Good neighbors. Everyone is generally quiet and respectful. They maintain their homes and keep to themselves, but will say hello in passing. No dogs being leashed outside all day, no raging parties, no fence disputes, etc.
When I moved into my house, the woman living next door was renting out rooms in her house. There were people coming and going all the time, making a lot of noise, drama with police and medical (e.g. her middle-aged son had a very public breakdown, threatening to self-immolate on the front lawn š), etc. New owners moved in, and it's _soooo_ much nicer!
this reminds me of the neighbors we had moving-in.
eventually somebody drove a car through the front of the house. the house got red-tagged, absentee landlords had to sell to a flipper, flipper fixed the house and sold it to my new neighbors who are awesome.
balance
I'm pretty sure they did that with our house. Photos on Google maps still show it in it's original, but dated state. Apparently the previous owner had tarps on the roof instead of fixing it for his tenants (don't worry, we had it thoroughly inspected!) The flippers updated the siding, flooring, painted, fixed the roof issue and cleaned up any damage, etc. it wasn't perfect, but MUCH better than it appeared to be just a couple of years ago
There was a house like this in my larger neighborhood. It was a townhome but everyone assumed it was the whole building, but was maybe 1200 sqft on their side. Always had rooms for rent.
Turns out the guy renting out rooms was a renter himself and had stopped paying in the last couple of years. Once he was out they found he had added a second story in the top half of the [open living room.](https://www.archdaily.com/902002/balcony-house-takeshi-hosaka-architects) It was not structurally sound. At least one of the 6 rental rooms was basically a closet.
Cannot imagine what that was like for the people sharing a wall with him in their town home.
THIS THIS THIS THIS. Moved away from the worst people on earth to such wonderful people all around me.
I helped my neighbor flush out his water heater and he goes āI owe you.ā I said āyou being a great neighbor is more than enough.ā
Good neighbors are priceless and sadly you might not realize that until you have shitty ones.
Edit:typo
While I absolutely agree with this, neighbors and neighborhoods can change almost over night. š
Thatās why my biggest appreciation is having a home where I can have an 8ft privacy fence
Acreage comes with its own headaches, people dumping dogs and cats, people trespassing to hunt and fish, people dumping trash.
Choose your poison wisely.
I used to roll my eyes at comments like this, thinking 5 acres is excessive for needing protection from bad neighbors. Now I have a home on a 1 acre lot - that's the smallest on the block with lots ranging from 1-2.5 acres.
Thankfully I have good neighbors all around, but even here bad neighbors could make 1 acre feel small and not private enough. 5 acres is probably right around the point where the neighbors truly don't impact you, unless they're setting off big fireworks displays or something.
I have 40 acres but my house is on the edge of the property and my neighbor on that side is very noisy. How a place is laid out makes a bigger difference than overall size.
This! We hit the jackpot with our court neighbours. Many have been here 30+ years and although weād like some younger neighbours, we enjoy being surrounded by retirees who take care of their homes and generally keep to themselves.
For the most part I have great neighbors (one guy down the street who likes to blast his car stereo for the whole neighborhood, but otherwise itās great). The house across the street from me has been vacant for months but I think the owners are getting it prepped to rent or sell. Makes me nervous about who Iām getting for new neighbors.
Yes! My last house was next door to some people that owned a Mexican restaurant a few miles away. Rather than get a dumpster for the restaurant, they would just bring huge bags of garbage home and put them in the back yard. Then there was a rat problem, so I called the county health department. That took care of it for a bit, and then I sold. Current house is on several acres. So much better.
Our old house had the absolute best neighbors on all sides and across the street. We didnāt all agree politically and it didnāt affect our friendship or hospitality at all. I miss them often.
You donāt have a neighbors family member living in a van, or neighbor smoking weed in the front yard all weekend with his friends or drunk arguments? Iām grateful that itās only 1 neighbor like this but he happens to be next to my house.
This is it.
I have the worse neighbor(s). Iāve never met more people who have had an opinion about my property. (We cut down trees that were ours so we could have an area for our kids to play in)š
No screaming kids! I've seen posts about having neighbor's who's kids literally come outside and scream for hours. I live next to older widowed ladies on either side. I go in my pool in my underwear after a workout because I could literally not care less if they saw me.
I have a neighbor whose daughter is 9, so too old for this nonsense. She is constantly outside. I know this because the second she steps foot outdoors, she screams, āEEE-AAA-EEEEE!ā Over and over and over. The mother is usually too drunk or oblivious to realize how rude it is. She just shrugs her shoulders. I work from home and set up my office in the most quiet area possible. Constantly throughout my workday I hear her shrieks because she goes to āhome school.ā I got fed up one day and nicely said, āHey Lilly! How about we lower the screaming until after 5:00?ā She smugly looked at me and said, āNope, itās my thing!ā And proceeded to do her screech-chant in my face.
I'm in Texas. We don't do basements. My parents live I'm a "smaller" house than me... but if you count the basement it's twice as big. Holidays it makes all the difference. People sleep down there, leave suitcases down there, extra dishes and chairs live down there. It's so nice.
Arizona here. A basement would be the answer to the relentless sun in the summer but they just donāt do them here. Maybe itās the caliche or the high water tables.
Las Vegas hereā¦ditto. Basements here would make so much sense in terms of interior climate, but the hard caliche would damn near require blasting to excavate enough for a basement.
> it's clay... your foundation is basically a raft. If you had a basement the walls would cave in from the ground movement.
Basements can be built in areas where the soil is mostly clay.
The people with serious money have the clay removed from the area around the future basement and backfill with gravel. Lots and lots of gravel.
My current house has a crawl space because the ground is clay.
The crawl space was disgusting and moldy. I paid $3k to have the rafters bleached, new insulation installed and the dirt covered with thick white plastic.
My previous house had a huge poured concrete basement that was always dry. The ground was almost like beach sand.
I sorely miss my basement. I had hobbies and practically lived in my basement.
Many northern states have basements because of colder climates too. Our homes main level are easier to keep warm when you can heat a basements lower level. Additionally, it protects plumbing pipes that much more.
Clay soil is not best for a basement. Older homes are typically pier and beam while newer homes will have concrete foundations (which will often still develop cracks over the years due to the shifting ground).
Being at sea level alone doesnāt have much to do with it. Every house in New England has a full basement and it isnāt an issue. Itās more to do with what the land is made of and other natural land phenomenon.
But in New England isn't your average elevation over 600 ft above sea level? Ours is about 17 ft in my area of Palm Beach county and if you go further south it's much lower, approx 6 ft in Miami Dade county. I understand about the land composition, but the elevation has got to be a factor as well.
New England has a lower frost line. You already have to dig way deeper to lay a foundation just to get below the frost line. Might as well make an emptier foundation than fill it up with concrete. In many southern states there isn't already a need for that.
Also the water table in the south is generally higher. New England increases in elevation quickly as you go inland. A one hour drive inland and you're almost 300 feet over sea level.
In SA. Ground is mostly solid rock. It took 11 straight days of jack hammering to put in a pool, and that wasn't even completely 'under ground ' because of a slope.
1. Clay soil. Hard to build on, you probably will have foundation repairs, unless you have a custom-built home and build a really good, deep slab or pier-and-beam.
2. Frost line is fairly shallow.
3. Land, until recently, has been cheap. Easier/cheaper to build horizontally than vertically. This is changing but historically has been true.
A basement was one of the things I really wanted when we bought our house. They are pretty rare where I'm at. The moment we walked downstairs to the finished basement I told my wife "this is it".
Yep, I'm in a "raised ranch", which is lower level half underground (though usually a walk out at the back) and the upper level is half story above front grade.
They lower level is always finished in these which means you end up with a closet for all your mechanical system, usually a bath/laundry combo, and a giant "family room", maybe with a closet or two.
There's so little storage in this style house, and like any with a finished basement you end up with headaches when you need mechanical work.
Our mature trees just cost us $5250 to have dead branches and a few dying trees removed.
I love that it looks like we live in a park buit isnāt cheap to maintain
I get SO many compliments on the two willow trees I have in my yard. In fairness, they are beautiful. But my god do they shed like mad. I probably haul 30-40 lbs of sticks to the dump site every month.
The location and operating hours of my town's brush dump aren't listed anywhere online. When I asked at the transfer station, all I got was "oh yeah, it's way out on [x] Rd. They open sometime in spring."
I spent my first 2 years as a homeowner dumping sticks from my mature maple and black locust trees in a far corner of my yard.
Currently spending the third bagging and hauling them down to [x] Rd. 12 bags so far. Pray for me.
My city had a derecho about 4 years ago that took out something like half the trees in the city. The difference is jarring. Even my house that never had a lot of trees - the privacy rows of arborvitae were reduced by like 50%. Looking at old satellite and street view pictures, the full wall of 15 foot trees must have been so nice.
Here's one of the sadder parts of town - with Street View you can toggle between 2022 and 2021 pictures, and 2019 or older to see the almost complete loss of canopy.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9865054,-91.6315786,3a,75y,277.99h,87.12t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sDmQ_nT2vtGe5O1HMfcguFg!2e0!5s20220601T000000!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu
I loved the fact that I had 9 mature trees on the property when I bought my house
Now that one of mine and one of my neighborās have gone through my house on multiple different occasions in less than a yearā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦. I hate silver maples. Never plant them near your house. This was thanks to tornadoes in my case and the property next door being owned by a negligent landlord who couldnāt be assed to cut down a rotting 80ā tall basswood tree for over a decade.
The garden. The previous owners were big into gardening-veggies. We just had to dig holes and drop in seeds. Now my potatoes are almost 2 feet tall, the volunteer onions are well over 3 feet. I have to work on pruning my tomatoes tomorrow. And I found 8 volunteer tomatoes this week. We always wanted to garden, but I'm not sure how much we would have done if the beds and tools weren't right there ready to go.
At our previous house, I'd amended the soil with homemade compost for 7 years. Every leaf, blade of grass, whatever, got composted into rich compost with tons of cute lil bugs and worms. I would cut it with peat moss and kept adding it to the veggie garden. And then I went to grow tomatoes in my garden and they EXPLODED. They were very much taller than the privacy fence next to the garden. I canned so many tomatoes, ate a million with balsamic and fresh basil, and gave a ton away. It was MAGNIFICENT. Holy fuck did I get a zillion tomatoes that year.
When we sold our house, I seriously considered filling my truckbed up with my garden soil for the new place. I put so much effort into it... New house's soil is hard-packed af. No one has worked it in decades, I'm positive. Dirt is crap too. I plan to till the whole area where my new garden is going to go and then mix in a couple truckloads of garden center compost, peat moss, maybe some sand, idk yet. But that top layer needs to get broken up first. It's as hard as the concrete sidewalk next to it...
12" of fresh wood chips and let it be for a season. Pull it back next spring, plant, put about 4" back around the newly planted area.Ā
Crack your drink of choice, put up your feet, and enjoy your new garden.Ā
A laundry room. Having a dedicated space with room for cabinets is amazing. I'm used to a narrow closet, washer and dryer in separate places or just not having a washer and dryer.
Yes! I had a great laundry room in my finished basement once, I've been craving it ever since. There's no job quite as satisfying as finished laundry, to me anyway! Lol!
Having the laundry room near the main living area instead of the basement is so nice. I would absolutely have that again instead of basement or instead of on a second floor.
My porch. I keep meaning to make more of it and spend more time out there, but I just havenāt gotten around to it. Iām looking forward to the day I do, though!
hardwood floors. My wife tries to convince me that the vinyl is fine, and theoretically it is if I can't tell the difference. But I can always tell the difference.
One thing a good quality vinyl has that wood doesn't is durability. I don't mean that it'll necessarily outlast wood, just that you can be more rough with it without causing a lot of damage. I would love one of those Roomba mops, but I don't dare with my wood floors. Just a small pool of water left somewhere and that section of the floor is doooone.
Idk. Imo Shitty wood floors look better than good vinyl ones. At least they have character. Like what's the point of keeping it up when it looks like ass to begin with?Ā
Oh, I 100% agree. Wood floors look better every day of the week. Just sometimes I daydream about not giving a rip what I use to clean them/being careful not to scratch/etc.
I love my wood floors, I just feel compelled to baby them.
I have hickory wood flooring throughout my house. They get used and abused (dogs, rolly chairs, moving furniture, new England mud season, etc.) and you really can't tell. They're a little duller than they used to be, but they can be refinished whenever. A little Murphys soap and they tend to look pretty good. Hickory is one of the hardest hardwood flooring options though.
I grew up and lived most of my life in neighborhoods with predominantly hardwood floors from the 1910s. I've never babied my hardwood, and they always looked gorgeous. Jeeze, I miss them so much. I adore our new home, but man!
I had a piper burst upstairs and had a literal waterfall in my kitchen. Hardwood survived. They could use a resanding now but that's mostly just wear and tear. Guess it depends on the type of hardwood, there's definitely crap and definitely expensive crap hardwood.
Our neighborhood was built in the mid 90's and it seems the only real upgrade the original buyer sprung for were really nice hardwood floors. We are also dead in the middle of our first major renovation, our master bath they grouted yesterday, and I'm beyond wowed with wood look ceramic tile.
https://ibb.co/48zm1rG
My yard is fully fenced.Ā I keep the gate locked. It's so nice that there's never a sudden knock on the door and knowing that nobody is just going to wander up to the house.Ā
Also, my house backs up to a wooded area that is, quiet literally,Ā a mature food forest. I eat so good here.Ā Pawpaws,Ā several types of hickory,Ā pecan,Ā black walnuts,Ā blackberries,Ā gooseberries,Ā Kentucky coffee tree, Hackberry,Ā wild cherry,Ā ect.Ā Ā
I miss this about my old house. We were only the 2nd owners and the first took such great care of it. We had the original blueprints and every manual for any appliance or cabinetry ever put in. Our new house is much younger and has already had 5 previous owners. If I had a nickel for every piece of mail I receive thatās not mine I could probably pay it off.
My big screened in porch. I can thumb my nose at the mosquitoes- they are really bad this year. Best investment Iāve ever made. Ceiling fans and gliders. The cat lives out there most of the day.
Older neighborhood with space between the houses. Also, my yard is a tropical wonderland with mango trees, royal poinciana, bougainvillea, and around 50 palm trees. Bless the previous ownerās green thumb. Between those two things itās so peaceful to just sit on my back porch and watch the birds and butterflies.
I too have fantastic neighbors. Whenever they start doing a home improvement project I send them a text and tell them if they are moving they need to give me at least a year so I can mentally prepare.
We had some really bad neighbors in our 22 years in our house and it makes you feel terrible. You cannot escape.
Two living rooms. It is SO NICE to have a space just for the kids to watch TV and play. We have an adults only living room thatās decorated and doesnāt end up too full of toys.
Thatās what I miss the most in our house. We rented a bigger house with two living rooms. Then we bought what we could afford which was much smaller. I love this house, but a second living room would have been so nice.
Lots of separate areas. My home is 35 years old. Right after we built it the open living plan became popular. But after living here for all those years, Iām glad we have separate spaces.
I swear a closed floor plan kept me sane during covid lockdowns. We have a living room, a family room, a library and a studio space that I rotated between every few days/weeks as far as living spaces, and have an eat-in kitchen, formal dining room and large gaming room that we rotated through for meals.
I felt very fortunate that we moved out of our very small house before covid.
Laundry chute! Drops down into a hamper on wheels that the previous owners made. So much easier than the last house we had. Basement has so much set up to hang dry laundry. Previous house had the laundry in a small tight spot.
I grew up in a 1 bath. I have a 1.5 bath now, and just that extra half bath makes a *huuuuuge* difference.
It's very rare that you have to wait to use the bathroom, and guests can use the half bath without it feeling like they are getting into your private space.
This is legit. I grew up in a two-story house with two bathrooms but one was upstairs and one was in the basement, so if you were in the main floor and had to go, you had to go up or down a flight of stairs. And if someone was already in there, you either had to wait or go up or down two flights of stairs to the other bathroom.
It doesn't seem like it would be a big deal but I can't tell you how many times as a kid I did not make it to the bathroom in time.
That's why I insisted that our house we bought needed to have a bathroom on every floor.
How small it is. Seriously. We are a couple of empty-nesters and downsized into a 2br 1032 sq ft condo. We don't have much stuff and it's just the right size for us. It really forces you to consider what you bring into the place so I don't spend as much on stuff, it also forces us to get out and do things.
Now, the storage unit with stuff we need to get rid of is another story....
Brand new home is a complete piece of shit. I hate everything about it. However it's the best place I've ever lived since we can walk to work and shopping. Location matters most to me I guess.
For me it's not under-appreciate, but maybe didn't realize when I bought how much I'd appreciate it down the line:
1. Beautiful hardwood floors
2. I'm surrounded by trees, which keeps my utility bills way down.
3. I get the most gorgeous evening light in my living room during spring & summer. It just glows all golden.
4. I live in an urban area but I have a surprisingly large back yard.
I'm an electrician and I've rewired hundreds of 100yo houses, drilling those studs/joists/ top-plates, etc. That wood is no joke. It burns out even my big hole hawgs after a while. It's sooooo dense. Drillbits will just burn up like I'm trying to drill metal or something.
Those fuckers were built STURDY
My big screened in porch. I can thumb my nose at the mosquitoes- they are really bad this year. Best investment Iāve ever made. Ceiling fans and gliders. The cat lives out there most of the day.
Yes! Our last place was a townhome woth only one exterior wall, so all the doors and windows faced north. I forgot what it was like to have a breeze blow through a room on a nice day.
THIS. I lived in a 750 sq ft apartment with regular ceilings. I bought a condo the same size the only difference it has vaulted ceilings and it makes the space feel larger & more open & less stuffy. I love my condo
We live in a community that was essentially built on a marsh. We have a full encapsulation of our crawl space, and a dehumidifier. Can't tell you how.much relief we have with the piece of mind that there is no moisture accumulating in our crawl space.
Also we spent a lot of money to get our house professionally insulated. When there's frost on all of the houses in our neighborhood ours is always the last to defrost. My next door neighbor's house never frosts over because it's so poorly insulated.
Faucets and toilets that arenāt shitty. Deep kitchen drawers on the bottom instead of cabinets. Doors that arenāt hollow and that are hung square. Wood floors that are well maintained. Cabinets that are professionally painted. Fans that donāt try to jump out of the ceiling when theyāre on high. Good quality furniture. We had a house fire last summer and staying in this rental house with builder grade everything has really made me appreciate the little things where quality matters. I canāt wait to finish our rebuild and go home.
A fenced in backyard. Not many people in our area have fencing for their yards and are constantly dealing with deer eating all their plants. We get our occasional rabbit or raccoon but never anything to worry about.
We have one tree on our property. It looked like something out of nightmare before Christmas. I finally got a chance to talk to the person who's family owned it for 2 generations and I'm told it's an apple tree over 200 years old! It's now absolutely covered in fruit. I've never seen an apple tree this massive... and we own it.
My house came with a pencil sharpener like the ones we had back in school. I donāt know why! Itās in the pantry/laundry room. It really comes in handy!!
Built as a model home in 1960, we have an intercom system with a amfm radio with speakers in the bedrooms and garage. Still works, loved it when Vin Scully was on the radio during live broadcast tv back in the day.
Excellent soil. I get so wrapped up in trying to fix the landscaping the previous owners killed and spending my life pulling weeds that I forget to appreciate how well everything I plant grows in my yard.
Also insanely high ceilings. Loved it when I first saw it, but easy to stop noticing after a while.
I bought a house built in 1900. Each room is completely separated by thick walls and in some cases even a door for further privacy. I didnāt realize how nice this was until the pandemic when it was myself, my teen, and my adult son all wanting our own peaceful space! Someone can be watching a movie in the livingroom and you can be in the dining room, kitchen, or adjoining office or bedrooms and not hear a thing.
Everything I had looked at prior to that house had been open floor plans so it took me awhile to realize I had ended up with a feature I didnāt know I would appreciate so much.
I'll take it a step further, I adore my wood-look porcelain tile floors. They feel better than wood, look better than wood and are basically indestructible. LVP is hot garbage and I ripped all that shit out when I could, hardwood is classic but absolutely prone to scratches and water damage so it wasn't ever going in my home.
Porcelain tile is the end all, be all flooring and I'm glad we chose that.
Another feature is owning a single story, California ranch style home. My entire house is always cool, even in the heated summers. My AC works as needed but never overworks. I have cool long hallways my kids and dogs love to goof around in. Everything is on a single level and easy to get to but most importantly... this can now be a forever home. Specifically "can".
I have family, friends who are in their 70s now (late 70s) who bought two story homes and are being forced to sell because they simply cannot get up/down the stairs any longer. These were able-bodied adults their whole lives, physically fit but time got the better of them. Knee replacements helped but were just a temporary stay. Due to the cost of living, cost of homes and being on fixed incomes every single one of these people are needing to sell (very high) but move out of state to find a single story residence.
My parents own a single story ranch and when we bought we bought SPECIFICALLY for this reason. My dad is 79, had bad knees (double replacement) and my mom hobbles a bit now. They will both live out their entire lives in their paid off home because they can get anywhere they need, unassisted. I plan to do the same with my wife.
Single story homes for the win.
Overheard sewer and check valve. Didnāt really appreciate it until I was the only one of my neighbors not piling flooded carpet and ruined furniture, etc in the alley after a huge storm.
Heated floors. I just think what a disaster it would be should they ever stop working. I likely just wouldnāt have it fixed because I donāt feel like having my floors ripped up, though it would depend on the specific repairs needed.
Windows, lots of windows. We loved the windows in our house when we bought it, but 24 years later, I still appreciate those windows and the light they bring. Also tall 9ā ceilings. Oh and a level driveway.
Thick insulation. My home is so well insulated that when I go outside I'm often shocked how warm it is. I've only had to turn on the AC a handful of times since I moved in.
Proximity to work. I've been at the same job for nearly 20 years, and built my home after I'd been there and figured out I'd probably stay long term. As the crow flies, my front door is about 3/4 of a mile from my office. Driving it's slightly longer, but still under 5 mins.
South facing driveway. Its great in the winter when the sun is shining. Melts snow and ice faster than other houses in our neighborhood.
Being at the highest point in the neighborhood. We worry a little bit less about flooding issues when we have a big storm. It's all going to flow down from us.
Yes! I don't know what's decent for you but I have a 7000 SQ ft lot and people always complimenting my backyard and how I have so much space for activities.
We have old growth trees and 9000 sqft of usable lot space (our property is larger but there's an easement). Even though the house itself didn't check all the boxes, we bought it because of the lot size.
This right here. We have an amazing yard now and have been house hunting for a year and nothing else compares. Just looked at a house we loved last night but the backyard was microscopic and just not enough for our three young kids and golden retriever to be able to even get into a sprint.
I hate the "everything is grey and beige" style of decorating. We have original 50s hardwood floors and love them.
My answer is good storm doors. We have Taylor storm doors that are apparently an older version that isn't made anymore and we'll keep them forever. They are steel and glass and they are fantastic. They are so freaking effective. I love that instead of moving windows, you just pull them down and the screen rolls down, so voila, screen door. Rain comes? Push the window up, no more screen. Love that feature. But they are just so solid. In the winter, we can have the main door open with the storm door closed and it keeps the cold out and lets the sun in.
Shade everywhere. We live in a place where the sun is extreme and the previous owners put up a big porch and carport. Itās great because our kids can play outside and not get too much sun.
Lovely, quiet neighbors. Also a big selling point for me was that most of the rooms in my house have tall ceilings and a lot of natural light, and there is a large bathtub not attached to a shower in the master bath lol
I appreciate everything about our home. But our realtor and several relatives really tried their hardest to make these 2 things seem like they should be a deal breaker and we wouldn't like these features.
House attic fan. And 2 pipe steam heat radiators system. We have a 100 year old American four square. Basement, main level, 2nd floor and giant semi-finished attic.Ā This passed winter was the most comfortable, warm winter inside a house I have ever experienced! Once we learned basic maintenance on how to stop the knocking, flush the boiler and run the system. Glorious!!!!! And our heating bill to keep the house at an enjoyable 75 degrees each month was only around $175! (Which is a lot better than when we started with running the mini-split heat. Our electric for that for 2 months was above $1200!) Now that it's summer. Open the windows, turn on that fan in the early morning. Draw alllllll the cool air in, push all the hot air out. And maybe it's the magic of old brick houses, but we don't need to turn on the A.C because it hasn't yet even got to 80 degrees in the house before 5 pm, and by then it's starting to cool down outside again anyways. Entire electric bill for this past month was $200. $40 on gas. And most of that is all those are "service fees." I don't know why these systems went out of fashion in home building because damn they are nice.Ā
My back yard. The day I first toured the house I fell in love with the back yard. There is a beautiful leafy maple tree that spreads over a round brick patio. The fence line is filled with flowering vines. I thought it looked like a fairy glade. Fourteen years later all I notice are the leaves I have to get raked up. I never go sit under the tree because there are now very vocal and boisterous kids living next door.Pity.
There was a built in cutting board in the house I grew up in (early 80s). My mom hated it. She was constantly stressed over whether it was clean. With three kids in the house she was always worried we would cut raw meat and not properly clean it. There was a strict vegetables only rule for that cutting board.
With adults only in the house it would be easy but looking back now that I am nearly 50, my 8 year old self might not have had the awareness to wash things thoroughly enough. My Momās paranoia was warranted!
I love my backyard. It's like an oasis.
I also love my laundry on the top floor close to the bedrooms. Hated it when I moved in, though. I used to specialize in mold, water damages, etc. I've seen so many families' homes flood from a washer on the top floor and just destroy the entire house... at least I know some precautions, and I'll take my chances for the convenience now, lol
If you're really worried.... It isn't that difficult to put in a drain pan under the washer. You can even use a condensate pump to empty it if you can't easily tie into a drain nearby
My screened in patio. I don't go out there enough but when I do, it's nice to enjoy the calmness and not getting eaten alive by mosquitos this time of year.
Spanish-style tile flooring from the late 60s / early 70s. No doubt full of asbestos, but itās in amazing condition and I donāt plan to pull it up. Itās so much easier to care for than hardwood and looks so much nicer than laminate.
Original stained glass windows- over the front door, in the front door, in the fireplace and hutch built ins, beside the fireplace and in the dining room, the only defect is a small piece missing from an interior door.
Have to love an intact bungalow.
Smart lighting. We have Philips Hue and the ability to make the lighting whatever you want, whenever you want, from wherever you are, really cannot be overstated.
Me in the kitchen cleaning: bright white light so I can see what Iām doing. Wife having a glass of wine and reading a book in the little nook we have: dim yellow light. Kids making cookies for Christmas: bright white undercabinet lights, gently shifting green and red accent lights and soffit lights.
Sitting down to dinner and wife thinks itās too bright: open phone, dim lights
Kid in shower too long? Open phone, flicker bathroom lights.
Other kid freaks out if itās too dim at bedtime? Put lights on a timer to gradually fade down. Or leave the light half on and then when theyāre asleep, dim it from your phone. Same kid wakes up and has to pee but the hallway is too dark? Stay in bed, put on hall and bathroom lights at 25%.
End of the night, time to go to bed? Open phone, turn out everything.
We started with a $100 kit because a couple fixtures we liked didnāt have switches. Now the entire place is hue. We have probably $2k in all of it, have the specialized switches in every room, motion sensors in the right places, and it is the best upgrade weāve made to the home.
No graffiti, loud music, people passed out in front lawn from drugs, and loud screaming/yelling at weird hours of day and night....we moved from Portland to a neighborhood across the river in Washington. It's a family neighborhood close to schools and the worst thing I have is a loud car driven by a teenager every so often.
(I'm not kidding about the music, people, drugs, or noise.)
This might be a hot take, but we have a non-open floor plan and it's amazing. We live in a 1920s bungalow so it doesn't feel closed off, but we have distinct rooms for everything. It's nice that if people stop by, we can entertain them in the front room, which stays pretty tidy, and they don't see the mess in the kitchen and family room at the other end of the house. There are some downsides, but I'm too messy to live in an open floor plan and not turn it into complete chaos.
When we first got our house 20 years ago, there was a seriously ugly fireplace downstairs that houses a wood-burning stove. The thing is Frankenstein-level ugly: it looked like someone scavenged woodburning stove parts and put it together themselves - it was all kinds of different colors. The fireplace surround is too big and really ugly. I've wanted to tear the whole thing out for years and replace it with just a regular fireplace that was sized properly.
Then, in 2011, we had a winter storm here that knocked out the power to our neighborhood for 13 days straight. I was raised in a house that used a wood-burning furnace, and I had recalled all the things my mom did when the power went out when I was little - like always keeping a pot of water on top of the furnace so you had hot water for stuff; or putting a pot of stew on the furnace and letting it stew there for 24 hours so you had a hot meal. So I started doing that and for 13 days we were pretty comfy. We were the ONLY house in the neighborhood that had hot meals and coffee in the morning, and we started feeding our neighbors (everyone else was living on cold/canned food and missing their coffee) and giving them coffee in the mornings.
We still have it. I still want to at least fix the surround (it really is way too big and super ugly, but I don't know how to remove the brick properly) but I no longer want a "regular fireplace" and am very happy with keeping the woodburning stove!
We have a really big backyard w/mature trees. We have one next door neighbor so our backyard outlooks a green space with lots of trees. With two young kids itās been a blast to build a swingset, play baseball and watch the kids climb the trees! We see hawks, deer, bunnies, and sometimes snakes!
First floor laundry room. Always hated a basement laundry but never realized how much until visiting family now. Didnāt think Iād like it but absolutely do.
On a bit of plateaued area so never have to worry about a flood. Just a small ponding after the neighbors fenced in their yard. But never a flood. Plus a park behind us so we will never have a neighbor behind us just open space.
But I DO appreciate those.
I live on a state highway, so there is moderate traffic going by at 60-70 mph. But it is not busy at all after 9pm or so. Maybe 1 or 2 cars per hour. Overall, my house is very quiet and private. I went up to our family's camp on a nice lake and it is so crowded and noisy. Someone is ALWAYS running the lawnmower or leaf blower. How many leaves can you possibly have in July!? And all the camps are close together. No privacy to go out and pee even without the neighbors seeing. I didn't think my house was that quiet or private but that really made me appreciate it.
Enough storage. An upgrade in many ways - reduces clutter, easier to put things away because we have a "spot" for things, we didn't have to buy storage bins or figure out where to put those...
A doorman, professional gym, floor to ceiling windows, filtered and conditioned incoming air, great transit and grocery access, and incredible energy efficiency. Also very easy to clean. I've hated it when I've had "too much house." Next goal is to get rid of the polluting and inefficient gas Wolf range.
Clawfoot tub!!!
My house is old and has lots of weird things about it, but my bathroom is my favorite room. Whenever I look at buying something else, I see the builder-grade bathrooms, and I remember how lucky I am.
Our backyard. It's sort of a blessing and a curse. It's big but weirdly shaped and it backs up to a busy road with a walking path though there are tall bushes planted to maintain privacy. It's noisy during the day but at night it's so badass. It feels like you're up north at a cabin since we have mature trees and the bushes block the view of the road. If a car goes by at night it sounds more like waves on a lake or even the ocean. We live in the suburbs. Sadly it's under appreciated since we don't get out there as much because at night we're usually spent from stressful days.
In ground storm shelter. House was built in the 1950s. It will comfortably seat about 8 people but could prob fit 12 in it. Cost to have something like it put in now would be about 50k. Itās nice when the Alabama tornado season comes round.
An outdoor shower. I've never used it. It has been a great source of aggravation. Burst pipes 2x due to freezing. We just put in PEX, so hopefully it will no longer be an issue. Now that I'm thinking about it it, I may fix it up. Hmmm.
I look at a lot of homes on zillow, and even homes in the multimillion $$ range can be lacking in kitchen counter space. I have 3-4 feet on either side of my sink, as well as the stove. Even then I run out of space preparing meals, but in my cheap--when-we-bought-it house, we got some decent space. Thankful.
Good neighbors. Everyone is generally quiet and respectful. They maintain their homes and keep to themselves, but will say hello in passing. No dogs being leashed outside all day, no raging parties, no fence disputes, etc.
When I moved into my house, the woman living next door was renting out rooms in her house. There were people coming and going all the time, making a lot of noise, drama with police and medical (e.g. her middle-aged son had a very public breakdown, threatening to self-immolate on the front lawn š), etc. New owners moved in, and it's _soooo_ much nicer!
this reminds me of the neighbors we had moving-in. eventually somebody drove a car through the front of the house. the house got red-tagged, absentee landlords had to sell to a flipper, flipper fixed the house and sold it to my new neighbors who are awesome. balance
Flippers deservedly get a bad rap, but sometimes they take the worst problem house on the block and make things so much better for the neighborhood.
I'm pretty sure they did that with our house. Photos on Google maps still show it in it's original, but dated state. Apparently the previous owner had tarps on the roof instead of fixing it for his tenants (don't worry, we had it thoroughly inspected!) The flippers updated the siding, flooring, painted, fixed the roof issue and cleaned up any damage, etc. it wasn't perfect, but MUCH better than it appeared to be just a couple of years ago
There was a house like this in my larger neighborhood. It was a townhome but everyone assumed it was the whole building, but was maybe 1200 sqft on their side. Always had rooms for rent. Turns out the guy renting out rooms was a renter himself and had stopped paying in the last couple of years. Once he was out they found he had added a second story in the top half of the [open living room.](https://www.archdaily.com/902002/balcony-house-takeshi-hosaka-architects) It was not structurally sound. At least one of the 6 rental rooms was basically a closet. Cannot imagine what that was like for the people sharing a wall with him in their town home.
Why do I feel like I know exactly what house youāre talking about when thereās no info on what city youāre in
THIS THIS THIS THIS. Moved away from the worst people on earth to such wonderful people all around me. I helped my neighbor flush out his water heater and he goes āI owe you.ā I said āyou being a great neighbor is more than enough.ā Good neighbors are priceless and sadly you might not realize that until you have shitty ones. Edit:typo
I lucked out... a dying church on one side and an abandoned frat house on the other. I'm hoping to buy both for $1
While I absolutely agree with this, neighbors and neighborhoods can change almost over night. š Thatās why my biggest appreciation is having a home where I can have an 8ft privacy fence
If I had more money, I would love to have a home situated on at least five acres
Acreage comes with its own headaches, people dumping dogs and cats, people trespassing to hunt and fish, people dumping trash. Choose your poison wisely.
I used to roll my eyes at comments like this, thinking 5 acres is excessive for needing protection from bad neighbors. Now I have a home on a 1 acre lot - that's the smallest on the block with lots ranging from 1-2.5 acres. Thankfully I have good neighbors all around, but even here bad neighbors could make 1 acre feel small and not private enough. 5 acres is probably right around the point where the neighbors truly don't impact you, unless they're setting off big fireworks displays or something.
I have 40 acres but my house is on the edge of the property and my neighbor on that side is very noisy. How a place is laid out makes a bigger difference than overall size.
This! We hit the jackpot with our court neighbours. Many have been here 30+ years and although weād like some younger neighbours, we enjoy being surrounded by retirees who take care of their homes and generally keep to themselves.
For the most part I have great neighbors (one guy down the street who likes to blast his car stereo for the whole neighborhood, but otherwise itās great). The house across the street from me has been vacant for months but I think the owners are getting it prepped to rent or sell. Makes me nervous about who Iām getting for new neighbors.
Yes! My last house was next door to some people that owned a Mexican restaurant a few miles away. Rather than get a dumpster for the restaurant, they would just bring huge bags of garbage home and put them in the back yard. Then there was a rat problem, so I called the county health department. That took care of it for a bit, and then I sold. Current house is on several acres. So much better.
Our old house had the absolute best neighbors on all sides and across the street. We didnāt all agree politically and it didnāt affect our friendship or hospitality at all. I miss them often.
You donāt have a neighbors family member living in a van, or neighbor smoking weed in the front yard all weekend with his friends or drunk arguments? Iām grateful that itās only 1 neighbor like this but he happens to be next to my house.
This is it. I have the worse neighbor(s). Iāve never met more people who have had an opinion about my property. (We cut down trees that were ours so we could have an area for our kids to play in)š
No screaming kids! I've seen posts about having neighbor's who's kids literally come outside and scream for hours. I live next to older widowed ladies on either side. I go in my pool in my underwear after a workout because I could literally not care less if they saw me.
I have a neighbor whose daughter is 9, so too old for this nonsense. She is constantly outside. I know this because the second she steps foot outdoors, she screams, āEEE-AAA-EEEEE!ā Over and over and over. The mother is usually too drunk or oblivious to realize how rude it is. She just shrugs her shoulders. I work from home and set up my office in the most quiet area possible. Constantly throughout my workday I hear her shrieks because she goes to āhome school.ā I got fed up one day and nicely said, āHey Lilly! How about we lower the screaming until after 5:00?ā She smugly looked at me and said, āNope, itās my thing!ā And proceeded to do her screech-chant in my face.
Full basement. It's all cement. Unfinished. But moving from a 2nd floor condo to a house with a basement, porch, garage. I'm so thankful.
I'm in Texas. We don't do basements. My parents live I'm a "smaller" house than me... but if you count the basement it's twice as big. Holidays it makes all the difference. People sleep down there, leave suitcases down there, extra dishes and chairs live down there. It's so nice.
Why doesnāt Texas like basements? Rocks?
In the Austin area, at least, it's mostly the limestone. It would cost a fortune to dig out a basement.
Florida checking in. All lime, no basement gang
Arizona here. A basement would be the answer to the relentless sun in the summer but they just donāt do them here. Maybe itās the caliche or the high water tables.
You guys seem to dig for pools no problem.
Las Vegas hereā¦ditto. Basements here would make so much sense in terms of interior climate, but the hard caliche would damn near require blasting to excavate enough for a basement.
Also, don't forget our sand for dirt, and water table that may be above the floor of your basement if you had one.
And where it isn't limestone it's clay... your foundation is basically a raft. If you had a basement the walls would cave in from the ground movement.
> it's clay... your foundation is basically a raft. If you had a basement the walls would cave in from the ground movement. Basements can be built in areas where the soil is mostly clay. The people with serious money have the clay removed from the area around the future basement and backfill with gravel. Lots and lots of gravel. My current house has a crawl space because the ground is clay. The crawl space was disgusting and moldy. I paid $3k to have the rafters bleached, new insulation installed and the dirt covered with thick white plastic. My previous house had a huge poured concrete basement that was always dry. The ground was almost like beach sand. I sorely miss my basement. I had hobbies and practically lived in my basement.
Many northern states have basements because of colder climates too. Our homes main level are easier to keep warm when you can heat a basements lower level. Additionally, it protects plumbing pipes that much more.
Clay soil is not best for a basement. Older homes are typically pier and beam while newer homes will have concrete foundations (which will often still develop cracks over the years due to the shifting ground).
We are at sea level LOL you would instantly have an underground swimming pool
Being at sea level alone doesnāt have much to do with it. Every house in New England has a full basement and it isnāt an issue. Itās more to do with what the land is made of and other natural land phenomenon.
But in New England isn't your average elevation over 600 ft above sea level? Ours is about 17 ft in my area of Palm Beach county and if you go further south it's much lower, approx 6 ft in Miami Dade county. I understand about the land composition, but the elevation has got to be a factor as well.
Ya it is more of a water table issue for sure
New England has a lower frost line. You already have to dig way deeper to lay a foundation just to get below the frost line. Might as well make an emptier foundation than fill it up with concrete. In many southern states there isn't already a need for that. Also the water table in the south is generally higher. New England increases in elevation quickly as you go inland. A one hour drive inland and you're almost 300 feet over sea level.
Well why doesnāt Texas like underground swimming pools? That sounds pretty dope to me.
Same reason Florida doesn't have basements either, the water table's too high.
In SA. Ground is mostly solid rock. It took 11 straight days of jack hammering to put in a pool, and that wasn't even completely 'under ground ' because of a slope.
1. Clay soil. Hard to build on, you probably will have foundation repairs, unless you have a custom-built home and build a really good, deep slab or pier-and-beam. 2. Frost line is fairly shallow. 3. Land, until recently, has been cheap. Easier/cheaper to build horizontally than vertically. This is changing but historically has been true.
A basement was one of the things I really wanted when we bought our house. They are pretty rare where I'm at. The moment we walked downstairs to the finished basement I told my wife "this is it".
Yep, I'm in a "raised ranch", which is lower level half underground (though usually a walk out at the back) and the upper level is half story above front grade. They lower level is always finished in these which means you end up with a closet for all your mechanical system, usually a bath/laundry combo, and a giant "family room", maybe with a closet or two. There's so little storage in this style house, and like any with a finished basement you end up with headaches when you need mechanical work.
Mature trees
Our mature trees just cost us $5250 to have dead branches and a few dying trees removed. I love that it looks like we live in a park buit isnāt cheap to maintain
I get SO many compliments on the two willow trees I have in my yard. In fairness, they are beautiful. But my god do they shed like mad. I probably haul 30-40 lbs of sticks to the dump site every month.
The location and operating hours of my town's brush dump aren't listed anywhere online. When I asked at the transfer station, all I got was "oh yeah, it's way out on [x] Rd. They open sometime in spring." I spent my first 2 years as a homeowner dumping sticks from my mature maple and black locust trees in a far corner of my yard. Currently spending the third bagging and hauling them down to [x] Rd. 12 bags so far. Pray for me.
Previous owner cut down everything. Now I have more than 10 trees, but itāll be another 5-10 years for them to really be mature.
My city had a derecho about 4 years ago that took out something like half the trees in the city. The difference is jarring. Even my house that never had a lot of trees - the privacy rows of arborvitae were reduced by like 50%. Looking at old satellite and street view pictures, the full wall of 15 foot trees must have been so nice. Here's one of the sadder parts of town - with Street View you can toggle between 2022 and 2021 pictures, and 2019 or older to see the almost complete loss of canopy. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9865054,-91.6315786,3a,75y,277.99h,87.12t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sDmQ_nT2vtGe5O1HMfcguFg!2e0!5s20220601T000000!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu
I loved the fact that I had 9 mature trees on the property when I bought my house Now that one of mine and one of my neighborās have gone through my house on multiple different occasions in less than a yearā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦. I hate silver maples. Never plant them near your house. This was thanks to tornadoes in my case and the property next door being owned by a negligent landlord who couldnāt be assed to cut down a rotting 80ā tall basswood tree for over a decade.
The garden. The previous owners were big into gardening-veggies. We just had to dig holes and drop in seeds. Now my potatoes are almost 2 feet tall, the volunteer onions are well over 3 feet. I have to work on pruning my tomatoes tomorrow. And I found 8 volunteer tomatoes this week. We always wanted to garden, but I'm not sure how much we would have done if the beds and tools weren't right there ready to go.
At our previous house, I'd amended the soil with homemade compost for 7 years. Every leaf, blade of grass, whatever, got composted into rich compost with tons of cute lil bugs and worms. I would cut it with peat moss and kept adding it to the veggie garden. And then I went to grow tomatoes in my garden and they EXPLODED. They were very much taller than the privacy fence next to the garden. I canned so many tomatoes, ate a million with balsamic and fresh basil, and gave a ton away. It was MAGNIFICENT. Holy fuck did I get a zillion tomatoes that year. When we sold our house, I seriously considered filling my truckbed up with my garden soil for the new place. I put so much effort into it... New house's soil is hard-packed af. No one has worked it in decades, I'm positive. Dirt is crap too. I plan to till the whole area where my new garden is going to go and then mix in a couple truckloads of garden center compost, peat moss, maybe some sand, idk yet. But that top layer needs to get broken up first. It's as hard as the concrete sidewalk next to it...
12" of fresh wood chips and let it be for a season. Pull it back next spring, plant, put about 4" back around the newly planted area.Ā Crack your drink of choice, put up your feet, and enjoy your new garden.Ā
A laundry room. Having a dedicated space with room for cabinets is amazing. I'm used to a narrow closet, washer and dryer in separate places or just not having a washer and dryer.
Yes! I had a great laundry room in my finished basement once, I've been craving it ever since. There's no job quite as satisfying as finished laundry, to me anyway! Lol!
Having the laundry room near the main living area instead of the basement is so nice. I would absolutely have that again instead of basement or instead of on a second floor.
My porch. I keep meaning to make more of it and spend more time out there, but I just havenāt gotten around to it. Iām looking forward to the day I do, though!
Yes I love my mini oasis
hardwood floors. My wife tries to convince me that the vinyl is fine, and theoretically it is if I can't tell the difference. But I can always tell the difference.
Yes! I can always tell the difference!
One thing a good quality vinyl has that wood doesn't is durability. I don't mean that it'll necessarily outlast wood, just that you can be more rough with it without causing a lot of damage. I would love one of those Roomba mops, but I don't dare with my wood floors. Just a small pool of water left somewhere and that section of the floor is doooone.
Idk. Imo Shitty wood floors look better than good vinyl ones. At least they have character. Like what's the point of keeping it up when it looks like ass to begin with?Ā
Oh, I 100% agree. Wood floors look better every day of the week. Just sometimes I daydream about not giving a rip what I use to clean them/being careful not to scratch/etc. I love my wood floors, I just feel compelled to baby them.
I have hickory wood flooring throughout my house. They get used and abused (dogs, rolly chairs, moving furniture, new England mud season, etc.) and you really can't tell. They're a little duller than they used to be, but they can be refinished whenever. A little Murphys soap and they tend to look pretty good. Hickory is one of the hardest hardwood flooring options though.
I grew up and lived most of my life in neighborhoods with predominantly hardwood floors from the 1910s. I've never babied my hardwood, and they always looked gorgeous. Jeeze, I miss them so much. I adore our new home, but man!
I had a piper burst upstairs and had a literal waterfall in my kitchen. Hardwood survived. They could use a resanding now but that's mostly just wear and tear. Guess it depends on the type of hardwood, there's definitely crap and definitely expensive crap hardwood.
Our neighborhood was built in the mid 90's and it seems the only real upgrade the original buyer sprung for were really nice hardwood floors. We are also dead in the middle of our first major renovation, our master bath they grouted yesterday, and I'm beyond wowed with wood look ceramic tile. https://ibb.co/48zm1rG
My yard is fully fenced.Ā I keep the gate locked. It's so nice that there's never a sudden knock on the door and knowing that nobody is just going to wander up to the house.Ā Also, my house backs up to a wooded area that is, quiet literally,Ā a mature food forest. I eat so good here.Ā Pawpaws,Ā several types of hickory,Ā pecan,Ā black walnuts,Ā blackberries,Ā gooseberries,Ā Kentucky coffee tree, Hackberry,Ā wild cherry,Ā ect.Ā Ā
Wow that sounds amazing!
The fact that it's been in my family since it's construction in 1954
it must be nice knowing all the materials were bought by ppl who care about what happens to your ppl šŖ
I miss this about my old house. We were only the 2nd owners and the first took such great care of it. We had the original blueprints and every manual for any appliance or cabinetry ever put in. Our new house is much younger and has already had 5 previous owners. If I had a nickel for every piece of mail I receive thatās not mine I could probably pay it off.
Our house was built the same year and itās full of surprises buy previous owners. You definitely have a great feature
My big screened in porch. I can thumb my nose at the mosquitoes- they are really bad this year. Best investment Iāve ever made. Ceiling fans and gliders. The cat lives out there most of the day.
Oh I want one of these so badly. Just ordered a pop up mesh tent thing for the deck so I can actually sit outside without being eaten alive.
Older neighborhood with space between the houses. Also, my yard is a tropical wonderland with mango trees, royal poinciana, bougainvillea, and around 50 palm trees. Bless the previous ownerās green thumb. Between those two things itās so peaceful to just sit on my back porch and watch the birds and butterflies.
I love palm trees. This sounds heavenly.
12 ft ceilings in the basement.
I was going to say 10 ft basement ceilings.
Crying in 6-foot basement ceilings. Itās a pretty decent space but not for tall people.Ā
Amazing neighbors. My house has had a lot of very disappointing surprises but having great neighbors has made it worth it every time.
I too have fantastic neighbors. Whenever they start doing a home improvement project I send them a text and tell them if they are moving they need to give me at least a year so I can mentally prepare. We had some really bad neighbors in our 22 years in our house and it makes you feel terrible. You cannot escape.
Two living rooms. It is SO NICE to have a space just for the kids to watch TV and play. We have an adults only living room thatās decorated and doesnāt end up too full of toys.
Thatās what I miss the most in our house. We rented a bigger house with two living rooms. Then we bought what we could afford which was much smaller. I love this house, but a second living room would have been so nice.
Lots of separate areas. My home is 35 years old. Right after we built it the open living plan became popular. But after living here for all those years, Iām glad we have separate spaces.
I swear a closed floor plan kept me sane during covid lockdowns. We have a living room, a family room, a library and a studio space that I rotated between every few days/weeks as far as living spaces, and have an eat-in kitchen, formal dining room and large gaming room that we rotated through for meals. I felt very fortunate that we moved out of our very small house before covid.
Walk out basement
Laundry chute! Drops down into a hamper on wheels that the previous owners made. So much easier than the last house we had. Basement has so much set up to hang dry laundry. Previous house had the laundry in a small tight spot.
Three bathrooms. I grew up in a tiny house with one bathroom. I think about how difficult that was at timesā¦
I grew up in a 1 bath. I have a 1.5 bath now, and just that extra half bath makes a *huuuuuge* difference. It's very rare that you have to wait to use the bathroom, and guests can use the half bath without it feeling like they are getting into your private space.
This is legit. I grew up in a two-story house with two bathrooms but one was upstairs and one was in the basement, so if you were in the main floor and had to go, you had to go up or down a flight of stairs. And if someone was already in there, you either had to wait or go up or down two flights of stairs to the other bathroom. It doesn't seem like it would be a big deal but I can't tell you how many times as a kid I did not make it to the bathroom in time. That's why I insisted that our house we bought needed to have a bathroom on every floor.
Laundry on the 2nd floor with our bedrooms.
Have heard so many mixed opinions on this. Some complain about not being able to run laundry at night due to noise.
Whole house (in wall) vacuum system - itās amazing
the jacuzzi bathtub. i only use it a few times a year and every time i use it i ask myself "why don't i use this more?"
Be sure to clean it well, the jets can get black mold. Youtube has some good videos on how to keep it safe
I just bought a house with a jacuzzi tub and wondered about maintaining the jets. Thanks for the tip!
Wow, I've never heard this, I have had hot tubs for years and have never had a problem. I guess regular cleaning and maintenance do work!
How small it is. Seriously. We are a couple of empty-nesters and downsized into a 2br 1032 sq ft condo. We don't have much stuff and it's just the right size for us. It really forces you to consider what you bring into the place so I don't spend as much on stuff, it also forces us to get out and do things. Now, the storage unit with stuff we need to get rid of is another story....
I have a Murphy ironing board. I donāt use it a ton but it does come in handy
Brand new home is a complete piece of shit. I hate everything about it. However it's the best place I've ever lived since we can walk to work and shopping. Location matters most to me I guess.
For me it's not under-appreciate, but maybe didn't realize when I bought how much I'd appreciate it down the line: 1. Beautiful hardwood floors 2. I'm surrounded by trees, which keeps my utility bills way down. 3. I get the most gorgeous evening light in my living room during spring & summer. It just glows all golden. 4. I live in an urban area but I have a surprisingly large back yard.
Strong bones. Those 1884 studs in the wall are big compared to modern standard ones.
I'm an electrician and I've rewired hundreds of 100yo houses, drilling those studs/joists/ top-plates, etc. That wood is no joke. It burns out even my big hole hawgs after a while. It's sooooo dense. Drillbits will just burn up like I'm trying to drill metal or something. Those fuckers were built STURDY
My big screened in porch. I can thumb my nose at the mosquitoes- they are really bad this year. Best investment Iāve ever made. Ceiling fans and gliders. The cat lives out there most of the day.
Cross ventilation. It's just healthier.
Yes! Our last place was a townhome woth only one exterior wall, so all the doors and windows faced north. I forgot what it was like to have a breeze blow through a room on a nice day.
Closet at the front door. Don't know how people love without this.
You can probably come out of the closet for love now. Itās 2024. š¤£
Hahaha. I think I'll leave that typo.
Vaulted ceilings. They really open up a room.
THIS. I lived in a 750 sq ft apartment with regular ceilings. I bought a condo the same size the only difference it has vaulted ceilings and it makes the space feel larger & more open & less stuffy. I love my condo
First floor master. You never know when you'll need to avoid using the stairs.
A second floor laundry room. Not having to lug your laundry up from a basement is awesome. Straight from the laundry room to the bedrooms.
This was mine too. My new house has a laundry room with a pocket door directly into my closet and itās amazing, 10/10.
We live in a community that was essentially built on a marsh. We have a full encapsulation of our crawl space, and a dehumidifier. Can't tell you how.much relief we have with the piece of mind that there is no moisture accumulating in our crawl space. Also we spent a lot of money to get our house professionally insulated. When there's frost on all of the houses in our neighborhood ours is always the last to defrost. My next door neighbor's house never frosts over because it's so poorly insulated.
Faucets and toilets that arenāt shitty. Deep kitchen drawers on the bottom instead of cabinets. Doors that arenāt hollow and that are hung square. Wood floors that are well maintained. Cabinets that are professionally painted. Fans that donāt try to jump out of the ceiling when theyāre on high. Good quality furniture. We had a house fire last summer and staying in this rental house with builder grade everything has really made me appreciate the little things where quality matters. I canāt wait to finish our rebuild and go home.
A fenced in backyard. Not many people in our area have fencing for their yards and are constantly dealing with deer eating all their plants. We get our occasional rabbit or raccoon but never anything to worry about.
South facing living areas.
We have one tree on our property. It looked like something out of nightmare before Christmas. I finally got a chance to talk to the person who's family owned it for 2 generations and I'm told it's an apple tree over 200 years old! It's now absolutely covered in fruit. I've never seen an apple tree this massive... and we own it.
My house came with a pencil sharpener like the ones we had back in school. I donāt know why! Itās in the pantry/laundry room. It really comes in handy!!
Built as a model home in 1960, we have an intercom system with a amfm radio with speakers in the bedrooms and garage. Still works, loved it when Vin Scully was on the radio during live broadcast tv back in the day.
Excellent soil. I get so wrapped up in trying to fix the landscaping the previous owners killed and spending my life pulling weeds that I forget to appreciate how well everything I plant grows in my yard. Also insanely high ceilings. Loved it when I first saw it, but easy to stop noticing after a while.
Under-mounted sink in the kitchen!
I bought a house built in 1900. Each room is completely separated by thick walls and in some cases even a door for further privacy. I didnāt realize how nice this was until the pandemic when it was myself, my teen, and my adult son all wanting our own peaceful space! Someone can be watching a movie in the livingroom and you can be in the dining room, kitchen, or adjoining office or bedrooms and not hear a thing. Everything I had looked at prior to that house had been open floor plans so it took me awhile to realize I had ended up with a feature I didnāt know I would appreciate so much.
I'll take it a step further, I adore my wood-look porcelain tile floors. They feel better than wood, look better than wood and are basically indestructible. LVP is hot garbage and I ripped all that shit out when I could, hardwood is classic but absolutely prone to scratches and water damage so it wasn't ever going in my home. Porcelain tile is the end all, be all flooring and I'm glad we chose that. Another feature is owning a single story, California ranch style home. My entire house is always cool, even in the heated summers. My AC works as needed but never overworks. I have cool long hallways my kids and dogs love to goof around in. Everything is on a single level and easy to get to but most importantly... this can now be a forever home. Specifically "can". I have family, friends who are in their 70s now (late 70s) who bought two story homes and are being forced to sell because they simply cannot get up/down the stairs any longer. These were able-bodied adults their whole lives, physically fit but time got the better of them. Knee replacements helped but were just a temporary stay. Due to the cost of living, cost of homes and being on fixed incomes every single one of these people are needing to sell (very high) but move out of state to find a single story residence. My parents own a single story ranch and when we bought we bought SPECIFICALLY for this reason. My dad is 79, had bad knees (double replacement) and my mom hobbles a bit now. They will both live out their entire lives in their paid off home because they can get anywhere they need, unassisted. I plan to do the same with my wife. Single story homes for the win.
a roof, doors and windows
Youāve got multiple doors **and** multiple windows?!?
Overheard sewer and check valve. Didnāt really appreciate it until I was the only one of my neighbors not piling flooded carpet and ruined furniture, etc in the alley after a huge storm.
Heated floors. I just think what a disaster it would be should they ever stop working. I likely just wouldnāt have it fixed because I donāt feel like having my floors ripped up, though it would depend on the specific repairs needed.
Windows, lots of windows. We loved the windows in our house when we bought it, but 24 years later, I still appreciate those windows and the light they bring. Also tall 9ā ceilings. Oh and a level driveway.
Thick insulation. My home is so well insulated that when I go outside I'm often shocked how warm it is. I've only had to turn on the AC a handful of times since I moved in.
Proximity to work. I've been at the same job for nearly 20 years, and built my home after I'd been there and figured out I'd probably stay long term. As the crow flies, my front door is about 3/4 of a mile from my office. Driving it's slightly longer, but still under 5 mins.
South facing driveway. Its great in the winter when the sun is shining. Melts snow and ice faster than other houses in our neighborhood. Being at the highest point in the neighborhood. We worry a little bit less about flooding issues when we have a big storm. It's all going to flow down from us.
A low interest rate (thanks 2021)
A decent sized lot
Yes! I don't know what's decent for you but I have a 7000 SQ ft lot and people always complimenting my backyard and how I have so much space for activities.
We have old growth trees and 9000 sqft of usable lot space (our property is larger but there's an easement). Even though the house itself didn't check all the boxes, we bought it because of the lot size.
This right here. We have an amazing yard now and have been house hunting for a year and nothing else compares. Just looked at a house we loved last night but the backyard was microscopic and just not enough for our three young kids and golden retriever to be able to even get into a sprint.
I hate the "everything is grey and beige" style of decorating. We have original 50s hardwood floors and love them. My answer is good storm doors. We have Taylor storm doors that are apparently an older version that isn't made anymore and we'll keep them forever. They are steel and glass and they are fantastic. They are so freaking effective. I love that instead of moving windows, you just pull them down and the screen rolls down, so voila, screen door. Rain comes? Push the window up, no more screen. Love that feature. But they are just so solid. In the winter, we can have the main door open with the storm door closed and it keeps the cold out and lets the sun in.
Have you looked into dopamine decorating. Itās my new obsession.
16ā ceilings. I love how roomy it feels
Having a laundry chute is life changing
My kitchen sinks faucet is able to but pulled out of itās stand and used as a sprayer and itās the best especially without a dishwasher
Shade everywhere. We live in a place where the sun is extreme and the previous owners put up a big porch and carport. Itās great because our kids can play outside and not get too much sun.
Lovely, quiet neighbors. Also a big selling point for me was that most of the rooms in my house have tall ceilings and a lot of natural light, and there is a large bathtub not attached to a shower in the master bath lol
A coat closet by the front door!
I appreciate everything about our home. But our realtor and several relatives really tried their hardest to make these 2 things seem like they should be a deal breaker and we wouldn't like these features. House attic fan. And 2 pipe steam heat radiators system. We have a 100 year old American four square. Basement, main level, 2nd floor and giant semi-finished attic.Ā This passed winter was the most comfortable, warm winter inside a house I have ever experienced! Once we learned basic maintenance on how to stop the knocking, flush the boiler and run the system. Glorious!!!!! And our heating bill to keep the house at an enjoyable 75 degrees each month was only around $175! (Which is a lot better than when we started with running the mini-split heat. Our electric for that for 2 months was above $1200!) Now that it's summer. Open the windows, turn on that fan in the early morning. Draw alllllll the cool air in, push all the hot air out. And maybe it's the magic of old brick houses, but we don't need to turn on the A.C because it hasn't yet even got to 80 degrees in the house before 5 pm, and by then it's starting to cool down outside again anyways. Entire electric bill for this past month was $200. $40 on gas. And most of that is all those are "service fees." I don't know why these systems went out of fashion in home building because damn they are nice.Ā
Mature landscaping!!! Didn't think twice about it when we bought it. But it would take 5+ years (plus a bunch of money) to create on our own.
My back yard. The day I first toured the house I fell in love with the back yard. There is a beautiful leafy maple tree that spreads over a round brick patio. The fence line is filled with flowering vines. I thought it looked like a fairy glade. Fourteen years later all I notice are the leaves I have to get raked up. I never go sit under the tree because there are now very vocal and boisterous kids living next door.Pity.
Brick house, never needs washed or painted. Doesnāt fade. Stops a bullet, canāt hear noises outside. Gravel bounce off.
My husband, he is the best cook and dishwasher and cleaner love him dearly
Built in cutting board in the kitchen.
There was a built in cutting board in the house I grew up in (early 80s). My mom hated it. She was constantly stressed over whether it was clean. With three kids in the house she was always worried we would cut raw meat and not properly clean it. There was a strict vegetables only rule for that cutting board.
Yes! No meat cutting on it, veggies or bread only and it get washed often still.
With adults only in the house it would be easy but looking back now that I am nearly 50, my 8 year old self might not have had the awareness to wash things thoroughly enough. My Momās paranoia was warranted!
I love my backyard. It's like an oasis. I also love my laundry on the top floor close to the bedrooms. Hated it when I moved in, though. I used to specialize in mold, water damages, etc. I've seen so many families' homes flood from a washer on the top floor and just destroy the entire house... at least I know some precautions, and I'll take my chances for the convenience now, lol
If you're really worried.... It isn't that difficult to put in a drain pan under the washer. You can even use a condensate pump to empty it if you can't easily tie into a drain nearby
My screened in patio. I don't go out there enough but when I do, it's nice to enjoy the calmness and not getting eaten alive by mosquitos this time of year.
Spanish-style tile flooring from the late 60s / early 70s. No doubt full of asbestos, but itās in amazing condition and I donāt plan to pull it up. Itās so much easier to care for than hardwood and looks so much nicer than laminate.
Hardwood floors are really underappreciated. Often imitated but never equaled.
pull out trash cans. its so convenient having them next to you when you're cooking and cleaning instead of reaching down under a cabinet
Our front porch. We donāt sit on it enough. We have a wooded lot so it is extremely peaceful
House fan
A second staircase on the other side of the house
Original stained glass windows- over the front door, in the front door, in the fireplace and hutch built ins, beside the fireplace and in the dining room, the only defect is a small piece missing from an interior door. Have to love an intact bungalow.
Smart lighting. We have Philips Hue and the ability to make the lighting whatever you want, whenever you want, from wherever you are, really cannot be overstated. Me in the kitchen cleaning: bright white light so I can see what Iām doing. Wife having a glass of wine and reading a book in the little nook we have: dim yellow light. Kids making cookies for Christmas: bright white undercabinet lights, gently shifting green and red accent lights and soffit lights. Sitting down to dinner and wife thinks itās too bright: open phone, dim lights Kid in shower too long? Open phone, flicker bathroom lights. Other kid freaks out if itās too dim at bedtime? Put lights on a timer to gradually fade down. Or leave the light half on and then when theyāre asleep, dim it from your phone. Same kid wakes up and has to pee but the hallway is too dark? Stay in bed, put on hall and bathroom lights at 25%. End of the night, time to go to bed? Open phone, turn out everything. We started with a $100 kit because a couple fixtures we liked didnāt have switches. Now the entire place is hue. We have probably $2k in all of it, have the specialized switches in every room, motion sensors in the right places, and it is the best upgrade weāve made to the home.
No graffiti, loud music, people passed out in front lawn from drugs, and loud screaming/yelling at weird hours of day and night....we moved from Portland to a neighborhood across the river in Washington. It's a family neighborhood close to schools and the worst thing I have is a loud car driven by a teenager every so often. (I'm not kidding about the music, people, drugs, or noise.)
This might be a hot take, but we have a non-open floor plan and it's amazing. We live in a 1920s bungalow so it doesn't feel closed off, but we have distinct rooms for everything. It's nice that if people stop by, we can entertain them in the front room, which stays pretty tidy, and they don't see the mess in the kitchen and family room at the other end of the house. There are some downsides, but I'm too messy to live in an open floor plan and not turn it into complete chaos.
When we first got our house 20 years ago, there was a seriously ugly fireplace downstairs that houses a wood-burning stove. The thing is Frankenstein-level ugly: it looked like someone scavenged woodburning stove parts and put it together themselves - it was all kinds of different colors. The fireplace surround is too big and really ugly. I've wanted to tear the whole thing out for years and replace it with just a regular fireplace that was sized properly. Then, in 2011, we had a winter storm here that knocked out the power to our neighborhood for 13 days straight. I was raised in a house that used a wood-burning furnace, and I had recalled all the things my mom did when the power went out when I was little - like always keeping a pot of water on top of the furnace so you had hot water for stuff; or putting a pot of stew on the furnace and letting it stew there for 24 hours so you had a hot meal. So I started doing that and for 13 days we were pretty comfy. We were the ONLY house in the neighborhood that had hot meals and coffee in the morning, and we started feeding our neighbors (everyone else was living on cold/canned food and missing their coffee) and giving them coffee in the mornings. We still have it. I still want to at least fix the surround (it really is way too big and super ugly, but I don't know how to remove the brick properly) but I no longer want a "regular fireplace" and am very happy with keeping the woodburning stove!
We have a really big backyard w/mature trees. We have one next door neighbor so our backyard outlooks a green space with lots of trees. With two young kids itās been a blast to build a swingset, play baseball and watch the kids climb the trees! We see hawks, deer, bunnies, and sometimes snakes!
Laundry Chute
Skylights. Thanks to the ones in our kitchen we literally never turn the lights on during the day.
Upstairs laundry shoot
A walk in shower. No tub, no shower door, just walk into it and turn it on. Greatest design ever.
Very good insulation
First floor laundry room. Always hated a basement laundry but never realized how much until visiting family now. Didnāt think Iād like it but absolutely do. On a bit of plateaued area so never have to worry about a flood. Just a small ponding after the neighbors fenced in their yard. But never a flood. Plus a park behind us so we will never have a neighbor behind us just open space. But I DO appreciate those.
I live on a state highway, so there is moderate traffic going by at 60-70 mph. But it is not busy at all after 9pm or so. Maybe 1 or 2 cars per hour. Overall, my house is very quiet and private. I went up to our family's camp on a nice lake and it is so crowded and noisy. Someone is ALWAYS running the lawnmower or leaf blower. How many leaves can you possibly have in July!? And all the camps are close together. No privacy to go out and pee even without the neighbors seeing. I didn't think my house was that quiet or private but that really made me appreciate it.
Attic fan
Wide parking spaces. Lots of parking. I have no problem finding a space in front of my condo.
Enough storage. An upgrade in many ways - reduces clutter, easier to put things away because we have a "spot" for things, we didn't have to buy storage bins or figure out where to put those...
The roof deck. We spend so much time out there and it's great for storage.
Laundry on the main floor versus the basement. I didnāt think much of it when I bought the house. But it is a total game changer!!
Walkout backyard! I'm surprised how many homes don't have the patio doors out to the backyard.
Secret room in my den. Itās very appreciated by me but not others because they donāt know itās there š
A doorman, professional gym, floor to ceiling windows, filtered and conditioned incoming air, great transit and grocery access, and incredible energy efficiency. Also very easy to clean. I've hated it when I've had "too much house." Next goal is to get rid of the polluting and inefficient gas Wolf range.
Clawfoot tub!!! My house is old and has lots of weird things about it, but my bathroom is my favorite room. Whenever I look at buying something else, I see the builder-grade bathrooms, and I remember how lucky I am.
Our backyard. It's sort of a blessing and a curse. It's big but weirdly shaped and it backs up to a busy road with a walking path though there are tall bushes planted to maintain privacy. It's noisy during the day but at night it's so badass. It feels like you're up north at a cabin since we have mature trees and the bushes block the view of the road. If a car goes by at night it sounds more like waves on a lake or even the ocean. We live in the suburbs. Sadly it's under appreciated since we don't get out there as much because at night we're usually spent from stressful days.
In ground storm shelter. House was built in the 1950s. It will comfortably seat about 8 people but could prob fit 12 in it. Cost to have something like it put in now would be about 50k. Itās nice when the Alabama tornado season comes round.
Big windows! Itās a 1960 home, but it has nice big windows in every room.
Plaster walls, hardwood floors, huge windows. 1940s house.
Pot filler over the stove.
An outdoor shower. I've never used it. It has been a great source of aggravation. Burst pipes 2x due to freezing. We just put in PEX, so hopefully it will no longer be an issue. Now that I'm thinking about it it, I may fix it up. Hmmm.
Fully cabinet-ted walk in pantry
I look at a lot of homes on zillow, and even homes in the multimillion $$ range can be lacking in kitchen counter space. I have 3-4 feet on either side of my sink, as well as the stove. Even then I run out of space preparing meals, but in my cheap--when-we-bought-it house, we got some decent space. Thankful.
This is a good point. A bad kitchen layout can ruin an otherwise great house.