Post by UnderProtest on Jan 9, 2015 10:31:03 GMT -5
So I've slacked on these because of the holidays, and well, because I haven't come up with any good ones. Today's question......what is your ideal house? Location, size, style, and price. So this must take into account your lifestyle, salary, and career availability. So, basically it's your dream home that is eventually achievable. So, no picking a $5M place in NYC if you are both teachers with no family income and hate being around tons of people.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so not completely MM related, but all the organization posts and PIPs of rooms has it on my mind.
For reality, we're in it. 1000 sq ft 50's bungalow (plus about 900 sq ft basement, finished), 800 sq ft garage with lots of storage, 4 bed, 2 bath. Close enough for me to bike to work in the summer, lots of school options.
A little ways out of town. An older farm house, two story. Sitting on 5-10 acres. 3 bedrooms or so. Love to have 2 baths, but that's hard to come by in old farm houses. $150-200K would be my price range and could be doable if I moved a little further west.
I was waiting to reply b/c I was confused by the parameters. I mean, we're in it too - we couldn't afford anything nicer/bigger and we're slowly improving it to make it our dream house.
I would love to live in a historical house like a Victorian, but that's hard to come by in our area.
Well for starters, we wouldn't live at the edge of the desert, lol. This is actually something that will be playing out for us in the next year or so. Depending on if Mr. P's career in O&G stays stable---meaning we have to wait and see how long oil stays in the dumper and what kind of impact this has on his job security.
Prior to the crash, his job was supposed to change to the point that it wouldn't matter where we lived as long as it was close to a decent sized airport. So we considered moving to the coast or one of the lakes north of Houston.
Ideal house is on a lake or canal with access to boating/fishing. Style...comfortable? One story if at all possible. Decent lot to accommodate a garden for Mr. P. We have lots of company so 2400 SF plus, pool, easy airport access, cost here in Texas $500k plus. Our wish list is long and our budget could be somewhat flexible. We basically love our house here and set up...we have the pool, on water...not boating friendly though, nice lot. We need one more bedroom but overall we have loved living in the area, but we would like to be closer to boating access.
I just looked, and there's nothing on the market that I want to move into. Our house isn't perfect, but I like it quite a bit. I'd basically like our house, but add a 2nd full bath (putting us to 2.5), maybe adding another bedroom (so 5 total), and add a 2nd car space in the garage. There are little things too, like a laundry room and various upgrades, but those are all easier to add to our house than move to get. All of those things except the extra garage space (I don't think there's room) are probably do-able in the long term.
I love some of the beautiful old colonials, victorians, and greek revivals in a certain area of our town, but I don't want a) the upkeep, b) the upkeep costs, or c) the longer commute to everything that those homes have. So on balance I think they are for me to admire but not own.
I would love 2700-3000 sq.ft. , 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, formal living/dining room combo, double ovens and solid surface counter tops in kitchen, 15k+ sq.ft. lot, brick and/or stone exterior, 3-car garage, under or very close to $400k. There are a few places in Tennessee, Texas, and Arizona that we are considering looking for work for DH and these places would have houses in this price range. I can't find anything in our area that matches this so we would likely have to give up some of these things if we stay here. Well, I could get these things but I would have to come up with an extra $100k.
Post by shamrockshake on Jan 9, 2015 11:32:41 GMT -5
we bought our "dream home" 2 years ago. This is it for us, and we're so lucky that we found a place that had literally everything on our must have AND wants lists, and even a few things we didn't know we wanted and now love- screened in porch for one.
Oh gosh, I don't know. I'm stuck right now between the idea of renting forever and eventually buying something. I feel like it's pretty up in the air right now where I'll end up living in a few years, and if that's somewhere I'll want to be forever. I'm really torn between family and weather/nice place to live. I wish my family didn't live in the stupid midwest. I don't want to live in the midwest.
Anyway, my ideal place would be in a city. Price is dependent on the particular city, but right now I'm leaning toward condo. As much as I hate to even think about it, my dogs are getting old and will likely not be around for more than another 3-4 years. I think if I were to get dogs again, I'd go with something smaller so that condo living would be appropriate. I don't really like having a yard or having to shovel. I feel like that's more feasible with little dogs.
My ideal place would be about 1200 square feet and would have a large enough kitchen to have an island and/or counter space to be able to cook multiple things at once and have something like a Kitchenaid mixer sitting out. A dishwasher is a must (I don't have one now). I want 2 bedrooms and good storage/closet space. I'd prefer a 1 car garage or parking spot.
Honestly - after owning a larger home and moving to a smaller rental, I'm finding my quality of life to be just as good living in a smaller rental. It's not inspiring me to buy a large home. I really would like to spend less money on rent/mortgage and put any excess cash into travel or savings. I actually lived in a pretty nice, spacious condo that was around 1100 or so square feet when I moved to Iowa and I'd love to find something similar in a better location.
Post by UnderProtest on Jan 9, 2015 11:46:43 GMT -5
So my ideal home would be a 4-5 bedroom, 3+ bathroom, modern home somewhere in a warm, sunny climate. I would love to return to the city we moved from, but I doubt this will happen, so I'm just hoping somewhere in the southeast. I don't necessarily want a ranch, but I definitely don't want a row house (like we are renting now with 5 levels). I want an open floor plan between the kitchen and family room and enough space for decent entertaining and lots of storage. Ideally it would have at least a 2 car garage and some outdoor living space. Oh, and it would be a short 15-20 minutes or less commute for my husband and walking distance to shops and restaurants.
4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, at least 2500 sq ft, at least 2 stories, a separate office/library, formal dining room, basement family/rec room, an in-law suite in a walk-out basement or separate from the house, at least a .25 acre, but more like .50 acre lot with mature trees. Walkable to a business/commercial district and transit, but quiet street. Style would hopefully be either I like Victorian, craftsman and tudor styles, though ideally it would be a classic center-entrance colonial, Federal style exterior.
I like where we are, and I think we can achieve the above (the in-law suite is the real issue) for ~$400k, depending on how things go, I might be willing to go up to ~$500k. I'd love to be in the Boston suburbs, too, but couldn't get all of the above for that amount.
Right now our house is smaller and cheaper, but has historic character and walkability. We probably will want an upgrade, though, someday.
I don't want a large house or a lot of land. I'd be happy with a renovated cape cod, colonial or ranch on 1/4-1/2 acre. 3 bed/2-2.5 bath and 2 car garage. 1500-2000 sq ft. Open living space and a functional well laid out kitchen.
You know the funny thing about this is that I've found my "ideal" has room for variation.
Our last house, in Los Angeles, was my dream house. It had everything I wanted: mid-centry modern inspired architecture, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 3 car garage, amazing city-lights/ocean view, neighborhood where we could walk to shops and restaurants, low-maintenance yard, large kitchen, etc. I could never believe I got so lucky as to own such an amazing home. Then I got a job offer across the country, and I sold my dream house.
We bought a new place in June, and while it's really different from our last place, I'd also say it's ideal. It has great architecture, an amazing kitchen and master bath, and pretty much every single need and want I could possibly have dreamed of, except the view and the walkable neighborhood. And honestly, in MN, I wouldn't be doing that much year-round walking anyway!
So I guess my ideal house has lots of room for variation!
We just moved to suburbia, so we'll see how that flies...but if we stay and if we stay in our area I can already tell what I'd do differently for the next house. Ha, is that a bad thing? We've been in the house 1.5 months.
Size: We have about 2400 sq feet now, which is great, but I'd like slightly more space for another bedroom. Even if we only end up with one child, I'd like another room for sewing and an extra TV that's not the basement and so we still have a dedicated guest room. We'd also want way more land than we have - our backyard is really small. It's the major drawback of this house, which we knew going into it and will be the reason we move in 4-5 years.
4 BR/3.5BA with at least .5 acre (with really usable backyard) is our ideal. The most amazing would be walkable to train - we're 1.5 miles away from the train now, and that's just slightly too far to walk consistently. I'd like to w/in 1 mile of the train.
Style: I love the Tudor style we have now, but I can see us tiring of our older house and wanting to go with newer construction. On the one hand, we'll never get such cool architecture, or beautiful solid wood doors, or amazing radiator heat, but we also won't have to deal with smaller closets or the scary crawl space, prob.
Price: I feel pretty confident we could find what we need/want for $1.2-$1.4 in our area. I am going back to work after this baby largely so that we can save for another round of IVF and a sizeable DP on our "forever" home.
This doesn't account for the little shore house I definitely want one day.
I don't want a large house or a lot of land. I'd be happy with a renovated cape cod, colonial or ranch on 1/4-1/2 acre. 3 bed/2-2.5 bath and 2 car garage. 1500-2000 sq ft. Open living space and a functional well laid out kitchen.
Pretty much this. I used to love the huge homes that are now being built, but a year or two ago I had a change of heart. We don't need that space and I don't know if we ever will. Plus I don't want to pay to heat/cool/light/maintain a giant house or clean it. It takes me (what feels like) forever to clean our small home as it is, I can't imagine having more space to clean.
hummm.... 22-2500 sq ft ( no more) .... craftsman style 4 bd. 3 bath.... , extra space for a craft cave, formal dining room, huge pantry and closet. location is something I struggle with, but w/in an hour of the city... ideally maybe the mid peninsula where I grew up. 1/4 acre ish lot...
I struggle with this. I think where we live now is perfect for how we live now. Our house is plenty big for 2 people (just under 2,000 sq ft). We rarely have overnight guests because both of our families live in town (and since we grew up here and went to college here, so do most of our friends). Our house is good for entertaining because the kitchen is big and open to the living room. We custom built it 5 years ago, so of course I love it.
If/when we have kids... who knows. Part of me (and H) wants to move to the country (doable, about 5 minutes from where we are now), part of me (and again, H) wants to live in a more "urban" part of town in a townhouse with minimal upkeep and good walkability factor.
Basically, it's a good thing we already have a house that we love now because we are definitely not ready to make any decisions on what our future house will look like. Also, I kinda want to stay in this house until it's paid off (13 years), but that just depends on how many kids we have I guess.
Not much bigger than we are in now, but a different floor plan (open concept haters go away) and a new-build. 2500ish square feet, with a 3 car garage, backing into a ravine and to still be close to my kid's school. Our current house is worth around $800K and 'dream' house is worth about 1.2 mil so we have a long ways to go. We were hoping in the next 2-3 years to start the building process but with the price of oil that dream is going to be pushed off for a while.
My ideal hole does not really exist around here, and if I moved, there would be other factors to account for.
I live in the land of center hall colonials, which I hate. I'd like a fairly modern design, or even something that would have been call contemporary in the 80s. We also want to be on/near the bay. On government salary + blue collar wages, that will not happen. I'd also be happy with a bungalow on the water, but not an option. Or anything in Annapolis. Not an option. So, in our price range, what we have is good enough.
But if I moved, my choices would change and my ideals would change. I'd like to snowbird, preferably in the keys. Then I'd like an open, Caribbean style, in funky colors.
Or maybe move to Sedona, where I'd love a mission style home.
I feel like this is constantly changing. While what we have now works for us currently (2 adults, no kids), I feel like it will be cramped with the 2 kids we want to have some day. But I'm also cheap, so that's an internal battle. I have a totally different picture of what we would have in retirement.
Now: 1,800 sqft, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath + office. Tri level layout that is somewhat outdated (hello white ceramic tile + oak). We live in a fabulous neighborhood that minimizes commutes, had excellent schools, and have an incredibly private lot though with a large forest area (though it isn't terribly useable). We also have essentially a 4 car garage (2 wide, 2 deep) which my car project loving H loves. We use 1 bedroom as a "gear room" and one as a guest room, both of which will be gone once we have kids. Worth $725k
Would like: 2-2,500 sq ft, 4-5 bedrooms + office, 3.5 bathrooms. 3 car garage minimum (+hopefully room for a workbench). Good light and privacy from neighborhoods. In our same neighborhood, which we love. I'd love a great Craftsman that is fairly updated, but unfortunately our neighborhood is straight homes from the 60s-70s. This would likely cost us $1.2-1.5M by the time we're ready... which is why we may stay in our small little house forever.
I would like some acreage in the hill country (Texas). Prefer a newer house or to even build new. Single story, 4 bedrooms, lots of storage.
We are actually saving for a DP on land in that area now. Looking to buy in a few years. I have always wanted to lived where it snows. That may have to be in the form of a small vacation place in the mountains. Though I do enjoy being close to a large city now, I still like to live around fewer people.
I would like some acreage in the hill country (Texas). Prefer a newer house or to even build new. Single story, 4 bedrooms, lots of storage.
We are actually saving for a DP on land in that area now. Looking to buy in a few years. I have always wanted to lived where it snows. That may have to be in the form of a small vacation place in the mountains. Though I do enjoy being close to a large city now, I still like to live around fewer people.
I think the Hill Country might get some snow tonight What area are you looking at (if you don't mind answering)? There are some really cool places. I love the areas around Hunt and Sisterdale. We live pretty close to Castroville now.
I would like some acreage in the hill country (Texas). Prefer a newer house or to even build new. Single story, 4 bedrooms, lots of storage.
We are actually saving for a DP on land in that area now. Looking to buy in a few years. I have always wanted to lived where it snows. That may have to be in the form of a small vacation place in the mountains. Though I do enjoy being close to a large city now, I still like to live around fewer people.
I think the Hill Country might get some snow tonight What area are you looking at (if you don't mind answering)? There are some really cool places. I love the areas around Hunt and Sisterdale. We live pretty close to Castroville now.
Hah! I had no idea you were there. We should switch, we are by where you want to be (close but not on the lake)! Our search area is pretty large at the moment just due to price of land. Basically we drew a line from around Cuero to maybe Uvalde, up to Junction area. I didn't want too far west/south of that. We've traveled over there and I of course love Canyon Lake but the land is more there. H is looking for 50+ acres, needless to say I'm ok with less.
I think the Hill Country might get some snow tonight What area are you looking at (if you don't mind answering)? There are some really cool places. I love the areas around Hunt and Sisterdale. We live pretty close to Castroville now.
Hah! I had no idea you were there. We should switch, we are by where you want to be (close but not on the lake)! Our search area is pretty large at the moment just due to price of land. Basically we drew a line from around Cuero to maybe Uvalde, up to Junction area. I didn't want too far west/south of that. We've traveled over there and I of course love Canyon Lake but the land is more there. H is looking for 50+ acres, needless to say I'm ok with less.
Cuero is so lush and green. We saw some of the best wildflowers and bluebonnets between Floresville and Cuero last spring. And Rosie's on Main St. in Cuero is one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. I always try to get Mr. P to take me for lunch when he has business over there. We like it from here all the way to Uvalde too. Great sunsets and interesting landscapes. I love the area around up around Kerrville and towards Junction but don't know it quite as well. We've explored since we've been here for a couple of years, but don't have it all down pat. The HC is a wonderfully diverse place and we end up there exploring every other weekend just about, except during "Cedar Fever" season. Good luck with your property hunt!
Hah! I had no idea you were there. We should switch, we are by where you want to be (close but not on the lake)! Our search area is pretty large at the moment just due to price of land. Basically we drew a line from around Cuero to maybe Uvalde, up to Junction area. I didn't want too far west/south of that. We've traveled over there and I of course love Canyon Lake but the land is more there. H is looking for 50+ acres, needless to say I'm ok with less.
Cuero is so lush and green. We saw some of the best wildflowers and bluebonnets between Floresville and Cuero last spring. And Rosie's on Main St. in Cuero is one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. I always try to get Mr. P to take me for lunch when he has business over there. We like it from here all the way to Uvalde too. Great sunsets and interesting landscapes. I love the area around up around Kerrville and towards Junction but don't know it quite as well. We've explored since we've been here for a couple of years, but don't have it all down pat. The HC is a wonderfully diverse place and we end up there exploring every other weekend just about, except during "Cedar Fever" season. Good luck with your property hunt!
Oh yes I'm a sucker for the wildflowers! I love to get pecans from down there. Being in the land of the piney woods has its bad season of allergies. We get yellow snow in the spring!
Cuero is so lush and green. We saw some of the best wildflowers and bluebonnets between Floresville and Cuero last spring. And Rosie's on Main St. in Cuero is one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. I always try to get Mr. P to take me for lunch when he has business over there. We like it from here all the way to Uvalde too. Great sunsets and interesting landscapes. I love the area around up around Kerrville and towards Junction but don't know it quite as well. We've explored since we've been here for a couple of years, but don't have it all down pat. The HC is a wonderfully diverse place and we end up there exploring every other weekend just about, except during "Cedar Fever" season. Good luck with your property hunt!
Oh yes I'm a sucker for the wildflowers! I love to get pecans from down there. Being in the land of the piney woods has its bad season of allergies. We get yellow snow in the spring!
We really miss the Big Thicket. We lived in Silsbee just north of Beaumont for about 7 years before we moved over here. I don't miss the horrific humidity in the summer though, LOL.
2400-3000 square feet either a few blocks south or east of where we live now, or possibly on the other side of the freeway in one of the other walkable but not super-cramped neighborhoods. Actually, that'd be ideal, since it's in the neighborhood of the good high school and will be on the light rail line.
We can't realistically afford it today, but maybe by the time babyniq is 14. We could afford to live there now but it would be a house with a lot of warts.