In the new year, we plan on building our first home. It’s a very exciting time in our lives as we’ll be going from our first home, where our children were born and the place they have always known, to the house where we plan on living until the kids move out of home. It’ll be our 20 year house.
We’ve been to a few housing display villages to look at what designs are current. It’s very exciting to look inside these houses and dream… dream that this is my house… without all of the mess that we manage to make on a regular basis.
I especially love how the houses are styled. Love, love, love gaining inspiration and ideas. Here are some photos I snapped this morning… just because.
For me, the main priorities in deciding which house we will build, will be the kitchen (it must be large and preferably with a large walk in pantry), the sewing room (with good light and plenty of space for shelving and perhaps my quilting frame) and the size of the bedrooms.
If you were building a house, what would your priorities be?
I am with you a god kitchen is very important and don't forget a big sewing room
ReplyDeleteWe bought our house, but I wanted a kitchen that was open to the Living room so we could see the television when we were watching sports and cooking, or when we were having parties people tend to group, and this way we could all still see each other. Also it is important to me that it is EASY to clean. The walls, the floors.. every part of it. And long lasting. Like tile floors, and washable paint on the walls. Kids will be kids, even when they are husbands.
ReplyDeleteI have designed my ideal house - the living area would be one big room incorporating kitchen, dining, living and, on a slightly raised platform, my studio (so I can be part of the action), At the moment, when DD comes to visit, she and I and both grandsons (a toddler and a baby) want to be in the sewing room together - bit hard since it was designed as a bedroom! Behind the sewing platform would be a snug for watching TV with a library above! And, most important, the whole thing should have a view - I'm tired of suburbia!
ReplyDeleteDitto on the kitchen and the sewing room!
ReplyDeleteI love wood but tile floors are more practical so my 'dream house' would have tile floors but timber (recycled native) feature walls to hang pictures and art quilts on.
I have a little walk in pantry now that could be bigger and a combined kitchen/dining/living open plan area would be in my dream house. It would also have a combustion stove with cooking and water heating capabilities. If a house is vented properly these stoves can also be cooling systems.
The bedrooms would not be off the living areas though - children/teenagers can be so noisy sometimes - they would be separated by a thick wall and have doorways onto a hallway so noise could be compartmented. Bedrooms would also be carpeted (natural fibres) as I hate cold floors first thing in the morning :O. Love natural light so there would be lots of windows and skylights.
Yeah, I'll have to win the lottery but I can still dream :D.
Cheers,
Robyn
We built and have been living in our house for two years now and I'm really happy with the decisions we made.
ReplyDeleteLayout was of course very important. For me, the main thing in this regard was location of bedrooms. Most houses these days have master bedroom at the front of the house and other bedrooms right down the back through a hall. I didn't want to have this with a new baby and having to get up during the night.
The next priority areas (where we spent extra money) were the kitchen and the laundry because if we wanted to change these later it would have meant moving plumbing etc. We didn't worry about upgrading door knobs etc because we figured we could go to Bunnings in a few years when we had some spare cash and do that ourselves.
You also have to consider how the house will sit on the block, eg which rooms will be north facing etc. It's really up to you what you want in that regard, but it's worth thinking about.
Other little things to consider are storage space (all my friends are jealous of my hall cupboard ;)), and powerpoints. We had extra points put in and we should have had many more!!
We built our home 30 years ago, at very young ages (20 & 22) but now all these years later & many upgrades & remodels...it is the best home ever (to me)! I don't have a large kitchen & our bathrooms are not too big. That is one thing I would think about if we were building again. I don't think you can ever have enough storage space. Keep that in mind. I'm happy for you. Building a home is exciting, hard on the nerves at times, but well worth it.
ReplyDeleteI love visiting display homes too, so many gorgeous styling ideas. Unfortunately I don't think I could pull any of them off, my style being more messy homey than anything else. In my new house I want somewhere want to stay long term, a big sewing room I can build in cabinets etc to suit the purpose, a snuggly loungeroom, lots of windows & kitchen / dining room that inspires me to cook for friends & celebrate good times. Don't want much, just my idea of perfection! Hope you find yours too. Tracee xx
ReplyDeleteHow exciting starting the building process. I think having the indoors flow into the outdoors in great for our Aussie climate. Nice big bi-fold or sliding doors that could be opened up to make it feel like one big space. Hope the planning goes well :)
ReplyDeletePenny Spreitzer
I love the huge indoor/outdoor areas with the sliding glass doors that you can open up to the outside world - although I would want to have my verandah area encased in fly screen (we do live in Australia after all).
ReplyDeleteI visited a display home once that had a private courtyard with spa bath off the master suite, loved that idea.
My sister in law is currently building her own home, her big requirement was a sewing room of her own with enough space for her huge cutting table. :) She is blogging their home build journey here - http://www.thehalls.com.au/