Not because I'm any busier than any other time, (maybe I should be!) but probably mostly because a good portion of the early part of the year was spent in the waiting game of "not knowing".
Now we've been in the "know" and the new job & for nearly 6 weeks now and it just seems unbelievable that so much time has passed.
I'm slowly going thru things and even doing some packing. I'm determined not to do that wicked last minute swipe into a box thing that has happened way too many times before!
One of the hardest things about packing ahead of time is needing to continue to live in your house.
Another hard thing is knowing that you're moving, but having no clue where!
It seems a pretty big step of faith to be moved to go to a particular town/area, but not have a house (yet) to move to.
I'm kind of funny when it comes to moving. It's a HUGE pain, so much work. But somehow there is so much anticipation about having a "new" place to make into our own. I love that part of it. The dreaming & planning of what, where, the possible re-modeling, the decorating....That part consumes me.
So- with that in mind, help me out here.
I'd like to know what you like BEST about your house (or another place you've lived) a particular kind of appliance. Flooring. Lighting, Kitchens-- Any room, anyTHING in your house that you particularly love.
And- then What DON'T you like--what would you do different if you could chose.
Tell me please, send me a link whatever, just give me some fodder for my obsession since I'm in the waiting game!
I don't know if what i have will help you, but I was just saying 5 minutes ago to our company, that the reason we bought THIS particular house was the land around it (5 1/2 acres), and the big living room.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure theres much to say from my perspective. We just moved away from a country place 6 months ago and living in town is not brought much joy, to these countrykids. None the less this "house" we are living in is a rental, we cant afford anything else at the moment and we really don't see much changes comeing in the near future. We keep looking but rent is so high and we still would be in town or we'd be so far out that we'd pay any savings back into the fuel tank and then some. :P
ReplyDeleteIts great there will be stability and retirement with the new job, I'm sure the kids your leaving behind don't much like the idea but the kids your gunna be closer to are anticipating lots of sweet days to come.
My husband designed our house with the help of preprinted floor plans back in 1993. What I like about our house is it has plenty of lighting (ceiling fluorescents) in the downstairs rooms, but there is no ceiling light in the master bedroom, and lamps just don't shed enough light sometimes! Also I like having a family room as well as a living room. And two eating areas--a nook and a dining room. On the negative side, the actual kitchen is too small--it feels like an apartment-sized kitchen. Next house is going to have a kitchen at least twice as big! The kitchen has become harder to deal with as the years go by, and sometimes a source of friction between me and my husband, unfortunately. House hunting (or designing, as the case may be), will hopefully be different the next time around, since we--at least I do--know better what works and doesn't work! :)
ReplyDeleteWe have a very open floor plan. Our kitchen/dinette area is unusually huge and open so we have a little sitting area right off the kitchen that is just wonderful. But the kitchen itself isn't enormous. A nice L and a perfect island for baking. Love a master on the main floor. Love a place for the kids to have in the basement when friends are over. And I love our wood stove. Maybe not so much wood in NE? Didn't they burn cow chips in the old days? Smile. Our Bosch dishwasher has been flawless. Other appliances so-so. Good luck! Can't wait for pictures!
ReplyDeleteI love how open our Kitchen/Dinning room/Living room is, but I wish it was even MORE open. It's so nice when having company, to be able to interact from the kitchen. I love my main floor laundry, and love that the master bedroom is the only one on the 3rd level. (might not like that so much when the kids are older?!)
ReplyDeleteLove a privacy fence around the back yard. Wish I could walk out from my laundry to the back yard to hang clothes on the (non existent) line, and hate a small entry. But even more than that, hate an entrance straight into the livingroom.
Love having a family room, even though we don't use it for that, it's nice extra space for company, computers, hanging out, etc.
Love the wood floor in my dinning room but wouldn't put it in the kitchen.
Hate my cheap pull out faucet, wish we had spent the $$ on a nicer one. Love the Whirlpool dishwasher, this is our second (one in the old house) and love them both.
Hate single basin sinks (old free standing kind with drain board on one side.)
Hate Formica back splash in the kitchen, love the doors on the bath/showers.
I love having tile floors, hate the carpet! Would rather have concrete than Carpet!!
ReplyDeleteLove my open kitchen, hate that the bar counter becomes a catch all!
Would love to have a FOR REAL Honest to Goodness launry room!!! I have a washer and dryer in the walkway between the garage and kitchen. If the washer door is open, you can not get through. If the dryer is open, you MUST LOCK the garage door or risk getting your head slammed in the dryer when someone comes in! (But I am thankful to have a washer and dryer!)
A mud room....oh how I would have an entry way/mudroom! A place for all the shoes to be stored neatly, and coats to be put away. A place that would prevent all the pile-up mess that kids and husband bring through the door. (Ahhh this is great wishful thinking on my part.....maybe someday it will be reality!)
Good luck in the move, keep stepping in faith!
i love my front porch, i love having a master bath with a heated tile floor, i love our hickory wood floor and wood burning stove in the living room. most of all i love our land & location. i don't like having a kitchen with very little natural light (one day the wall between the kitchen & dining room will be gone). i don't like our lack of a basement (would be so nice to have that extra space for the kids). and i long to have a large entry/mudroom & more closet space. are you guys thinking of building?
ReplyDeleteoh & i really love our hot tub on the patio!
ReplyDeleteMy comments will have to be what all I WANT in a house someday. A laundry room that has a door to it--so I can close it on what's there. A guest room. An area that I can set up to do things--scrap booking, sewing, etc. A finished basement. Just a few things that I don't have, but would definitely love.
ReplyDeleteI always think about our old house in Kearney. Big country kitchen with an island. Big open space in the dining room/living room area. Separate laundry room, front porch and plenty of bedrooms. Need I say more? Nothing has since measured up to it! Good luck!!! :)
ReplyDeleteOh! WOW! Hopefully having moved not so long ago will have helped some! Love not having any carpet in the house! Love having two dishwashers! (hubby's suggestion that i resisted when we first were planning our kitchen - but soon was begging for two.). Love our big country kitchen with the round table in the middle where we eat! Love having my laundry room on second floor with the bedrooms! And a New York style clothes line to go with it! Love the urinal in the boys bathroom - hubby wishes he had put one in the master bath! Ideally would love a second washer and dryer in a mud room off the garage!
ReplyDeleteSure hope you find what you're looking for! The things I love about our house: a main floor guest room, main floor laundry, lots of big windows to let in natural light, ceiling lights in every room, wood floor except for the carpet in the bedrooms/tile in the bathrooms, the openness of the floorplan, and I love my Whirlpool Velos microwave/convection oven.
ReplyDeleteCould it be WI? Would be so fun to get to know you better!! Likely just within your state though eh?
ReplyDeleteI loveo ur big kitchen. It's so functional and wide open and it has an open between top cupboard and counter/bottom cupboards that allows me to fully see out into the family room...I never feel left out of the family goings-on when I'm in the ktichen!
Good luck, Maxine. I have to say there have been things to love and things to endure in every house we've ever lived in. Our tiniest, oldest house had a feature that I have longed for in every house since and never had. I keep saying I will someday build a house incorporating each of the things I've loved from all of our homes and even then... it wouldn't be perfect. :)
ReplyDeleteJKLMNOP - a urinal! Since our boys have gotten out of the diaper stage I've said many times that we should put a urinal in - I've never seen one in a house - great idea.
ReplyDeleteMaxine - I love our wood floors - wish we had them in the bedrooms, too. A basement for kids to play in is wonderful. I especially like having a walkout basement. I like our open floor plan with the living room, dining room kitchen all in one open area - the only thing I don't like about it is the kitchen is right in sight of the front door so anyone who comes gets to see whatever mess is going on in the kitchen.
Oh yeah, I would TOTALLY put in a urinal or two!
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ReplyDeleteWhere are you headed to? Fill us in, my dear!!
ReplyDeleteAs for a house...Wow! That's a tall order. I'd say ditto to what everyone has said above. I think for us ladies, the kitchen and laundry room are the main draw (hmmm....maybe we spend too much time in there or something?). The men? The garage/workshop areas. We have a 3 car and my hubs loves it. Room to store bikes, camping gear, chairs for mtg. etc. I love my built in spice rack in the pantry. Having two eating areas is nice for potlucks. Some of the friends here recently built and I must admit that I have laundry room envy. She's got a HUGE laundry room/mud room (they live on a ranch). It has room for a full size fridge, w/d, folding ironing board w/built in iron storage as well as a sink and several shelves for folding clothes. Maybe someday...but for now, I'll go crawl into my tiny laundry room and wash a load-ha!:)
Look at all your suggestions! I have found with every house, there is the likes an dislikes. The biggest must on our house this move was PRIVACY! Not that we didn't want neigbors, but we had to have room and some privacy. I really do love our house now, it is older, and redone(as you know), but if there was one thing I miss is a walk in closet in the master bedroom. But because I am not a shopper, and don't have TONS of clothes...I survive. I thought I would LOVE my hardwood floors, but we have a lot of dust out where we live, so it drives me crazy when I can see the dust on them, but then again it does look nice.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see what will come of it all for you folks. Just make sure to keep on blogging about it. :-)
location! i loved my location in WI on Skunk Valley Road..yep..out in the country on 10 acres. miss it. But don't miss all the mosquitos or the deer ticks ( 50% of our family had Lyme's Disease!!)...it's nice to have as much "space" as possible..elbow room outside. My kids/ we're outside most of the time so the outdoors is key for us. Inside? have some open area somewhere for everyone to cut loose. Ours is the basement. I love our finished off basement/ game area.
ReplyDeletedislikes: my kitchen..the current one. totally blocked off from every other area of the house. feels small and really small when we have company!!! our dining are is WAY too crammed also. It also is the first thing when you come in the door that everyone comes in ( even tho' it's not the front door!!) so the constant mess is always the first impression. hate that. I don't like my gas stove either. Some do. I don't. BUrns everything. ( bad cook?) Have the front door be the front door...our driveway is situated wrong so everyone comes through the garage. dislike that for their sake...everyone's first impression of us is our garage and kitchen. just not sweet. I would like a nice big foyer that is clean and welcoming and fresh and open. Just my opinions...I seem to have many!!! ( and yes, that jacuzi up there sounds magnificent!!)
ps HATEEEEEEEE my laundry room . Way tooooo small for 4 kids and all their stuff and all the laundry.
ReplyDeleteDear Auntie,
ReplyDeleteI love not having carpet, I love having my own room for crafting and hubby having a den, I love having several bathrooms and a big yard (why we bought the house).
I don't like my tile in my kitchen, I don't like the honey colored woodwork or my kitchen cupboards, And I don't like having an indoor pool to worry about!
But I think no matter how many things you think you like about a house there will be things that eventually annoy you... no house is really perfect and so embrace it for what it is and prespective is everything!
Love,
Raimie
From the guest's point of view- something- even a folding chair- to sit on in the bedroom is nice! ;)
ReplyDeleteNothing further to say... that I can think of!