After speaking with one of my best friends who recently bought a house and seeing the progress they made in a few short months, Ryan and I both feel a little more comfortable with the idea of fixing up a house and re-doing some things if we can find a house at a good price. Owning a house and taking on housing projects just seems so adult and even though we are adults now, it’s still kind of blowing my mind that we could be buying a house. Eek!
I will be meeting with a realtor again later this afternoon to check out another round of houses. We found one we absolutely loved a few weeks ago, but in the end it wasn’t quite right and now we’re back to square one. This process is teaching us a little bit more about what we really hope to find in our first home. I am not naive enough to think that we’ll find all of these things in one house (or even the majority of them!), but here’s a little list of some things we’d love to see in our dream house:
- Lots of Natural Lighting
If you’ve been reading PBF for a few years, you may remember when Ryan and I used to live in an apartment that we not-so-affectionately dubbed the “Mouse House.” Not only did the apartment have mice (ew!), but it was also very, very dark inside. It did not have a lot of windows and natural light and it bugged the crap out of me. Lots of windows and natural light is now non-negotiable for me in a house.
- A White Kitchen
This is one thing I’d love to find in a house, but it’s also something I know will be hard to find. I think white kitchens are so darn beautiful but the vast majority of houses we’re seeing feature kitchens with light or dark wood… or kitchens that need a ton of work. An updated, white kitchen is not something we need, but it would be pretty darn sweet if we found a home that had this feature!
- Fenced-In Backyard
This is another thing that’s not a deal-breaker, but it would be wonderful if we found a house that had a fenced-in backyard for Sadie!
- Safe and Walkable Neighborhood
A neighborhood that’s walkable (and ideally has sidewalks) is pretty important to me and Ryan. We take Sadie on two walks a day and want to feel like we can walk out our front door and not get buzzed by speeding cars. Sidewalks would be ideal, but if we find a neighborhood without them that doesn’t have a ton of cars whizzing through it all the time, that would be just fine.
- Open Floor Plan
I adore kitchens that open up into living rooms. Since most people seem to congregate in kitchens at parties and family gatherings, I’d love to have an open floor plan that allows for people in the kitchen to easily chat with those in the living room. (And just seeing those beautiful light couches makes me laugh. Sadie = No white couches… Ever.) It’s not a deal-breaker for me by any means, but it would be a nice feature!
- Family Friendly/Active Neighborhood
Though Ryan and I aren’t planning to start a family for a little while, living in a house that is located in a family-friendly area is important to us. I love seeing kids outside playing and people outside walking their dogs or running. It makes neighborhoods feel more homey to me for some reason.
- Good Schools
I had a fantastic experience with public schooling in Illinois and thankfully the public schools in the areas we are looking to buy a house seem to be pretty great. Since I’d love to find a house we can stay in for years and years, we’re trying to think ahead and consider school districts when looking at houses.
- Hardwood Floors
Again, this is not a deal-breaker, but if a home has hardwood floors, that’s a definite plus! Our rental house in Ocala had carpet all over the place and it was so hard to keep clean! Plus, from an aesthetic standpoint, I prefer the look of hardwood over carpet.
- Close To Things To Do
Ryan and I made the mistake of renting a house that was a good 20 – 30 minutes from almost everything in Ocala. This experience definitely impacted our desire to find a house that is close to a vibrant area of town with lots of things to do.
- A Good Vibe
Have you ever walked into a house and immediately had a “WTF happened here!?” feeling? I never did until about two weeks ago when I walked into a house and got a seriously creepy vibe from the place. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad or scary happened in that house and knew immediately I could never live there. It was really crazy (especially since I’m not into ghosts or other stuff like that), but I definitely need a house with a good vibe.
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Photo Sources: All of the above images are from Houzz.com. (And yes, I know they’re totally baller. I’m not thinking we’ll find a house that looks like them, but I can dream.) If you love interior design or browsing pictures of beautiful homes, stay far, far away from Houzz or you will get sucked into the abyss for hours and hours on end. I both love and hate our realtor for telling me about it!
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Questions of the Morning
- What features would you love to see in your dream home?
- What are some “must have” features you think would be non-negotiable to you when it comes to buying a house?
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We had to have a fireplace. Live in New England and winters are cold. We have three of them.
Fire places make houses so cozy! <3
Sigh. We are also knee-deep in house-hunting and it can be so frustrating at time. I think we also really want an open floor plan, and in older houses, that is so tough! Good luck!
We recently bought a home that had pink 90s tile and carpet throughout. We ripped up almost all the flooring and put in tile that looks like wood. We wanted wood but with our dog and the price we just knew it wasn’t an option. We are in LOVE with our floors now and they really do look just like wood. Just a recommendation for you 🙂
Thanks!!! I’ll definitely explore this!
When my boyfriend and I looked at apartments together for the first time, the leasing manager at the very first building we looked at asked us what our priorities were in finding an apartment….and, and the exact same moment, I said “safety” while he said “natural light.” Clearly we had not discussed this ahead of time and had different priorities :).
I love that you’re considering the school districts. As a teacher, that’ll definitely be a priority for me as well!
We bought our first home a year ago and learned a LOT! It was a great price in a desirable area; however, it needed a lot of updating. If I knew then what I know now, I would have looked for something that required less work. My father is a contractor and my boyfriend is very handy, which has been very helpful, but it’s still a lot of work and everything costs 3x more than you think it will to renovate/replace. This holds especially true for kitchens and flooring. Must-haves for my next home will be a renovated kitchen and wood/laminate floors, plus lots of natural light. If there’s ugly tile throughout the house, I will run far, far away. Tile is a nightmare to pull up and replace. If you find a home you love with darker wood cabinets, don’t let that sway you – it’s much less expensive to have them refaced than replacing the whole thing.
I definitely agree with you about the natural light! I live in an apartment with high ceilings right now and it’s amazing so that would be on my list in the future.
Julie and other pb fingers readers- my dog Indy is very sick and undergoing a blood transfusion right now. It would mean a lot to me if you could keep her in your thoughts and prayers
Praying for Indy!!!! <3
We wanted a two-story home in a quiet neighborhood, a great backyard for a future family and for the house to have a layout that flowed (no big walls to block off parts of the house). We found our dream house in the second one we looked at!
The best piece of advice I ever received was find a house that meets at least 80% of your needs and you can fix the rest. So true. The perfect house isn’t out there…but there is one that is perfect for you and then put your own touch on. Good luck!
I’m with you on so many of those thing! We’re about to start the house hunting process to buy our firs house too! (hopefully by October/November) and there are definitely a few things that I have to have. In Orlando, the house we rented didn’t have a washer/dryer OR a dishwasher, so those are two things that I am insisting our house have. And, lots of natural light! I couldn’t agree with you more there.
Having bought property about 4.5 years ago, I think the best feature is that I picked a place with a relatively low monthly payment that allowed me to live there and pay for improvements without stressing out about it. So much better than an extra 400 square feet.
I’ll just move into whatever house y’all end up purchasing. 😉 You’re list looks pretty close to mine. I’m all about tons of windows and light, white kitchens, and open, breezy feeling floor plans. Not to mention good yard space. Good luck in your house hunt!!
We bought our first home 5 years ago and during the hunt there were a couple of times that we felt “the vibe,” and had to leave a house. Not being superstitious, or ghosty type people it really struck us as well. I totally believe you have to go with what those feelings are telling you. Bad juju man!
My husband and I just purchased our first home this past October. The house hunting process was equal parts exciting and terrifying – such a big purchase! In the end we realized there are some things that you can’t change in a house – the biggest one being location. Some other things like the layout and size of the house are also hard to change. Things like flooring, paint, kitchen style, etc. CAN be changed… even if it means more work. Just some food for thought 🙂 We ended up with a very “dated” house with wall-to-wall carpet but the size and location we were looking for. We’ve slowly been doing upgrades which we’ve found to enjoy more than expected. There’s something about putting your hard work (and money) into a house to make it your home 🙂 Good luck, I’ll be anxiously following along your hunt!
My husband and I live in an apartment in San Francisco, and as much as we are ready to have space and a house of our own, we’re NOT ready to leave the fun of the urban city and walkability. I think on my list of must-haves would be close to a walkable downtown area, even if it’s of the suburb variety. I’ve lived in a city apartment for so long, I don’t have a lot of other needs … anything would be bigger and better than what we’ve got size-wise, but location-wise, it cannot be matched. Good luck shopping!
Good luck with the hunt! We moved to Huntersville almost 2 years ago and the house hunt was overwhelming. There are lots of good neighborhoods around this area and the public schools are fantastic (I hear- our son is only 2yrs old). A few of our friends live in Monteith Park. Great “charleston” type houses, everyone is active and lots of fun social gatherings.
Haha, this is so funny because I just posted a home tour (really more of a parody) because I’ve been obsessed with house hunting lately! I love the white kitchen thing too! The good thing is, projects like painting cabinets and installing board and batten are fairly easy! At least according to all the DIY-ers. 🙂
I would like a huge kitchen with an island, lots of counter space, and a built in wine rack. 😉
Okay…. So I was reading your post today and then clicked on different post at the bottom of the page….the one titled “Egg Head.” I almost peed my pants laughing so hard at your mom’s blondest moment. Going underwater to sniff the chlorine! Oh my stars!!! Hahaha! That just made going to work a little easier! Thanks Julie’s Mom!!!!
For me I would have to have lots of natural light and hard wood floors, those are the only two I just can’t live without! Hopefully somethings comes your way soon!
First time home buying is so overwhelming! My dream house would definitely have an open floor plan, ours doesn’t right now and it drives me crazy sometimes. I also love white kitchens and have one. They are definitely hard to find though because everyone loves dark wood. But white kitchens look so clean and bright to me.
We went through this last year — well, I should say we looked for a year before we actually found one. It was a nightmare process. The area where we live has so many houses that were built 100 years ago during this city’s boom time, and then updated only sparsely. The ones that were updated were out of our price range. We ended up having to move across the river into Ohio, which is about a 15-minute commute to my job, but it’s been so worth it. I have most of the things on your list (minus the white kitchen– still trying to win the husband over on that one), and I love it! — But about the bad vibe thing, you know you can always ask if someone died in the house, if that is bothering you. I asked that at every house we seriously considered!
Okay, I am definitely going to ask this now!
We are actually closing on our second house next week! It’s exciting and scary at the same time! We always look for a bit of land as we like that country feel and the husband has a lot of toys!
When we bought our “dream home” last year we wanted a family-friendly neighbourhood, safe, non-busy street, walking distance to amenities and parks and new. My husband and I are not handy people haha!!!
Good luck 🙂
It’s too bad you aren’t looking in SC! My house (now rented since I moved to NY) has pretty much all of your wish list! I loved it first and foremost because of the natural light (so many windows) but also because it had a fenced yard for my dog, a quiet neighborhood with a pool and tennis courts, and in a great school district. It was even more perfect because it was a foreclosure (hello good price). I did a lot of updates myself, but did have to hire a handyman for a few things. Biggest advice – kitchen cabinets can be easily changed to white, find a great handyman with good recommendations, remember that home is always wherever your “people” are. 🙂 Good luck!!
I thought apartment hunting was a lot of work, I can’t imagine what house hunting is like! I love our apartment. We have made it feel homey, but I can’t wait to have a house someday!
I’m with you on so many of these things. My advice: Don’t give up (or give in) until you find the perfect house for both of you! We must’ve looked at 50 houses over the course of 6 months. We kept adjusting our musts, needs and wants until we found the perfect house for us. It may take awhile, but you’ll find one!
Another piece of advice: Walls, cabinets, etc. can be painted and carpet can be removed. As long as you like the bones of a house, there are a ton of easy fixes you can do to make it yours!
LOVE THIS POST!
Open floor plans are what I wanted too deep inside–I just didn’t know what they were called! And a white kitchen would be marvelous for pictures and shooting. Man, invite me over just so I can marvel at your house!
Haha… I have to find it first!!
I live in a tiny, 390 sq.ft. 1BR in Philadelphia. My kitchen runs the length of one of the walls, so naturally it opens up into the living room. When I decide to buy a home someday, that will be one of my priorities. The kitchen has to open up into the living/dining room. I don’t like to feel boxed in.
Definitely natural light! The biggest room would have to the kitchen of course and a garden with grass…sounds odd but we just have a small yard like most here in Ireland and would love a big grassy garden!
Your list sounds exactly like mine when I was house hunting! We were searching in January which meant not much was on the market. I had to sacrifice on the updated kitchen, but everything else checked out! Now, when do I get to start remodeling?! 🙂
Best of luck in your search – knowing what you want is half the battle!
So excited for you guys!! We finally are in the process of buying our first house (we close in Sept) but we had been looking for a while. I wasn’t even sure what exactly I wanted until we jumped in and started looking. It was honestly easier to pick out the things I definitely DIDNT want (carpeting was a big one for me since we have 2 cats and a dog) then the things I did 🙂 We ended up finding something that didn’t need a TON of updating (although a lot of aspects of it are outdated) but there was a ton of potential to do things to it in the future. I felt like after the first time I saw it, I wanted to see it again to make sure but we just got a great vibe from it. I think a lot of the process is also seeing potential to do things in the future. My sister in law bought a house that she put a ton of money in renovations into…and while it came out gorgeous, we just didn’t have the money or time to do such a thing. I’m sure you guys will find something perfect for you (and Sadie!) good luck!! its exciting and terrifying at the same time!
I went to school (K-12th grade) in Cabarrus County (Northeast CLT) – amazing public school systems! Definitely one of the better in the area 🙂
Awesome!!
Good luck on your search for a dream home. No matter what, you will make it yours. My dream home would have a nice deck or patio in the backyard, fireplace, big master bathroom and closet, big kitchen that is open to the living room, and a hot tub. I am all for hardwood floors and natural light too!
It is SO adult! Haha but I feel like I’ve watched SO MUCH HOUSE HUNTERS that I have a semi-good idea of what I would want and how realistic I’d have to be.
We are buying our first home and we are doing some updates to it as well. It took us a while to find a house we both agreed upon and level of work we wanted, so be patient. 🙂 One thing to caution you about a white kitchen is that they don’t normally stay white. Several of my family members have them and the white tends to yellow. 🙁 My husband and I didn’t want the maintenance so we decided to go with different colors.
Good luck!
my boyfriend and i are trying to figure out what we want to do for living when he’s back from deployment..so many questions involved! do we want to even live together after spending 10 months separated? who’s going to have the further commute to work? do we want to look at houses? keep wasting money renting?
ah the stress, then there’s the actual moving part. but it’s all worth it. best of luck to you and ryan!
I bet that it is so fun to look for your first home! I am so excited for when the time comes for my husband and I to purchase our first home 🙂 I’m excited to see what you find! Best of luck 🙂
Love open floor plan! Our house is pretty open, but I’d love for our next house to have a screened in back porch, first and foremost!!! I don’t know why I love it so much, but I’m constantly wishing our deck was screened in and had a fan, so we could entertain “outside” in the fresh air, and not worry about bugs. Plus, once we have a baby, I can totally see myself sitting outside with them all day long 🙂 Our favorite feature of our house right now though is our stone fireplace! A house not having a nice fireplace would be a serious deal breaker for us, we LOVE having fires in the winter time, and snuggling up on the couch together!
I’d like a gorgeous kitchen, and at least 2 bathrooms. We’re moving into a house with one (and FOUR bedrooms) next week (It’s a temporary rental), and I imagine that I’ll be showering at the gym more than I shower at home. :-/
Most of the features I want in a house can be added by me, to turn any house into my dream house (Screening room. I’m a major movie buff). But I’d definitely like a yard big enough for a huge garden. I love gardening.
House hunting is definitely no easy task! It’s hard to find the perfect house sometimes, but one of those things that would be on my list is a two car garage for sure! Right now we only have a one car garage and it’s kind of annoying not being able to put both cars inside. I’d also like lots of natural lighting and an open concept.
I wanted a white kitchen too, and finally the house we bought had these blah wood cabinets. My first major project was painting the cabinets and updating the hardware. Now they are all white and I’m so much happier! It really brightens up the space and feels like new. There are a tons of blogs with instructions to help. I used a high quality paint that can wipe clean, and scrubbed well with a deglosser to get any grease out first so they don’t yellow. It’s been over a year and they still look new. It’s not hard, I promise! Plus I feel so proud whenever I’m in there now. Best of luck!
This gives me hope!!!
When my boyfriend was buying his house we looked at LOTS (AND LOTS) of different places. One thing that always gave a house a “bad vibe” was wood paneling. Pretty much an immediate nope and walk out the door.
Kitchens are nonnegotiable! Even if you can’t find your dream kitchen, make sure it’s one you love. That’s probably going to be where you spend a lot of time and one of the most expensive things to fix up.
When my husband and I were searching for our first home, we had this grand (naive) list of “must haves”, one of which was “his and her” sinks in the bathroom. Turns out the best we could afford in the neighborhood we wanted was a total fixer upper (it was an estate sale and sold “as is” — eeek!) that only had one bathroom in the entire house (forget the his and her sinks, along with many other must-haves!) We’ve lived in our house for five years now, and we’ve learned that you can live with a LOT – its not the fixtures, appliances, and finishes that make a house a home, but the memories and love you put into it!
Also, fun fact – while we were looking at our house with our real estate agent, another couple was also looking at it – along with a camera crew! They were filming an episode of “My First Place” or whatever that HGTV show is called. We got the house instead 🙂 When we finally saw the episode – months later – it was really funny to be sitting in our living room, and watching our living room on the TV!
So exciting that you’re buying a house! My husband and I are currently renting an apartment and the kitchen is so small. A large, open kitchen is a must. Good luck!
These were many of the things my husband and I wanted when buying a house. We are going through and painting almost the entire thing though. House projects to us are a lot of fun, but realize that it takes a lot of time! Mostly because things take money, and money takes time to make 🙂
Buying your first home is such an emotional and exciting thing. it sounds like you guys are doing all the right things – taking your time, looking at lots of houses, and being realistic. We recently sold our first house and bought our second house and have learned a lot from both experiences. I would encourage you to be open to renovating. We renovated our new home and it was such a great idea for several reasons: 1) we could buy a more affordable house and use some extra money to put towards the remodel and 2) we could make it exactly the house we want! It’s unlikely that you’ll find a home that has the exact style and finishes you like, but it’s such a great feeling when you can tailor it to your tastes exactly. I’m excited to see how this process goes for you two!
When we were looking for houses, we looked at over 40 houses before we finally found a few we would feel comfortable putting a bid on. Its a big decision so don’t settle!
My husband and I just bought a house and actually finally moved in this last week! We also got all new furniture so it doesn’t feel like our place yet. We had a long list of things we wanted and they are pretty similar to yours!
-open floor plan: which was non negotiable. When you have people over it is so nice to have a big open space.
– all bedrooms on same floor: when we do decide to have kids I wanted to make sure our bedroom is close to theirs.
-natural light: thankfully we have tons of windows and it is a N/S facing house so no fighting the sunset in the evening
-white kitchen: this is something I did not get but I love our big kitchen and that is always something that can be changed later.
-a good vibe: like you I never thought this would be an issue but there were 2 houses we went into that were really pretty but gave me a creepy feeling and I just could not get past it.
I just wanted to make sure you guys think about the height of the fence if you want it to make sure Sadie stays in the yard. I had friends who bought a house with a fence, but it wasn’t high enough, so one of their dogs could just jump right over it. By the looks of it, I don’t think that fence in the photo would keep Sadie in.
my husband and i recently bought our first house, too! i wanted a lot of natural light as well, and am so happy we settled on a house with a ton of windows. two tips, though: 1) realize that lots of windows = lots of (expensive) window treatments; and 2) realize that lots of windows facing the street can equal less privacy/more fear. i know it’s silly, but when my husband travels for work and i’m home alone at night, i feel more vulnerable because there are so many street-facing, easily accessible windows in our house. just a thought!
I am SO scared for the house hunting process! Josh and I watch tons of HGTV and love beautiful homes. (I’m on Houzz all the time for work.) But when we went to a Street of Dreams event with beautiful homes last week we realized how different every home is and how the really, really awesome ones are so expensive. For now I’m happy with my apartment. 😀 I know you guys are going to find an amazing one though!