Hubs and I have a big dream. The forever house. A house that we'd have custom designed and built. My background is in interior design, and Hubs works on the peripheral of the design industry, selling industrial products to kitchen and furniture manufacturers. We know what we want in a house, and now we just need to get there. We love our current home, but she's an aging and demanding mistress; we want a less complicated romance.
Yesterday I was e-mailing with Jen about the building of their dream home, and she was full of amazing resources and advice. Then I went over and read her whole house blog which documents their journey. (The house is almost finished. And. It. Is. Stunning. If I didn't like the girl so much I'd be sick with jealousy.) The chat and the blog brought our house dream back to the forefront of my mind, we know it's at least 5 years away, but that's no reason I can't start planning.
So - without further ado, the first draft of the wish list:
The Forever House of Bad
1. A huge soft deep sofa under huge south-facing windows for afternoon naps.
2. A big mudroom with cubbies and closets for coats and boots - and a spot for washing up grubby pets and children - separated from the rest of the house with a door.
3. Closet organizers in every closet. And there will be many, many, closets.
4. Low maintenance house. Low maintenance finishes inside and out.
5. Efficient and healthy systems - HVAC, windows, appliances
6. A gas stovetop - I'm not going electric for anyone.
7. A master bath where the wc can't be seen from the tub.
8. High ceilings - at least 9', and hopefully something cathedral somewhere.
9. Ergonomic kitchen
10. A pantry and a coldroom
11. Big mainfloor family space - I don't want, ever, to have my children shunted off to the basement (okay, maybe occasionally, but not as a way of life!)
12. Central vac (with a slot under the kitchen base cabinets you can sweep directly into)
13. A room of my own - to paint, to write, to make messy with projects, that I can just shut the door on.
Tell me - what do you love most about your home, why, and what should I add to my list?
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7 comments:
Ooh, Beefcake and I fantasise about this all the time. We are renting at the moment so there is nothing about our house I would recommend and we will own at least one more house before we can build. We plan to have a central courtyard in our dream house but that suits your climate about as much as a mudroom would suit ours!
We wanted the mudroom with cubbies and all the big closets and all sorts of other stuff, but when faced with space constraints, some things had to go.
Instead, we'll have normal closets with organizers.
We have 9' ceilings and I'm so glad.
And we did squeeze in a craft room, which is something I had been wanting for a while.
I would want a large, well-appointed kitchen, a laundry room that's on the same level/area of the house as the bedrooms, a big backyard with NO POOL. I love the idea of a mud room with cubbies. Walk-in closets in every room, organized be season, would be awesome.
I hope it also has a working water heater :)
My list is so long it's ridiculous but top of the list is definitely central air/heating, oodles of closet space, guest bedroom, second floor master bedroom suite, pool.
y'know, the basics.
And a large main foyer.
A kitchen that is conducive for not only easy cooking but for the folks that congregate during a party. I have been in a kitchen where the cooking area was almost entirely surrounded by a trapezoidal counter top that had a bar with stools on it... BEAUTIFUL and so functional.
A den on the first floor for those extra toys.
A room almost entirely made of windows...
A yard with plenty of space and trees.
Okay, when we go house hunting I'm bringing a copy of that list because mine is really similar.
What I would love love love is main floor or upstairs laundry. I pushed for it when we were doing our basement reno (which we are still doing) but the way our house is built it would be a $10,000 plumbing job.
I'd also like a bigger yard.
And a garage.
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