What features of your house make day to day living easier ?

[Kittypickle]

Our long awaited re-mortgage offer arrived yesterday so we can finally after nearly 3 years start some serious work on our house. We want to sort out a bigger bedroom for DS, re-do the kitchen, bathroom, put in a downstairs toilet and I'd love a utility room if possible and every room needs decorating and new flooring. Neither of us want to move again (this is house no.4 in 7 years) so we want to make it practical for DD (6) and DS (2) now and so that it continues to be so as they get older.

What things about your house do you love and make family day to day life easier ? Any ideas, large or small and however bizarre would be very welcome !

With QoQ on the shower front. ours is simply mains fed and better than most other showers we've used.

Underfloor heating if you have tiled floors.

Having a downstairs bathroom made potty training a lot easier.

Our downstairs is open plan - french doors between front room and dining room and kitchen attached to dining room so very easy to cook and watch kids at the same time.

French doors also better than having a through- lounge I think as children can be kept to one room if necessary.

Do have dish-washer and clothes dryer but don't use very often.

Having a dual fuel cooker with lid means I can switch off the electricity so kids can't turn on oven, when lid is down they can't accidentally switch on the gas.

Cordless phone essential with kids

Again, with kids (notice a theme) find laminate floors much easier than carpet when there are spills.

utility room if you can manage it - you know what laundry is like when you've a family! Some friends of ours renovated a wreck of a house and put the utility room upstairs in what would have been the boxroom. So all laundry is out of sight and when clean again is nearer to the bedrooms for putting away again.
Storage storage storage. You can never have too much.
Consider 2 sinks in the bathroom, or a long trough style sink with 2 taps; great for the morning shaving/brushing teeth etc rush.

downstairs loo
dryer in separate utility
breakfast nook in otherwise useless corner of kitchen
double oven
large larder for tins etc.

A front door so I can get in and out

pmsl at CD

mssive window so I can see kids in garden from living room if necessary

thick walls so DS's noises don't upset neighbours

a long entrance corrisor with wipeable floor that leads through from front door to back kitchen, via the extension that houses bathroom... ie kids can get to bathroom front front door / garden without shedding mud over carpet!

One of the things I hate about my house is its tiny, poky entrance hall. I would like a big entrance hall with space for coats, shoes, wellies, umbrellas etc.

an old fashioned airer that hangs from the ceiling in the utility room (Ikea sell them, works on a pulley) - fantastic.

Anti-room (think that's what it's called) leading into downstairs toilet to hang coats, keep everyday shoes, umbrellas etc.

Gated driveway so you can safely let the children out of the car and get the shopping bags without worrying about them getting onto the road.

playroom for the children's toys (not so you can shut the children away but just so you can keep the toys in one place.

And one mistake that we made....

at the back of our house we have 2 large sets of patio doors that lead into the garden. Great yes but we don't have and little windows to open. Okay just now as DS old enough and DD not even crawling but once DD is crawling/walking, then I dont know what we'll do.

McKenzie, can you get a safety gate for that size patio doors? Lots are adjustable.

combi boiler so you never run out of hot water - then as QE says you can have a mains pressure shower.

i'm certainly hoping so Caligula although i haven't checked yet. It's a right pain because sometimes you just want a little air dont you but I have to have either the whole door open or nothing at all. Very bad planning on our part (and our architect's!!)

Also what I don't have but would love is a huge back porch with built-in cupboards/shoe bench/shelving for all the shoes and coats and outdoor stuff and recycling. We have nowhere to put a downstairs loo or I'd have one installed like a shot.

And agree with Caligula about a big hall - we have a 13' square living room next to a 3'6 wide hall, I would much rather have a rectangular living room, maybe 13'x10'6, and a hall 6' wide.

A downsatirs toilet......don't have one but not having one has made me realise how much one would make life easier especially with two toddlers when and when I was pregnant and at the moment with a fractured foot.

I would move house if we were in a position to, to get one of these

Having an open plan kitchen and dining room makes things easier for me

3 toilets in the house definately.
Kitchen and bathroom paint in the kids bedrooms.
aqualisa showers are brilliant.

Space- lots of it - so that we can all escape from one another if we need to!

Having a grown ups room, a play room and a family room, means that one of them is usually relatively tidy if someone turns up unannounced

2 bathrooms, I share with dd as dh takes so long bathing, shaving etc. However she wants to have a bathroom to herself when she's older (she says) so I'll have to share his then presumably

Have spent ages doing up our house and it's very easy living here - 2 bathrooms, safe gate on drive, no carpet downstairs (wood and tiles), door from kitchen into garden & from living room into garden, playroom, safe garden, combi boiler, dishwasher, laundry area and ceiling airer, dining table in kitchen, deep drawers for plates, bowls etc.

Last house had ancient plumbing, no parking, a deathtrap garden and a poky kitchen. Life is transformed! Good luck with it all.

Things that my life easier include my pull out bin, genius design you can just push peelings straight in off the worktop.

Our Monsoon pump that has increased all our water flow/pressure (you attach it to the hot water tank).

As said before, larder cupboard. Own bathroom that the kids don't use. A drive. Big sociable kitchen/diner.

God,women are so logical aren't they?
Agree with so many of these-just moved into a brand new house. Not really my thing (wanted to convert a barn but not practical as abroad for huge chunks of the year.)
However now love it as life so much easier due to.....
garden with French windows
safe walled garden
big garage and shed for crap
hot(!!) and cold taps for a hosepipe
downstairs loo
big family bathroom with separate bath and shower (although even better would have been a shower attachment on the bath as well to rinse the children after their baths)
utility room
office
big bedrooms for the children
en suite for dh and I
big kitchen to eat in
masses of bookshelves
big drive with room for quite a few cars when we have friends/family over

One thing I have got which I initially hated is lino in the kitchen and utilty.So warm to crawl on and easy to clean. My posh slate floor in the last house was horrid-hurt to fall on,cold and dirtied easily.

Also took most of the doors off downstairs-less likelihood of little fingers getting trapped and much roomier.

Really fancy a bin under the worktop with a hole cut out that you could just sweep stuff straight into.

Also trying to justify buying one of those heavy duty wine bottle openers that are permanently in place and take the cork out by vacuum.
(Dh won't let me though...

Big hall is a must,I agree, Janh. Our last tall thin Georgian townhouse was beautiful but the hall drove me nuts.Why is it that kids involve carting so much crap in and out of houses/??

Monsoon pump? Wossat?