This is the game that my husband and I play when we get stressed over an issue with the house. "What is your favorite thing in the house?!"
My biggest love affair is with my kitchen. I love to cook/bake so I went a little crazy...Wolf range, SubZero 750/G, Shaws Orginal Fireclay farmhouse sink, etc. I also love the exterior. I'm OCD over the brick this week. We have 5 chimneys and a lot of complicated brick detail. The house looked okay before, but now that the brick is being finished it looks like a real house! :) FINALLY!
I think the other thing that is going to be so nice is the separate master closets. The are pretty large so I'll have lots of room for the accessories (shoes/handbags/hats)wall. My friends laughed when I told them the size of them (they're each 6' X 15'), but now they all want that much space!
There are so many things...

It's hard when someone designs their own home to ask what is the one "favorite" thing. Like good potatoe chips, you can't do just one! LOL

When we started this venture DH wanted a huge garage which he's getting.
Me?...I wanted a back porch. One the full length of our home to take advantage of both the mountain views and city lights. It had to have a door leading from every room, with rockers and warm blankets just waiting for someone to bundle up in. Aughhhh!

I'm going to enjoy so many things about the new house (we'll get to move in in about 3-4 weeks).

I have a freezer room that will house 2 upright freezers off the kitchen (I have 5 kids).

I have a 9 x 16 panty with counter space for things like my bread maker, etc (so I don't have to move it into the kitchen to use).

I have a dog room that is 8 x 15 (for my ever-shedding labs) that is tiled on the floor and 3ft up the walls, with a doggie door that leads to their own 24 x 24 yard that is artificially turfed (for easy clean up).

I'm really looking forward to my project room. I'll have my sewing machine in there, pictures for scrapbooking, a table for wrapping gifts, my computer, etc.

My bath tub in my master bedroom is a bain ultra, and I'm really looking forward to having the air tubes. I go in spurts on my bath-taking and when my current jetted tub is not in use, the water that collects in the tubing becomes very nasty. Blech! The Bain ultra will also have chromotherapy that I think will be pretty cool.

But, my A#1 most favorite thing that I'm looking forward to in my new home is my 23 x 32 storage room that will have shelves to store and separate all of my decorations, Christmas trees, pictures, unused furniture, and anything else (by golly!) that doesn't have a home. I'm sick and tired of never having enough storage. I'm beyond ready for my storage room! Ha.

Our covered deck with a pretty view.

I love our side porch which will be screened when the house is finished. The floor of the porch is five feet above the ground so it has a great view down the hill and into the branches of the trees on either side. Upstairs from the porch will be a second story deck. It will be at about 25 feet above the ground so we will have some great bird watching from up there!

We've lived here 6 months now-- truthfully, there's nothing I don't like but some things have more impact on daily life than others.

LOVE our covered porch on both the front and back of the house-- Love even more the covered section on the back porch that keeps out the horrid mosquitos out.

Adore the red LaCanche stove with double ovens and 4-burners :-)

Big single bowl farmhouse sink is really fantastic-- would hate to go back to the old kind.

Probably the most useful and coolest would be the central vacuum with Hide-a-Hose.

Kats, your house is GORGEOUS - thanks for sharing the pic!

Ardent! We went for the Bain Ultra as well, and I can't wait to soak in that baby! And this way I get to have my bubble baths without clogging tubes, or dirty water that goes stagnant in them. Yuck!

I'm envious of all of you with such great views...alas, we are city dwellers so all I get for a view is my neighbors house lol. Although we do have tons of 60-year old trees which does make it nicer.

Kats, I love your house, and you know how much I love the idea of porches with all the rooms facing out to the views. :)

I'm torn between how anxious I am to use the steam room, and my aquatic jetted tub.

I've just splurged on hakatai's luster tile for most of the steam shower, and the carpenters built the deck in there by drawing around me while sitting on the floor. It's a perfect fit. :) Then there's the pair of thermasol speakers I got on ebay for $50 so I can enjoy my stereo while I steam.

But then there's my jetted tub, which has a view out at the ocean. I'm having a TV/DVD wired into the wall to watch while I'm in the tub, and another set of speakers in the bathroom also operates off the master bedroom stereo system. I've got it set up so I can admire my antique crystal sconces and chandelier from the tub as well, and the gloss white tile wainscoting is supposed to reflect all the light.

Two more months with any luck!
Summer

Haven't moved in yet, but will love my porches, especially my back porch.

Will love all the storage, i.e., walk-in pantry, wall in closets, etc. Have as much storage space as living space. LOL. That's what happens when you live in a house with no storage space for 20 years. You get a chance for storage and go nuts!! Same with the master bath. Enough room for a dance to be held. No just kidding. Right now living in a bath that 2 people cannot turn around in.

Just that feeling of more room will be wonderful.

I love the living spaces--open floor plan, 2 story livingt room, basement rec room and screened in porch, and the storage spaces--walk-in pantry, walk-in closets in every bedroom and the office and a big linen closet (we're like brutuses--we didn't have enough storage in our old house so probably overdid it in this house).

yes, just like potato chips, impossible to pick just one!

I love my porches. I adore my porches. I love sitting outside and listening to the birds and the occasional mooing cow in the valley across from our house and I love the view.

I love my walk-in pantry. It's so nice to come home from the grocery store and have room for everything in there.

I adore my kitchen. Simply love everything about it. I love my butcher block island top and the contrast to the granite countertops. I love my appliances and I have fun cooking in my convection oven. I love the instant thaw feature in my fridge. And on and on.

What else...oh, I love all of the windows. So open and spacious and bright. The great room is wonderful with its two-story window that really adds character and light to the room.

I also love my wrought-iron stair and loft railings. They are so pretty. And my hardwood floors. So pretty...

And the view from my office. I traded in a view of hectic, busy Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood for a peaceful, serene view of a 100-plus acre valley filled with cows and a creek. The cows are having calves this month so now there are five babies to watch in addition. I even watched one being born a few days ago. Such a beautiful, natural environment. It is home.

Now if I could just finish unpacking I'd be set. :)

I forgot to mention the windows! Our old house was dark, so we probably overdid it on windows in our new house (DH calls it a fish bowl), but I love all the natural light and being able to see outside.

I can't pick just one either - we love our new home. Three verandas, a screen porch, the view, walk-in pantry, Onzen tub, cedar beams, cathedral ceilings, lots of windows, kitchen cabinetry, flooring, stonework, the wildlife. Oh, my pretty laundry room after doing clothes in an unfinished basement for 20yrs. Having a flower bed that received full sun instead of all/part shade plants. No neighbors.

loralee,
Thanks for the compliment. I have to keep pinching myself b/c after 3 years, next month we should be in! WHOO HOO! .... I cannot wait to post my own thread of pics on GW and plan to do so just before we move in. But, I'm getting to be like a 5 year old at Christmas and might not be able to wait that long so probably will post some pics once the wood floors are in.
Tick Tock... Tick Tock....

labradoodlelady,
Thank you too for the compliment. I do know how much you love porches! :)
I have to say the picture you've given us of your jetted tub sounds mighty appealing. Looking out over that view with your antique crystal, relaxing to music or watching some hunk on the TV (Mel Gibson!). Oh Yeah!

kygirl
I think we need to start a "Show me your porch" thread! See what everyone has in mind on design and, how they're going to decorate them. Hey, BTW, when are we going to get to see some post move-in pics?

Oh! How could I forget the clawfoot tub?? I use it almost everyday and having enough water to actually submerge is wonderful!

So, so, so many things!

* My one favorite thing (if I had to pick just one) is the setting -- being surrounded by trees and out in the country. No nosy neighbors, only peace and quiet!
* I love our porches! We have a covered front porch and covered 2nd floor porch above it plus an open area at the top of our turret that we can see all the countryside from. It's so relaxing to just sit and enjoy the views! (Plus we intend to add on a screened porch and deck off the nook once our wallet recovers. Can't have too many porches!)
* I love having the laundry room located on the 2nd floor as well as having it between the master bath and the kids' bath with "pass-throughs" (like a chute but just through the wall): no more lugging dirty clothes through the house!
* I love everything about my kitchen: the large L-shaped island, all the large base drawers, my chandeliers and tin ceiling tile backsplash that both turned out just as I envisioned them in my mind, my walk-in pantry, the breakfast bar where the kids talk to me as they grab a bite -- I could type for an hour just about the kitchen!
* I love our basement. Even mostly unfinished, the sheer amount of storage it provides plus knowing we have space to expand if we want/need to in the future is so nice.

I could go on and on and on. When we were building I would dream about how nice it would be when we were finally moved in. But the reality is SO much better than what I'd dreamt! It was truly so very worth all the headaches and hassles we went through to get here! I hope all of you that are still building have the same experience that we did: that you love your new home even more than you ever imagined!

kats, we just received our fast connection two days ago so I'm trying to play catch up! and yes, I need to take post move-in pics. but I'm so slow at unpacking that my house is currently filled with boxes and not so attractive. I will take pics once the boxes are gone. I promise!

Great idea on the show me your porches thread!

I love our screened porch. We have a porch swing on it & just purchased really nice big aluminum chairs with a large round coffee table (Lowes calls it a "conversation table"). We sit out there everyday.

I also love that the laundry room is right next to the bedrooms (we have a single story). No more carrying laundry through the entire house. And we don't need laundry hampers in our rooms anymore, you can stand in the kids room & toss clothes into the laundry room, lol.

second floor main laundry; small stackable units downstairs in mud room..
mezzanine level open in the center over the great room to be used as a library... with a fireplace and walk out balcony.

A friend of mine used to say it took 3 houses to get it right. She probably had a point: I know my current home is, to a very large degree, a reaction to the things I'm tired of in my current house.

So my two favorite bits of the still under construction new house are 1-big, wide open living space, open to the office above with 15 windows on 3 sides. and soaring cathederal ceiling; 2-second floor bedroom [I'm currently in the basement] with a huuuuuuge closet and deck on the south side.

the jaw dropping views from every room

the spacious open floor plan and 11 foot ceilings

the inlaid copper on the front door and upper kitchen cabinets

the clean up/prep room off the kitchen where I can shut the door on dirty dishes until guests are gone

the inner courtyard - safe for the goldens and private for us

the home automation system that allows me to check on the house and control lights and security from any pc

the zen fireplaces which carry through our zen theme perfectly

We're about 6 months from completion but I would have to say the best thing is the lot and the neighborhood. Not large (.77 acre) compared to others but in FL being 7.5 ft house to property line is the norm in most neighborhoods, the kids literally have no yard to play.
DH is just so excited about his garage-mahal - 1200 sq ft of HIS garage.

I think my favorite part of the interior will be the kitchen. I could really go on and list each thing in the house and why but we designed and are building our dream home. We love it!

1) The light and the view
2) Covered deck
3) Large walk in pantry
4) Central Vac

(1) Big flat yard for the kids and the dog
(2) 12x12 screened porch plus more covered porch area
(3) 12x8 laundry room adjacent to MB closet with chute from kids bathroom upstairs.
(4) The garage, kitchen, and freezer (in laundry room) all adjacent to each other. EASY to unload groceries.
(5) Electrical extra's - like soffit outlets for Christmas lights controlled by inside light switch.
(6) MB shower has lowered floor so there is no curb. Plus frameless door. Easy to keep clean.

Wow, so many wonderful things going in your homes! I can't believe so many of you have porches as well, that's really neat because very few homes here have them.

I can add a couple more things to my list of things I will *love* about our new home....today we bought an Aladdin motorized chandelier lift! Woo hoo, even I can change the bulbs now, and no more worrying about DH's rickety ladder scratching up our new floors!

And we also finalized our pricing on my greatly anticipated induction cooktop! I can't WAIT to try this out as it will be my first!!

There are so many things about this house that I love already....
The view can't be beat. We're having an infinity edge pool put in with the middle of the edge right where the sun sets.
Our office in a separate structure. We work from home with three assistants and right now everyone is on top of us in our current home. We'll have our privacy back.
My great big kitchen & pantry.
Room for a garden. A BIG garden and room for avocado and fruit trees.
The wildlife. We want to put in some owl houses on the perimeter of the property.

We just moved in last month and we love our lighting system! I was so against it before, but it is so convenient and definitely worth the money.

We love our TVs throughout the house and I love my kitchen.

Cooking, I'm really curious what you mean by "lighting system"...did you go automated? We're looking at the Vizia wireless system and haven't decided yet. Thankfully, because it's wireless we don't have to and can add it anytime...but I'm interested to hear what you did with your lighting that you like so much?

Lora

Lora, I am talking about an automated lighting system. Ours is hard-wired. We went this route over the wireless because there is not a delay reaction with the hard-wired system.

What we love about this is that all the lights and all the switches are wired into the system. We can turn on any light from any room and have 'themes' for the house. For example, when I am cooking, I turn on a button I named 'Kitchen High' which turns on the undercabinet lights, the pendants, and all the can lights in the kitchen. There is also a lightswitch that is named 'Entertain' which lights up the whole house when the guests come.

In our bedroom, there is a 'goodnight' light and a 'good morning' light. These lights are set to a certain brightness so 'goodnight' is a lot less brighter. Our 'good morning' light comes on low and gets brighter after a few seconds so you don't go blind in the morning with all the lights in your face. What is cool about the system is that every switch is dimmable and can be controlled by pressing and holding the buttons.

What is also cool is that you can have fun naming your lightswitches. For example, the lighting guy wanted us to go with a 3 button switch in the powder room aptly named #1, #2, and Mexican. I thought it was funny, but my husband did not want to go with it.

There are also many safety features that can be tied in with the lighting system.

I was against the lighting system from the beginning because it is expensive, but I have to admit that I LOVE it now for its convenience and ease. Also, there are not tons of ugly gangs of lightswitches when we went this route.

I hope this answer some of your questions, but if you have more, let me know and I will be happy to answer them.

1. Radiant heat system

2. wife's closet w/ 130+ shoe rack

3. @1500 sq' garage

cookingpassion,

may i know if you used lutron or crestron? or what company did you use?

We used CentraLite. I think they are less pricey than Lutron or Creston, but we are quite happy with it. My husband is very knowledgable about electronics, and he really likes what we have.

Cookingpassion-

We also used CenraLite. We are finally moving in a few weeks and are in the process of finalizing (I know we will need to reprogram once we move in) our lighting settings and labels. How did you decide? Our kitchen has can lighting in the cooking area, then another load of can lighting over a large island. We have pendants over a large island, chandelier over the small island and over the sink. In cabinet and under cabinet lighting. I'm so confused over what lighting I want at what percentage..

What in the world does someone need with 130+ shoe rack? Emelda Marcus needs one I know, but why would anyone else need one? HA! When I was younger I liked having a few pair of shoes, but my limit at one time was never more than 6 pair. Then again I wore all my shoes. I realize most women buy tons of shoes and very rarely wear them because they are uncomfortable. I only buy comfortable shoes so I can get my money's worth out of them. HA!

Julie,

We have can lightings, pendants over the island, and undercabinet lights. They are set to Kitchen High and Kitchen Low. Kitchen High has all the kitchen lights on at 80% (none of our lights go past 80%), and Kitchen Low just has the undercabinets and pendants at 40% or so. Understand too that the switches can dim to what you like if you hold down on the switches long enough so you can always bypass the scenes to get a desired effect.

We had many many sessions with our lighting guys and they gave us great suggestions for our lighting themes. They asked us how we would envision turning on lights and how what the purpose for each theme is...helps a great deal.

To tell you the truth, we've been in our house 2 months now and we still have not settled on what our switches will be. Our guys just put sticky labels on the switches so we know what they are for the time being. Once we've decided, we will get them engraved permanently.

Relax about the percentage and the themes...they can always be changed. Just give yourself a few months in your house before you get the switches engraved (if you go that route) and play around with the lights some. If you or your husband are good with electronics, you can reprogram them if you decide to change later in the future. All you will be out is the relabeling for the switches.

Just wanted to let you know that each wire running into the switchbox can hold up to eight buttons so there can be lots of different themes and degree of light for you to play with.

You can get many combinations with this route. Like in our bathroom, we can push one button that lights everything up and push another button to turn everything down but the shower lights when we shower or the vanity lights if we are just getting ready for bed.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more info.

Cookingpassion-
We were intending to engrave now and then change out later if needed. Maybe we should go the sticker route since so much to consider. How will you operate your system when you finally do send out the buttons to engrave?

The buttons don't get sent out. When the engraving is done, we will get new ones. I think for us, the route to wait is better since the buttons cost a few dollars each to engrave and we have LOTS of buttons.

If you are still deciding what buttons should go where, I would suggest to wait a little. You never know if you need to fine tune your buttons to complement your daily routine. We plan on changing a few things because some buttons aren't used much while there are other buttons that we would like to have in multiple places.