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 !

Things I have in our new house that I like:
Walk in larder
Kitchen with table and family room off it so I can cook/potter and see the kids.
Safe garden area with door and window from kitchen so I can cook/potter and see the kids.
Downstairs loo for visitors
Loo & washbasin in garage (not open obv.) so I/kids can go in directly from garden and not mess up the house.
Door from garage to kitchen - but must be paired with automatic garage doors so you can drive straight in without getting wet.
Sash windows so I can just open the top one and let in loads of air without risking kids getting out.

Things I will have soon include :
Underworktop bin with separate compartments for waste/organic waste/recycling to match the bins our council provides
Island unit with built in spaces for knife block and chopping boards
Decent lighting system with theme sets controllable from wall unit and remote control
Wires for all home entertainment stuff plumbed into the walls - I hate seeing snaking black leads

Monsoon is just the brand name, not to be mixed with the other Monsoon. It's just a pump that moves the water faster so we get super fast showers.

Downstairs toilet, definitely a God-send with dst (3 1/2) it is constantly used and has saved quite a few near misses!

Plus it means if your visitors need to go they don't need to nosy upstairs at your own bathroom.

Downstairs loo, carrying pottys full of wee upstairs becomes a real drag on the 100th run.

Garage, never put the car in it but it stores all our crap.

Seperate shower cubicle and shower attachment on bath. Great if DH is running late for work and I am already hogging the bathroom.

Dishwasher, such a timesaver.

We have small fridge integral in the kitchen units and a fridge/freezer in the utility. This is really handy as fridge in kitchen has all the milk, drinks, marge etc in it and the big fridge has all the fruit, meats etc in it. Our fridge is always rammed when we go shopping so it is great to not have it all wedged in when you can't see what you've got. Either having two fridges or an American style massive one is handy.

Drive on front of house, we live on a main road so great to not have to fight traffic or find parking spaces with the kids.

Extractor fans in kitchen and bathroom.

Fitted wardrobes, lots of storage and for some reason looks tidier than freestanding furniture.

Wish list for our new house is: downstairs loo, large porch, extra downstairs room (grown ups only), an office for dp (works from home), and he desperately wants a garage he can access straight from the house (spends a lot of time in there fixing all his motorbikes!)

I hate our house even more now

Boarded out loft for storage - so rest of house can look tidy.

Cold pantry and table in kitchen.

Playhouse in garden (for kids toys storage, as well as for the kids to play in )

Tumble dryer and sheila maid (clothes airer that hangs from ceiling)

I dream of two features I saw on a show house near here - a laundry shoot from landing to utility room, and wardrobes which you can access from the landing as well as the bedroom (dirty clothes would live in the utility room, not on our bedroom floor, and clean clothes could be put away when the children are asleep)

my dog: he cleans up after dd and her friends make a mess on the floor with their food!