Wedding Central Forum

I'm making a list of all the things a house should have for me to even consider it. For any house you live in, what are the basic features it must have?

My list so far is
• Separate laundry
• Space for 2 cars
• 2 bathrooms
• Space for dishwasher in kitchen
• Kitchen cupboards all the way to ceiling
• Built in cupboards
• Fans or aircons in every room
• 3 bedrooms minimum
• Small yard/garden
• Outdoor area
• Fence

all looks good to me, i would make sure it had adequate security ie. screens/locks/sensor lights. plus effective heating/cooling, ducted heating is good, and evaporative aircon but there are so many options... i'd also be looking for solar panels and a rainwater tank.
another thing is that we want awesome lighting, downlights etc, sick of the dim lighting in our rental...the next place we rent (or buy depending) will need to have better lights!

Ooo I thought of another few

Lots of powerpoints
Condition of paint and floor coverings

2 bathrooms are preferable but if not at least 1 separate toilet is a must
Space for 2 cars (side by side to avoid parking in)
Good heating and insulation
Built in wardrobes
At least 3 bedrooms (a study or a study nook would be a bonus!)
Plenty of windows (I don't like dark houses with small windows)
Small-medium backyard with at least some grass for the dog
House in a generally good condition (e.g. paint and flooring ok, no mould or gigantic cracks in the walls, etc.)
Enough lighting
Good neighbourhood/location

There are things that I would like but aren't necessarily deal breakers as these are pretty easy to add on later e.g. rainwater tank, security lights.

There are also certain things that would stop me from buying a house e.g. a house at the end of a T-intersection. Friends live in a place like this and they constantly have people's headlights shining into their house and have even had one car fail to turn and end up crashing into the front of their house. I would also not want to live next door to a place with lots of traffic or noise (e.g. living next to a service station or a McDonalds or something similar).

sounds simple but TV points - our house only had one when we brought it and we're putting more in but have to now put them near corners/roof access points..

In our next house i would like...
Double garage
4 + bedrooms with built in robes
Large backyard (min 800sqm block)
Access from gargage to backyard (for trailer etc)
2 bathrooms (1 plus ensuite)
At least 2 living areas
Renovated / newish bathrooms & kitchen
Central / ducted heating & cooling
In a court or quiet street, not a main/busy rd
Nice neighbourhood realtively close to shops / schools / work etc

One day...

I'm not too fussy, but that may be because the house we're in now has pretty much everything I'd want.

4 bedrooms
2 bathrooms
2 car garage
Not a tiny block
Air con
Decent living areas
Undercover patio for bbqs

I think it really depends on whether you're renting or buying. A lot of things like power-points, paint, TV points, air con, etc. can be added if you're buying.

We will be buyinh but I would prefer to do little work to the place and these are things that I will require. Powerpoints are something we will need alot of 1st up.

We are building so this is our list:
Decent size land (no smaller than 600m2)
4 bedrooms with built in robes
2 bathrooms
2 car garage
Central / ducted heating & cooling
Decent size patio for outdoor entertaining
Slimline watertank
Decent size pantry
Gas stove
Solar panels
Security grills
Security alarm system
Separate laundry

we wanted to spend as little as possible for a house so our requirements were very basic:

Big living area
Quite open
3 bedrooms, at least two being good sized
Good house layout
No termites in the house
Well built with no dodgy structural cracks
No corner blocks
walking distance to a bus or train
Less than 30 min on the bus to the city
At least a 1 car garage, car port wasn't sufficient
reasonable (as in, not original) kitchen and bathroom so we didn't have to spend heaps renovating those
At least 400sq m block (ended up a lot bigger)
Within our set budget
Able to be renovated without too many dramas

We made our own dishwasher space a few months after we moved in Air Con was a bonus that we looked for, luckily our house already had air con in the living areas

jessie.77 wrote:

I think it really depends on whether you're renting or buying. A lot of things like power-points, paint, TV points, air con, etc. can be added if you're buying.

You would think so! Our place is double brick, so putting in new power points/ tv points is hard. We had to drill out our floor so we could have a telephone line near a power point to plug in our modem!

Before we bought our current house our requirements were:

4 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
Large kitchen
Good size deck or patio
Decent size yard
Ceiling fans (we put splits in the Master b/room & the lounge room)
Basically an older style house with good "bones" that we could work with. Luckily we found the perfect place!

Everyones lists make me laugh- because we currently live in an 86 year old 1 bedroom apartment with a sun room (too small to be classified as a bedroom but we could just squeeze a double bed in), one bathroom, tiny kitchen (no dishwasher, washing machine in the kitchen) and largeish loungeroom.The main appeal is the location and lifestyle... Its out first property and I hate the idea of ever moving out! However my wish list for the next place is:

No more than 10 minutes drive from a beach
Airy & bright, with high ceilings
At least 2 bedrooms
Wooden Floors
Kitchen with lots of storage and bench space
a sunny courtyard for our dog

I may be pushing my luck hoping for period features!

We plan on keeping our apartment as an investment for the future.Hopefully I can speand me retirement there!

Mine are:

BIG yard!!! (tick)
North facing living areas (tick)
Open plan living (tick)
Good sized kitchen, at back of house (tick)
Decent sized spare rooms (tick)
Double garage + room for 4 bikes (tick)
Pool (tick)
2nd living/rumpus room (sort of, separate to house)
Good insulation and ducted heating (tick)
NO CARPET (tick)
Close to nature reserves and city (tick)
Good outdoor living areas (tick)

..... Hmm, now I've written it down, I've done pretty well!

When we move from to the coast (QLD) from Canberra my list will be the same except add in:
Walk to beach
Wooden louvre windows

Ha ha I had a little check list but we fell in love with our house, which is nearly 100 years old, so it went out the window!!

A couple were (among others)
Modern bathroom and kitchen (I have absolutely the opposite - a partially removed kitchen and a 70s bathroom)
Garage (nope)

But that's ok. Our house is almost fully airconditioned (split system), we have a big yard (809 square metres), no pool (HURRAAHHH never ever want one again!), all polished floor boards (no carpet!) and it's extremely liveable and well laid out unlike so many other Queenslanders.

When we moved into our house it didn't have any fittings like curtains, shower curtains (or rail), LOCKS (not kidding!!) or a tv antenna. We've since put in all of that and obviously had to do the locks straight after we bought it. We also now have a much nicer kitchen with a GOOD dishwasher but the kitchen is still pretty dodgy because we are eventually putting in a new one.

I love my house, it is full of projects and lots of fun!

The best thing you can do is have a look at what's available- even if you're not planning on buying for a while, it will give an idea of what quality you get for what $$, and you get can a feel for what you like and what you don't.

It makes me sad that we (as house buyers) consider a block "big" if it's more than 600sqm. We have a 1100 sqm block and I didn't even look at the house when I knew I wanted it (good thing everything else worked out) because I was so happy to find a house with a decent sized backyard for my dogs and future kids. I grew up with a huge backyard (pool, "basketball" court, patio, huge grassed area) and always thought that it would be easy to find a house with a backyard as great as that one- how wrong I was!!

Where are our kids going to play? So many people say "the park" but how many parents have the time to take their kids to the park for hours and hours every weekend? And our streets are getting narrower and busier!

Obviously that's the price you pay for living in the suburbs now and the only thing you can do is move regional or rural, but it really upsets me seeing blocks that are 400sqm selling as "family blocks"


Anyway... rant over! At least cottage blocks don't cost a fortune to landscape!!!!

I know what you mean. I grew up on a quarter acre block until I moved out. It was great to grow up on as when we were younger, the house was smaller and there was no pool - so lots of yard!

After that, I lived with my husband for 3 years on 2 acres and then went back to a normal 1/4 acre (just over 1012m square metres) block. Was horrible to start with (felt so small!) and our cat had only grown up on acreage so didn't quite get it!!

But we got used to it and then when we bought this house seemed 'enough' at 809 metres. We have 3 chooks, 2 cats and grow a stack of veggies (we have two raised beds, 3 fruit trees, we've completely established a garden since moving here in 2006).

I'd never have a pool for more than one reason but aside from maintenance it would be the space it takes up in your yard.

I'd love more room but the acreage is 1/2 an hour out of town.

When DH and I were looking around at house designs to put on our block (4000sqm) this is what we had on our list:

4 bedroom plus study with built in's (and the master to have a walk around wardrobe)
Kids play area
Media room
Double garage - plus going to be building a shed out the back at some stage
Massive kitchen - granite benches
Massive alfresco
2 bathrooms with separate toilets
Big dinning and lounge rooms
Open living
Separate laundry
9 foot ceilings
Ducted air con
Ducted vaccum system
In ground spa - eventually put in a pool

DH and I are so glad that we built we got everything we wanted plus more.