- Proximity of the garage to the kitchen. My garage and kitchen are about as far apart as they can get and still be in the same house. I only have to say two words to explain why this isn't cool: Grocery shopping. Hauling bags and bags in from the car is a royal pain. It's not any shorter to haul them in through the front door. At least not enough to make a difference.
- Hard wood floors in the kitchen. They look so pretty, but are so impractical. Drop a can? Dent in the floor. I also have a long scratch in the coating over the wood that looks hideous and I have a few other shallower, shorter scratches in the coating. The kitchen is just too high traffic/high impact for hard wood.
- No utility sink in the house. I honestly didn't think I used my utility sink that much, but I've wished for one a few too many times to take this for granted again.
- No closet in the laundry/mud room. My garage enters into the laundry room. In my Minnesota house, I had the same setup, but I had a nice large closet (and a utility sink!) in there. It was the perfect place for jackets and brooms, mops, etc.
- No counter tops in the laundry room. While I'm complaining about my laundry room, I do not have a counter of any kind. A counter makes it so much easier to fold clothes. I have the front loaders with pedestals and folding on top of either appliance is a strain. I usually end up hauling laundry to fold in the kitchen. :-(
- No cabinets in my laundry room. I have a wire shelf over the washer/dryer and it doesn't give me much room for stuff. In Minnesota, my laundry room had actual cabinets--uppers and lowers--to store things in. I'm also tired of looking at everything sitting out in the open every time I leave my house.
- The BIG hill. I did think about the hill before I bought my house. The driveway is steep, and since I'm from Minnesota, my first thought was getting up or down it with the car in winter. I decided it wasn't a problem in Georgia because there wasn't much snow here. What I didn't consider was getting the garbage can and recycling up and down that hill each week. I'm always scared if I let go of my grip, the thing is going to go sailing down the driveway and across the street.
- The furnace in the attic. This might not be a problem for most everyone else, but I'm afraid of heights and climbing that pull down ladder to the attic...well, I won't. Which means my furnace filter only gets changed when my parents are visiting or the handyman is here for other jobs.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
8 Things I Wish I'd Known Before House Hunting
I really like my house in Atlanta, but there were a few things I wish I'd thought about as I was house hunting.