Today, I wanted to share with you Nick and I’s priority wishlist for the new house! This is the second blog post of the “new build” blog series, so if you missed the first one, check out the blog post explaining why we decided to build again. Nick and I have owned 3 houses, and after living in each of those houses, we’ve realized what we want and don’t want in a house. I love our previous home, but after living there for 3 years, there were some things I would do a little different. I sketched out my dream floor plan…it took me forever to even do the first floor! Nick approved it before we sent it out to our draftsman.
When I was working on the floor plan, I kept in mind our priority wishlist for the new house. Here’s our list!
Bigger laundry room – I joke that I practically live in the laundry room, but I’m legit not even joking. HA! I spend a lot of time in there, and with a household of 6, the laundry just never ends. In our previous houses, I would sit on the laundry room floor and fold clothes. Since there wasn’t much counter space, I would have stacks of clean clothes all over the floor. For the new house, I wanted a big enough laundry room to have 2 washers and 2 dryers and an island for folding. Does that sound obnoxious? Maybe…but you know what they say… happy wife, happy life 😉
Four Seasons Room – As most of you know, we had a screened-in porch in our last house. We loved hanging out in that space when it was nice outside, but once it started getting cold outside, we stopped using that area. I really wanted to convert the screened-in porch to a four seasons room while we were still living in our previous house, so when we were working on the new floor plan, having a four seasons room was on the top of my list. I wanted a space where we could hang out all year and enjoy the fire from the wood-burning fireplace. Whenever I would talk about a four seasons room, I would get comments/messages on Instagram asking what that is. It’s pretty much a sunroom that you can enjoy all year (four seasons). If you want to learn more about the differences between a sunroom and screened-in porch, check out this website!
Lower the ceiling in the living room – Okay, the number one question I get A LOT…why I’m not recreating my previous living room with the big windows and high ceilings. The living room in our last house was one of my favorite rooms. There was a wow factor to it..it was grand, it was big, it was a showstopper. While we were living in that house, I would go into the living room and sometimes think, “WOW. I can’t believe I live here!” As much as I loved how it looked (especially in pictures) and the amount of natural light that poured in there, it didn’t always feel “cozy” to me. That’s one challenge with having high ceilings. I actually had this thought when I toured the Southern Living Magazine Idea House with Hunter Fan Company last year. The rooms in that house weren’t grand, but it felt SO cozy and SO inviting to me. I loved it! When we were working on the new floor plan, I definitely wanted the new living room to feel more “cozy,” and that’s why we decided to lower the ceiling.
Separate foyer from living/kitchen – I mean lets be real, I’m a hotmess, and sometimes my house can be a hotmess too. When you see a clean and perfectly decorated house on Instagram, know that in real life it’s not like that all the time! In the previous houses we lived in, when you go through the front door and stand in the foyer, you can see the main living space (kitchen and/or living room). If you had an unexpected visitor and your house was a mess, they can see it all. There’s no hiding it. HA! When we were working on our new floor plan, I knew I wanted a separation between the foyer and the living room/kitchen for that reason. Now when guests come over to the new house, they can’t see my living room from the foyer. They can only see the formal dining room to the right, my office to the left, and a little bit of the kitchen through the walkway. Here’s an example:
Pool – We never got to put in a pool at the old house…it was actually in our 5 year plan. With the new house, we decided to put a pool in right away. I can’t wait for the pool parties with friends and family!
Smaller kids’ bedrooms & add loft space – In our last house, our kids’ bedrooms were way too big. The only time they were in their rooms was to sleep or if they were in timeout, so having the big bedrooms wasn’t really necessary. I should have utilized the square footage better on the second floor! That’s why in the new house, we made the kids’ bedrooms smaller and added a loft where the kids can hang out. The kids are SO excited about this!
Garage access in the front – The garage access to our last house was on the right side towards the back of the house. We rarely had visitors, but when we did, a lot of people went straight to the garage entry door instead of going around to the front of the house. (it drove me crazy) When you parked in the driveway, you couldn’t see the front door and the garage entry door was right there with a doorbell, so I can see why people would go there instead. We never knew if someone was at the front door or garage door when we would hear the doorbell. In the new house, I definitely wanted our garage accessed from the front so that you can go straight to the front door, and it didn’t feel like it was so far away from the driveway.
Theater room – Okay, some of you might be rolling your eyes at this point. HA! In the last house, I didn’t spend too much time on the layout of the basement. There was a lot of open space which we did like, but we also knew that we could have utilized that space better. We didn’t spend a lot of our time in the basement unless we were watching a movie or NFL game as a family, so the homebody in me loved the idea of having a designated area to watch movies/games. The kids are also excited about this room!
Nick’s office away from the main living room – Nick works from home 3 times a week, and in our previous houses, his office was usually by the living room. I don’t know why we would place it there when we have 4 kids, and I’m a stay at home mom. Just picture kids being loud and running around during the summer and Nick trying to work. If he had an important phone call, I would try to have the kids go outside or stay in the basement. We were like walking on eggshells when he was working from home! Ha! Sometimes when I thought we were quiet, he’d put his phone on mute and yell, “I’m on the phone!!” That is why in the new house, we made sure his office was at the farthest point from the living room/kitchen. Now we can have a party in the house without him yelling at us. 😉 Also, supposedly that’s his man cave too. *eye roll
Niña’s office – I didn’t care how small my office would be, but I wanted a room just for me. I still joke that I should have gotten Nick’s office 😉
Breezeway – I love the concept of having a hallway connecting the garage and the house.
Double Kitchen Island – The kitchen is where most of us gather when we have friends/family over at our house. I definitely wanted a double kitchen island for the new house…one island to be the prep island and the other island for eating/entertaining.
Formal Dining Room – I have no idea how often this would get used, but I wanted a designated room to enjoy family dinners.
Big sliding doors with screen system – This was actually in Nick’s wishlist. He wanted big sliding doors in the living room, and if the doors were open, a big screen door could be used to enjoy the outdoor weather without having to deal with bugs.
I hope you enjoyed our priority wishlist when designing the new house floor plan! What’s your favorite in our wishlist? I’d love to know! I’ll be sharing more inspo and my thought process on picking out certain design elements. Definitely stay tuned for that!
Alisha Kistenmacher
You need to be on a tour of homes dsm edition! I would pay money to come see this all finished! 🤩
admin
Alisha KistenmacherHa! That would be fun to be a part of! Girl you can come over anytime!
Maureen Lyons
We built our dream home many years ago when our four kids were about the age of yours. We put a lot of thought into the floor plan but you never know how a house is going to “live” until you actually get into it. I remember saying after being in the house about a year—I wish I could build this exact house over and just tweak it a few places to make it ideal. And one of those tweaks was a bigger laundry room like you’re doing!
admin
Maureen LyonsThanks for reading the blog post Maureen! I was willing to make our bedroom smaller or my office smaller to get a bigger laundry room!
Jill Jepperson
We just put double islands in our house. Love it! Middle island is for prep, outside Island is for seating. We did seating on both sides of that island. We can sit 8 people around it, which I love!
admin
Jill JeppersonThis is so great to hear!! I’d love to see a pic of your kitchen!
Cathy
Wow! So happy for you and your family! Love following along on your journey! Can’t wait til you start decorating!!
admin
CathyAwww thanks Cathy! I’m so glad you’re here! Thank you so much for reading the blog post!
Sara
What ceiling height are you considering for the family room now?
admin
Sara16ft!
liz
You definitely have thought of everything for your home. I have always wanted a larger laundry room with two dryers- but not stacked -I could never reach the controls. Also having a home theater is my dream -we are huge movie & sports fans. My last home which I designed had high ceilings & I also felt it was never cozy. It doesn’t show on the plans-but will there be a deck staircase to the backyard? I love it all and thank you so very much for taking us along on this exciting new build!
admin
lizHey Liz! Thanks for your comment! I’m pretty sure a stool will be permanently in the laundry room. 😉 We went with stacked because I wanted space for laundry baskets underneath the counters. You’re right, it’s not on the plan, but we’ll have stairs coming down from the deck!
Kelly Burke
My favorite things: the photo of the driveway joining the garage and the front door…I love the courtyard feel. Second, I love breezeways! My aunt had a breezeway that she would decorate to the hilt for Christmas so that everyone felt welcome coming to visit. She kept a table in the corner piled high with her boxes of homemade Christmas cookies because the temps were cold and she didn’t have room in the refrigerator! Trust me, as kids, it was like heaven. Third, I love your husband’s plan to open up the entire living room to the outdoors! Can’t wait to see it once it’s all done!!
admin
Kelly BurkeOh my gosh thanks for the comment! I love hearing about your aunt’s breezeway…what great memories! I’m obsessed with the screen door feature of the Marvin sliding doors!
Katie Beck
Such a fun read! Thanks for sharing.
admin
Katie BeckThank you so much Katie!!
Jennifer R.
My husband and I are currently designing our dream home and it’s sooooo hard. We’ve changed it a few times already. Reading about your priority wishlist really helped a lot. We have some similarities. Can I ask how big your kids’ rooms were at your previous house and how big are you making them now? Also, how tall was your ceiling at your previous home? Girl, I have so many other questions but I won’t bombard you. Thanks for sharing your process and please continue to post more.
Best,
Jen
admin
Jennifer R.One of the bedrooms was 15×17 (includes closet) and now 12×16. Another bedroom was 15×17 (doesn’t include closet) and now 11×15. Those two bedrooms were the bigger ones upstairs. Kitchen was 9′ ceilings!
Gianna
Hello Nina,
i follow your instagram “quietly” a long time, and a bit later started browsing you instagram and blog when feel that i need to dream away for some minutes.
I loved what you did with your former home and I am sure i will totally love what the next dreamhouse will look like!
As I live in Europe (Berlin, Germany) I have a question which i hope is not too private (sorry in advance – but please remember, I’m from Europe) – on what budget/m2 do you calculate the building process including the built-in-furniture like kitchen, baths, built-ins, etc.?
Have a good day!
Gianna
admin
GiannaHi! A spec home is $150/sq ft…but with better finishes it could be up to $180-$200/sq ft.