Building a house is a lot of work and I’m so happy to be moved in. After living in it for 4 months now, I’m here to share a list of our new house must-haves. These are the best decisions we’ve made!
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Here are my new house must-haves:
New House Must-haves #1: LARGE FOYER
Not only do the sidelights in our foyer bring in tons of light, but the size of foyer gives a grander entrance. When we have guests over, they are not stepping on each other coming into the house. There is plenty of room to greet guests and it not be a claustrophobic experience.
New House Must-haves #2: HIDDEN WASTE BASKET & RECYCLE BIN
You’ve just built your dream kitchen and it’s gorgeous. Your guests look around at the detail and then sitting at one end of the kitchen is the nasty waste basket. You don’t want that to be the focal point of your kitchen, or really to be seen at all. Add it as a drawer, I promise you will not regret it!
New House Must-haves #3: CUTTING BOARD OVER WASTE BASKET
Think about where you will have your cutting board and place your waste basket drawer right below it. This way you can easily open the drawer and push your scraps into the waste basket instead of carrying them across the kitchen.
New House Must-haves #4: LAZY SUSANS
We made all of our lower corner cabinets lazy susans. Nothing is more annoying than trying to sort through a tiny cupboard door to find what you need. It gives me anxiety just thinking about it. They cost a bit more, but it. is. worth. it.
New House Must-haves #5: PANTRY
It is so great to have all the food in one place. We don’t have a fancy walk-in pantry, but just a floor to ceiling pantry next to the refrigerator and it is perfect! We have more than enough space for all of our food and the kids can get their own snacks.
New House Must-haves #6: POTS & PANS DRAWER
Pots and pans traditionally get stacked in a cupboard and you have to get down on your hands and knees to pull them all out just to find the one you want. Consider having at least 2 deep drawers dedicated to just pots and pans. It is so much easier and accessible!
New House Must-haves #7: HARDWOOD FLOORS
Our new house has no grass, plus we have a dog, and two little kids. Therefore, the amount of dirt and mud brought into the house is outrageous. If we had carpet in our main living areas, we would already need to replace it. Besides that, when you have guests come over that don’t take off their shoes, you don’t have to worry about the floor. I highly recommend doing some sort of non-carpet flooring in the high traffic areas. It’s so much easier to clean.
New House Must-haves #8: MUDROOM UTILITY SINK
I wasn’t going to have a utility tub in our mudroom until my mom suggested it. I thought it would be so ugly. Although it’s not pretty yet, the mudroom will be a project I’m going to tackle in the next couple years. The utility tub, though, has already proven itself to be so useful. This is the one we have. We’ve washed the dog in it (so much mud), clean our chicken eggs, soaked stained clothes, washed muddy hands, cleaned paint brushes and other messy items in this tub. It would be annoying to go down into the basement to use this every time. This is hands down a must-have in your new house.
New House Must-haves #9: FREESTANDING BATHTUB
Freestanding bathtubs nowadays are really not that expensive. We bought ours on a Black Friday deal ( Having a linen closet in the bathroom frees up precious closet space elsewhere. On the kids end of the house, we only have a closet in the hallway. So this houses all of our blankets, extra sheets, kids toys, and art supplies. It would be impossible to also fit towels, toilet paper, and additional bathroom supplies in there as well. Our new house is fairly small, just under 1700 square feet. We added a vaulted ceiling in the great room, which makes it feel so much bigger. To make our master bedroom feel larger and more elegant, we added a steeper vaulted ceiling in there too, and boy does it make a big difference. It truly makes you feel like you’re in a suite. Growing up in a law enforcement family, this was always a big no-no. However, because our house in on the smaller side, watching TV in the living room would likely wake the kids up at night. Having our room on the other side of the living room allows us to watch TV at night and not worry about disturbing the kids. Having a ranch-style house with only 1700 square feet, we needed to maximize all the space we had. We added a bonus room above the garage that was accessible from the mudroom. We planned on finishing this later, but decided it would be the perfect playroom/extra family room. I’m so glad we finished the bonus room before we moved in because this is where the kids play, majority of the toys are kept, and we have a nice cozy area to watch TV as a family. This is a great place for guests to sleep as well, as it can double as a bedroom! If you’re still early on in the build process or trying to save money, I highly recommend you take a look at my e-book about ways to help you stay on budget. Stay up to date on the latest home building tips and tricks!
New House Must-haves #10: BATHROOM LINEN CLOSETS
New House Must-haves #11: VAULTED CEILING IN MASTER BEDROOM
New House Must-haves #12: MASTER SUITE AND OTHER BEDROOMS SEPARATED
New House Must-haves #13: FINISHED BONUS ROOM