Interesting thread. How often do I take a hard look at my home? Frequently, however that doesn't mean I do much, or anything, about it. I can relate to what stephf said and often play the game of "what would I change if I lived here" in other people's houses but also play âÂÂwhat could I change to improve my worldâ in my own. Most of the time I only change out accessories without buying anything new as have enough to rotate items. I satisfy my need for change by decorating seasonally. I'm not using as many accessories as I used to and my seasonal decor is much more subtle but there are changes to more seasonal colors. Now that it's fall I'm using accessories with fall colors, more natural and wooden items, and a few faux pumpkins/Jack-O-Lanterns. A few years ago we repainted and bought new upholstery with neutral colors so this works well. After many years of trial and error and sometimes not liking my house much I am finally happy with most of my choices and there's not much I want to change right now. When I move (likely in the next couple of years) I will be ready to buy all new upholstered items and will then change my color scheme and perhaps style. I'm a senior but will likely never stop changing things around in my house. I have never changed out everything all at once in 47 years. Have added and eliminated but never decorated from a clean slate. The only time I decorated 'from scratch' was when we moved to Europe for 3 years and bought almost everything new and a few things 2nd hand. Sold everything before we returned home as I had no attachment to any of it. I much prefer to collect over time and let my decor evolve as it will. Some of my old pieces have good memories such as pieces that belonged to DH's and my Grandmothers. I buy several new accessories every year, mostly handmade art pieces now. I have downsized and re-homed many items in recent years and continue to do this. I sell the better things thru a consignment shop and donate the rest to thrift stores. We had this house built 17 years ago and it now looks completely different from the way it did when we moved in. Different color walls, different flooring, different furniture. While I like to think I don't change things often my decor has definitely evolved over time. It has happened so gradually I have never realized until now how different it looks. I still have the same DR furniture, a chair that was DH's Grandmother's, and a small antique sideboard but everything else in the public areas has been acquired since we built. Only the upholstered furniture was purchased new, everything else is antique, vintage, or repurposed. I still have many of the same accessories but also many different ones, purchased new as well as from 2nd hand venues. Realistically I expect my house will continue to evolve subtly and will look quite different 10 years from now.

Flyleft, the main reason we won't build for a year or 18 months is financial. We can't do it all at once financially, so we will spread the costs over at least two years, and try to stick to a modest budget. I've been wanting to do this for years and we probably should have waited another year, but the right lot at the (almost) right price came along and we couldn't resist! Annie, both aspects are important to us, so we'll do our best. I read (but haven't corroborated) that landfills are 60 percent waste from building materials and sites, so it is something to consider I think. We definitely want to use materials that won't need replacing in a decade, ie metal roof, etc. The best building site (i think) is east facing. We could build on the north side of the lake, but it would be more of a mountain view than water view as the lake isn't wide at that spot. But even with east facing, we could add windows south facing for a winter sole thermal gain. I'd love to do geothermal, but don't think it will be in the budget right now. We probably won't use the cottage much in winter (not in Jan and Feb anyway) for the next few years. Probably we will have to use electricity for now (the electric power is derived from dams and is very, very cheap where we will build).

Feathers, I see listing photos on most houses that have sold in the last 10-15 years. The default condition seems to be to leave them up. BLF, there may be local rules, but AFAIK realtor.com allows 100. (yikes) Jojoco, Oh my, that's a lot of photos! Not my cup of tea at all. Poor DH, I told him that I realized, from looking at so many listings, I only like older homes. So my search is for 75+years, which in New England means a lot of homes from the 1700s! He did get me to look at one new construction but I'm afraid almost everything in between falls flat for me. Allison, no not FSBO. We have not chosen an agent ... way too soon. My question was really prompted by all of the listings I've been looking at to buy our next house. Redfin sends me emails like 3 times a day with listings and I look at them all, even though their filter stinks and they send me a ton of stuff that is not of interest. (but I still look!) I see a strong no on "artsy shots" but I myself like them. I think one reason I like them is that I get tired of all the photos being middle-distance. I definitely want to include some close ups but I will try to make sure they are of the house itself and not a vase of flowers per se. The "artsy" photo with the tulips is from a home we considered. I looked again at their listing, which I think is pretty well done, save for not having any summer photos of the outside. I could do away with the tulips, but these two close ups I think are somewhat arty but not as frivolous. Bunny, I agree that a surprising number of expensive homes need new kitchens. Not to offend anyone, but I think those are older sellers who are not going to spend what a new kitchen costs (in our market, at least 100k and usually a multiple of that) when the old one functions. Personally i'd much rather see an outdated kitchen than a brand new one not to my liking (which is the case with most of them!)

When we were looking for a lot on which to build a vacation home, we inquired of a design/build firm referred by a friend. They helped us find a suitable lot, and had some stock plans available. Of course none of the stock plans worked, so we had their architect design a custom home for us. The architect was young and at that point working for the builder; he has since gone out on his own. The builder quoted us a fixed price, which included the house, decks and in-ground pool. We wanted to keep to a budget, and did not make many change orders. We purchased some items ourselves (faucets, some tile, decorative light fixtures) but mostly went with their choices. Compared to many homes out here on the East End of Long Island, the materials were average, but we chose mostly white fixtures, tiles, and cabinets and they have held up ok over the years, although we renovated the kitchen a few years ago. It was not a painless process, but not too stressful, and was completed within a year, in time for the summer season. If this had been our primary residence, we would have gone more upscale, but it has worked well for over 25 years, including generating rental income. So there are lots of ways to approach this, and I think you have been given a lot of good advice! Good luck with the build!