There are some things I miss from my house in Minnesota that surprised me when I moved into my new house in Georgia. I never would have guessed these things would be as big as they've turned out to be.
I miss the utility sink I had in my laundry room. I noticed its absence when I toured the house I bought, but if you'd asked me, I would have said I never used the utility sink and I didn't really need one. I grossly underestimated how often I used this sink and I want it back. Unfortunately, there's no room for one in my house.
Another thing I miss from my laundry room is the upper and lower cabinets I had. My plan--if I can save enough money--is to replace the wire shelving I have now with real cabinets.
But even if I do add cabinets, I still won't have room for a counter top--something else I really miss. This is another thing I desperately miss. I was able to fold clothes on it and I could also keep the tote bag that I haul to and from work on there, keeping it out of sight from the rest of the house.
Also missing from my laundry room: A closet. I kept my coats and cleaning supplies in there. My cleaning supplies are on the wire shelving in the laundry room and my coats are in the hall closet, but it's just not as nice as having everything handy to the garage and out of sight.
I miss my large linen closet. The one I had in my hallway in Minnesota was probably three times the size of the one I have here. Again, I grossly misjudged because I thought I didn't have that much to go in the linen closet. Mostly because my closet in MN looked so empty. I soon found out why my closet looked empty--its size. I'm jammed to the gills here.
I miss my flooring. I can't stand carpet and only had it in the bedrooms up in Minnesota. Here I have it in my great room and I hate it. I wish I could afford to get it ripped out and replaced with hard wood to match the foyer and kitchen.
In my old house, I had a good sized closet next to the front door for guests to hang their coats. I also stored things in there like the vacuum cleaner which is now in my hall closet.
Storage. I don't miss my basement that much, but I miss the vast expanse of storage space I had because of it. My kitchen cabinets are jammed because things I don't use often and used to store on shelves in my basement are in there. I need to buy a sideboard or something.
My built-in china hutch. Again, I underestimated how much I relied on this for storage until I suddenly didn't have it. Buying something to replace it is another item on my list.
This one is small, but oh, how I miss it. My kitchen faucet was a sprayer, too, so I didn't need to pull out a separate sprayer to clean out the sink. Here, I have that separate sprayer and oh, how I hate it. I get annoyed every time I have to reach over there and yank it out. If I could figure out how to install one I like without leaving a hole in my granite counters where the sprayer is sitting now, I would do it in a heartbeat.
This list doesn't mean I don't love my new house and it doesn't mean that there aren't features I have here that I didn't have in my old house. I have learned, though, that when you have a house built for yourself, there are a lot of things done that you don't even have to think about again. Right now, I spend money a little bit at a time to change the things I'm not in love with. Some of them, though, like the utility sink are things I'm just going to have to live with.
