ocelotmom Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Oh so many things. It's a 30 year old doublewide. The previous owner had a stroke (not fatal, but apparently judgement and coordination-impairing) halfway through fixing it up, as well as a limited budget. These "What housebuyers want" shows/threads/etc. seem like they take place in a different universe. We've got work to do on it, but I can't imagine we'd be happier in a more modern house (though an older one, quite possibly). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 When we bought our house it had the main things we were looking for large, fenced yard, long flat drive way, 3 bedrooms + bonus, good size laundry room, good size garage. However, as the boys became teenagers we found a major flaw, the main bath is right next to bedroom and as they grew older, stayed up later, and had later curfews that bathroom has become an issue, waking us up when someone used it during the night. The other thing is the only door to the back comes into the living room, the carpeted living room. Other than that I am pretty happy with my house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danestress Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 I love my house. It is sunny and has a good vibe. I wish it had a side entrance that was not through the garage. I wish the halls were better situated for an entryway 'staging' place (there is no where for backpacks, tennis bags, etc). I wish the garage were bigger and that I had a laundry room that were more of a mudroom set up. I wish we had an extra bedroom but wouldn't want more to clean. A basement would be great - but again, more to clean. I wish we had a covered porch rather than a patio. I would love to know where you are looking. I have a great real estate agent I regularly refer people to, and she is highly respected, honest, and professional. She doesn't work in the North part of the county though - nothing in Huntersville/university etc. If you want to talk, pm me. I wish we could be neighbors - but we are in suburbs and I seem to remember you like more rural living with more land. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhanaBee Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 The big thing I don't like about our house is the lack of an open floor plan. The smaller rooms look cute, in theory, but I prefer large open spaces in my house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafdog Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 My ridiculously small laundry room. Ugh! Not fond of the carpet, but we just moved in, and it's brand new. I'll have to live with it for awhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 The house we have out-of-state (which we may put on the market this summer) is definitely a starter home, or a retirement house. Teeny kitchen, 2 bd/1bath, front door opens right into the living room, no cost closet or linen cupboard, bedroom closets are about the size of school lockers, laundry hookups are in the mud room that opens to the backyard ... The rental house we're in now is a HOT MESS. I've gotten used to the lime green kitchen walls with blue cupboards and magenta window frames. I ignore the unpainted beadboard and huge gaps in the laminate flooring. The appliances are on their last legs, the wood floor in the living room gives me splinters, the gutters are rusted out and cause the basement to leak, the school room is poorly insulated and freezing in winter, the floor-to-ceiling windows in the upstairs bedrooms turn the rooms into greenhouses half the year. I'd open the windows, but we have to keep them screwed shut because the wood frames are rotten and they won't close all the way otherwise, and there are no screens anyway. The rest of the house has failed, leaky windows and leaky doors. Silt from the river blows right in the cracks. The handyman who "fixed" up this house before we moved in laid carpet over a cat turd on the stairs and I step on it every day. Some of the baseboard radiators are missing shields, the upstairs toilet is plumbed with hot water and since it keeps running and steaming up the already-sweltering area, I've shut it off and closed the door. In the downstairs bathroom, you have to scoot around the toilet to open the shower door, the shower is broken so in order to not scald yourself you can only use a dribble of water, the fan broke last summer and the landlord still hasn't fixed it ... I could go on and on. We're in the process of buying a house and our inspection is tomorrow so I don't know yet all that is wrong with it, but so far my list of complaints is minimal. The kitchen is downstairs and the dining room is upstairs, but since it has a lot of cupboards and counters we'll just take out the island and make it an eat-in kitchen. The laundry appliances are in a small utility room, but we can put them back in the (heated) garage if it bothers us. The upstairs bathroom has only a tub with no shower, but that's on our list to get remodeled right away. The bedrooms are big, the closets are big, the alliances are too of the line ... It corrects many of the issues I have with this $(&:hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 I am starting to make a list for our next house. I will start by saying that THIS house was picked out by DH. It was not my first choice at all. However, when we moved in, we only had 2 kids so the layout worked just fine. And we were coming from a tiny house in SoCal, so we thought this house was HUGE in comparison. However, there are some major reasons we are looking at moving: 1. WAY too far out. DH commutes 25 miles each way 2. I drive 20 miles each way EVERY DAY to all our activities. EVERYTHING we do it up there. Church, homeschool group, scouts, robotics. 3. Our yard is what DH likes (2.5 acres) but since moving here, he has been working more and more and with a 2 hour r/t commute, he has NO time to work on it! I hate yard work and told him before moving in that I cannot and will not do it. It is his baby, but it isn't working anymore. 4. I want more bedrooms, different layout, possible MIL apt. or area that my son with some special needs could live in if needed. 1-3 are some of the reasons why we moved 2yrs ago. Although dh's commute wasn't so bad -everything else seemed far away. But, the things I dislike about the new house aren't really the house... I don't like the backyard - it's on a hill... pretty much unusable - but it backs up to woods and a creek - so that does help. And the neighborhood. I hate to be a snob, but these are not my people. They're much more pretentious and upper-middle class. And, with the exception of a few, they're not very friendly...sometimes I feel like I'm back in Jr. High school. :huh: Hate the HOA... do not move into an HOA neighborhood!! Ours in in an uproar right now,. When we moved in everyone said it was great and very laid back HOA. Well, they must have had a change in who is running it. It's becoming more oppressive. We got a "love letter" from our HOA telling us our mailbox is leaning and to fix it. I went out and looked and looked and scratched my head. (I wish I could get the photos to work here)...because in my estimation, it isn't leaning - even a little bit. Crazy. Most people I've talked to are not amused by these letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeteranMom Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 :lol: My answer is sort of the same for both questions- like and dislike...I like that I have a small house when I clean it, but I don't like that I have a small house the rest of the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belacqua Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 However, as the boys became teenagers we found a major flaw, the main bath is right next to bedroom and as they grew older, stayed up later, and had later curfews that bathroom has become an issue, waking us up when someone used it during the night. That's my only real complaint about my house, too. It's just the one kid, but even when he's trying to be quiet the sounds resonate next to my head. Even worse when the cats decide to have a throwdown in the bathtub. Funny how some of the dislikes on this thread are things I actually quite like about my house. I really like having a laundry closet rather than an entire room. I guess if a laundry room were big enough for a huge folding table and hanging racks, I might change my mind. But every laundry room I've ever had has been bigger than I needed but too small to add anything useful. And I like not having an open plan. Sometimes I just want to be alone in the kitchen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypatia. Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 We live in a split level. Bedrooms (and 2 baths) upstairs. Family room, laundry room, and half-bath downstairs. Living room, dining room, and kitchen on the entry level. My biggest complaint is the lack of a bathroom on the entry level. Normally not an issue but when there is a potty training little one (and a baby prevents the convenient placement of a little potty), stomach virus, or morning sickness then going up or down a half-flight of stairs can sometimes take too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Laurie Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Split bedrooms- master down, kids rooms up. HATE it. When you have a little one it means that it's forever until you can move them out of your room since you don't want them to fall down the stairs at night. Also, it means less privacy when your bedroom is so near the main living area. The other thing I don't like is that the upstairs is such a great layout, but the downstairs is a stupid layout. The kitchen is too small, especially considering the size of the rest of the house. Too many rooms down here and it's too chopped up. It doesn't flow as well as the upstairs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 the things I do not like about my house are all the unfinished bits- like no kitchen cupboard doors, no door on the broom cupboard- no flashing around the outside of the windows (outside of the house). No tiles or splash back behind the kitchen sink or behind the bench tops.... the list is pretty long.... It is what happens when you build your own house.... Oh, hear, here, my friend! Dh built our house 11 years ago and there are still things unfinished. I have also learned that there is no such thing as a "temporary" solution; i.e., "I know you don't like these faucets, honey, but I'm just throwing them on temporarily..." Yeah. Right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Here is the issue. DH had an idealistic view of what "living out in the country" would be like. We aren't exactly in the country, but we do live pretty far out for my taste. I had no such delusions. :lol: We moved from living in the city (a little city out West called Los Angeles), and he had some grandiose plans to have a garden, chickens, quiet evenings in the yard, etc..... Reality has set in, FINALLY, after 9 years here. We spend most of our time in the car, not the yard! I no more want chickens than I want a hole in my head, and our garden has never quite worked the way we would like. We also stay indoors due to humidity and bugs for the most part. Dawn But chickens are loyal loving pets who provide breakfast. Per my son the chicken nut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 My only complaint is that I settled and did not create an area to add a 3rd bedroom. Not that I need a 3rd bedroom and I guess I became hard pressed I could give up my office/library and put a room in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 We live in a split level. Bedrooms (and 2 baths) upstairs. Family room, laundry room, and half-bath downstairs. Living room, dining room, and kitchen on the entry level. My biggest complaint is the lack of a bathroom on the entry level. Normally not an issue but when there is a potty training little one (and a baby prevents the convenient placement of a little potty), stomach virus, or morning sickness then going up or down a half-flight of stairs can sometimes take too long. Or an elderly person who can't do stairs anymore. We lived in a split level when my grandmother was elderly. I so wanted her to come and stay with us for a while, but we couldn't work around the stairs/bathroom issues.. and didn't want her stuck in one place all day long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymonster Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 I love our house, but it's aging sort of like I am -- with a heavy dose of frump. The house needs new carpet for the upstairs, paint for the interior (all floors), to lose some of its fabulous orange bathroom counters, and to have the back porch painted. We keep working on it every weekend, but the list seems to keep getting longer and longer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 - Guest room or MIL apartment because my mom is close to that point in life. - High Walkability score. Parks, dog parks, library, post office, coffee, stores are on my list for walking. We actually have those, but I wouldn't want to lose them. Love being able to walk. These are two things I wish we had, too. Our house is large, so having my mom or MIL is not a problem of space, but there are no full bathrooms on the main floor. So, stairs must be navigated for a shower. Where our home is situated is not walkable/bikeable at all. The road is dangerous, even in a car! No shoulder and people fly around turns and over hills. Besides that, there isn't anything closer than seven or more miles. I don't know, though, if this is something I can ever expect to have, because I DO want a large piece of land where nobody cares if I have chickens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 These are two things I wish we had, too. Our house is large, so having my mom or MIL is not a problem of space, but there are no full bathrooms on the main floor. So, stairs must be navigated for a shower. Where our home is situated is not walkable/bikeable at all. The road is dangerous, even in a car! No shoulder and people fly around turns and over hills. Besides that, there isn't anything closer than seven or more miles. I don't know, though, if this is something I can ever expect to have, because I DO want a large piece of land where nobody cares if I have chickens. Actually the urban gardeners are make great strides in some areas to have chickens. There is a family in the large(ish) city closest to me who live urban and have chickens. The only downside is the price of real estate to get that much land in the city. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audrey Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 The basement is very poor. I would rather have no basement anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanvan Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 I just thought of something I really dislike about our house. The floor plan is very open and our bedroom is on the ground floor and very small. There really is no good place to have a conversation that the Dc will not hear. My dc have probably heard many things they shouldn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 I will keep this very short. the layout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmama Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 I have an unfinished icky little laundry/water heater/furnace room. So, my dream is to someday have a "real" laundry room :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 That I need to repoint in the back. That nothing is straight or square. I mean NOTHING. That some of the plaster walls are clearly a century old. That the hart pine floors are beautiful, but some of the boards are messed up. That when they made the house, apparently it wasn't standard to put an underfloor on things. (What the heck, right?) That I need new windows in the front but it's far too expensive to even consider. That the wiring makes no sense. (When I say no sense, I mean none. We are even on two separate city power grids and have lost power in only half the house when the power goes out on our block. Seriously - half the house! Who ever heard of such a thing?) That there are mice. (Specifically in the house, but this is also maybe just a complaint about the world. There are mice in the world.) And the number one thing is that because we live in the city, everything I want to do costs many, many times what people say it "should" cost. Like thousands more sometimes. I had to replace our rotting back porch, which is basically the size of a large dining room table, and it cost pretty much the same as what my father paid to build a brand new screened in porch room with a fireplace on stilts on the back of his house. Because he lives in rural Georgia. Uuuggghhh... Ack. Thanks. I didn't even know I needed to vent so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reign Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 Too small. I think if I had one less kid my house would be fine. The third kid really made it way too cramped. Life would also be easier with more than one bathroom too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McKay Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 My front door opens to a view of the island and kitchen sink. Not a good situation if there is a kitchen mess. I'd love to have a master bedroom downstairs, a mudroom, a pantry and a regular door on the front or side of the garage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanvan Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 That there are mice. (Specifically in the house, but this is also maybe just a complaint about the world. There are mice in the world.) :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 I wish we had a garage for this home. Our old home also had a long concrete drive. That was great for bikes and similar. We don't have any safe for kid play paved/concrete area here. We need to replace the deck and roof. The roof money is in the bank, so that is planned. I don't know when the deck will happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1GirlTwinBoys Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 My front door opens to a view of the island and kitchen sink. Not a good situation if there is a kitchen mess. This too. I also miss having a 3 car garage like our last house. I HATE my tiny shower and my GINORMOUS bathtub in the master. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted May 22, 2014 Author Share Posted May 22, 2014 Wow, I think you had my house! It is on a heavy slope, which has made it unusable for many things, like playing ball for the boys. The neighborhood is also a bit snobby. Lot's of tennis moms running around in tennis shorts and "lunching" together. I am "the homeschooler" and not exactly one who fits in. Last summer they tried to have a BBQ (half way through we got rained out), I was approached by many and the first comment was, "Oh, you are the one who home schools, right?" So obviously they have talked about me. AND, many of them seemed to know each other and have social events together, I have never been invited. However, thankfully, we have no HOA. Dawn 1-3 are some of the reasons why we moved 2yrs ago. Although dh's commute wasn't so bad -everything else seemed far away. But, the things I dislike about the new house aren't really the house... I don't like the backyard - it's on a hill... pretty much unusable - but it backs up to woods and a creek - so that does help. And the neighborhood. I hate to be a snob, but these are not my people. They're much more pretentious and upper-middle class. And, with the exception of a few, they're not very friendly...sometimes I feel like I'm back in Jr. High school. :huh: Hate the HOA... do not move into an HOA neighborhood!! Ours in in an uproar right now,. When we moved in everyone said it was great and very laid back HOA. Well, they must have had a change in who is running it. It's becoming more oppressive. We got a "love letter" from our HOA telling us our mailbox is leaning and to fix it. I went out and looked and looked and scratched my head. (I wish I could get the photos to work here)...because in my estimation, it isn't leaning - even a little bit. Crazy. Most people I've talked to are not amused by these letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 While I love our open layout , there is no private "public" space. So if a friend needed to come over for a private talk, we'd need to go to my bedroom and sit on the bed. OR I need to send everyone else to their bedrooms. Closet space is very limited. Attic space is very limited. Storage is a problem. The bathrooms are very small. The lot is so shady that I can't garden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 While I love our open layout , there is no private "public" space. So if a friend needed to come over for a private talk, we'd need to go to my bedroom and sit on the bed. OR I need to send everyone else to their bedrooms. Closet space is very limited. Attic space is very limited. Storage is a problem. The bathrooms are very small. The lot is so shady that I can't garden. No garage. No basement (not uncommon in this area, but I grew up in an area where everyone had basements. There are tornados here. There were not tornadoes there. Go figure.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidsHappen Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 The stairs! I really don't know how much longer I will be able to go up and down the stairs on a regular basis. The pantry has wire shelves which make it difficult to move items around. My house is about 10 years old now and is starting to need some work: Dry rot on the back door frame Back porch needs replaced Oven lock doesn't work so I can't use the self clean feature Down Stairs bathroom has water damage on walls and needs to be fixed and painted Carpet (entire second floor and stairs) needs replaced Many gaps in the downstairs hardwood floors In the middle of a landscaping project in the front yard Walls need cleaning and painting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 What I do NOT like about my house? That it is not self-cleaning. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acsnmama Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 We always wanted a house with no wasted space, and for the most part, we got it! So much so, that there is no space for an accent table in the foyer, or anywhere else really. The bedrooms are quite small, but we have a FROG so that's convenient. However, I'd much rather have a formal dining room or living room as a school room, rather than the FROG, simply because it seems so detached being upstairs, when the rest of our house is downstairs! I don't care for our kitchen, we have an island that is mostly useless, it's so tiny, ugly and randomly placed, the kitchen set up would be much more useful if it was a U shape, getting rid of the island. We also don't have a pantry!! Oh that bothers me. Our laundry room is a closet. I wish there were hardwood floors throughout. The backyard is small. I feel greedy when I complain about our home because it was an answer to prayer last year, it's our first home after living in 3 different apartments. I love not living in an apartment. I had lost passion and ideas for a dream home because we wanted a home so badly, and this certainly a nice one, but there are things about it that bother me, but I imagine every house will. Still DH and I don't plan to stay here forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted May 23, 2014 Author Share Posted May 23, 2014 This is a good thing to note. Most of the homes here are open floor plan/transitional. The thought of privacy is something to keep in mind. Dawn While I love our open layout , there is no private "public" space. So if a friend needed to come over for a private talk, we'd need to go to my bedroom and sit on the bed. OR I need to send everyone else to their bedrooms. Closet space is very limited. Attic space is very limited. Storage is a problem. The bathrooms are very small. The lot is so shady that I can't garden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debodun Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 The biggest peeve I have (besides having so much functional obsolence) is that there's no driveway or pull off in front of the house. This confuses people since most don't know where to park on the busy main street of town. The people that live on my block have their driveways coming off the parallel back street, here's an aerial photo of my block. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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