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.

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3.  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.
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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. :-(
   
6. 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.
   
7. 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.
   
8. 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.

Even if I had thought about these things, the odds are pretty good that I would have bought this house anyway. It had all of my has-to-have items and most of my I'd-really-like-this items. I almost did buy another house instead of this one, but as I discussed the offer, I began to panic and I decided that meant it wasn't supposed to be my house. This house? It seriously felt right and I was calm when I did the paperwork. But that doesn't mean I won't continue to mutter every time I have to schlep groceries across the entire house.