To ask your home must haves?

[Fishface77]

Aibu to ask that If you could design your own home what would you class as essential?
I have the opportunity to extend our current house. I would like

1. A pantry
2. An ensuite bedroom
3. Walk in wardrobe

We are having a bigger kitchen with a conservatory attached but DH thinks a walk in wardrobe and en suite are unnecessary and we should make an extra bedroom which would be for guests.

Ensuite
Double garage
Utilitiy room
Sun room
A extra room downstairs which could be used as a toy room
Island in kitchen

That was our must haves when we bought our house

There are some real sanctimonious windbags on here

I'd love a pantry and a big utility ( o have a small.one and I'd like it bigger),not so fussed about an en suite.

** random comma!

Well if you already have a spare room which can accommodate guests, ( can it?) I wouldn't see another one as required. As such, I'd go with what you want. Another spare room will just be dead space and not used. Incorporate what you will get most use out of.

I'd also let son move out of small room, never really understood giving kids the smallest room.

Given unlimited money, and actually owning my own house, I would go for natural light above all. I've lived in a house where the living room had a large bay window and the light never fully made it to the rest of the room. No exaggeration, it made me ill.

I've had a pantry and it wasn't great.

I would love either a cloakroom, or a bigger hallway that I could have a bench in, with enough built-in storage for shoes and hanging storage for coats.

After that, a proper utility room, with space for a sink and shelving to put washing baskets on.

I eventually want to extend our house so that upstairs we have a larger 3rd bedroom, a bathroom with room for a separate bath and shower cubicle, and downstairs a larger kitchen with access to our garage in which I'll create a utilities room. All a pipe dream at the minute though!

I would like an ensuite, but only if I didn't have to sacrifice anything else. (Which is why we're not planning on getting one here.)
Don't have enough clothes or food in to justify the other two. They'd be mostly empty.
Having a utility has been fab though.

We practically knocked out house down and moved all the walls. We wanted:

Ensuite
Utility
Big coat cupboard
Down stairs loo

Wanted but could not manage
Play room
Garage
Pantry (had to go for utility)

Four bedrooms, the master is generally now expected to have an ensuite, so ensuite.

I would love, love a utility room - decent sized one for laundry and assorted shoe and sailing crap. You can put all the mops and hoover crap in there.

Pantry would be lovely too. My granny had one and I loved it as a child.

Realistically, how often would a guest bedroom be used. I keep all sorts of stuff 'in case we have guests'. We never have guests. If we did, apart from my mum, there is premier inn down the road. I think if you only have people for the odd overnight stop, then either single bed room and settee is fine or turf a child out of their room and so guests have bigger room, or yourselves. This is different, obvs, if you have visiting long stay family from overseas. Then again, good way of discouraging that... So let son have bigger room, his room as small single, your room has ensuite.

I'd like a boot/ mud/ utility room off the entrance hall. It would have a stone floor to hose down, and a shower cubicle and toilet off that for muddy, dripping wet football playing sprogs, or ones who have waded into the stream to retrieve football boots. There would be shoe racks along one wall, with coat hooks above. The washer and dryer would be in there so muddy stuff could go straight in the wash. There would be drying racks suspended from the ceiling with a pulley system. Above them or to the side would be shelving with baskets for each family members clean washing. There would be a big deep sink - butler's sinks are they called? A basic wooden bench to sit on.

That would be what I'd have.

The word essential was mischosen though I'd say

I wouldn't have an ensuite even if it was a free gift, as I'd hate people traipsing through my room to use it. Two full family bathrooms off the corridor instead of one would be a nice luxury as kids become teens though.

Retrieve footballs not boots (usually)

I have an en-suite, wouldn't be without it. Means we get our own bathroom and the kids have theirs. Also much better for when you have guests staying. Big wardrobes are a must too. I'd also like some kind of coat/shoe cupboard. I wouldn't have a conservatory though, I honestly don't know anyone who actually uses theirs. Too hot in summer and too cold in winter, and supposedly under floor heating costs a bomb. I'd prefer an actual extra room/extension, although that probably works out more expensive.

As another post mentioned light is really important to me. Nothing on your list appeals. I have a tiny house which I love it means less cleaning and maintenance. Wouldn't mind some built in shelves and cupboard in the living room alcoves.

Essentials to me = comfort, warmth and shelter... Also essential to me (I already have this) is a second toilet. How on earth families manage with only one, especially with visitors, puzzles me!

However...if we are talking DREAM homes...
I would LOVE a large living/ dining space that opens up into the garden with frameless glass bifolding doors and roof lights to enable as much natural light as possible.

Another bedroom would be a bonus, I suppose, with an en suite and an extra hobby room for my husband...but the trouble is, the more space you have, the more you fill it!

I'm happy as I am really. Not going to bust a gut to make the above happen...If I had an extra bedroom, it would be full...of family who can finally visit! I can only deal with so much at a time...so...not gonna lie, am content as we are... plus bigger home = more cleaning and that's not my life's ambition!!

Agree drinking tea essentials was a badly chosen word 😬. Apologies.

But I must agree with dame about sanctimonious wind bags.

Again badly worded not you drinking tea

Agree with lots on the list apart from pantry (isn't that what kitchen cupboards are for?) and an island in the kitchen (takes up. Lot of space and family dump stuff on it)
Definitely more than one toilet. On each if possible 😂

We're doing something similar at the moment: extending kitchen, updating utility and creating annex bedroom with en suite and walk in wardrobe. Really none of this is essential - it's extra luxuries. My only mandatories for houses are a bedroom each, decent hot shower, dishwasher in kitchen.

We already have a pantry but our fantasy wish lists are:

Boot room (where we can kick off and keep shoes and boots and coats).

Solar powered hot water and heating system (with energy storing batteries and nat grid back up)

Rainwater collection system for loos and washing machine.

At the moment we have no central heating, the electricity needs reworking and the cooker and gas fires don't work(!)

When we were looking at houses, an en suite was high up my list. In hindsight, I'd also have prioritised a downstairs loo and a bigger hallway for shoe and coat storage, or a little cloakroom. We have plenty of bedrooms but a downstairs playroom would
be a huge bonus.

monkeysox I plan on having a big Island in my new kitchen. We currently have a breakfast bar which everyone dumps stuff on, leaving no room to actually prepare food. So they will have a small section for dumping, and the rest will be mine 😆

The most important thing for me is that the house must be light and bright - I don't like dark, gloomy rooms with small windows, as I find them claustrophobic and rather depressing.
Next is outdoor space/garden for sitting in and pottering in.

I don't like ensuite bathrooms particularly, as I don't relish the thought of sleeping next to a loo (although I can see it would probably be a handy thing to have when I'm old and less mobile).

Pantry/cool room. We have a small one (not fancy, old house!) and would love a bigger one.

Utility room/space

I'd make ours as energy efficient as possible, rainwater collection, solar, burners, warm air distribution, properly oriented for warmth/cool etc.

My brother has a ski chalet with an awesome deign feature. As well as the usual front door leading to the hall there is a second door at the front of the house which opens straight into the shoe/ boot/ coat storage room. So everyone basically goes in there and dumps all their crap then enters the house which is unsullied by family crap sort of.

There is an internal door from the boot room into the tidy hall.

Other must haves are light and a south or west facing garden. I would like a dressing room but not enough to move house for. I like my house.

I wouldn't want an ensuite. DH has demons up his arse. I don't ever want that sort of smell drifting into our bedroom.

A second bathroom would be great.

I understood what you meant Fish