What do you wish you had done differently in your house?

[D L and K's Mom]

I was reading another post and it got me thinking of all the things I would have done differently when we built this house.....

1) NOT put in extra windows in the living room. For some reason I always wanted a wall of big, floor to ceiling windows. I dreamed about sitting on the couch in the sunshine...well, It is cold in the winter hot in the summer even though we paid $$ for the windows. They are covered in heavy drapes to keep out the cold right now. In the summer the heat comes in and bakes......it is not nice.
2) no long drawers in the kitchen...is a huge problem for silverware and aluminum foil storage
3) no laundry tub in the laundry room which is upstairs by the bedrooms...no place to wash brushes , buckets etc.
4) wood trim around the counter tops...peels and fades above the dishwasher
5)put french doors between the living room and family room splitting it into 2 rooms......yuck wish is was one big room thought we may need one in the future for DS to use as a bedroom but hate not having a big room on holidays etc.
6) put the fireplace in the living room....wish is was in the family room its bigger and we use it much much more.
7) put in hard wood floors...throughout the house...I thought tile would be to hard if DS fell on it. Well hard wood is not good if you have a pool and people tramping through the house to use the bathroom. It is not good with wheelchairs, crutches, dogs, cats and matchbox cars. It is also not good in the direct sun as it bleaches out...
8) put in a pool......$$$$ I hate the pool, I hate the laundry from the pool towels, I hate the puddles in the house from the people who use the pool, I hate the cemicals, I hate the liner, I hate the heater,I hate trimming the grassa around the fence around the pool, I hate the pool!!!


Things we did right....
1) Put in the pool, hee hee I know I hate the pool but DS gets his therapy in the pool and it is so good for him.
2) handicapped access everywhere for DS. So much easier!!!
3) neutral colors on walls and tile...brighten it up with color accents
4) laundry on the floor with the bedrooms....hide all the clothes and never have to carry a laundry basket upstairs!
5) full sized handicapped bathroom on the main floor...easier for DS than a small powder room with wheelchair
6) made sister in law by the model house (right next door) so I have family close....I love that!!!!!!

I know I sound spoiled and I know we are very very lucky to have been able to build a house. Please don't tell me I am ungrateful etc......I am just asking what others have done that they would do differently. I am not complaining even if it sound that way. I am sorry if that is what it sound like. I thought this would be fun. I know we are blessed to have this house and to have been able to build a house for DS to grow old in. I would really just love to hear what others did and would do differently.

 

[barkley]

would have had a darker grout in the floor tile, would have had them trible insulate (or sound proof) the wall that is shared between the great room and the master bedroom (so tv would not bother sleepers).

glad we went with cast iron under porcelin tubs (better heat retention), wood burning fireplace (new codes are about to be implemented that preclude these in new construction), and MOST OF ALL-all 2400 plus square feet on one floor (at the time i did'nt want to chase little ones up and down stairs or haul laundry-now medical problems would have nesc. a move). oh-and after the fact, glad when we did landscaping we opted to regrade and put in drainage-our neighbors get swamps every winter while our yard remains managable.

 

[Stacerita]

I wish we would have done a different type of tile. The one we have has no give what so ever and is very hard on my back and legs. Cooking and cleaning (things I usually dont mind doing) are terrible. Should have gone with the hard wood floors I think. Oh well, next remodel.

 

[Pooh93]

I wish we'd made our laundry room bigger and all the bedrooms bigger. We built it ourselves and at the time didn't plan enough for the future.

 

[msdznyduck]

Buy a different house
Seriously, DH loved it, I didn't.........almost 16 yrs later, I still don't really like it, even though we have done only cosmetic things, and no major remodeling.

 

[HOGFAN]

next time we will:

No formal rooms, waste of space big family room instead
upstairs laundry room
2 car garage instead of one, full of junk

 

[T16GEM]

We bought our house in 2002, we only just managed to afford it as house prices in the UK are CRAZY!! I Think if I had the chance I would put up a conservatory on the back of the house, then I could have a bigger lounge and kitchen. I think this would help with DD's toy storage issues too!

I wish that I hadn't had the bathrooms carpeted and that I had a hrd wood floor in both of those, also that the halway was hardwood - I would prefer this to having to keep spot cleaning the carpet when people tread mus etc into the house without wiping their feet! These aren't major things though and I think I will be able to get these done in the future - but then I'm not sure if it would just be easier to move! Don't tell my DH I said that though!

 

[Mercy]

2) no long drawers in the kitchen...is a huge problem for silverware and aluminum foil storage

We just completed remodeling our kitchen/LR/DR. Not sure what you mean by long drawers, but we put in a set of those wide pots and pans drawers... LOVE THEM!!! If I could have put in more I would have, so much more convenient than lower cabinets.

I also would have chosen a different range. It's a freestanding range, the kind with the controls on a raised panel in the back. I would have rather gone with a slide in type range, I just think it would have looked better. Not that I use the thing that much

What I did right was removed the wall between the kitchen an dining room and put in a peninsula, it opens everything up so nice. We also splurged a little and got granite counters, they are beautiful!

 

[mtemm]

I wish that I hadn't had the bathrooms carpeted and that I had a hrd wood floor in both of those

we watch a lot of bbcamerica and one of our favorite shows is Location, Location, Location. I'm always floored by the prices for homes (ouch!), but not only that, the fact that there are so many homes with carpeting in the bathroom. how do you keep that clean? It just seems like such a pain.

 

[foxfire]

Overall, I'm happy with the way our house turned out. There are a few things I'd do differently though.

I would add more electrical outlets in some rooms. When they were being put in, it seemed like we had a lot but we could use more.

I would definitely add more useable space between the studs. In the bathrooms, I had the contractor make cabinets that are about 4 feet high and as wide as the stud space allowed. There are adjustable shelves in all of them and this space is perfect for so many items. The contractor kept trying to talk me out of this telling me the shelves weren't going to be wide enough for storage. After these were all built, he was amazed and said he might start using this idea in his spec homes. I now can see so many more places I could have used this.

I would not have a formal dining room. It turned out to be a very pretty room but it's not used much at all. It would get much more use as an office/library/extra den.

The way the roof slants in my DS's room, there was no way to put in a regular closet so the contractor was going to install "knee high" closets along one wall. I couldn't see that as being very functional, so I put on my thinking cap to try to come up with a solution. I love what I came up with. My DS has a bathroom connecting from his bedroom. I found closet space by asking the contractor to put in a door from the bathroom to the area that was going to be walled up next to the stairwell and over the downstairs hallway. It turned out to be a very large walk-in closet. My contractor said he would never have thought of using that space for a closet.

I want to put in different countertops in the kitchen. I'm just not sure what I want yet, so I've been thinking about this for the past two years.

 

[Disney Doll]

I would have raised the back side of ourt upstairs roof (we live in a Cape) when we remodeled it so that the upstairs bedrooms wouldn't have had slanted ceilings. Though the slanted ceilings are kind of neat and give the rooms a cozy feel, as far as closet space and furntiure placement...not too good.

I would have chosen different handles for the kitchen cabinets. I actually did not choose these...they were her when we bought the house. But thay have sort of a back plate to them, and to try and change them now would mean that the area that has been covered up by the back plate will look entirely different from the rest of the cabinets.

I would have tried to design a tad bit more storage space in the upstairs bathroom.

Other than that, I pretty much love my house. We have hardwood throughout, including in the kitchen, no pool though, so I love it. Have area rugs around which really warm it up.

 

[castleview]

My house was 2 years old when we bought it. What I would have done differently: MUDROOM!!! and I would have used a different builder. We basically have been redoing all the cheap materials he used.

 

[DKH01701]

I would have INSISTED on a garage. Scraping off the truck in zero degree weather is REALLY getting old.

 

[Chris2597]

I wish we had made the house handicap friendly and a bedroom downstairs....for my mom....secondly I dont know why we didnt have extra phone, cable and electrical outlets put in....We paid extra for a huge garden tub and adjacent shower....now I wish we had opted for a double shower....We never use the garden tub.

 

[wvjovifan]

I wish we would have put in a basement.....and switched the dining room
with the living room location....and I REALLY wish I would have put the kids
bedrooms at the other end of the house or added an upstairs for them!!!!

 

[golfgal]

Disney Doll-I just took the back plates off our kitchen cabinets that had been there since probably 1978 or so. I took one off to see what it would look like and there was no discoloration. Some of them had a little build up on them but my pampered chef scraper and my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser took care of that easily. I can't believe what a difference it makes just to take those off.

We didn't build this house (it is older then we are ) but some things I would change are to make the TV room larger, I would have added two more cabinets on the one wall to make a little more counter top space, it is an eat in kitchen and there would have been plenty of room. The pantry cabinet is not as deep as the rest of them, I would have made it deeper.

I have a TON of storage space in this house, including a linen closet inside each bathroom, along with the vanity AND a closet outside each bathroom. Two of these closets are empty. The built-ins in the TV room are extra deep and they are a great place to store things like my electric griddle, seasonal dishes, etc.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

I love reading these. I felt so spoiled after we built this house and I felt horrible when I found things I didnt like. I thought I had researched every possible thing about the house and building it...I am glad to see I am not the only one. . Oh thought od one more...we did the landscaping and didnt research the plants and put in some that are toxic....we had to pull them out as DS is a speical needs child and we had a new baby. Check your plants!

 

[Meriweather]

Added a phone outlet in the guest room.

Other than that, I can't think of anything. Guess we planned good
Been here 19 years now.....kids are gone and we have a ton of unused space now, but still love it.

 

[Kahana-ri]

Since we bought this house I have wanted nothing more than to move to a bigger 'dream house'. Then home prices went through the roof and I had to be realistic and grateful for the fact that we do have a house. I now envision doing renovations in about 5 years. The following changes I hope to make to our 2-bedroom raised ranch:

1. Make the current garage into either our bedroom or a TV/family room.
2. Add a stand up shower to our half bath down stairs.
3. Add a two car garage with either a large loft/office area upstairs or to make it an actual extension of our current home. I have no idea if it is cost effective to just build a separate structure or to add to the current. DH has his own business so more garage space is a must.
4. Wood floors through out the whole house.
5. An island in the kitchen. We have a sort of division, but it would be great to be able to sit and eat at the current mini island.
6. We would then jack-hammer out the current driveway and put in a new one where the new garage would be.
7. I want to add more foliage and tress to the yard and less grass.

Our home is nice and in great location. I am glad I have learned to love this home for its potential. At least I know that I get a lot more house for my money in RI than I would of if I still lived in CA.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

There are lots of things I wish we had, but chose not to have the builder install them because they charged way too much. So we're doing it ourselves, but it takes time (and money!) Right now our current project is putting in a backyard, which my dh is going to do himself. Things we're going to change or add:

New flooring - we have the crappy standard carpeting now in all the rooms except for kitchen and baths. We are looking at installing commercial luxury vinyl plank. We'll get the durability of vinyl, but the look and feel of a wood floor. This might be in about 2 years, because the stuff we're looking at isn't cheap. We're thinking of putting it in a couple of the bedrooms too.

Change the recessed lighting in our kitchen and baths from fluorescent to regular lighting. The builder did half regular, half fluorescent, and I can't stand it.

Replace our hideous plastic "brass" chandelier the builder installed. It's so bad, I'm going to have to post a pic of it someday! Also replace the hanging light in the stairwell. We'll probably replace ALL the light fixtures, except for the downstairs bath which we upgraded.

Replace all the standard bath fixtures to nicer ones.

Replace the low-flush toilets with something that doesn't clog everytime my dh or kids use it.

Replace all the baseboard, and install crown moulding in some of the rooms.

Replace my doorbell.

We're going to remodel the entire master bath.

Install a pool.

Epoxy the garage floors.

Install closet systems in the bedrooms.