We just moved in last weekend but so far my favorite thing is the screened in porch.
I have a much smaller kitchen than I wanted but it's too soon to tell if it will be a regret. Hopefully making it prettier will gloss over the fact that it is small.
Post by treedimensional on Jun 28, 2013 11:42:32 GMT -5
1) What feature do you love most about your house? I love my full basement, multi-level all brick construction, my fireplace, and small size. I also love my neighborhood, my deck, and my garden, but those aren't really house features. EDIT: also in love with my newly remodeled kitchen!
2) Do you have any regrets about compromises you made when you bought? I don't remember making any compromises. When I was in the buying market, I had a list of criteria to meet, and I met all of them.
1) What feature do you love most about your house We have a screened porch, which is my absolute favorite. We also have a large front porch and very open floor plan with lots of windows for tons of light. I really do love the house.
2) Do you have any regrets about compromises you made when you bought? Not really- I ideally would have wanted a first floor master, but they were few and far between. With a second floor master I would have preferred a 2nd floor laundry, but that's really it.
Favorite:My house is not particularly unique. But I love that it's comfortable. It's easy to be in. People comment that it's tranquil (especially related to the colors in the downstairs). I like that. The size is big enough to be accommodating, but not so big that it actually feels big, if that makes sense.
Regret: I don't think I have anything that rises to the level of regret. I have a few "wishes" and "would've been nice's," but when I think about what our budget was, and our time frame, we did pretty well. I do wish we had a 2nd full bath, but we may renovate someday to add that. A 2nd bay in the garage and a non-basement laundry room would've been nice too, but those things came with houses 700 sf bigger, with more bathrooms (2.5+), and we couldn't afford those. Even if we could've, I probably would've sooner spent the money on an older house that isn't any bigger than what we have.
I honestly love every single thing about my house (ok not mu ovens, they need to be replaced) I am not sure I could pick a favorite thing. I guess my top things are the huge flat, private yard in a culdesac, screen porch, finished basement and the fact that a REALLY nice trail is .1 mile from the entrance to our neighborhood for walking/ running, biking etc
not a single regret, we got everything on our need and want list and a quite a few on our dream list. It needed/ still needs a lot of cosmetic work but all along we have always said we would much rather get all our stuff we wanted/ where we wanted and update cosmetic as we go and that's exactly what we ended up with
Once my kitchen is done, it will probably be that. In the meantime, there are two things I love: 1) we have no backyard neighbors since our lot backs up to a wooded area owned, and 2) we have a 7 foot rough-hewn stacked stone wall/fireplace in the living room which is pretty unique compared to other houses we looked at.
What I don't like: I would have preferred something closer to downtown, possibly even a condo. We only have 1/2 an acre, but there are so many trees and leaves to keep up with. Plus, there are at least 20 semi-hedges all around the house not including the ones we tore out a month ago.
1) I love my floors so much. And the house's flow - I love how the air moves through the house in the summer and I love how the living spaces flow together.
2) I wanted something with a small yard. We bought somehting with a microscopic yard and I regret that. It's not enough space outside and I'd love a tiny bit more so that we could do some interesting landscaping in the back and so the kids could have more space to play. I also regret not buying on a flat street. I thought I wanted to be on a hill because I love the hills around here - but the kids can't ride their bikes on the street because it's too steep. That's it i guess.
1) What feature do you love most about your house The woodwork throughout. 2) Do you have any regrets about compromises you made when you bought? One "compromise" (really more of a pipe dream that was never going to come true because we aren't millionaires) I'm sad about was not having a bay view. A more realistic compromise was pretty horrible kitchen cabs. and layout. We've always intended to completely redo it, but haven't been able to afford it yet. I probably wouldn't do that again, though it doesn't make me regret our house. One compromise that I don't regret is size. If it hadn't been 2007 (i.e. the most expensive time to buy a home), we probably would have bought something bigger. Now I wouldn't want another square foot.
1) What feature do you love most about your house 2) Do you have any regrets about compromises you made when you bought?
1) I fell in love with the kitchen as soon as it was repainted. DH had to talk me into the house because I thought the kitchen was too dark. They had used a dark purple-grey and it sucked the light out of the kitchen. There is plenty of work space and I can cook to my heart's content.
2) I would have liked more garden space. Our yard is smallish even though it is beautifully laid out.
1) Probably the original hardwood floors. 2) Overall, I wish we had looked more before buying, and I wish I had thought more about what I wanted. The house is nice, but it's a ranch, and I really like Colonial style. I wish I lived in an actual neighborhood.
Post by darkling_glory on Jun 28, 2013 12:46:21 GMT -5
1) I love our master suite. It's not huge or anything, but we can fit a king size bed, have dual closets, and dual sinks. We've only been in a month, but I have plans to make it a cozy, romantic space.
2) I don't have any regrets yet! Since, we've only had a month, but the kitchen cabinets are in a little worse shape than I realized. They're just old. Nicked up and such. Eventually, we're going to redo the kitchen, but that's a few years away.
That we have big windows with a great view out of all them. Our floorplan is also super functional for the most part. My kitchen is also a great size. Not small, but not so cavernous that it's work to get from one end to the other. It's simple but the cabinets and counterspace are awesome.
Regrets: That we would have added more built ins and "high end features." When we built a lot went into the "someday" file. We didn't want to be entirely broke so we just focused on upgrading the priorities (flooring, cabinets, windows, bath fixtures). It's been 7 years and some of it is slowly getting done, but some of it will never happen. I can't say I regret it because I refuse to be house poor, more like a "that would have been nice" situation.
Post by sailorgray on Jun 28, 2013 13:56:04 GMT -5
Our yard. We live in a downtown area filled with twin homes and small yards. We have a SFH with a nice, big fenced-in yard. We always sit on the deck, watch the kids play and say how great it is. I can't believe we ever considered buying our IL house with their no yards and no fences.
Sure, we made compromises when buying, but nothing I regret. It all has worked out well. We have outgrown it, but that was part of our plan and we will sell next year.
Post by simpsongal on Jun 28, 2013 14:35:40 GMT -5
Love: Curb appeal and grand corner lot.
Compromise: We bought a fixer upper. I don't regret it b/c no way we could afford a house like this fixed up. Sometimes I wish I could wave a magic wand and make it done.
1) What feature do you love most about your house? I love the unique look and layout. 2) Do you have any regrets about compromises you made when you bought? This is not a good week to ask. ;p I am sure that I will have no regrets once something/anything is finished, but this week has been a week of overwhelming feelings of frustration, mostly house/reno related.
1) What feature do you love most about your house open floor plan and colors that we have chosen. i also love the updates we have made to the fireplace area. 2) Do you have any regrets about compromises you made when you bought? i regret that we bought while still owning the TH in NC. we ended up having to buy this TH, rather than a SFH then (and we carried the TH in NC for over 2 years). we are working to move to a SFH in the next year or so.....
Post by mrs.jacinthe on Jun 28, 2013 14:58:00 GMT -5
1) What feature do you love most about your house? The trim, the stairway, the doors .... A lot of it is original, and as identified by some recent guests (cough ... @juno ... cough), they're old-growth redwood. Oooh. 2) Do you have any regrets about compromises you made when you bought? I am moderately irritated 90% of the time that this house doesn't have a garage or even a storage shed, but hopefully we can tackle that at some point soon.
1) What feature do you love most about your house? The trim, the stairway, the doors .... A lot of it is original, and as identified by some recent guests (cough ... @juno ... cough), they're old-growth redwood. Oooh. 2) Do you have any regrets about compromises you made when you bought? I am moderately irritated 90% of the time that this house doesn't have a garage or even a storage shed, but hopefully we can tackle that at some point soon.
You mean juno's husband. Juno can't identify wood species to save her life. OK, maybe pine and poplar. Maybe. I can say with confidence that your baseboards are neither pine nor poplar.
Post by emoflamingo on Jun 28, 2013 15:29:12 GMT -5
Do I really have to pick one thing I love? I love the original hardwoods that we had refinished. I love the fireplace and how cozy it is in the winter. I love having space for people to get out of the other's hair. I love the yard.
I wish the kitchen was bigger. I wish the basement was finished. I wish I had my own tub so I didn't have to share with 3 boys.
Hm... it's a tie on what I love most between my bright blue front door and our new laminate flooring downstairs. It might have to be the front door. It's just so cheery and happy, and I love seeing it every time I pull up to the house.
I guess my regret about this house is that we probably could've gotten a detached, older house for the same price and had our own yard. We really picked this townhouse because it was newer and with me working an hour from home, I knew that I wouldn't want to come home from work every day to projects in an older home. But now that we're looking toward starting a family, this house just isn't going to work for that at all, so we will be listing it next summer and hopefully getting what we paid for it.
Post by RoxMonster on Jun 28, 2013 17:19:22 GMT -5
1) I love the front entrance hallway. It may sound weird but I have always wanted an actual long hallway when you first come in, rather than the door opening on a tiny landing or right into the living room. We have a long wood hallway and a tall mirror at the end and I love it.
2) I am a little sad that we compromised on smaller bathrooms/bedrooms, but it is definitely liveable.
1) What feature do you love most about your house 2) Do you have any regrets about compromises you made when you bought?
1.) For me this is a tossup: a.) I directly abut 2500 acres of wilderness, even though I'm only a 10-minute drive into the city; or b.) it's paid-for.
2.) I don't actually wish it (or really need it) anymore, but for a long time I wished I had a way to expand. There's no good way to do it, given the layout of the property. Damn trees.
You mean juno's husband. Juno can't identify wood species to save her life. OK, maybe pine and poplar. Maybe. I can say with confidence that your baseboards are neither pine nor poplar.
I don't know why, but I literally loled at your third-person here. You should just go around calling him that. "Juno's husband, can you bring me some water." "Juno's husband, thanks for taking out the trash" and so on ...
(OMG, I'm not drunk, but this idea is hilariously funny to me. I'm literally sitting here chuckling to myself.)