New Home Building Favorites!

As many of you may know, we downsized and built a new home last year.  Considering that this was a new adventure for us, it would make sense that we would look around at model homes and fill our weekends with trade shows that showcased new and fun products for new homes.  Well, because we have a busy life, and we sort of counted on the builder and vendors to suggest ideas for this new home, we just didn’t.

We LOVED some things about our old house and certainly wanted to bring those ideas into our plans too.  Today I want to share with you some of the fun and helpful things that we included in our new home!

Up first….. The DROP ZONE.  Not sure this was necessary, but it certainly has become a place where I pile drop things.  Aren’t you glad that I cleaned it up for the picture?

It usually looks like this…

LOCKERS are great, even if you don’t have kids, but I have a herd of kids rolling through here so these are used and abused often! I made the mistake in the old house of only having one hook, centered in the back of the locker.  I learned from a friend that if you put a hooks on either side, you can hang more things- genius!

Our builder encouraged us to use POCKET DOORS in some door ways to save on space.  Here is one in our laundry room.  We also adore the one on our pantry…we didn’t have to give up any space for “door swing.”  Yes, you do see part of Minnie peeking around the door- it was almost lunch time when I took the picture and she is fed in this room.

One “parade of homes” house that we did tour, had a sneaky hole in the wall to fit a laundry basket from the master closet through to the laundry room.  Well, we made it even more convenient and installed a door from our master closet into the laundry room!  It’s been such a blessing!  My fitbit is telling me that this short cut isn’t a good thing…I need to get in more steps!  There’s my little friend again- peek a boo!!

The APPLIANCE GARAGE is a carry over idea from our old house.  We had a beautiful way to store our Keurig & toaster so we decided to continue the tradition in the new house.  To keep the aesthetics of the kitchen correct, we weren’t able to make a larger appliance garage, but I still love this small one!!!  I like to hide the mess!

I’ve always liked the look of SHUTTERS and we stepped out and gave them a try in a few rooms.  I absolutely love them!  Having two options (upper and lower)  that you can open and close makes them a winner in my book!  They are very easy to dust too! (p.s. I’ve only dusted them twice since October)

 

Wandering into the bathroom you will see that we don’t have a shower door.  Yes, that was on purpose.  I don’t like to clean, so this was a great option for us- a walk in shower with no door to clean- SCORE!  I’m also loving the use of hooks as towel holders instead of a towel rack.  Just dry off, hang it up and move on with your day.

I thought my husband was CRAZY when he said that he wanted HEATED TILE in the master bathroom.  We had never even given that a thought- EVER!  I might have even called him a baby…Ooops.  Well, because we are champs at compromise, I gave in and discovered just how much I LOVED the heated floor.  Heated tile floors are justified in my head because they are not heated with hot water pipes as in the past.  I found out that they lay down an electric blanket of sorts under the tile and we can control the usage by using a timer.  We schedule the tile to heat in the Winter about an hour before we get up in the morning, and right before we go to bed.  So there…I talked myself into it!

Are you a night light junkie like me??  I’m a HUGE believer in seeing when it’s dark!!  Well, the electrician told us about TOE LIGHTS. They light up an area at night and take the place of night lights.  He explained it as kind of like the lights that they have at the movie theater on the steps. They point down so they’re not obnoxious, but gently light a path or dark area in the house.  We have 3 of them and let me tell you, I sure notice when they are on at night- so helpful!!

Our builder encouraged us to visit their vendor for lighting.  Well, after remodeling our kitchen and bathrooms in the old house, I quickly learned that Menards has a really good selection of beautiful lights!  We saved ourselves a couple of thousand dollars and got that back as a credit! Credits are always good!

In order to add more character to our home we decided to add different types of ceilings to our rooms.  Again, I’m not sure if we would have incorporated these into our plans if it wasn’t already part of the home design, but we are pleased with the results!  We copied the knotty pine ceiling from our previous sun room and are enjoying the rustic-ness  in the new sun room! Yes we like ceiling fans too!

 

Along with all of these fun and functional ideas, we decided to protect and preserve our investment with a great HOME SECURITY SYSTEM. I love the options that are available, and how our system can be customized to fit our needs, from Fort Knox to just letting you know when someone walks through the door!

The last thing I want to tell you is….Watch what tile you order for your shower.  This little puking elf stares at me in the shower every stinkin’ day! Can you see it???  Freaky!!!

See you next week!!

Linking up with Grammietime, The Diary of a Real Housewife & My Life Abundant!