If I could point that magic wand a second time, it would be towards our builder grade kitchen all decked out in oak cabinets. I love the layout, the pullouts cabinets and we have more storage than needed but that oak finish has just got to go:) Throw in our oak trim as well, sure why not?

My big pet peeve with our current house is that the refrigerator is in the hall/stairway to the outside/basement. House was built when people probably only had an ice box, but it makes no sense where it’s located for today’s world. You cannot access the back door or basement stairs if the fridge door is open and my kids are constantly standing in the doorway when I’m trying to put the milk away. We’re going to lose some closet space in the renovation to get the fridge fully in the kitchen. We’ll also gain a mini mudroom. Sweet!

I agree that the corner fireplace is pretty, but it’s definitely been a challenge in terms of room arrangement. I don’t know that I would have gone with a sectional if it hadn’t been for that corner fireplace!

I think that would be one of the hardest changes to adapt to when moving to a new home. To go from a remodeled kitchen that you LOVE, to a builder grade kitchen would be a tough one!

The other thing we sometimes forget is how things change over time in terms of needs/wants. When the kids were little, a basement became a “must-have” (and it’s still a must-have, even now that they’re older). But once the kids are out of the house, our needs will certainly change again, and even then, I’m sure I’ll find things that I would like to change if/when we move again. But I’m not mentally prepared for that happening anytime soon! As for the kitchen being close to the garage – a friend of mind built a house that had a little door from the garage to their pantry so they could load their groceries directly into the pantry. Soooo cool!!

I remember that not having a basement when we had kids was what prompted us to move – it was such a blessing to have a dedicated space for all of the their toys and clutter! Especially when they were little!

We wanted a “formal” dining room in our new house and we got one. But so far it’s my son’s LEGO/drawing/train/hot wheels room 🙂 We have plans for using it more as a dining room one day but I know it will only get used that way a few times a year maybe. But…I’m ok with it. It would have been nice to have a really huge area for a much larger table but that wasn’t possible.

I sometimes think about our jetted tub and that maybe we could have used that space better. Same with the spare room upstairs – could have made my daughter’s bedroom much bigger and maybe put in a laundry up there with the 4th bedroom in the basement eventually. But… hindsight is always 20/20, right? 🙂 I see why people often end up building a new place more than once – they figure it out after the first time!