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Your ideal house

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snlee

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DF''s thread about whether or not you''ll down size your home after your kids move out got me thinking...

What is the size of your ideal house?

How many bedrooms? Do you have to find a house with enough bedrooms so each child gets their own room?
 

TravelingGal

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Date: 5/4/2009 5:57:16 PM
Author:snlee
DF''s thread about whether or not you''ll down size your home after your kids move out got me thinking...

What is the size of your ideal house?

How many bedrooms? Do you have to find a house with enough bedrooms so each child gets their own room?
Ideal in our price range or ideal without taking into consideration what we can afford? Basically, Ideal home or DREAM home?
 

Steel

Ideal_Rock
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DELETED and EDIT

I re read my post and it was wholly inapropriate. It seemed like a resonable reply at the time
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. I didn't answer the question just moaned about my fllor plan - sorry.


Ideal is:
4 beds (2 ensuite)
1 study
2 receptions
1 cinema
1 lounge
1 kit/diner
Family bath
Lobby
Seperate utility room.

I wanted a master wing with the master bath, closet and bedroom down its own corridor, seperate from the rest of the house.
I desperately wanted the 2 formal reception rooms. I wanted lots of fireplaces but the architect refused point blank so I only have 3. I really wish I had one in the master bed...I also wonder if I shouldn't have built it with 5 beds...
 

TravelingGal

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OK, I''ll say ideally, meaning what we are realistically shooting for.

3 bedrooms and a den or space for my office. Living room AND family room would be awesome too. 1800 sq feet would be great, 1500 probably what we will end up with at some point.
 

snlee

Ideal_Rock
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Date: 5/4/2009 5:59:53 PM
Author: TravelingGal
Date: 5/4/2009 5:57:16 PM
Author:snlee

DF''s thread about whether or not you''ll down size your home after your kids move out got me thinking...

What is the size of your ideal house?

How many bedrooms? Do you have to find a house with enough bedrooms so each child gets their own room?
Ideal in our price range or ideal without taking into consideration what we can afford? Basically, Ideal home or DREAM home?
Ideal in your price range.

And if you want you can tell us about your DREAM home too.
2.gif
 

butterfly 17

Ideal_Rock
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My ideal house would have 4 bedrooms, a formal living room, formal dining room, two car garage, a half bath on the first floor and two upstairs, one being in the Master''s bedroom. A family room and a playroom for the kids.
And definitely, a backyard that is bigger and longer than the plot that the actually house sits on. Unfortunately, living here in NY, esp. in one of the five boroughs, it is hard to find a house with a big property and privacy. Everytime I go to NJ, I am awed by how much land surrounds the houses over there. HEre, your lucky if you find parking for your car in front of your house.
 

Feralpenchant

Shiny_Rock
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My ideal thoroughly researched planned out for long time awesome perfect house, part one. (If I had my way and SO had no say in these matters. And I had the money, of course
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) I like big houses. I like spacey rooms and HUGE windows. I like to be acutely aware of what time of day and what time of year it is at all times. Is that weird? The space is not for the kids, IT'S FER MEEE!!!

MY BEDROOM. With different splash color scheme. The ceiling deco is phenomenal. And the WINDOWS! Scratch that painting behind the bed, though. Needs something different. Like a black and white montage of greyscale art with a splash of color. I would do more to this room, that little coffee table is not needed, but if someone gave me the basics of this room architectually, I'd die of happiness.

Guest bedroom 1.. and guest bedroom number 2

And because my modern taste does not really carry 0over to the kitchen, Here's my ideal kitchen. Stone work in the kitchen? Fab. Beautiful beam work overhead? YES PLEASE! The flat screen mounted tv needs to go though. I will NOT have a television in my kitchen!

I would like for the master bath to follow this tune.

And that's just about all I'm going to bore you with today.





..Sometimes I feel like I should be an interior designer. I think it just might be the only way I'll ever be truly happy lol.
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EDIT: Ummm, and this.
 

D&T

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hmmm,, ours would be 6 bedrooms, at least 3500 square fee with a basement two story on the mountain side with a city view, backyard, about 15 minutes from the ski resort.... hopefully this will be a reality for us in three years.... priced no more than $400,000.... hopefully thats the max....
 

luckystar112

Ideal_Rock
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Jan 8, 2007
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3,962
Our "ideal" house when we move back to New England would be..........

3 bedrooms 2 baths (including master bath)
full basement (for an office, bedroom for a teenager when they are older)
Mud room!
Laundry on the same level as the bedrooms
open floorplan
Fenced in back yard (or the ability to be fenced in)
larger lot
GARAGE
withing walking distance to shops/interesting things.
Within a 15 minute drive to the beach
Under 220k
1500 sq ft or more
No slanted ceilings if we have a second floor.

The thing about a lot of quaint New England coastal towns is that the houses are typically very small and very close together. A lot of them don't have garages, either. And no master baths. And little closet space. This isn't true all of the time, but seems to be the case with our meager budget (which is still double the cost of our current house. Sigh). If you want more space you need to go to the more rural areas, but then you aren't in walking distance of anything. Houses are also more expensive the closer to the coast you are, but I have found SOME diamond in the roughs when I've searched real estate sites. And DH and I don't mind getting our hands dirty.

My DREAM house would be any house on a body of water. Preferably a log cabin. I just think they are cool.
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HollyS

Ideal_Rock
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DH and I would absolutely love an Arts and Crafts style bungalow. IF we could find one, and IF we could afford one, and IF we could afford to renovate and outfit it the way it should be . . . we would be in heaven.

We currently live in about 1700-1800 sq ft. (I'm making an educated guess.) We could live well and be quite happy at 2000 sq ft. Too much house for us would be anything over 2100 sq ft.

We will probably find something in our price range in the 1600 to 1800 sq ft size.
 

April20

Ideal_Rock
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If we had children, I''m sure our "ideal" would be different. Currently, we have a 3 bed/2 bath, 1600 sf house. 2000 sf would be ideal in our current situation. I''d like three true bedrooms and an additional office rather than using the 3rd bedroom as an office, which is what we are doing now. I''d also like a larger kitchen and an bathroom specifically for the bedrooms (jack and jill style perhaps) and a half bath in a common area. I''d also like a family room attached to the kitchen in addition to the living room.

But... the house I have now is great and is extremely reasonable. I''ve decided to be satisified with what I have now. Or at least that''s what I''m telling myself. (I really, really, really want a front porch)
 

musey

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Pipe dreams at this point, but... realistic dream house would be be 3-4 bedrooms (1 master, 1-2 for kids, 1 guest), living room, kitchen/dining (probably combined), +/-500sf yard (um, the size of our current apartment
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), maybe a little patio
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DREAM house? Actually, not much bigger. Maybe just a bedroom or two more for guests. I grew up in a HUGE house (5 levels, 7 bedrooms, etc. etc.) and always felt like it was impossibly large, so I don''t have much desire for a huge house myself.
 

DivaDiamond007

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DH and I found a floor-plan in a home plans book that we love.

The house is about 2000 square feet, 4 bedrooms, lving room, dining room with separate kitchen. There is also an attached two-car garage. In addition to the 4 bedrooms, there is an additional 11x15 room upstairs that could be used as a den, playroom, office or computer room. There are 2.5 baths.

The master bedroom is downstairs and is 22x13, has it''s own private bath with a walk-in closet. Bedroom 2 is 13x12, bedrooms 3 and 4 are 10x11 each.

We like that this house has 4 bedrooms, plus the extra room upstairs since there is no separate family room. The other option we could live with would be to have 3 bedrooms and a separate living space/family room downstairs.

We definately want our kids to have their own rooms, although if it really came down to it we wouldn''t be opposed to two children of the same sex sharing a room if necessary. We are only planning on having two children though so three bedrooms is about the minimum we would want.

We are really hoping that if we are able to build that we will be able to afford this house. If not, then we''d probably go with a similar floor plan with only three bedrooms and between 1600 and 1800 square feet.
 

KimberlyH

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Ideal house would an early 1900s Craftsman approx. 2500 sq. ft. with 4/4 including a basement or a guest house with 1/1 that's included in my original 4/4). The yard would be zeroscaped. It would be on a street with friendly neighbors.
 

Haven

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Date: 5/4/2009 6:37:47 PM
Author: D&T
hmmm,, ours would be 6 bedrooms, at least 3500 square fee with a basement two story on the mountain side with a city view, backyard, about 15 minutes from the ski resort.... hopefully this will be a reality for us in three years.... priced no more than $400,000.... hopefully thats the max....

HOLY COW! A house like that would cost easily $2 Million near us!
 

snlee

Ideal_Rock
Joined
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Messages
5,891
Ideal size for us would be 1600-2000 sq ft. 3 or 4 bedrooms all on the same floor. I can''t decide. If we have 2 kids then 3 bedrooms is fine but we might have a third. Two kids may end up sharing a room if they are the same gender. But what if we have a boy, girl, then boy? Not sure what we''d do if we had 3 bedrooms.
 

Haven

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Our ideal house is a 4 bedroom ranch with a big backyard, a proper foyer, a mud room, a great open layout for entertaining, and lots of character. Location trumps all, though.

The only thing our current house is missing is the 4th bedroom (and a master suite) to be IDEAL. We''ll get there, we plan on adding on in the next few years.
 

Haven

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Holly--I LOVE arts & crafts style, and I adore bungalows, but I also love an open floor plan which you don''t generally get in a bungalow. That craftsman style, though, *drool*. All that woodwork, the detailing, the pergola out front, I love it.

I''m actually torn between decorating in a craftsman style, and a clean cottage style. I love both, but they''re so different.
 

NewEnglandLady

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Ideal in our price range would be:

Oceanfront with lawn in back (backing to woods would be super ideal)
3 Bedrooms (possibly 4 if we could afford it)
2 Bathrooms
Built no later than 1940
Original details--built-ins, mouldings, etc.
No granite countertops or stainless steel appliances
Hardwoods throughout
Widow's walk
Mud room for dogs
Separate garage that I can turn into a grooming center
On the fence about open kitchen--I don't like guests watching me cook
I would add a beautiful master bath with double sinks, one of those showers you see on commercials with the water coming from every direction and a separate soaking tub, but I know that would take us out of our price range. Still, a girl can dream!

We've seen a couple that have come close, but not close enough to make us want to buy
 

Burk

Ideal_Rock
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This is fun! We're in the process of building our ideal home right now. Should be done in October or November. We'll probably build our "dream home" in ten years or so.

The house we're building is craftsman style (add me to the list of craftsman/bungalow lovers who responded to this thread). It's 1.5 story (master suite on main floor). Main floor also has den, big 2 story family room, kitchen, formal dining (which will be kids toy room for a while), laundry room, half bath, and mud room. Second floor has 3 bedrooms and one bath. The basement will not be finished right away but probably in the next year we'll finish it with large rec room, 1-2 more bedrooms and another bath. It'll be approx. 2500 finished square feet with an additional 1000ish when the basement is finished. We're really excited. Oh, forgot to mention 3 car garage.
 

E B

Ideal_Rock
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This would hopefully be an updated Craftsman (which aren't hard to find where we live if you're willing to pay $$$), but we'll see what we can afford.

4 Bedrooms
2.5 Baths
~2000 sq. feet
Front porch
Fenced backyard (medium-sized, low-maintenance)
Deck
Laundry room
Walk-in pantry
Full finished basement
 

Italiahaircolor

Ideal_Rock
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Dec 16, 2007
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5,184
4 Bed
3.5 bath
In-Law suite w/private bath
HUGE kitchen
comfortable family room
bonus room
finished basement
in ground pool
Craftsman style
really refined finishes
 

packrat

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Dec 12, 2008
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10,614
Feral, that kitchen!!!! Ohhhh mercy those floors and the beams at the ceiling wow wow wow!
 

DiamanteBlu

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
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2,501
I like very large houses [with large, formal entertainment spaces] with killer views and tons of land.

We are currently looking and it looks like we will be able to find something adequate with good views and some land but we will eventually have to build the killer estate from the ground up - which will take quite a while since we still have to find and procure the land.
 

packrat

Super_Ideal_Rock
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If we had the money, we''d have a huge log home. Wood everywhere and a massive stone fireplace. Big wrap around deck and walk out basement. A lot of land and trees everywhere.
 

D&T

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Date: 5/4/2009 7:46:32 PM
Author: Haven


Date: 5/4/2009 6:37:47 PM
Author: D&T
hmmm,, ours would be 6 bedrooms, at least 3500 square fee with a basement two story on the mountain side with a city view, backyard, about 15 minutes from the ski resort.... hopefully this will be a reality for us in three years.... priced no more than $400,000.... hopefully thats the max....

HOLY COW! A house like that would cost easily $2 Million near us!
lol...yeah, I figured in most states.. its a fortune
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but not we're we are going.... but in the next few years... I know this sounds bad (hope real estate still is down) but good for us
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ideally about 4500-5000 sq feet...
here is a pic... example of what we want...
 

D&T

Super_Ideal_Rock
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ook,, here is the pic.. couldn''t attach the first time

dreamhousetr12344.JPG
 

Skippy123

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24,300
Well I love our house but I would love an extra bedroom and instead of 2 sets of double closets I would like a walk in closet, oh and an extra bathroom. Oh and workshop for hubby. Okay that is it. hehe

4 bedrooms
3 full bath
walk in closets.
 

Elmorton

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
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3,998
DH and I both love old houses, which means tons of compromising when it comes to your *ideal* home. We''ll probably never find a place we love with an attached garage or big closets and certainly not a master suite. But that''s ok by me :)

Anyway, if I let my imagination run wild -

Craftsman, natural wood trim, interesting built-ins
Fenced backyard with patio for hot tub
Open, square, updated kitchen (basically, I want to take my current kitchen with me to the next place)
Formal dining room with built-in cabinets/china hutch
Formal living room with fireplace
3+bedrooms with ample closets. Bedrooms don''t need to be big, but should be able to hold a full/queen bed and at least one dresser; preferably 2
Bathroom on each level if multi-level, two bathrooms +, at least one is a full (that one should be near the bedrooms - multiple houses we looked at had the only full bathroom next to the kitchen - lovely.)
Finished basement holding study/tv area with extra space for guest bedroom (this is the plan for our house)
Love to have a 4-season porch
Mud room
Landscaped already
Bonus room/play area
 

zoebartlett

Super_Ideal_Rock
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12,461
Our *dream* house would have:

three big bedrooms
hard wood floors (cherry or espresso finish)
wide crown molding
corian, quartz, or granite countertops (darker color, preferably)
anything but oak cabinets -- ideally, either maple, cherry, or white/cream
nice yard but not unmanageable
great curb appeal
in a friendly, walkable neighborhood (still thinking about all the beautiful Charlotte streets we drove through!)
big walk-in shower with seamless doors
living room and family room
attached 2 car garage
fenced in back yard
foyer (not a grand entryway or anything, but I hate entering into a living room)
big closets that have lots of organized space already laid out
finished basement
2-2.5 baths
move in ready (we''re SO not handy!)
dining room
2,000+ sq. ft.

Realistically though, we''ll probably end up in another condo or townhouse (2, maybe 3 bedrooms, 1-1.5 baths), under 2,000 sq. ft.
 
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