time doing repairs

Not my choice for the future

[dee27]

I don't like granite, either.

[Anne_in_VA]

Nope, I am not putting in granite when we remodel the kitchen.  I will probably do quartz with marble either on the island or on a section of the countertops.  I get tired of cleaning off the cutting boards after cutting out cookies or rolling out pastry.