Most living arrangements come with certain perks and drawbacks. There is give and there is take when balancing location, price, amenities (insert a dozen other contributing factors).
The same is true for our family. Until seven years ago we lived in extremely tight quarters – so tight that, for over a year, John and I moved our mattress out of our bedroom and down the hallway (into our living room/office/front entry) every single night. I do not miss those days.
The most glaring truth is the fact that we are all disproportionately fortunate if we have a place to call home, can afford heating/cooling and food, and enjoy the general security of living inside four non-permeable walls. Millions and millions of people are living displaced or under constant threat of psychological or physical harm. In blogging and life there is always a disconnect between recognizing my incredible privilege and balancing my own reality.
My quibbles with our home are inconsequential. I realize that and am putting a giant asterisk over this entire post that reads: Blessed Beyond Measure. (Which sounds like a slogan one might find in sign form within an actual house.)
I thought I’d go ahead and show some more before/after pictures because when I did my guest post on The Frugal Girl, one commentor asked how our house was undervalued when we bought it (based on current pictures). When we purchased our home we knew there were some things that had to be updated, including mandatory improvements so we could qualify for house insurance (backwater valves, a new oil tank). While we have made aesthetic upgrades along the way, most of the things we chose to change were borderline necessary. Technically we didn’t have to update the windows (original from the 1970s), but they were so drafty I could literally see curtains blowing from the air coming in and around the degraded seals. Our home has excellent bones, but continues to be a work in progress!
TOP FEATURES OF OUR HOME
ONE | We have one. It’s so easy to lose sight of the sheer enormity of this luxury and privilege.
TWO | Our living room. I love all the windows and this space is my absolute favourite location in our house.
THREE | Windows. Most rooms have two, some have even more.
FOUR | Our entry way. When we rebuilt the old, rotten, tiny entryway I was excited to have a slightly bigger area but was not prepared for how life-changing it has felt to finally be able to fit our entire family in the entryway simultaneously. Within this space, the PAX wardrobes from IKEA have my affections forever.
FIVE | An office space. What a gift to have a space where we can shut (and lock) a door and focus on work projects. We spent years working long hours from home in a little apartment with no door (and that office doubled as our bedroom at night – see above – the childrens’ play room, and our main living room.)
SIX | Storage space. Our furnace room has floor to ceiling mustard-yellow shelves that were surely installed in the 70s and I. adore. them. Having a quasi-unfinished workhorse of a storage room is something I appreciate daily.
SEVEN | A guest room. Having overnight guests in our apartment was tricky (friends often hosted anyone who came to visit us from out of town)…so having a bonus room for sleeping is lovely. And not just for guests. If I have trouble getting to sleep or someone is sick, it’s such a gift to have a dark, cool space to retreat to for the night.
EIGHT | Large rooms. I don’t care much about room size and would gladly sacrifice square footage from our master if we could have an ensuite shower. That said, I’m glad that every room in our house is substantial. They all feel “just right” – not too big, not too small.
NINE | Upgraded lighting. When we re-did the exterior of our house and added insulation and new siding, we replaced the incredibly decrepit lighting with pot lights. I also added (thrifted) lights to our back shed.
I get a thrill every single time I drive up and see the front of our house all lit up. Our basement was dark and – for a time – completely unrecognizable as a living space (the giant pile of debris Belle is standing next to is less than a month before Christmas our first year in the house, John was in Japan, family was set to arrive soon, and I was literally throwing up from the stress of it all.) But look at that same space now!
TEN | Three toilets. We have 2.5 bathrooms. This is the first time in MY LIFE I have lived in a place with more than one bathroom and it is amazing. Especially now that we have a teen girl in the house.
BOTTOM TEN FEATURES OF OUR HOME
ONE | No garage. This is hands-down the thing I long for the most. It is incomprehensible to me that garages are not standard in Canada – where it is cold/snowy/icy for half of the year. We live in an older neighbourhood, and newer subdivisions do tend to have homes with garages. When we moved in, our home had a carport but it was rotten to the extreme and we had to tear it down and didn’t prioritize a rebuild.
TWO | Our floors. I get endless compliments on our floors – they’re inexpensive laminate put down by the previous owners – but they show every water spot, strand of hair, and dust bunny. They are also GLUED DOWN and so if anyone walks around at night or early in the morning the glue makes cracking noises which sound like gunshots and it drives me crazy. Indy wakes up almost any time I try to sneak out early in the morning. It is extremely annoying!
THREE | Old pipes. Sigh. We live at the top of a hill with old pipes. Those factors together mean the pressure is horrible (we can’t use two water sources at the same time; so no showering while the laundry machine is running unless you want to freeze/get scalded) and there is sediment that accumulates and makes our water slightly brownish. It’s been tested and it’s fine (although we don’t drink our tap water), but it leaves stains in tubs, toilets, and the washing machine.
FOUR | Tiny fridge. We only have an apartment-sized fridge and only have space in the current cupboard configuration for apartment-sized fridges. It’s fine, but I do secretly dream of a giant kitchen with an island and a double-door fridge.
FIVE | Lack of landscaping. A week after moving in we learned we needed to excavate the entire perimeter of the house. Not fun. It also meant that all mature landscaping – a cedar hedge, two willow trees, two apple trees, dozens of flagstones, dozens of hosta plants, lilacs, a fence and two hardscaped stone pads all had to be removed. We’re left with a few trees and no bushes. The stones have finally been re-laid, but I wish I could snap my fingers and have lovely bushes and shrubs and mature trees again.
SIX | White tiles. Back to the flooring. White tiles in a bathroom? The previous owners clearly didn’t have children. I don’t even care about the discoloured grout, but hair! Dust! EVERYTHING shows up in technicolor on these floors.
SEVEN | Pink/salmon tile in the ensuite. This bathroom leaves no doubt this house was built in the 70s. I think this sort of tile is coming back in fashion, but I’m not a fan. The main bathroom is a baby blue tile, but the previous owners had it painted over with white (but some of that paint is chipping off revealing the baby blue tiles).
EIGHT | A small kitchen. It is a very efficient kitchen so I have no functional complaints, but I do love the idea of a spacious kitchen with an island and bar stools where the kids can eat their breakfast or do homework while I putter around the kitchen doing dishes or prepping supper.
NINE | A sketchy downstairs bathroom. As much as I love having three toilets and a second shower, the downstairs bathroom leaves a lot to be desired in terms of aesthetics. Exposed venting in the adjacent laundry room, ceiling tiles caving in, and a yellowish-shower insert (if “this house is from the 70s” was a drinking game…), plus peeling flooring. It works and I don’t really care too much, but it’s a diamond in the rough.
TEN | Popcorn ceilings. We have two rooms (living and master) with popcorn ceilings. A) They’re ugly. B) The sharp spikes pop balloons – which our kids love playing with in the living room – which always makes me jump out of my skin.
Your turn. What are your Top/Bottom Ten (or Five) things about your current accommodations?
Header photo by David Clode on Unsplash
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Jenny
Our house also has popcorn ceilings (throughout the entire house- WHO thought that was a good idea???). My husband hates them so, so much and keeps talking about getting rid of them. It’s actually a big production though, so at this point I doubt we’ll ever do it.
There’s actually a lot I don’t like about our house- but then I remind myself why we bought it (location) and your post also reminds me that for a lot of people in the world, our house would be luxurious. We’re very lucky to have a safe place to live. Oh, and you’ll be jealous when I say we have a two car garage- until I tell you that we can’t actually park our cars in the garage because that’s where we store everything we can’t fit in the house.
I can see the flaws in your house (when you point them out) but overall it’s beautiful. You done a lot of amazing work on it since you moved in!
Elisabeth
Yes, what is with the popcorn ceilings? I guess it is easier than plastering a ceiling in a smooth format? We did briefly discuss how to get rid of the popcorn ceilings but it is HARD and in the end it’s easier/cheaper to lower the ceiling and “build” over it. Which we were not about to do. So…they stay.
A lot of the people I know who DO have garages in Canada, never park their vehicles in there. Let me tell you, I would! But it’s very common to see people in front of their garage scraping off their cars in the winter. I feel like it would be less of an issue in Florida, but then again your vehicles must get SOOO hot inside.
mbmom11
I live in a house that’s over 100 years old, and I have thoughts.
Good:
1) Woodwork -moldings, stairs, floors – my husband stripped paint off of most of it and it is glorious.
2) 2.5 baths – many old houses in my area only have one full bath. Some former owner (in 1930’s?) put on an addition with a full bath – small but completely functional- and the previous owner (who owned it for over 40 years we think) put in the toiler under the stairwell. So nice with a big family.
3)Lots of big windows, with great natural light. We have mostly replaced original windows with modern ones for draft free living.
4) Trees – we have lots of trees around our house and have planted many ourselves. Beauty and shade.
5) My bedroom has windows facing every direction so they’re always a breeze.
Frustrating:
1) Old house means nothing is standard sized and must be special ordered.
2) The plumbing was a mess which we found out a few months after moving in. Apparently those cans of drano in the cupboard were a red flag that we missed.
3) The upstairs carpeting are old and need to be ripped up, but my husband doesn’t want to. I’ve warned him if he ever makes me really mad he’ll come home to the carpet tossed out onto the front lawn.
4) I do not have a bedroom – we sleep in the TV room. Which is fine, but I really miss having my own space at night, and it means the TV room can’t really be a playroom like it used to be. (We had to move downstairs to it at about kid#8 – my teen daughters sharing a room were in a constant battle, so we rearranged things then.)
5) The heating/AC isn’t very good, despite all the measures we have taken. Retrofitting the ducts didn’t seem to work very well (and the cold air returns are just spaces between the joists?) There’s one bedroom that always 5+ degrees colder than the rest of the house.
6) Previous homeowners cut chunks of wood out of joists when they were running pipes and wires, which weakened them and we have saggy floors. We’ve put in supports, but it means we have poles in inconvenient places in the basement that I frequently bash my feet on.
7) Previous own painted the brick walls in the basement, and they look like they have a skin disease after years of flaking.
I do love my house, but there are always things that need to be fixed or renovated.
Elisabeth
The original woodwork sounds gorgeous! Having extra bathroom spaces with a large family is so helpful and makes life flow MUCH more smoothly, I’m sure.
We ripped up carpet the day we moved into this house and it was a nightmare! The glue was so strong and it took forever to get it up and then the floors were still uneven because some of the glue was so coated. I’d forgotten about that debacle but it was horrid!
Eek – skin disease brick doesn’t sound too appealing! We had so much peeling paint on rotten parts of our old exterior.
I agree there are always things that need to be fixed or renovated with any home, but in particular one that has been around for decades (or, in your case, over a century!)
Suzanne
I love seeing your house, Elisabeth! It really is a fantastic house.
Like you, I am most grateful to HAVE a home. And honestly, I cannot complain about anything currently. Our home is wonderful and we are so fortunate to have found something that meets the needs and wants of all of our family members.
If I did some complaining, I would pinpoint the master bathroom. It’s too big, has a gross whirlpool tub we don’t use, and the shower is tiny and falling apart. But it’s usable and it has two sinks, so again, I can’t REALLY complain.
The worst thing about our house, I think, is the bat room. It’s not REALLY a bat room. It’s not really a room. It’s just a door that was built in front of some pipes, for easy access, so it opens into a small space that’s really just concrete. BUT that’s where we found a bat last year when we moved in, and I cannot bring myself to open the door just in case.
Elisabeth
A BAT ROOM. *Shudder* Suzanne.
Ally Bean
Top Five: we live on a safe street, have a screened-in porch, like our exterior brick, put in a lovely new front door and sidelights, and have a three-car garage.
Bottom Five: we live in an area hard hit by the boxwood blight, have to pay for our garbage to be hauled away, had to have the roof replaced [boring use of money], deal with stink bugs, and get our deliveries from UPS or FedEx one day later than what we’re told will happen.
Elisabeth
I’ve never heard of having to pay for garbage removal (as in the weekly or biweekly garbage pickup…isn’t free?).
I’ll take a one of your three slots in the garage and send down free garbage pickup, okay?
Some things are so boring to spend money on; excavating around the house was one such expense, roofs, insulation…basically anything that costs money that doesn’t look pretty makes me rather sad.
Diane
Oooh I love getting glimpses into other houses!
We moved from a house with four trees in the backyard to a house with a yard half the size and no trees. I miss having trees so much, but I do not miss raking leaves in the fall.
I think what I love best about our house is
-the location – we’re four blocks from the metro and 1/4 mile from a walking trail.
-having two bathrooms. Having more than one bathroom was a non-negotiable item when we were looking for a house.
– having a kitchen large enough that I can fully open the fridge door – our first house you couldn’t open the fridge door all the way because it was a narrow galley kitchen. Maybe we should have had a smaller fridge like you do!
-Also lots of windows. Natural light is so important.
Elisabeth
There are perks to no trees! Some people have so much raking to do this time of year!
Being close to transport and nature is such a win (we’re very close to nature trails and it’s one of our favourite perks of the house…)
Natural light makes such a difference in my mood, especially in the winter. Also, our house tends to get cold in the winter, but on a sunny day our main living space is TOASTY because of all those windows filtering in sunlight.
Nicole MacPherson
I’m stuck on “moving your mattress every night” because whoa nelly. That sounds like a process.
Welp. You’re not there anymore, and isn’t that great! Your house is lovely. Our house in Calgary was a “good deal” when we bought it in 2000 because it needed a lot of cosmetic renovation. Structurally the house was great, a 1962 bungalow. But inside! Whoa nelly again. It was painted Pepto Bismol pink, with shiny forest green trim. There were five different wallpaper patterns in the kitchen, and the kitchen itself had homemade cabinets from 1962. The toilet and bathtub were brown enamel. Brown. There was thick-pile brown carpeting and let’s not even discuss the linoleum. The basement was “finished” but with panelboard and linoleum and was hideous. The garden was completely overgrown. But we got a house in a wonderful neighbourhood near shopping and schools and the train, a huge lot, and gorgeous mature trees for $182K. I don’t even know if you can buy a cardboard box for $182K anymore anywhere, let alone Calgary. It took a lot of work but it was well worth it.
Elisabeth
Nicole, it was such a process. Such a tedious, mind-numbing process. At first it was kind of fun, but the novelty wore off quite quickly. But we did it and now it’s just a memory!
Who sanctions some of those colours? Like what paint company thinks they should let Pepto Bismol pink loose in the wild?
Brown. Ugh. My childhood home had an avocado green tub and toilet. Also…ugh.
It’s such a tradeoff. Those undervalued homes have so much potential, but it takes living with the mess and stress of renovations. Like you, in the long run it has paid off for us, but I also don’t think I’d ever want to do it again (or, at least not while I was actually living in the house).
The price of houses is unreal. We’re so, so fortunate we bought before the COVID spike of prices. Our home has literally doubled in value in the last 7 years. We’d be priced out of the market if we were trying now and I feel so sorry for young families trying to buy a first home. Especially because there are no “starter” homes anymore. It’s either a tiny little apartment or a giant house with towering ceilings and 5 bathrooms. Canada really needs affordable single dwellings that help young people get a chance at entering the housing market. Though I know land is hard to come by, materials are expensive, and we have a dwindling labour market of qualified contractors. Again – so glad we’re not starting the process now!
Lisa's Yarns
I can’t imagine moving that mattress back and forth daily! Wow! But that really makes you appreciate the set up you have now!
We looked for a house for about 2 years because we were not willing to deal with renovations and we required a 2-stall garage, 2 showers, and a bathroom on the main level (powder room was fine – which is what we have – but we needed a toilet on the main level). These do not sound like ridiculous asks but most homes were built in the early 1920s and none of these items were common in that era apparently. We ended up buying a home that was significantly renovated in 2008 (they popped the top and converted it from a 1.5 story to a 2-story and converted the tuck-under garage to what is now our basement guest room/my office. I’m glad we were NOT INVOLVED in that reno, though!!
Top 5:
1. Location. We are walking distance from restaurants, coffee shops, the creek, the lake, and have a great neighborhood school.
2. Guest bedroom – our guest room in the basement has its own en-suite bathroom so we have a great set up for hosting guests!
3. Primary bedroom – our primary bedroom has a walk in closet (unheard in homes of this age) as well as an en-suite bathroom.
4. The boys have their own bathroom. In total we have 3.5 bathrooms which sounds like so many but the guest one doesn’t get used much, aside from when I am working in the my basement office.
5. Open floor plan – I like that we have a pretty open floor plan on the main level – the dining room and kitchen are in one large area which I like because I am not the kind of host that can pile dishes in the sink and deal with them later… I prefer to clean as I go. But I can do that and still be talking to others. I also like that we have an island in the kitchen. That is where the boys eat their meals and it’s a good plan for guests to hang out when I am making dinner.
Bottom 5:
1. We live on a GIANT hill so our backyard is on a steep incline so it’s difficult to play out back. And then our garage is built into the hill so we the only way to get into the garage is through the garage door. The garage barely fits our 2 cars and you have to enter it from the alley. Our last house was also on the corner but it had a very large garage with a driveway to enter from the street. Phil PINES for that old garage.
2. We don’t have an entry way – you walk into the living room when you enter the home. I would love to have a foyer with a coat closet. We do have a mud room by the back entrance which is nice, though.
3. We have very little seating area since our living room is small and then we just have the dining room/kitchen area. It’s fine most of the time but not great when we have company over as the only place to sit in the living room is the couch. As the kids outgrow their toys, I would like to shift things a bit so we have room for an arm chair in the living room.
4. I don’t like our 2-toned cabinets in the kitchen. Eventually I will have them painted but it seems like a big, expensive project.
5. Our fence and retaining wall (which is necessary because of the giant hill we live on) both need to be replaced but that is an even more expensive project that we won’t benefit from financially when we sell the house some day.
All that said, I love our house. Phil does not. He hates the lot so much because of the hill situation. Snow removal on a corner lot on a hill is terrible! Mowing a yard with an incline is pretty terrible, too. I would happy pay to have these tasks outsourced but Phil won’t. But he doesn’t hate the house enough to want to move. We obv knew that living on a hill would have its challenges. I can’t bear the thought of house hunting again and neither can Phil, so we’ll stay here for the time eing.
Elisabeth
Phil clearly hates spending money even more than I do!!!
Your place sounds like such an ideal location (aside from the hill) and YES to skipping renos. I don’t ever want to have this many renos to do again in another house. Though, I think I’d be much more savvy AND I wouldn’t have little kids who needed such intensive attention.
I long for a garage. Maybe someday. I’m not sure if we’d recoup the cost during resale? I think so, and it would be so, so handy. But part of me just can’t bear the thought of another big renovation (though at least this one would all happen OUTSIDE.
Lindsay
Oh the pipes! I never knew when I was younger how much water pressure would matter in my life.
Top three: We each have dedicated space; the fenced in backyard next to the woods; cozy living room
Bottom three: The Mr’s office is part of the open-ish main floor and there’s no getting away from his work calls; the dust – it’s just always and everywhere; the kitchen is so outdated, sigh, and pink.
Elisabeth
“Oh the pipes! I never knew when I was younger how much water pressure would matter in my life.” Yes, yes, yes! We’ve lived to work around it, but you do have to think very strategically about when to take a shower.
Dust is the bane of my existence.
Katie
You’ve done a really lovely job making your home functional, beautiful, and reflective of your family. And hooray for not dragging the mattress out every night! I admire your discipline in that!
Our home- I love our backyard. We have a huge fenced in yard and last summer we planted a chaos garden. It is low maintenance and the kids love it. We have a ton of pumpkins and squash growing now.
I also love our location. My husband farms, but we live in a small neighborhood near the farm. Kind of unconventional, but his parents still live on the farmstead and building nearby would’ve been crazy expensive. I love that our kids have neighborhood friends and we’re able to do walks, etc. while still having a bit of that rural atmosphere.
The bad-
Well water. It’s a constant struggle to keep my hair from going brassy. A trivial complaint, but I miss my days of city water!
Our layout is fairly open and none of our kids share rooms. So there’s no clear place to put things like a printer or office supplies. I think in a few years I’d like to have our boys share a room and use that extra room for a guest room/home office.
Elisabeth
Aww. Thanks! It is still a work in progress, but I’m really so thankful we’ve been able to transform some of the “rougher” areas into something that suits our family habits and style.
The mattress thing was such a pain in the neck, I almost find it hard to believe we did it for so long!
A “chaos garden.” What a great term.
It is hard not to have a dedicated office/extra things space. That was what I minded the most about cramped apartment living. I literally couldn’t have a place for everything because it had to be stored haphazardly since we had so little extra room!
Kate
What a fun walk down memory lane! And your kids’ sweet faces … so adorable. Although a little piece of my soul died seeing all those trees and landscaping that had to be uprooted 🙁 We have lost 3 trees from our property over the years (two to blight and one to a lightning strike that split it down the middle and could have ended up falling on our house but fortunately fell the other way) and I miss them every day.
Top 5:
1) Location. I absolutely love our neighborhood — we are on a quiet street surrounded by great neighbors with similar-aged children. The kids are free to ride bikes and wander from yard to yard. A frequent text message sent between us parents is: “If [child] is at your house, can you send them home please?” For all that, we are only a 10 minute drive to downtown Pittsburgh (15 if there’s traffic) and less than 5 minutes drive from the freeway. It’s like the best of both worlds!
2) House layout. Our house is a 2-story four square model with an addition (built by the previous owners in the 90s) that provides an additional bathroom, guest room, and enlarged the kitchen/family room. It’s great for hosting parties as everything flows but there is enough separation between the rooms that individual groups can find their own space to hang out.
3) Master bedroom. Our master bedroom has huge windows. Most of the time we keep the blinds shut but I love opening them up and letting all that natural light shine in. Right now our bedroom is overrun with baby paraphernalia (Victoria and Elizabeth both still sleep in our room, in their own individual cribs!!) but eventually we’ll have it back to ourselves!
4) Living room. The living room is one of the only rooms we’ve actually decorated since we moved in. It’s painted a gorgeous blue. Nick got a beautiful mantel from an old rectory and tiled the hearth himself. We have a pipe organ along one wall, and a piano along the other. That’s where our Christmas tree goes and it feels classy and cozy to me at the same time.
5) Backyard. We have a good size yard (both front and back) as the house sits on a double lot. We have room for a firepit, swingset, and giant trampoline. If friends are over, we have room for picnic tables, corn hole and ladder ball. And there’s still plenty of open space for kids to run. In retrospect, the firepit and swingset are both now where two of those trees used to be – so I guess there was a silver lining to losing them.
Bottom 5:
1) Kitchen floor. I hate our kitchen floor with a passion. It’s the ugliest brown fake tile linoleum. We do plan to replace it at some point. The one good thing about it is that it does hide dirt well, so I may be in for a rude awakening once we update to the light stone/slate look I have in mind.
2) Water pressure. We have the exact same issue where we can’t shower when anything else water-related is happening (flushing toilets, running the sink, let alone running the dishwasher or washing machine). It drives me nuts and we may have to do something to fix it when we have 6 people needing the shower regularly!
3) Lack of closet space. The house was built in the 1940s and the original closets in the bedrooms, and even our front hall, are so ridiculously shallow and small. Our master bedroom itself is huge but the closet is teeny. I dream of putting up a partition to create a walk-in closet and hide all of our boxes and extra clothes from view.
4) Weird paint choices. This is totally on us for not fixing it since we moved in 13 years ago (!!!) but the kitchen is painted a strange pinkish color (the paint is called Tequila Rose). The master bedroom is lavender with green trim. I have a hard time envisioning what I *do* want for paint colors but I just know it doesn’t look very good the way that it is.
5) The back deck is small — room for a grill, a small round table and two chairs. It’s nice for just Nick and I to hang out there on evenings, but if we have people over, there’s inevitably a weird divide where some people are hanging out on the small desk and others are in the yard below. I’d love to either expand the deck, or build a patio out into the yard with more permanent furniture.
You always pick such fun topics for these, Elisabeth!
Elisabeth
Is it rude to say I’m relieved a few other people have the water pressure issue. It felt like such an “old-fashioned” issue but it is a real nuisance!
Neighbourhoods make such a difference. Until the last few years I had no idea that challenging neighbourhood dynamics could literally be life-changing. Lesson learned 🙁
What’s with all the pink paint?!
mbmom11
@Suzanne,
Bats aren’t that bad. We have them in our attic – a mutual non-aggression pact. They stay up there and eat mosquitos, and we leave them alone. Any that get into the house are chased down by our cats and then freed to the outside. I’ll take bats over crumbling plumbing stack any day.
Gigi
What a lovely home you have, Elisabeth!
I’m shortening my list by half. The top five best things about our house are:
1) It’s basically one level – we have a bonus room above the garage but don’t use it except for storage. We plan to rectify this one day but not any time soon.
2) Our backyard is huge, flat and private. And since we removed, relocated some of the previous owners landscaping choices (mistakes) it’s gorgeous. One contractor actually said it looks like a park back there.
3) We have a small screened in back porch that I live on nearly all summer.
4) Our master bedroom is large and has an en suite.
5) We have a connected two car garage – but currently only one car fits in it (mine); but I think even if we cleared out the garage fitting two cars in there would be tight.
And though I shouldn’t complain because I have a house….
The kitchen, while large-ish is ridiculously outdated and configured. The cabinets are the cheapest I’ve ever seen and I keep waiting for the shelves to collapse. I have figured out a plan to re-configure it now I just need money to drop out of the sky to get it done.
The master bathroom, also large-ish was designed by an architect drop out and has a freakishly small shower. I have yet to figure out a plan to re-configure it (see again re: money dropping out of the sky) and would probably have to consult a professional.
The flooring in the kitchen (particularly) is hideously ugly and looks filthy no matter how often I mop it.
The lack of natural light in the ridiculously small living area is abysmal. I can live with the small area; but the lack of light kills me. How did I not notice that when we viewed the home?
Elisabeth
I want to see pictures of your backyard, Gigi. It sounds absolutely fabulous. Like your own private oasis.
I would LOVE to have a screened-in porch. #Dreams
Let me know when that money starts falling…
Windows and natural light make such a difference (so do the direction of the main living space). There are a few houses locally I see that have trees all around the house and I cannot imagine how dark it is inside during the day and it literally makes my skin start to crawl. My mom is the same way about windows – she wants every square inch of wherever she is living to be windows and I definitely understand why as an adult. It makes a huge difference for my mood.
Those darn never-look-clean floors!
Joy
I loved seeing your house, Elisabeth, and your adorable little ones. I would have cried over those lost trees though.
Top five: my bookroom with double windows on both ends to let the light stream in, a wall of bookcases, and doors to close out the world; a large kitchen with lots of counter and storage space, including two pantry closets; generous-sized rooms; a wood stove insert which can heat the whole downstairs during winter power outages and the coldest days; a wraparound front porch and back patio for enjoying outside
Bottom three: a puny laundry room; no basement or garage for storage; a tiny master closet.
I actually love my house so much and the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.
Elisabeth
Loving light (and windows) is a common theme!
I’m so glad the positives far outweigh the negatives and it sounds like you’ve created a very cozy haven.
Kyria @ Travel Spot
Argh; I tried to reply to your comment on Ally Bean’s comment but WP hates me. Garbage pick up in the US in NOT FREE. In Oakland we had to have all three bins (green waste, recycle and regular trash) and I barely had any except recycle because I had a compost bin in the back and generate very little regular trash. However, there is no every other week option, or smaller (and cheaper) bin option, as I guess they had issues with people just saying they did not need pickup and then dumping stuff somewhere. For us, it was about $40 per month. So…do you have to pay sewer/water or is that free too? For us it was about $100 per month and I barely used any water (I don’t shower every day, am only one person and any time I run the tap I used that water to water the plants or flush the toilet) so it is probably more like $125-$150 a month for a family (or more?)
My loves and hates were pretty much the same things! Every cloud has a silver lining, I guess.
Five things I liked about my house: (1) old house, loved the architecture, crown molding etc. (2) stays pretty cool in summer, warm in winter (3) maple tree out front was beautiful (4) diverse neighborhood meant fun foods, murals, people nearby (5) hardwood flooring, classic looking, beautiful and don’t have to deal with nasty carpet
Five things I did not like about my house: (1) old house, means old foundation, old wiring, old plumbing…etc. (2) once it got hot inside, there was no way to cool except to wait (no AC) (3) maple tree out front was a pain to rake, clean up after, clean gutters and roof etc. (4) diverse neighborhood meant people doing donuts on the corner, blaring music, parking in my driveway (5) hard wood floors, so much dust, so much sweeping and cold for feet in winter
Elisabeth
It’s not WordPress…it’s my sight (ironically, I blogged about this issue as a demerit in today’s post).
I didn’t know garbage collection wasn’t free in the US!
We do pay for sewer and water every two months (it’s about $115 every two months, so just over $50/month).
Ha – your list shows how clearly we can view the same situation in two different lights. Some days, I’m sure, you found it easier to veer toward positive than others (a heat wave in the summer without AC would make anyone grouchy!)
sarah
I love your house! You have a great eye for cozy.
I want a 6th bedroom and a 4th bathroom. Barring that, I have no big complaints. There are some finishes we thought we would upgrade right away (LOL), but it has been 13 years, and we are still rocking them so **shrug** (Also, we buolt this house, so it would be a real bummer if I had more complaints)
Elisabeth
I think I knew you had built your house but then forgot that – the optimal way to decide what you want (though I think all the decisions would do me in!).
Cozy is definitely the vibe I’m going for!
M
This was a fun post, Elisabeth! It’s been a busy few months and I’m just getting back to reading and commenting again — and what a perfect time here!
I love how organized and cozy your home is! And it sounds like such a great improvement from your apartment. I couldn’t believe you dragged your mattress out and back every day for years! Kudos to you for your tenacity/commitment!
So let’s see about mine:
1) Love the location where there’s a lot of walking trails, within walking distance get groceries or a bite to eat, in a great school system, and the weather is temperate 95% of the time. 2) Love that all 3 bedrooms upstairs have large en suite bathrooms; 3) Love all the windows because yes, dark homes make me feel sad/depressive. 4) Love that he the downstairs bathroom has a shower. Our old house had a downstairs bedroom but the downstairs bathroom had no shower so if anyone frail is staying there, they’d have no way to shower/bathe and have to go upstairs. 5) Love the 3-car garage where we can still park 3 cars and have room for some storage.
1) Hate that we don’t have a walk-in pantry; it seems like the house is big enough for one but it only comes with 2 large/deep pantry cabinets. 2) Hate that the hill that is part of our yard is not conducive to growing fruit/veggies. My husband says the way the builders graded it, the soil became not as conducive — although we have 2 big pine trees there and lantanas are growing well enough for ground cover as well as a couple of fruit trees that are probably hardy enough to survive it. 3) Hate that the 2 bedrooms upstairs are small — because the en suite bathrooms (compete with tubs) take up a lot of room. 4) Hate that it doesn’t have the open floorplan. There’s a wall that separates the formal dining room from the family room so the dining room feels small/closed in. But my husband likes it this way. LOL 5) No basements in CA. We could really use some more storage — but maybe we just need to purge.
Elisabeth
Not moving a mattress is such a bonus. It’s hard to believe we did it for so long!
I really love our home now, but for the first few years it was tough – renovations are exhausting. But I learned a lot and we’re through to the other side!!
A three-car garage sounds absolutely wonderful! Yes, please <3
We only have one tub in our house and that is more than enough for me; I might take one bath a year? And it will be under 10 minutes. We are all devoted shower folk.
Cattis
Well I really haven’t thought about this until this moment but I guess my top 5 would be
1. A roof that doesn’t leak (we lived 3/4 of the first year with a hole in the roof while we saved all the money we could for the repairs that took place our first summer in the house, or ON the house since we did the work ourselves). And we live in Sweden which means same climate as you guys in Canada.
2. Heating. Since the roof was our highest priority heating had to wait, we used firewood but we had to be at home all the time and always feeding the fire which we of course couldn’t since both of us had to work. So when we could uppgrade our heating it was a huge change for us!
3. Garage. We have indoor space for 4 cars and some motorcycles and room to work on them which is my husbands passion. Mind you, no cars for everyday use gets a place inside 😅
4. A huge garden, we got chickens in 2019 and they can mostly freeroam, at the moment they do spend their time in the ”chicken prison” as I call it because fall time makes for a lot of hungry predators such as foxes and hawkes. And I also have a huge kitchen garden which is amazing even though I don’t have time to handle all of it.
5. Our new bathroom, everything in our house was updated in the 70s/80s so in 2020 we had it redone. We have one bathroom (with a shower, no baths for us) and a tiny ”guest bathroom” on our second floor. And we redid the guest bathroom in 2021 as well since it broke too.
And then… I have to say our mentality about our home is”repair not renovate” because I don’t enjoy the stress of having family life in the chaos renovations bring. So we’ve mostly learned to live with the really ugly 80 wallpaper etc. But some things:
1. I would love to have a tiny guest house, we do have another older house on our property but it’s a lot of money and effort to make it livable even as a guest house. 2. We do have one less bedroom than hat we ”need” but we make do. My husband and I have our bed i the upstairs ”hallway” and it works ok. Not much privacy but our kids are 18 and 16 and will move out relativly soon.
3. I would love a new fridge and freezer since the ones we have were left by the privious owner and they were old then. Well I would actually like an entire new kitchen to be honest but since it would have the exact same plan and look mostly the same I find it to be a waste of money at the moment.
4. I guess the wallpapers.
5. I really don’t know? Would love to repair our root cellar but as mentioned, I’ve worked really really hard to be satisfied with what we got and we make our home cozy even if everything isn’t our style etc.
Elisabeth
Renovations are so stressful. The mess. The decisions. The cost. Just thinking about it makes my blood pressure spike!
A 4-car garage sounds like a great place to “tinker”, though I’d certainly want room to park my car in the winter. Cleaning snow and ice off a windshield is the worst 🙁
San
Thank you so much for sharing this post, Elisabeth… and for reminding us that we’re all so lucky to have a home. Especially in light of the most recent natural disasters, we can’t forget how easily things could be ripped away.
With our upcoming move, I’ve thought a lot about the perks and drawbacks of a home, the compromises we make. I mentioned (oh, only a gazillion times) that we live in an old, small duplex and while it has its charme, it also has a lot of drawbacks and I was secretly (and then not so secretly) hoping we could upgrade to a bigger home. Now that we’re moving, I’ve been doing a lot of comparing.
I want you to know that whenever you shared pictures of your home, I thought “what a spacious, lovely home Elisabeth has” but I am glad that you also feel that there are things that you’d like to change or that are “not that lovely”. I think a home is ALWAYS a work in progress.
I am hoping to share more about our new home as soon as we’re settled in a bit… and maybe I’ll be able to look back with kinder eyes on our current place, too 🙂
Elisabeth
It really does feel like every living situation has at least some perks and drawbacks, but obviously the biggest takeaway message is how fortunate any of us are that have a safe, reliable space to call home.
We do have a lot of space (more than needed, really – but it was the only “frugal” option we could find in the town we wanted to stay in), and I still really appreciate that after years of living in very small spaces. There is always work to be done and we still have lots of spaces that could use a facelift, but I’m thrilled the major quasi must-do things are behind us.
Can’t wait to see pictures of your new space.
Marcia from OrganisingQueen
I love this topic so much! Okay,
Top 5
It is my dream house.
We have amazing views (look for #thehousewiththeviews on instagram – most of those are mine) because we live on a hill.
It is paid off!!!
It’s big enough so everyone can be in a different space but not too big for cleaning 🙂
It is very light and warm – all the bedrooms and lounge/ diningroom are north facing.
Bottom 5
Because of that hill, we often have water pressure problems. Hence my rule – if there’s water and the sun is shining, I have to do laundry.
I didn’t realise I’d have to budget for upper level window cleaning because you can’t get to the windows without scaffolding.
We are not outside people so we are paying for and “wasting” half of the property. Maybe I should consold myself that for the first 4 years, the kids actually played outside.
I would love a new kitchen but $$$$ because it’s big. I did paint all the cabinets navy blue and I still love them, 8 years later.
The house was built in 1977 so things are always needing a fix here and a fix there.
Elisabeth
That is amazing to have your dream house! Congrats!
And yay for having it fully paid for – what an accomplishment and a real relief. I love warmth and light, so it sounds like I would feel right at home.
Ugh. Yes, water pressure. That is the bane of my existence, but in the grand scheme of things it’s a little and inconsequential issue. That doesn’t stop me from complaining about it.
Marcia from OrganisingQueen
PS we have a two-car garage which, aside from the actual house, is the only level piece of the property….. We definitely park our cars there. I have a wastepaper basket in a corner and the car cleaning stuff on a shelf and that is it. Fun fact – I once took an IG video and people could not believe that there is literally nothing in the garage.