Houses - make or break

- Need a hall closet near the front door for guest--we have a large closet (only closet downstairs) by our front door, guests have not once opened the door and hung up a coat...

- Powder room--have one, love that no one has any reason to venture upstairs to use the bathroom so I don't have to clean up there

- Laundry room near the master bedroom--it's downstairs under the stairs more of a closet. Last house it was upstairs near the bedrooms, also a closet. A laundry room would be lovely anywhere in the house. It's the one thing I didn't get off my list when we bought this house...

- Master closet should not be in the master bathroom-- agree, I think it would be weird. DH hogs the bathroom, I would not like my clothes trapped in the bathroom when I need to change.

- No toilet closet-- agree. I would not want to brush my teeth if DH was using the toilet... and vice versa.

- Garage entrance is too far from the kitchen-- I don't go into the house from my garage, so doesn't bother me.  I have a goal, just once before I die of being able to park in my garage...

Dealbreakers for me: kitchen visible from the front door, the house is one giant hallway (saw several of those when we were buying this house), tiny kitchen.  I'm also not a fan of open floor plans because they are NOISY.  

I like having a hall closet by the door not for our guests but for us. I can’t think of a better place for coats and jackets than by the door. A closet inside the bathroom. Never. Everything else I am indifferent about.

I can't think of any deal breakers, although I have relatively strong feelings that the powder room should be away from where people gather so you have a better sense of privacy. I also need a lot of light.

I get lot of house plans that pop up on my FB feed, and it is interesting to read what people like or don't like about them. Here are the major things I have noticed:

What are your thoughts?

- Need a hall closet near the front door for guest: In my house no guests ever enter through our front door, and typically neither do we. so I don't need that. I definitely like a coat closet, but there's no need for me to necessarily have it near my front door, depending on the layout of the rest of the house.

- Powder room: I do need a 2nd bathroom. I also think that in even in old homes (if 2 story), where that powder room may need to be added or carved out of a closet, etc., it's worth it to have at least one 1st floor bathroom.

- Laundry room near the master bedroom: As long as I am able to maneuver stairs, I greatly prefer bedrooms on the 2nd floor, and I greatly prefer the laundry room NOT be on the second floor. So therefore I prefer the laundry room to be quite a distance from the bedroom.

- Master closet should not be in the master bathroom: This I absolutely agree with! I don't understand this idea at all! I could write a whole post about all the reasons this is a big "no" for me.

- No toilet closet: A separate room with just a toilet, you mean? Within the main bathroom? I don't care one way or another about that, BUT I do dislike the idea of just a toilet in a room, with no facilities to then wash you hands. So if you're putting the toilet in it's own closet, give it one of those small hand washing sinks, too, please.

- Garage entrance is too far from the kitchen: I 100% prefer detached garages for fire safety reasons. (Child of a firefighter. It's programmed in to me.) I do have a detached garage, and as it happens the most convenient entrance to the house from the garage is in fact the one near the kitchen.

This is an interesting convo bc we arent looking to sell soon, we will probably downsize in 8-10 years.

- Need a hall closet near the front door for guest

we have a closet on the main floor and store our own coats and boots, but guests dont really hang their coats there. We have a bench in the kitchen and people seem to use that more.

- Powder room
on our main floor it is a full bathroom, with a tub. DH was just saying if we were to renovate, he might consider taking out the tub there, but when our house was built, it had a "guest room" (DH currently uses it as an office) near to the main floor's bathroom, and so I assume that is why it is a full bath. I dont think it's worth taking the tub out of it. We also have a formal living room, a family room, and a dining room. The living room is currently my office and a library. The dining room doesnt have a table to eat in it, our kitchen is so large, we just eat there. We do use the family room, which is divided from the kitchen with a half wall, and we recently (2 years ago?) installed a countertop and have stools there for additional seating.

- Laundry room near the master bedroom

our laundry room is on the 2nd floor, right outside our bedroom. In our previous house, we had a mud room coming into the house from the garage and our laundry room was there. I liked having that space to come into the house, but I also like having the laundry closer to our bedrooms.

- Master closet should not be in the master bathroom
we have two closets for the master bedroom, they are accessed thru the master bathroom.

- No toilet closet

we have a toilet closet in the master bathroom and I do like having it if one if us goes to the bathroom and the other is just getting ready, brushing teeth, etc.

- Garage entrance is too far from the kitchen

its not too far.

- Need a hall closet near the front door for guest
Agree. We have two actually, a large one that is full of boxes of stuff from when we moved in and also a bunch of coats, snow pants, and other seasonal stuff. The other smaller one has the catch bin at the bottom of the laundry chute (the top is in DD’s second floor bath but we never use it) and it’s where I store the vacuum cleaner and more coats. I don’t know why we have so many coats.

- Powder room
we have a main floor 3/4 bath halfway between the service door to the garage and the main floor laundry, all of which is adjacent to the kitchen. It’s very convenient having it just inside the door we come in from the garage. Not having some type of main floor* bath would be a deal breaker.

- Laundry room near the master bedroom
Meh. I don’t think I would want it near the bedrooms because I sometimes have a load of laundry in the dryer at night and I would hear it. Mine is on the first floor* which is very convenient.

- Master closet should not be in the master bathroom
I wouldn’t like having my closet inside the master bathroom. I don’t think humidity would be a huge issue for me but I just wouldn’t like having to go through the bathroom to get to the closet. In our house, the master bedroom, master bath, huge walk in closet plus a bonus room behind our bedroom is all in kind of a separate “wing” of the second floor. As you enter the bedroom, the bath is off to the right, continue through the bedroom and beyond that is the bonus room to the left and the walk in closet is on the right. Works out great for us.

- No toilet closet
I personally don’t like those little separate closet sized “rooms” with just a toilet. Feels a bit too claustrophobic for me and most of them don’t have a sink which is ew. I don’t care if my DH is in the bathroom with me, I mean, the man watched me give birth (and saw the insides of my guts splayed out in the process) so by comparison the former is no biggie to me. Our master bath has a hip wall between the toilet and the rest of the room, at the far end of a big soaking tub so there is a modicum of “privacy” even though it’s in the same room.

- Garage entrance is too far from the kitchen
We have an attached garage so this would be kind of a factor I guess. The service door to the garage is just off the kitchen and I will admit it’s convenient for bringing in groceries, etc.

The deal breakers for us were:
- guest room, we wanted one
- multiple bathrooms, including one on the main floor
- big finished studio space for me, in a separate part of the house (mine is in the basement)
- 3+ car garage for DH to have shop space
- circular floor plan on main floor (DH insisted on this)
- LOTS of closets and storage space since our previous house had none
- big kitchen, lots of cabinets and counter space, good work flow
- separate office space with a door

* One thing that we kind of looked for but didn’t totally cave on was to have one level living, meaning having kitchen, master bed/bath, laundry, living room all on the main floor which makes it easier to age in place. The only thing this house doesn’t have is a first floor bedroom BUT we could probably convert our unused formal living room or the main floor office into a bedroom if we really someday needed that.

I've only lived at my parents' house, in a dorm room, and now 3 different apartments with DH... we've talked about buying a house one day, though certainly not in our current area.

- Need a hall closet near the front door for guest
--- I could see how this would be helpful for everyone, not just guests. My parents' house has 2 front doors, and one has a closet nearby. Our current apartment does as well, but it's set up very poorly, so we just keep clothes that we haven't worn in forever, a printer box, and occasionally Bessie's cat carrier (right now, it's on the living room floor because I'm lazy and she likes to sleep in it - go figure).

- Powder room
--- Definitely would be nice to have! Even though DH and I are never having kids, we like the idea of both being able to have a bathroom, even if it's just a powder room.

- Laundry room near the master bedroom
--- I just want my own laundry! I don't care where it is. My parents' house has their laundry in the basement, DH's dad's washer and dryer are on his first floor, I'll take it wherever!

- Master closet should not be in the master bathroom
--- Yeah, this would be weird to me. Separation would be ideal.

- No toilet closet
--- Never thought about this until living in a dorm room and where we do now. Some separation is nice. We also have a litter box under our sink area (there's an open area), so it's nice to have that a little separated as well.

- Garage entrance is too far from the kitchen
--- Until my dad decided to buy a sports car, we never had a garage. Even now, their garage isn't attached to the house. I guess this would depend on where we're living, if we have a garage, etc. Though I know my cousin's house has an entry into near their kitchen area from the garage, and I could see that being helpful after grocery store trips.

Need a hall closet near the front door for guest - We have one, but its jammed pack with our coats. We also have a hall tree guests can hang their coats on. But I would want one.
Powder room - We live in a ranch with 2 bathrooms. Guests use the hall bathroom that my kids share. It's stressful.
Laundry room near the master bedroom - Nah. Ours is across the house, but then again, the house is not very big.
Master closet should not be in the master bathroom - I don't mind this, but I don't like having to walk through the closet to get to the bathroom.
No toilet closet - I'd rather not.
Garage entrance is too far from the kitchen - I did see a house where I thought it should be closer, but if everything else is perfect I could live with it.

If I ever buy another house it will definitely need a walk-in pantry. I have friends who built a $500,000 house and it does not have walk-in pantry. I don't understand that.

- Need a hall closet near the front door for guest
We don't have any hall closets. When guests arrive (and go through the side door because the front door has an alcove addition that is gross), we take their coats and accessories and put them on our bed in the master bedroom.


- Powder room
There is a half bath in the basement attached to my oldest's bedroom but no one except them uses it so we just have one bathroom on the main floor. 


- Laundry room near the master bedroom
There is a large room (with no doors) that you walk into from the side door that houses our washing machine, dryer, the pantry cabinet, and the dog crates. One of our dogs barks at the washing machine when it's on spin cycle EVERY SINGLE TIME so we are considering moving both machines to the basement and redoing that space into a mudroom with a bench and pantry cabinets/shelves on one side and built-in dog crates on the other side.


- Master closet should not be in the master bathroom
The master closet is across the hallway from the master bedroom.


- No toilet closet
We do have a small linen closet in the bathroom. 

- Garage entrance is too far from the kitchen
While we have a single-car garage, it is not finished on the inside and needs some roof and wall repairs before it could be finished. I refuse to park in it so it just holds various outdoor items and furniture that we don't have room for in the house. When I park in the driveway with groceries, the side door is just a few steps away. You walk in the side door, up three stairs, through the laundry room, and then you're in the kitchen/living room/dining room.

Building a house sounds like such a nightmare to me. I appreciate that others enjoy it but I like old houses. None of those things are dealbreakers for me and some of them are really unimportant to me.

 I love our front closet for the family outerwear. Living in San Diego we don't have to deal with too many guest coats, but if we do, they usually get tossed on the guest room bed. 

Powder room - absolutely need a downstairs bathroom of some sort. We have a 4 piece for guests, but I'd love an extra powder room and to have the existing bathroom be ensuite to the guest room.

Laundry room neat the primary bedroom - not a deal breaker

Primary closet should not be in the primary bathroom - not a deal breaker

Toilet closet - must have. I can't imagine not having this after 20+ years and love the flexibility for both of us to come and go in the bathroom when it is being used.

Garage to kitchen distance. I've had both and prefer when the garage door opens close to the kitchen, but definitely not a deal breaker.

So only the front closet, powder room and toilet closet are deal breakers for me.

Same here.  Not only do I rather not ever  have a newly constructed home myself, but the building process also sounds awful to me.  However, I do enjoy hearing others being excited about the building of their new homes. And I like seeing photos and hearing their thought processes about how they chose different aspects of things.  


Because I personally adore the quirks of older homes, I don't even want to remodel one all at once to look like new construction inside.  I love seeing different decades or eras represented in an old house and I love the way their quirks force creativity if you work with them instead of forcibly changing them.  

But I am well aware that DH & I are the odd ones out when it comes to our house preferences. Most people would likely tell us they couldn't possibly survive dealing with or without things that we actually like or are willing to deal with.