I like this thread! My DH and I sort of had a list of priorities, but not really because we were both n00bs shopping for a first home. In the area and price range we were shopping the houses were mostly the same in the grand scheme. I hope we can move in a few years, primarily for the location.

msmeow, what is it about vaulted ceilings you dont like? We have 9 foot ceilings on both levels, except for the dining room which has 12 foot cathedral ceiling, which I actually dont like either, we were able to add crown moulding to the rest of the house but not in the dining room.

I live on a farm, so location was already determined. But, if I had to find a home, I would look at location (just to make sure it's safe) and then the garden. We have horses....so that comes with it's own requirements, but I'd still want a large, lovely garden space. And grass. And water. A creek and/or shady trees on the land or nearby that wouldn't get developed.

I like larger rooms (maybe because I'm tall?) but I still like cozy. So large rooms that can be used for multiple purposes and lead into one another....but not one big open space. Oh, and one level, no walkout basement. Stairs are pretty to decorate at Christmas! But with our recent experiences, I realized that one level design is friendly to everyone.

My feeling is that you can always decorate a space, if it has good bones....and make the most of challenges in the design. But not as easy, to get more land :)

lavenderlass, I LOVE horses, ever since I can remember. As a child I had ponies and horses. If we were about 15 years younger, we would have looked for some acreage to have a couple of horses, and some smaller animals, but being in our early sixties, we thought we were too "old" for that lifestyle. Actually beside our previous home, (it was in a waterfront subdivision with 28 homes, 2 acres lots each) there is an estate being built on 23 acres, the stables are done, just as we moved away this spring my friend told me they finally got the 30 horses they were talking about. I had been waiting for that day to come so I could walk down and give them some treats, but sadly the horses came after we moved.

No compromise on location.

No compromise on having a basement.

No compromise on the house having design integrity.

Compromised on style and era of house ( I wanted Federal period or Greek Revival period and ended up with 1965 modernism)

Compromised on outside appearance--odd looking.

Compromised on price. Higher than I had hoped.

Compromised on no bath or powder room first floor and no real place to put one. But that's a near impossible option in this neighborhood in this size of house.

Pal, explain design integrity, as you see it please

Rose, the A/C vents are in the vaulted ceilings, so the cool air has to fight its way down to the living area. Also, the kitchen lighting is floodlights in the vaulted ceiling. In order to change a light bulb DH has to climb to the top of an 8 foot step ladder set up on the kitchen counter on one side, and climb on top of the cabinets and the plant shelf on the other! And yes, we've tried a few different pole-mounted light bulb changers, without success. We looked into replacing the floodlights with stock pendants, but the poles are far too short and the current lights aren't at the same height in the ceiling, so pendants would be at different heights as well. I know we could hire an electrician to install pendants with longer poles, but as they are in the kitchen I don't really pay much attention. :)

Donna

Fun thread Rose! It's funny what we 'really want' and then end up 'settlling' for. I built a two story with the MB on the main floor~this was mandatory since it could be my last home. Most of what I wanted was in the architecture or building materials. All doorways are arched, and all room are off a small what I think could be called a 'vestibule', no hallways are in the house, even though it's a two story. Wider-than-average moldings were also used around doorways and baseboards, although there is no crown molding. The exterior is all Texas limestone and brick, both hand chosen by me, and was quite an ordeal on my part.

What I wish I did have were more mature trees as well as a smaller yard. No man here, so landscaping needs paid maintenance. I would love a smaller outdoor space with mature trees, which I could care for myself and add smaller plantings such as flowers, dwarf bushes. I looong for a park-like space, and that seems to have become almost more important to me than the house.

I compromised on style (none), floor plan (weird), number of bedrooms (not enough), and land (too much for me, I wanted no more than three acres and we have 12).

Natural consequence of the above is that we remodeled a "move in ready" house from top to bottom inside, landscaping of about three acres, major exterior changes, etc. to the tune of an additional 80% of the original purchase price. We now have a house grossly overbuilt for our county and will lose massive amounts of money if we ever try to sell.

patty, your house sounds beautiful! You long for the same thing as I do about park like space. The two acres we had previously was landscaped to perfection imo. The trees were just starting to takeoff, I can envision what it will look like in 10 years, but it was a lot of work taking care of it. The lot we have now is a much smaller version, something DH and I can and will enjoy looking after. Small is good!

kswl, we also had thought of buying something that we would completely renovate, but after figuring out the cost and knowing us, we say this is our final home but who knows, we didnt want to lose money.

When we found our current home, it was on a Sunday following the Saturday when we decided we could not move forward with the house we were under contract to build. We had carefully chosen all of the design elements of the build job, but our builder had done nothing for months and we could wait no longer. I was so sad to think that I wouldn't be getting the things I had agonized over and chosen. When we walked into our current home on that Sunday, I was amazed to find the kitchen nearly identical to the one we were going to build. Of course, we ended up buying the house and I do love it, but here's where I feel we compromised:

• We don't have hardwood flooring throughout the house. The upstairs is all carpeted, and while I've come to accept it and even enjoy the way it feels underfoot, carpet will never be my first choice.
• We have engineered wood flooring in the downstairs living space. I would have chosen real hardwood.
• We are situated on a little boulevard just off a busy thoroughfare. I would have chosen a quieter location, but it's convenient.
• The exterior of our house is boxy and doesn't have many of the architectural elements that charm me. It's what they're calling neo-eclectic, which I think translates to either no style at all or mishmash. It's not an unattractive house - just not what I would have preferred.

We compromised and left the vinyl siding.....I had ALL of the Hardie siding elements designed and chosen, and then the $55,000 price tag made me compromise!

We also moved the whirlpool tub (that I am not crazy about) from the original master bath into the new master bath, instead of buying a new one.

I was not about to compromise on the kitchen!!

We've been in our house for 26 years and we probably looked at 100 houses over a year because I was never, ever, ever going to move again. The only requirements were less than 3000 sq ft (which it is exactly) because I hate cleaning house, a nice big backyard which we got and 3 bedrooms on the same floor. Those were my only requirements. The fireplace (a floor to ceiling Squamish rock fireplace) sold the house for us and fortunately the fireplace came with our requirements.

The pleasant surprises were - we're slightly off the beaten track which we love, we are a 2 minute walk to hiking and biking trails that go for hundreds of kilometers and it was post and beam construction which appeals to our taste of simple construction.

I love this thread too!

When we were shopping for our current house we did not have too many "must haves". But of course there were wants and not so wanted.

Liked about our house:

• Lovely A frame living/dining room with floor to vaulted ceiling stone fireplace/chimney. The chimney is a feature on the outside too. This room has two sets of french doors out onto a deck.
• Lots of living space- living/dining room, family room.
• Older, established neighborhood with mature oak and other large trees.
• 4 bedrooms and 2 baths on one level.
• Right price.

Compromises or "settling":

• No garage (there is a driveway/parking pad and a large shed out back)
• Carpeting in all but bathrooms (vinyl), and kitchen, family and mudroom (wood), it was at least brand new, albeit cheap, carpeting
• 1970s wallpaper- including on the dropped ceiling in the kitchen- in several rooms and SW Antique Ivory paint on walls and trim everywhere else
• Dated (circa 1976) kitchen. Drop in range was only apartment size.
• Overgrown or non-existant landscaping.

Location--pluses are we could afford to buy here, walkable, family friendly, and good neighborhood schools; minus is that although we moved closer to dh's work it is still a long commute

Cost--plus is we could swing it, minus is it's still more than I'd like to have paid (it's the San Francisco Bay Area so everything is $$$)

Size--over all it is a good size, but a few more square feet and space distributed better would have gotten us a fourth bedroom and/or a powder room and/or more closets

Style--this is the cutest house ever, it fits my taste, it fits the neighborhood and it has a lot of orginal details throughout

Single story--easier for now and possible to stay in as we age

Condition--this was a big minus. There was no heat, no working appliances, the roof was at the end of its life, etc, etc.

We bought our house thinking it would be our starter home, but I think we're here to stay. The market really took off after we bought, and the next step up is over a million, and I don't want to spend that. We loved the location (still do!), and the size was right, but a 1950s ranch wasn't my first choice.

Things I'd change:

Slightly larger rooms with higher (not too high, 9-10 feet) ceilings

Proper foyer instead of front door opening into the living room

Add a fireplace to living room

Add half bath so guests don't have to use my boys' bathroom

Double wall ovens or large range with two ovens

Add a mud room and laundry room on main floor

Add a garage or carport (This one is doable!)

I swore I would never buy another house with a steep driveway or upstairs entry. This one has both, but met other, more immediate, concerns (location, sqft, lot size, 3 of beds/baths).

We've only bought one home and I doubt after all the work we've put into this place we'll ever move. We've been in it just under 10 years and have redone most of it ourselves. Our wish list consisted of an older home that was not in a traditional subdivision. A larger lot, preferably wooded where the neighbor's weren't on top of us. Something under 2000 sf with ample sized rooms, an attached garage, a finished basement, a kitchen with no island that 2 people could work in comfortably, plenty of storage, no basement laundry, no propane or oil heating, fireplace, 3-4 bedrooms with at least 2.5 baths.

In the end, we got all but the finished basement, the fireplace and a large lot that isn't as wooded as we would have liked but it's closer to the fwys and shopping so a fair trade I think. If we were to ever move, I'd really prefer a square shaped living room (as opposed to a rectangular one) with lots of windows, built ins and a fireplace, a larger closet in the master bedroom and maybe a slightly larger dining room. But other than that it's cozy and we're happy.

I really like this topic. And we went through it not two years ago, so it's still fresh on my mind.

What we wanted: (1) a home with historical character in (2) a close-in neighborhood with historical character with (3) enough square footage that we aren't cramped, with (4) fairly move-in ready, and (5) for a reasonable price.

What we learned: It was not possible to have the first four of those things unless our budget was three times what we wanted/were able to spend. How we compromised:

(1) our home does have a nice pueblo-revival character, but in a ca. 1960 quality spec home rather than a ca. 1880 original adobe home. DH had only two demands: he wanted a step-in shower (not a combo tub/shower) and vigas for the ceiling. He got both of those. We also have the original hardwoods and lovely diamond-finish plaster walls. It's a charming house.

(2) Our original desire was to live on the "east side" and we quickly learned that wasn't an option with our budget. We worked out from downtown in concentric circles until we found an area that gave us 1, 2, 4 and 5. An additional tradeoff is the house being on a fairly busy secondary road. It gets to be a bit of a hassle backing out in the morning, but other than that it hasn't really been a problem. The neighborhood, though, has charm to it for a ca. 1960 spec 'hood. The builder didn't scrimp on details like hardwoods, ceiling vigas, custom entry doors . . . it's a pretty charming neighborhood that is well-kept compared to others of the same vintage in town.

(3) We wound up with about 1,5xx total square feet, where we had left 2,000 square feet back in Alabama. We learned that the housing stock here is just smaller. There are the grand estates, of course, but there are a lot of single family homes in the 900-1,700 square foot range. The house we chose is 3/1.75 in about 1,200 SF in the main house. It also has a finished heated garage with a separate entrance that serves as DH's office/music room/man cave. This odd configuration wasn't something we sought out, but turned out to be terrific for us. DH worked from home before he retired, and it gave him a separate place to "go to work". And it also helps me keep all of DH's little piles of whatever out of the house. He's got his space, and I've got the house.

(4) We didn't have to compromise here. At all. The house had been completely redone, to include kitchen and baths, in around 2009. It was done well, with quality, unassuming materials. The only projects we've done have been discretionary: walling off the finished garage to separate DH's space from the laundry room; installing a cover on the rear patio; refinishing the fireplace (purely aesthetic, this one).

(5) We had to really compromise on what "reasonable price" meant to us. Santa Fe is much more expensive than Birmingham was -- to the tune of 2+ times the cost per square foot -- and that's in the middle class areas! We wanted to spend a max of 250K. Instead we spent 320K, and felt lucky to get the place.

Great topic!

When we sold our last house in 2014 - a very typical English thatched house that we'd restored from a wreck - we wanted something equally attractive and with some age/history (and plenty of period features) as we've never owned a house more recent than Victorian. Our particular love is Arts & Crafts but we didn't expect to find that.

Also on our wish list were a large kitchen, four bedrooms and plenty of living space as we have loads of furniture and accumulated stuff! We also wanted a relatively quiet location (last house although in a village was on a fairly busy road) but with amenities - coffee shops, grocery store, parks etc within walking distance. The last house had a large garden - ideal for our dogs - so again this was important, as was a detached house and we ruled out many in lovely locations that were attached/terraced.

We found the Arts & Crafts - kind of - as this house (built 1853) was extended in the 1920s in an Arts & Crafts style, but it certainly lacks kerb appeal! It has the decent garden, four bedrooms and a reasonable amount of living space as well as some original fireplaces, parquet flooring etc, but the kitchen is tiny so we made the decision to relocate this into one of the reception rooms. It's also much further from family than we'd hoped, but you get more for your money here in the middle of England!

I've added some pics (apologies to those that have seen these before!) showing the lack of kerb appeal from our lane (first two pics) compared to the much nicer 'garden front' with the giant wisteria and pretty veranda......

It's a project - but then we've never bought one that isn't ;)

Oh that's such a nice topic!

I really love the house we live in now-that's my first house(rather a townhouse) in California, and I'm a big fan of California I must say. We had to buy in a hurry (family circumstances, big move between coasts, etc.), but I fell in love and we bought well. The things that were important to me then were: my falling in love with the place(i'm a very sentimental kind of buyer), good well thought out plan, that will accommodate my family the best, pleasing architecturally, and walkability. I compromised on walkability. A big mistake.

Now we're remodeling a new place(again, family circumstances..or else I would never ever move)..now the most important things were: my falling in love with the place, additional bedroom, walkability, pleasing architecturally, and more privacy, hopefully view.

We got everything but the view..)) Also, the backyard, though nice, faces the street-better than neighbors but still. Well, it's either walkability or the view around here, most of the time..hills. Also, the house is smaller, despite additional bedroom, and as I've said, needs to be remodeled..never ending story.

It's still extremely lovable, but for the moment-it's my stupidest real estate purchase ever(it's my fourth place)

Maybe my next priority will include England as a location! When I bought this acreage my only two "have to have" was location and pasture for my horses. Oh, and a price I could afford. I got everything I wanted PLUS barns and a house included. I can't recall anything that I considered settling. I do remember the shock of green shag carpet the day I moved in. I did not see that when I looked at the house! Talk about tunnel vision! I ripped it out right away. Of course I repainted and remodeled over the years. Civilization is creeping up on me and if I were 10 years younger I would be looking for somewhere more remote. I had some new windows put in last week and one of the details made me say "It only has to last 20 years". And then I did the math and realized I would be 90 years old in 20 years!

The location is both the best and worst aspect of my house. I love that it is on a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood that has only one entrance and I love the view. However, I cannot walk to any amenities and the town is a tourist mecca so traffic can be miserable, especially in the summer.

We looked at least 100 houses over about a year to find a floor plan that suited our lifestyle. I think we will probably make one more move in our lifetime to a house with easier access to amenities.

I would like to live next door to RaphaellatheSpanishwaterdog. The house pictured by that poster looks so charming.

For my parents, they picked the house because it was on a great lot and had a mature orange orchard and the house was a tear down. My aunt and uncle wanted a winter house and dad thought they would love it. They decided not to move and dad still wanted the property, of course they could not afford to tear down the house and had to live in it as it was. Mom cried and cried about having to live in such a hovel.

Almost 50 years later and after about 40+ of next to nothing done to it, it is cute and almost livable...well except for that bathroom.

In the home you are living in now, what were your priorities and what did you compromise on?

ahh, we all love to talk about our homes the way young Moms like to talk about their kids, LOL!

Our priorities were the setting and privacy, which feels like we are on endless acres because of the topography and landscaping and our low, meandering home built over a hundred years ago along a long private pond. I never tire of looking out at the view. We also fell in love with the gardens and paths and the large indoor pool surrounded by french doors.

Similar to KSWL, though our house was no fixer upper we spent as much to expand and redo it as we did to buy it. So our first compromise was any notion of good sense. Part of it was being ripped off by our GC, part of it was being totally self-indulgent, but it was a compromise I won't make again.

Things I really like about the house are the outdoor entertaining spaces, the very large kitchen, the very pleasant and not too formal dining room, the large craft/homework room, the cloak room for parties, generous hallways and entries, tons of windows and french doors, lots of bathrooms and especially his and her master baths, and lots of unique vintage details.

What I don't like is not having all the bedrooms that I used to have (I had an old 3.5 story house with 10 or 11 bedrooms depending on how you count) having a large walk in closet instead of a actual 16x20 dressing room in my old house (but I can't justify that; since I wear jeans most of the time anyway!) and I don't like central air (i never open windows anymore). I also don't like having the master suite on the first floor. I thought I wanted it, but it makes it harder to keep track of the kids.

When we bought our house 28 years ago with our DD in middle school, little did I realize what a GREAT choice this house is for us as we age. There aren't many rooms -- living room, dining room, kitchen (and half bath) downstairs and 2 bedrooms, a sunroom off the master and a full bath up. But that means that there is less to clean! And the rooms are large -- the dining room easily seats 12 to 14 and we've had 100 people over for a cocktail party. We DID add a breakfast room on about 8 years ago. The kitchen is small -- a "one butt" kitchen but I like that -- it has everything I need. We were fortunate, too, in that being built in 1920, we had little to do to it other than our cosmetic changes although over the years we did replace roof, HVAC and take up carpet and refinish wood floors as well as replacing the swinging door between dining room and kitchen and the pedestal sink and hex tile in the bathroom. I still love it as much today as I did when we first walked into it all this years ago.

Things I compromised on include not backing onto green space, overhead wires (I wanted buried wires), laundry on main floor (I wantedit on the second floor). I didn't compromise on the quiet low circulation street, safe neighborhood, separate shower, and number of bedrooms

We are in the first house we bought and have no plans to leave it. We bought it for the 39 acres. The house was sort of secondary. Our original plan when looking at buying was 5-7 acres but we soon realized that would not be enough. We're birders and outdoorsy types so having our own "nature preserve" suited us. And having close neighbors did not. The parcels in the 5-7 acres range even out in the country looked too small. At the time of purchase I really didn't think we were compromising on much (I hated the 70's era carpeting) because we didn't have many wants beyond the acreage and we couldn't afford anything better available with land anyway. We got an okay old, small farmhouse on land. Hindsight being what it is I probably wouldn't have purchased this house. It had been badly remodeled/rebuilt. So it has been fix this, fix that forever. I wouldn't give it up for a house in suburbia but it's not what I would choose now.

Went for location and size. The kitchen was horrendous and we have since redone it. Unfortunately the front of our house faces south and the backyard is down about 20 feet and extremely shady. Next house I have four requirements: a small garage, a sunny backyard, kitchen that faces the backyard, and easy access to the yard from the house. I would absolutely love to build as I love mcm/modern architecture and there is very little of it in our city. Realistically with our budget that would only happen if we moved out of downtown and I'm not sure I'm ready to give up the location.

Raphaellathespanishwaterdog, my favorite guilty pleasure is the BBC show Escape to the Country, I have saved hundreds of screenshots of charming homes from that show! Every time I make up my mind that Wiltshire (fave county) is absolutely the place for me, I fall in love with Shropshire (aka "middle of nowhere) or even Cumbria! Most of the homes on ETTC look more interesting from the garden view than head on, so your charming house is no exception. (It looks almost Georgian from the outside shots, which is wonderful because of higher ceiling heights, although the period is a bit confusing.). I love that so many of the country properties, regardless of size, have grown like Topsy over the years, like those houses that used to be three workers cottages knocked into one and the gracious farmhouses with amazing newer conservatories :-)

To tell you a secret......a few years ago I was really hating my house, which we have spent buckets of money on and which I still didn't like, when I had a crazy dream one night. I was an ETTC buyer and Nikki Chapman was taking me on a tour of my own house. Listening to her describe it ---glowingly ----and seeing it through new eyes made me truly appreciate it for the first time in the decade we've lived here. I know that sounds crazy, btw :-)

"So our first compromise was any notion of good sense." Thanks for that succinct poleaxed moment, Mtnrd. It sounds so much worse when somebody else says it!

Husband is happy. The compromise was mine. The location is great but I did not want to live in a HOA neighborhood. I especially did not want to live in an HOA where the homes were so close together. One good thing though is that everyone here is very nice and all the homes are different by different builders. The back landscaping is still a work in progress but is starting to look like my own little tropical paradise. Little by little signs of other near homes are getting hidden by foliage. I still look at real estate daily in an area across the main street as they are not HOA, have slightly larger lots, big driveways and mature trees. The homes in my price range would need a full gut job. I think I have enough left in me for one more gut remodel.

we love the location of our house. we love the overall look and feel of this house.

compromises: the lot is smaller than we would have liked and the backyard just a little less private than I would have preferred. the taxes are much higher in our particular area than we had hoped! my hub wanted a 1st floor master, but there is not one. BIG compromise was one big master closet rather than 2 separate... there is not room for our big kitchen table in the kitchen- doesn't bother me, but hub doesn't like that... we had to attach the detached garage.

"So our first compromise was any notion of good sense." -yes! That's exactly that:)

Re Escape to the Country: Pretty sure I've seen a few of these episodes when I was in England, but have never seen them aired here in the states. I did, however, just find a number of episodes available on YouTube. I'll be watching them all!

I got the 180 year old Greek Revival at the expense of my husband's great compromise - he wanted new build or close to it. Then my compromises started! I cannot believe how much $ we have put into this house. After 13 years we finally renovated the kitchen but not the downstairs bathroom (out of place 1940's addition unbefitting the interior of the house. The exterior blends well). There is still one ugly upstairs hall we just started to work on and it isn't going well (wallpaper applied directly to sheet rock (in a strange construction job we think also from 1940's) so chuncks of it are coming off with the paper). Years of stripping ugly wallpaper downstairs grew tiresome so we learned to live with peach paisley upstairs until now.

Weve done a lot of exterior work and I gave up the battle to save the crumbling columns. They were rebuilt along with porch and deck with "fake" wood that should outlive us. Looks fabulous but I know they aren't original. They were even too far gone to use as a decorative piece inside. Blasted termites and poor drainage!

We did not compromise on location. 10 minute walk to a Metro North station an hour from NYC is fantastic. Small yard and neither of us are great gardeners so that is fine. Neither of us care about not having a/c either - much to the dismay of company in the summer.

And this year we compromised and didn't take a vacation due to kitchen cost. Old houses are money pits but I would do it all over again! I think my husband might agree now. The house is perfect for us.

When we sold our big family home, my husband would have loved to move to downtown Denver, where every thing is happening. Not me. I was transferred to Boulder and so we went looking in that county. Our house is over 100 years old, 5 blocks from the town center and everything I want. The compromise for me is that while I love the proximity to downtown and everything else about this town, my two neighbors, who are very nice, are not big on taking care of their homes. I try to overlook this, but it makes me sad when people take no pride in their homes.

Diane

We just moved into a condo. We were looking for a place on green space with a great view, costing less than what we could get for our house, space for gardening and bird feeding, two car garage, gas fireplace, and enough room for all the kids to visit at Christmas. We are very happy to have gotten all that, and more--master suite with laundry, free-standing condo, access to the lake and a boat slip.

what we didn't get, and obviously they were not deal breakers, but would have liked: bigger windows in the LR, closer to our old neighborhood and grocery shopping, more bikeable, lower condo fees. Also, this place is at the outer age limit of what we were looking for--built in 1988--but newer than our former home built on n 1947!

Both of us compromised a lot when we bought our home: I wanted an 1880s Itanilante in an up-and-coming neighborhood where we could walk/take the trolley downtown. He wanted a big yard to garden in and a neighborhood that we had lived in for years.

We got: the neighborhood he wanted and a 1930s four square that I am doing my best to tweak to be more interesting. But its got the original hardwoods both upstairs and down, a two garage off the alley (unexpected!!) and a bump-out for my precious fireplace. Its a ten minute bus ride to downtown but completely un-walkable otherwise (Pittsburgh has some serious hills...)

But just the other day, he said "I miss how we could walk out of the door and walk to shops and restaurants at our old apartment." And then I felt vindicated. :)

Whoo-hoo for what we bought: Much larger and roomier than we expected to be able to afford for the price, with plenty of room for an office, plus an additional 330sq’ bonus room we hadn’t even put on the “sky pie” wish list.

On List: Not our #1 choice for city, but bordering and in the #2 group, safe and a well regarded city just the same. No HOA/Mello Roos--which can be challenging in SoCal! Quality of school district.This was a late in life purchase, so being only a hair away from a nil chance of losing money should we ever need to sell (in 5 years the value has increased at least 35%, so this part is proceeding even better than expected). Nice floor plan with abundant, large windows. Nice, and quiet, neighbors who have lived here for many years. The must-have air conditioning. Was able to run gas line for kitchen range. Not on a busy road or backing a noisy one.

Mixed: We got a larger yard than some, but not as large as we would have liked. And the back yard was one big hunk of concrete that needed to be DIY removed. No real view, but enough distant visual and on the upper portion of the slope, so as to not be as claustrophobic as many homes we saw. No style/ CA boring, but not downright ugly, at least.

Oh, well: More numerous, and larger, DIY projects than would have been preferred. 3-car garage that is awkward to house even 2 cars. Popcorn ceilings. Cramped master bath. Laundry located in garage. Nearby open space and residential trails not as nice, and the preferred wilderness hiking trails start at roughly a 15 minute drive away. Distance and time for husband and son to commute increased.

Awwww Rose, thank you~IMO, it IS a 'beautiful house', and I only say that because all the choices were mine, and were beautuful to *me*. It's a *home*, only a little over 2600 sq ft, not a huge showplace, and there isn't a place that is off-limits to my grandchildren. The thought of ever leaving makes me almost physically sick, but since DD moved almost an hour away, am considering moving to her neck-of-the-woods, which is acreage, and not my cup of tea. I'm holding out for future condos to be built in the area. ;)

RoseAbby, I haven't been able to get past your opening statement of this thread--that you've lived in 12 houses over 43 years, and that many of them you built yourself. Just curious why oh why you'd move so much? Having recently gone through it I've found it a very difficult process for many reasons--and expensive. I just can't imagine moving, on average, every 3-4 years. Ugh.

Cassandry, what I can I say, we were very ambitious, knew that with our "jobs" neither DH or I had careers, that we werent going to be where we wanted to be in our older years. For us building was a lot less expensive than buying, as we were the general contractor and DH is very handy and did quite a bit himself. We sold each house for a very good profit. The first few homes were small starter ones, but as we progressed we built larger and more expensive homes. The last two especially $$$ because they were waterfront properties. To be honest, we actually enjoyed the whole process from concept to moving in. Now that we have been in this house since May, the changes we wanted to make are coming to an end, so DH is on the lookout for a house to flip, he needs to keep himself busy.

We were relocating several hundreds of miles and we didnt have unlimited opportunity to view houses in person. We planned a three day weekend of viewing pre-screened listings kids in tow(age 5 and 7 at the time).

Priorities: school district, min 3 br 2.5 bath plus office, hardwood floors or we would factor into the equation the cost to install throughout, good fenestration, lot size, non-busy street.

There was one house on the list that was at the top of my range and I told the agent save it for day 3 as I knew my husband would not pick any other house when he saw it as it was post and beam which he loves. Guess where we live now :)

Compromises- open floor plan, I like rooms. No designated dining room, just a dining space that you can walk through. Its too big for us, we have an entire third floor loft space that we never use, when I changed back to fulltime I had to hire cleaning help. No real entry- which I have worked on and have come to a point of acceptance.

Wins- the road is lovely, it is a dead end and ends in a nature preserve of several hundred acres. This is great for running and walking. It was more land than I really wanted, but my veggie garden is enormous, and we have chickens, I keep thinking about getting goats but who has the time, and when we travel animal care is expensive already with dogs, cats, and chickens.

aahhh, so it sounds like most/all of your moves were local, roseabbey? that would make the many moves easier, and if building/renovating is your hobby, it would also be fun!

busy, yes all were local in the city, the kids stayed in the same schools, we made sure of that. The last two were outside of the city, but the kids were already out of the house by then. It is fun, DH gets to build things, I get to decorate!

Moved from Maine to Outer Banks, no basement, smaller lot, and a HOA community, but we knew all of that before we decided to move here. I do not miss the basement, or all of the gardens we had (5 acres), and the HOA is not very expensive. The house is perfect for us, the yard is manageable, and we can fly the American flag everyday.

You are welcome.

We moved a year and a half ago so the list is still pretty fresh.

Must haves:

- 1 of 3 neighborhoods that we liked in our town. We live in a college town and it was important that we be able to walk downtown and live in one of the older established hoods with kids.

- 4 bedrooms and at least 2 full baths

- Front porch.

- Biggish yard for a city lot.

- Finished basement or a basement that could be finished. Our old house had a fieldstone basement that was really just for storage.

- Older home. I really wanted a 1930 or earlier or a mid century modern.

- Not concerned about paint or cosmetic choices but I definitely did not want some thing that had been remodeled to change the layout or for the finishes to be inappropriate to the period of the house. It would have really bothered me to pay a higher premium for an updated house that I would just want to redo. I'd much rather have the original details and upgrade to my taste. It just would kill me to rip out finishes that had just been put in. Did not want something that had been remodeled and not appropriate for the period of the house.

- Closets! Our last house was an 1860 farmhouse with pretty much no closets.

- Mudroom

- First or second floor laundry

- Place for my yellow Chambers stove

What we got:

- 1942 brick colonial with the right number of beds and 3.5 baths. Big yard with a buildable empty lot adjacent to it that we also bought giving us an acre. Tons and tons of storage and an awesome master suite that was added on in 1950. Beautiful hardwood floors throughout. Everything very well maintained but not updated and a Finished basement. I also got my mudroom. The PO was a master gardener and our landscaping is amazing. Well it was amazing. I haven't been great about maintaining it to the same level.

- We got our 2nd choice neighborhood. It's the nicest of the three neighborhoods we had on our list (from a purely financial and aesthetic standpoint) but it is the farthest from downtown (about 1 mile and the number 1 choice is about a half mile). Not as many kids as our #1 choice but there are some and also a lot of older retired folks. No sidewalks! This really annoys me. It gives the neighborhood a nice feel but with young kids and dogs to walk it bugs me.

What we didn't get:

- No front porch but a sunroom. It doesn't compare at all. I really really really miss having a porch. Hopefully someday I can add one on.

- No place for my Chambers stove. :( BUT! It has the original Thermador stainless range and Nutone stainless hood that is super sweet.

- Laundry in the basement. I thought I'd hate this but I kind of like having a place to throw dirty clothes that no one can see.

What we got that we didn't know we wanted: :)

- Traditional layout. I LOVE having my kitchen separate from my living area.

- eat in kitchen - our kitchen is smallish but the layout is square and super functional and I love having a small kitchen table and chairs. Much prefer it to an island. It's not a pretty kitchen but it works beautifully.

- The most adorable cozy knotty pine den. I love having a small space to watch tv and I love that the tv is not the center of our home. It's just right. I also like having a living room that is always ready for company.

Sorry for the novel!

louis, you make a good point, sometimes what we think we are compromising on turns out to be something we actually grow to like or even love.