Most Important Feature of Your Home?

[zoebartlett]

Date: 11/14/2007 7:56:05 PM
Author: Haven

Date: 11/14/2007 7:42:19 PM
Author: zoebartlett
One of the things that I love about my parents'' house in New England (the house I grew up in) is the area it''s in. It''s in the historic part of town and it''s known as the ''village.'' It''s perfect for nice long walks, especially around the holidays. The old houses are decorated so beautifully. There are often holiday tours of these old homes around Christmas. So although our next place doesn''t need to be quite as picturesque, I''d love it if it were. I''m not sure this qualifies as a featureof the home itself, but it''s important to me.

Zoe--Your hometown sounds fabulous. I LOVE cottage-style homes and any neighborhood that resembles a village! There are a few ''downtown'' areas in the northern suburbs where we''re looking that have this village feel, and I''m definitely checking out every single home that is on the market in these areas.

I''m glad you posted this because I keep on waffling between charming village homes and large, subdivision homes. We can definitely purchase more house if we go with a newer home in a subdivision, but they lack the charm of the ''downtown'' areas. Your post reminded me of the reason I love these homes so much, thank you!

Thanks Haven! My hometown is very different than the town my FI and I live in. The one we live in now is larger and while still considered a small town rather than a suburb of a large city, there''s not really a sense of comunity. That''s important to me. Where I grew up (which is only 25 minutes away), there''s a tree lighting ceremony every Christmas season. A bandstand is set up on the common and the local girl scouts and boy scouts sing Christmas carols. There''s a hot chocolate and coffee stand and everyone from town gathers around the tree that is lit every year. My mom is even in charge of reading ''Twas the Night Before Christmas every year. This year she will be away and can''t do it (she''ll resume her duty next year and she''s been doing it for the past 15 years). Instead of having someone else read the book, the woman in charge of the tree lighting ceremony is cancelling that "segment." My mom is in awe that she has so much "power."

Anyway, yes, it was great to grow up there and I visit often. I actually drive through the village every day on my way to school. My hometown has areas that are larger and have subdivisions and while they are nice, I love the charm of the center of town.

 

[eks6426]

The old village feeling is part of the reason I love my current, smaller, older house better than the one I had built new in a subdivision. There is just something really homey about living in a true neighborhood close to city center. My neighborhood does the block parties, caroling etc. The subdivision I lived in just seemed cold even though there were the some of the same block party type things. I think one of the differences is the mature trees. My current neighborhood has lots of old growth trees...some 6 feet diameter etc. Subdivisions rarely seem to have that or if they do it''s just a few large trees the builders were able to leave. I love taking walks in my current neighborhood and look at the uniqueness of each house and the holiday decorating.

 

[Phoenix]

Oh, there're soooo many things we absolutely LOVE about our home:

1) the fact that it is our first home that we own together and the fact that we basically designed it ourselves (yes, without an architect!!)

2) it's in a very good neighbourhood (one of the top districts in S'pore)

3) it's near to amenities, like a "wet" market and mrt (subway), supermarket and bus stops

4) it's only 10min drive to main shopping district and 20min to the financial centre

5) as far as important features actually/ literally in our home, we looooooveeee the beautiful trees in our garden, lots of pretty foliage - I love sitting in our open living- dining room and just gaze into our beautiful garden and watch the birds

6) our very high ceiling (it's about 5m high, yes 5 metres!

)

7) massive french doors and windows that let in lots of light

our beautiful white marble floor with incredible and yet subtle grey streaks/ patterns

9) our massive 34ft long kitchen that's a cook's dream and great for entertaining

10) our huge dining table that's also great for entertaining

11) the fact that we have 6 bedrooms (oh, ok, 5 bedrooms with a small spare bedroom with its own ensuite and entrance)

12) our swimming pool - it's also pretty to watch the rain fall onto the pool at night..the little ripples across the surface

13) our massive shower area in the master bedroom (it's so hot in S'pore that one hardly ever takes a bath, though we do have bathtubs in our bathrooms) with super-power "rain shower"

14) it's super white that makes the whole space very light and airy with lots of uncluttered space, and beautiful colourful paintings for accents (well, when we finally manage to hang them up)

15) the fact that's it's a corner unit so you don't feel claustrophobic (well, our lot is a little over 4,100 sqft, not small for S'pore but not big either - it could be claustrophobic if we had neighbours on both sides)

16) it's in a cul-de-sac with a pretty little park at the end

17) it's south-east facing so it's very cool most of the time

1 and I HAVE to add this, our house number has an "8" in it, extremely important in this part of the world, LOL!

Ok, i'd better stop now

... enough boasting, he he....

Oh to answer your other question, we couldn't and wouldn't give up any of these if we were to move again (God forbid!!). Our next home, whenever that might be would be in the same neighbourhood with all these important things that we love, except it would just be... hmmm...bigger!!