June 2009 Weddings
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Poll: What are your "living space" must haves?
Kitchen?
# of bathrooms?
# of bedrooms?
Yard space?
Basement?
Re: Poll: What are your "living space" must haves?
Currently, we are renting a two bedroom apartment.
Over the next year, we are hoping to purchase a house -
Must haves - 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathrooms, yard, parking area (garage/driveway/alley), bigger size kitchen, mancave.
DH and I were talking last night about the things we need in our next house - although we have similar tastes, our priorities are different.
We both agree we want at least 4 bedrooms/3 bathrooms (plan to stay at least 5 years and have a couple kiddos). He really wants a basement so he can have a man room. I absolutely have to have more kitchen space with tons of cabinentry and a large island so I get some counter space. I currently store excess kitchen stuff in our upstairs (never used) bathroom linen closet - its such a mess. We also have to have a 2 car garage - the 1 car is so inconvenient.
I really want a large yard (like 1+ acres) but DH really doesnt care much and I want a big front porch so I can hang ferns and put out a couple adirondack chairs.
HomemadebyHolman
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We're renting a 2 bedroom apartment right now. Our requirements when we went apartment hunting were simple: two parking spaces and in-unit Washer & Dryer.
When we buy a house, we're looking for:
(1) Master Suite with Jacuzzi Tub/Two-Person Shower
(2) Guest Room
(3) Game Room/Office (Him)
(4) Scrapbook/Writing Room/Office (Mine)
(5) Two+ car garage
(6) Big backyard
(7) Island in the kitchen
We just moved (last week) from our one bedroom apt, into a house. Our requirements were:
3 bedrooms
2 baths
2-car garage with a large driveway. Mike's motorcycle is parked in the garage, and the rest is his mantuary. Our cars are in the driveway, with room for two more vehicles behind ours.
Large back yard (our total lot is .2 acres, which is HUGE by SoCal standards.)
Plenty of kitchen storage and counter space. I ended up with an island too, sweet!
Close to freeways and shops. This is a big one for us. It HAS to be conveniently located!
Central a/c. Lots of homes in San Diego do not have central air. Historically, the weather here has always been very mild. In recent years though, the summers have gotten HOT (100+).
Our new home has all of this, and much more! All wrapped into a beautifully painted, reasonably priced package.
We're moving soon, so we've been rethinking our needs.
Here is what we've come up with:
Kitchen: Having a dishwasher would be a huge plus in my book. More counter space than we have would be good too.
Bathroom: 1.5
Bedrooms: 3 or 2 and a good room for an office
Yard: Yes. We have a dog. Bonus points if its fenced in.
Basement: Not a requirement as we don't have one now (near ocean). The extra storage would be sweet though.
Other: I know he wants a garage (rolls eyes). We'd like hardwood floors and AC, an updated heating system. We'll never buy a house with aluminum wiring again.
ETA: In home hook ups for washer & dryer are also a must. We have the appliances already and I'm SO not going back to the laundromat...
BFP#2 2.5.11 (EDD 10.15.11) DS born 9.28.11 due to Pre-E
BFP#3 10.2.12 (EDD 6.12.13) MMC 11.24.12 @11.5w, had passed in 7th week
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Haha, things I want, and things I will settle with are 2 completely different things. Right now we live in a 1 bedroom apt. which is about 850 square feet. When we were looking for apts. the only thing that was a must have was a washer / dryer in unit and a place that accepted dogs. We found a place that accepted dogs, we have an awesome kitchen, (all new stainless steel appliances, marble counters, and granite floors, a new stacked, full size, washer and dryer), we have a jacuzzi tub, all hard wood floors and central air. We also have a large storage space in the basement which makes living in a 1 bedroom not so bad.
Keep in mind this is a 850 square foot apt. that I pay $1400 a month to live in.
Again when we buy a house, it all depends on location. Ideally I would like at least 1800 sq ft.
2 car garage
3 bedrooms
2 bathrooms
central AC
solar panels
and a finished basement.
I am really not asking for a lot, but houses in my area with these must haves are about $100K more than they would be if I moved 1hr west of where I live now.
HomemadebyHolman
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When we bought our house last year, our must haves were:
3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, bigger kitchen than what we had at the time, central AC, fenced-in backyard for the pooch, hardwood floors, older home with major updates already done, garage, and all appliances included (fridge, dishwasher, washer, dryer)
We got exactly what we wanted in the neighborhood we wanted, with the bonus of a covered front porch with a swing.
Now, if we were to buy another house today, I'd want a bigger kitchen with an island, at least 2 bathrooms, and a fireplace, in addition to stuff we have now.
3 bedrooms
2 - 2.5 bathrooms
2 car garage with a bonus room above
It's interesting seeing other people's lists and how their location makes us expect certain things. Like, I'd never even think to put a/c on a list because that is just a given here and basements are pretty rare in our area so that's not something I'd expect either.
Having lived in the Boston area and grown up ~2 hrs west of you...you nailed it. The same house where I grew up (where rte 2 and I91 intersect) would be $200K less than in Waltham.
BFP#2 2.5.11 (EDD 10.15.11) DS born 9.28.11 due to Pre-E
BFP#3 10.2.12 (EDD 6.12.13) MMC 11.24.12 @11.5w, had passed in 7th week
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~All AL'ers welcome~
So true... I was thinking exactly the same thing - A/C is standard and quarter acre lots are pretty common in decent neighborhoods. Plus people's opinions vary so much depending on what their current living situation is. I know 5 years ago when I bought my house, 1600 sf seemed big and so did .2 acres coming from a 700 sf apartment.
HomemadebyHolman
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Right now my major must have is a huge closet. At my parent's house I had a big closet, but when I moved in with DH the closet is 1/2 as much room and I have to share with him so I have 1/4 of the closet space I'm used to. It's not fun.
When we look into buying next summer I'd like the house to have: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage, basement and definitely central AC. DH wants a pool but I wont' require one.
we've been in our home for 4 years already!
We wanted something with an attached garage (live in mn and winter sucks here), at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, and a house that we could do some improvements to. Location was also important to us. We thought we would be in our home for 5 years but I really like it for the most part and love the location.
There are 2 big issues that I have with our home. 1. the garage is only 1 car and we really want a 2 car garage. We might start researching how we can put on a 2 car garage. Issue 2. The four season room wasn't built the best and I think there is a crawl hole for mice to get in. I hate mice so much and told M to rip off the deck last year (he refused) so I could see if there were holes where mice could come in. I haven't seen any yet this year, have used a pest control service and have only noticed them in the past in the basement. They are disgusting and make me feel like the house is dirty if I find them. I am really hoping they will not be in the house again.
This is making me really sad. The cost of living in LA is so high, you can get such nicer things in other parts of the country.
I used to live in a one-bedroom apartment, also for around $1400 a month and that was like a steal for a one bedroom. Most places in Hollywood for that are studios. It was pretty nice that it had a laundry room, to say nothing of having one in the apartment. I had hardwood floors and a balcony, but the kitchen only fit one person at a time. I thought it was fantastic at the time.
Then we bought our house. It's four bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus two living rooms and another room (we're turning into a library), so the house is big, but it has a yard the size of a handkerchief. A big yard was my number two priority, after safe neighborhood. DH wanted a room for his train sets, so that takes one of the bedrooms, leaving only two for kids/guests. They don't make basements out here, so that wasn't an option. Plus this house was practically falling apart--the people who lived here before us did NO maintenance. We had to put on a new roof, upgrade all the pipes and then the sewer re-do in August. And we have a one-car garage but the driveway is too narrow to fit a car down, so we can't use it.
Pity party for one.
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Currently: condo: 2 beds, 2 bath, 1 car garage, a/c, washer/dryer, dishwasher w/disposal, deck
Next home: 3-5 beds (for use as library/office/guest/kid), 2 bath (preferably one with a separate bath tub and larger shower), 2.5 car garage, a/c, washer/dryer, dishwasher w/disposal, yard... he'd like a workroom with ventilation for woodworking (basement? garage space?).. I want more kitchen storage space
Unfortunately this means we're probably moving out of the city. There's not much like this within our price range in Chicago. I might do without the yard if we're near a park. The only reason we're able to have a dog now is that we're in walking distance of Wicker Park.
We have a 4BR/4BA 2800 sq ft house and it may sound weird, but we don't use half of the house--even with 2 kids. I'm sure that will change when they're older, but right now--we basically only use 5 rooms: our Master, our daughter's room, the living room, kitchen obviously, and then the formal living room which is now their play room. The formal dining room we use whenever my parents come to visit, that's it. The guest bedroom gets used once every 6 weeks maybe and I don't believe my son or anyone else has ever slept in his room. My point is, we thought we needed a bigger house because of the babies, but at their ages (almost 3 and 1.5), we just don't need all the space yet. So don't stress out too much that you need more room when you have babies etc...because we still don't need all of this room.
We are blessed to have an awesome porch and backyard as well which we get lots of use out of and our closet is nice and big so it's easy to not have things be cluttered because there's lots of storage space.
In my dream house (the one we will never sell or move out of), I want:
1) that system where you sweep up all of the crap on your floors right into the central-vac vent in your kitchen. That would be awesome.
2) I also want an infinity pool and some kind of waterwall (like the Hogan's had in their Miami house).
3) A nice, big laundry room
4) A library/office with a ladder?
5)?I want a one-story no matter what. Three years of living in a 2-story definitely opened my eyes to the greatness of a one-story.?
Obviously, this all is a few years off
~
?
We are still discussing exactly what we want to do.. we are either going to try to sell next year to buy a house or wait until the following year to maybe build. Either way we are trying to save up for a large down payment.
Our requirements are:
4 bedroom
atleast 2.5 bath/ hopefully 3 full
2 car garage
master suite w/ bathroom big enough for jacuzzi tub and 2 person shower
kitchen no smaller than ours now... its fairly large for our house
We are hoping to find a neighborhood that will have some close neighbors but no one right on top of us... hopefully st the very least .5 acres
Ugh my "wants" and "must settle for" are so different too!
Last time we were looking, my minimums were:
at least 2 bedrooms (we have 2 plus office)
good location with easy transportation/commute
dishwasher, good kitchen/dining storage
porch/deck/space for DH to grill on
We got them all (but chose to move just outside Chicago to be able to get lots of space- we have about 1300 sq feet for $1400- a great deal around here)
What I would LIKE in our next house/apt:
all of the above, plus
at least 3 bedrooms plus office
dishwasher, garbage disposal, storage
walk in closet for me
master bath
I could go on and on!