If you could start over, house/apt/condo-wise . .

[definitelyO]

no couches with removable cushions/pillows on the back. DH sits down weird on couches and sits on them half way and squishes them down and now they are deformed.

next house - patio off the kitchen/dining room - right now it's off the LR and you have to haul eveything through and outside if we want to eat out there - it's a biatch.

[cahabalily]

We rent right now, so this will eventually come to fruition: I want a butler's pantry. We know we'll most likely end up building, because this is non-negotiable and we'll have to specify this to the architect.

I'm tired of not having enough counter space, or cabinet storage. And when we have guests over for dinner, I either have took cook early enough to have the kitchen clean before they arrive, or leave dishes stacked in the sink while they're here.

I want to be able to do the food prep/messy stuff in a pantry, and close the door to hide the mess with a spic and span kitchen.

[GibsonGirl128]

Um, not buy a house? lol

If that's not an option, I would definitely buy something with a smaller yard with the landscaping already done. Just thinking about how much money I need to spend to get it decent makes me want to hyperventilate.

I'd also buy somewhere with carpet, because keeping these floors swept and mopped and polished is the bane of my existence. But, I didn't want carpet with 2 cats, so...

That's really it. Well, maybe I'd get somewhere with bigger closets so I could put all of my clothes away at the same time and not have to dig around and switch summer and winter.

[madringal]

I would not have dining room chairs with slats on the back. All kinds of dust and crumbs accumulate in those little nooks on the chair.

I would not have made a picture gallery my focal wall in my living room. It takes forever to take down and dust 15 picture frames and then make sure they are hung up perfectly and not crooked.

[315bride]

I would rip out my entire kitchen and build a new one. Ours would win an award for most ugly and least space efficient. It's a galley kitchen with shiteous hand-painted cabs that are crappy quality. DW is old as dirt and everything is just mediocre.

[statlerwaldorf]

1. No low flow toilet. Water conservation is not worth the damn thing getting stopped up all of the time.

2. No couches where stuff can fall in the cracks to the floor. I'm constantly having to fish my phone and the remotes out. Plus I can't really clean it properly.

3. I would make the stairs larger. They are weirdly small and I can only fit about half of my foot on each step. That's how I got injured in the first place falling down those stairs.

4. Add a bathroom to the second story. Our bedrooms are all upstairs, but our only bathroom is downstairs off of the kitchen.

5. Build a larger porch with room for a swing.

6. Build an attached garage.

7. Completely redo our entire mudroom.

[jigsy]

I think we did pretty well for what we were working with budget wise. I mean, I knew I didn't want tile counter tops, but I didn't really have another option at our price point. I tell anyone who has an option to stay far far away. And when they don't listen, and start bitching about how shitty it is to have grout lines and what not, I shrug and tell them I told you so.

[Kore]

I would've held out & purchased a house with a pool. A pool is pretty much the only thing I want out of life.

I also wish we had more windows.

[Wines Not Whines]

We bought our house before having kids, so our layout is not kid friendly at all. I'd make these changes:

1. Fewer stairs. I don't mind a 2-level house with one set of stairs, but our house has 4 sets of stairs. FOUR!

2. I want a master bathroom.

3. More open floor plan. Ours is semi-open, but the kitchen is closed off, which makes it hard for me to prep dinner and have my kid play in another room.

4. A little bit more outdoor space. I don't want to maintain a huge yard, but it would be nice if there was more room for my son to run around outside on our property.

[Deleted]

I would want our floors to be a lighter wood color. They are very dark and show everything.

This will be a diamond shoe problem, but when I get lotion foot massages I cannot walk around without socks or I leave smudgeprints. Yeah, that sounds pretty ridiculous all typed out.

Our old apartment had an all white bathroom and I hated it. We made sure to opt for a place with tan tiles that have a little pattern to them - again, it helps when every little thing is not visible.

The thing I hate about our current apartment is that I cannot clean the outside of our windows. They are tall, and there is a screen that prevents me from being able to get to the exterior side. I am afraid of taking the screen off, because we're about 150 feet off the ground and I have this irrational fear of SO and I dropping it and killing people below us. So we have dirty windows.

[rex]

May 12, 2012 11:39:31 GMT -5 definitelyO said:

no couches with removable cushions/pillows on the back. DH sits down weird on couches and sits on them half way and squishes them down and now they are deformed.

next house - patio off the kitchen/dining room - right now it's off the LR and you have to haul eveything through and outside if we want to eat out there - it's a biatch.

That is what my H does! It drives me crazy.

[Deleted]

Our house is too small. I wish we would have been more patient and waited to find a 3/2.

Cleaning wise, I have a love hate relationship with our hardwood floors. They are beautiful and easy to clean,but it is dusty here I can barely keep up.

[jigsy]

May 12, 2012 12:02:36 GMT -5 Kore said:

I would've held out & purchased a house with a pool. A pool is pretty much the only thing I want out of life.

I also wish we had more windows.

Seriously, A pool is fan-fucking-tastic. It is going to be like 98 degrees here today. Who has two thumbs and is going swimming to beat the heat. This Guy.

[FishChicks]

I'd like a house without refaced kitchen cabinets. Our cabinets are older, and the finish comes off them when I try to clean them. Also, the refaced part is separating from the original cabinets in several places, but I don't want to spend money to repair it since I'm hoping to remodel within five years.

I'd also like a house with an attic.

[womet]

I would have rented in our area for another year and then purchased. We could have gotten a bigger house for the same price a year later since the market continued to go down. I'd also love to have a bigger kitchen with an island. And I wouldn't have purchased a split level. We really don't use our lower level (not our basement) except for dumping the mail and doing the laundry.

[FrozenSunshine]

I really wish we had a pantry. This is our second house without one and now that I enjoy cooking I hate having to walk to the garage for stuff.

I'd also like a larger balcony off the living room/dining room, so that a table and 2 chairs could fit out there. If we want to eat outside we have to carry everything downstairs to get access to the backyard.

[hbomdiggity]

May 12, 2012 13:10:59 GMT -5 farmvillelover said:

laundry room upstairs. I mean, I will NEVER understand why w/d are usually in the garage. Our new house has it off the kitchen, which is better than the garage, but still.

Pantry would be nice, but we don't have that in our new house, just a lot of cabinets which is fine.

Jacuzzi. We don't have room in our new place. But it's 3 miles to the beach so I guess that's a trade off.

Ditto the lips on the sinks and the tile - UGH!

I hate w/d in the garage and this seems really popular in CA. My friend is remodeling her house and moved it from the kitchen to garage. While it opened up the kitchen I still don't think it was a smart move.

[GibsonGirl128]

An attached garage would be fabulous!

And an upstairs laundry...mine is in the creepy basement and I hate going down there.

[315bride]

I wouldn't mind having my own w/d in my apt. Currently, we have to go down to the pay machines in the basement.

[Roc A Bee]

I wish we would have bought a house with a nicer backyard. We have lots of mature trees, but no grass. 3 years later, we have done nothing to that space.

[statlerwaldorf]

I forgot about laundry. I wouldn't mind first floor laundry, but I hate going down in the basement. Especially since it is a 1900 cellar. Creepy.

[cowboyjoe]

2 bathrooms, preferably with one as a master bathroom.

A pantry.

Attached garage with garage door opener.

Closer to work! We commute 1 hour each way.

Other things that wouldn't necessarily make my life easier but i want in our next home - jacuzzi tub, further in the country, larger yard, more square feet, bigger kitchen, white trim.

[panda]

Next time I want a bigger kitchen and master bath. Both are functional but I'm pretty sure there's no space to make them bigger.
Good lessons for when we buy our forever home.

[dapotato]

May 12, 2012 13:21:53 GMT -5 farmvillelover said:

May 12, 2012 13:15:57 GMT -5 hbomdiggity said:

I hate w/d in the garage and this seems really popular in CA. My friend is remodeling her house and moved it from the kitchen to garage. While it opened up the kitchen I still don't think it was a smart move.

Every stinkin house I've ever lived in in CA had w/d in the garage. In DC, it was upstairs, where it should be. Not sure if this is a west coast thing!

our new place has it inside. as did 2 of the last 3 rentals we lived in. we do have hookups in the garage, too, though.

[Deleted]

If we're strictly talking about changes that make life easier, I'd say I'd buy a house that is already painted and landscaped. If we bought a fixer upper we'd be much worse off, but starting with new construction was too much of a blank slate for me. I'm not creative and I don't particularly love doing work around the house, so unless I wanted all white walls and nothing but grass in the yard, I had a lot of work to do. We're slowly but surely getting there but next time I'll make sure that stuff is mostly done when we move in and only requiring minor changes/updates.

I'd also really like main floor laundry and a backsplash in the kitchen. And a larger kitchen in general. It isn't convenient to store our blender and serving dishes in the storage space downstairs but there is nowhere else to put it.

[AllieHound]

We have a first floor laundry, but I'd love to have a laundry on the 2nd floor, where all of the bedrooms are. My hatred of laundry and inherent laziness tag team with the fact that I tend to dress in the downstairs bath anyway (better light!)...so I tend to leave my clothes in the laundry room foreverrrrrrrr. I've seriously asked H if we could just install closets in the laundry room and put all of our clothes in there. He shot me down, but I'd still love to do it.

I sincerely doubt we'll find that in our next house, though, so I won't put it on the deal-breaker list. However, these will be:

Master bath
Equally sized bedrooms (BR #4 is effing tiny currently)
Finished landscaping
Decent closet space
Lighter wood (we have hardwoods throughout, and they're dark- they show everything)

[BNL2]

I would really like a pantry, bigger laundry room, and bigger garage. The next time we buy, I'm leaning towards new construction. Our house was really MM, but if I could do it all over again, I would have waited another year so we could spend more and got something nicer..

[starburst]

Definitely second floor laundry. Ours is in the basement, which is a pain. I'd also like walk-in closets.

[smiley]

We would have a larger house -- more room to put things, but then more space to clean... hhhhmmmm... I would have the whole house either tile or hardwood because I hate carpet!

[spunkypenguin]

I would most definitely get a smaller lot or at least a flatter one. I spent almost 3 hours mowing today and I hated every minute of it!
I also would like non-cheapo laminate floors - the ones that came with this house are so easily scratched and it drives me nuts seeing all the little scratches.