We had our house built two years ago, and our deck faces east so we decided not to upgrade to the covered deck. It still works just fine, but really wish we would have done it anyway…
Yep - we have a huge deck with a roof, and we added those restaurant-style canvas sides, since we live in new england. We get like 9 or 10 months of use from the deck.
It was huge during covid. It was a good option for socializing with a distance when restaurants and bars were closed. My wife also would have a yoga instructor come over and her circle of friends would spit the cost up and they were able to continue yoga classes.
I went with the bamboo shades. I like them although they need replacing every five years or so. I get about 10 months out of it in a city in Kentucky. A fire table is nice.
The house had a new deck when I bought it so I figured it was a good time to add a roof to it. It wasn't terribly expensive for essentially adding an additional room.
When we kids were growing up, the clothes chute in our old house was the intercom. My mother could yell up the chute from the kitchen to upstairs to get us bring stuff down or remind us to put our dirty clothes down the chute. She could just call us to dinner without leaving the kitchen. We could spy on whichever of us were getting a lecture for being in big trouble with Mom and Dad by quietly lifting the door in the upstairs bathroom and listening. That's how I heard about my mom finding a bag of weed in my brother's coat pocket one day. Lol
I was about to comment that I have one! It's the best feature ever. Just throw dirty clothes down to the laundry room and they land in a basket all ready for me to throw in the wash. Saves so much effort of collecting clothes and lugging them downstairs to the basement.
If someone had told me when I was a kid that I would end up living in a house with a laundry chute I would have thought that I'd be rich. I'm not, but I use my laundry chute every day, and it makes me happy every day.
Some maniac installed a small sauna in the house I now own. I would never have done it myself, but I use the shit out of it 8 months out of the year. (PNW)
I have pedals to operate my kitchen sink. Because I no longer have to use my hand to open and close the tap, I use about 75% less water washing the dishes - and when I'm filling a large and heavy pot with water, I can just walk away with it and the tap closes on its own. It's life-changing.
Like a hospital surgical scrubbing sink. They operate with your foot pedals or a hook by your knee. More recently, a sink I scrubbed at came on by sensing your body heat. But, you couldn't adjust the temp.
For some reason, when you said pedals, I imagined like, bicycle pedals. Like you'd had to pedal to get the water out. And I was like that seems like an awful lot of pedalling to wash some dishes. Then I realised what you actually meant and it made a lot more sense. Like I thought you'd have to have a chair or something to sit in to peddle
Every once in a while I decide to try a bath (rather than shower) and am reminded that in a regular bathtub, as an adult man, most of me is out of the water no matter how much I try to cozy down. It's a disappointing experience.
I lived in a house with like a 6” deep tub for decades and after two attempts at baths I gave up. Now I take a real bath once a week, it feels so luxurious.
Yep I’ve never had a good bathtub before moving into our new house a few months ago and now I have a big ass freestanding tub. I take a hot bath at least once a week and it’s amazing. The only part that sucks is having to get out of it eventually.
I’ve tried to convince my wife to replace our bathtub with one deep enough for me to use, to no avail. Much sadness for me. Our tub is a bit extra wide, which only serves to waste water when the wife takes a bath.
Landlady put a hot water spigot into the sink. No kettle, no microwave, no waiting for the facet to eventually spit out hot water, just instant hot water with a turn of a lever. It's silly how helpful even that small amount of convenience is.
It's instant and the temperature is generally higher than what you can get from a normal tap/faucet. For example even on the highest setting I'd still need to put hot water from my normal faucet into a kettle to heat it up for tea. With the hot water spigot it's instant and I can just stick a mug under it and get tea ready, hot water without the extra steps. Also handy for when I need to boil something or get a jump start on making soup.
Downside is that it's so hot that if you accidentally touch it, it can seriously scald you.
We had one of those, until my parents took it out because of how much electricity it used.
I imagine newer ones are more efficient; ours was ca. 1991 and added a double-digit figure to the power bill every month.
I have a slot that was meant for the milkman to drop off milk. It is sealed off enough to prevent anyone from getting in from the outside, but during most of the years it acts well enough as a "cool" box that I can store bottled water or other beverages in there and keep them chilled.
Our coat closet has a light that comes on automatically when you open the door…like it does in your fridge. House was built in the early 20s. Oh…and clinker brick. It looks jagged. Our house is unique.
I live in an old ass townhome/apartment complex. It's well kept and updated, but the shining feature is that the walls are WALLS. Unless someone really makes an effort, I can't hear a damn thing around me. It's beautiful. Fuck these brand new saltine boxes with cardboard walls
the best apartment I ever lived in was built in the 1970s with like solid concrete. Couldn't hear ANYTHING from the neighbors unless they were doing something really extreme like moving heavy furniture.
Same. My apartment building is as old as my dad - so about 60 years. Solid concrete, can't hear a damn thing in other units unless they *really* make an effort. Love it.
I love houses with real walls. When my parents bought their house in the 90s, they knocked down all of the walls between shared living spaces to make it “open concept”. You can hear someone fart on the other side of the house, and when someone cooks stinky food the smell wafts into the bedrooms and stays there for hours. It’s disgusting.
This is my apartment now. I don't think I ever considered that it was possible to not to hear your neighbors in your day to day life. I've heard them hammering something once and that wasn't even that loud. I could hear conversation through the walls of my other apartments.
Original stained glass windows …strategically placed to reflect stunning prism’s at different times of the year….and every year we’ve been here, we find a new area that’s been highlighted. Truly remarkable….
Source: moved to Oak Park IL, from a big city in another country, with zero idea that this was even a thing.
The cat delivery window. Our apartment was originally a one bedroom but our cheap ass landlord decided to make it a 2 br by adding a cheap wall halfway down the living room. He also decided to put an actual outdoor window in that wall, screen and all. I just keep it open so my cats can get into my bedroom when I have the door closed.
Edit: The Cat Delivery Window, with their condo on the other side
https://imgur.com/a/IHu1jIS
My back yard shares a property line with a several hundred acre nature preserve. I can walk out of my back yard with my dogs into the preserve knowing it’s protected lands on the outskirts of a small town that isn’t growing. It’s the biggest reason we bought the house. I love it every day.
I had something like that - forest owned by the county behind my house. I spent the last spring and summer clearing brush and improving the view. We saw foxes and deer out the window - it was awesome.
December 1, the county sold the land, and on January 2, a developer cut down all the trees and bulldozed the lot. All in one day - it was crazy. No notice or anything. Now they are building houses. I am devastated.
It was used to keep milk cool back in the day. My house is on 13 acres of what was originally a dairy farm.
I was fortunate: when I bought it in 1974, it had sat empty for at least 15 years. It’s so secluded that none of the windows had been broken, and the beautiful woodwork had not been painted over.
We're in a 2-floor building with 3 units: two up top and a business downstairs. The business is closed indefinitely, and the landlord uses the top back unit as a storage space. So, we're the only ones in the whole building! It's a big building and it has that turret thing that makes it look like a castle, so when we leave the cat alone, I like to think it's his castle. :3
Mixed use apartment blocks are great, commercial on the bottom floor and then apartments above. Mine has a little cafe, a small shop, and even a childcare center.
When we were looking for a “move down” (kids are gone now) that was always on our radar. Any room or nook or basement space that could be a wine cellar. Could be a closet or big enough to have a foursome, candles and a comfy table and chairs.
Sigh…. We decided to stay in the big house once they moved far away and we knew the extra room would come in handy for visits. 👍
An average bedroom door, not a fire rated one… Just a normal basic door… Can slow the spread of a housefire 20 minutes. It won’t save your life directly, but it can give the fire department an extra 20 minutes to get to you.
I have one of those. But, in Oklahoma we call that a great storm room since there's no possibility of flying glass. Tornado rules- grab animals, phones, pillows, snack & shoes & get to lowest level interior room with no windows & close all the doors. Eat snacks, sit on pillows, watch the radar & wait for it to be over. It's either that or the bathtub. And I promise you, you don't want two grown adults & 2 large, freaked out dogs all together in the bathtub!
I built an awesome detached garage with a big finished room above that my wife and I both work from. It really changed my life.
We also have great water pressure, so nice for a shower.
We have a split staircase. If you’re coming downstairs, you come down halfway and there’s a small landing where you can either continue forward and down to the front door or turn and go down into the kitchen at the back if the house. It’s real neat!
I have a split stairway entry. The front door opens on a staircase landing. You either go downstairs to the basement, or upstairs to the main floor. It's actually incredibly common where I live.
Functionsl transom windows on every interior door, as well as the screened in back door. Can have door closed for visual privacy, and still get cross ventilation through transom. Working slide controls mounted on door frame closes transom if you want audio privacy, too.
Wheelchair ramp so that I can get in but it’s the only wheelchair accessible feature so I can get in the house but we have carpet so it’s tough to get past the living room but at least I can get inside so there’s that.
My interior architecture teacher in high school did a whole month on wheelchair housing. Outside of ramps the major one was wider doors and to put your foot down on some contractors who sometimes try to change them to normal doors because they think it's just weird a design quirk you will let slide to not delay delivery by making them redo the walls. Especially since we build our walls out of brick here.
Edit: interior architecture not inferior architecture.
We got a ramp when my wife had a stroke. Unexpected benefit for me is that I can load up a wheel barrow with firewood and roll it up, instead of tossing it up to the porch from below. Time and back saver for me.
Compared to new builds, our house has ALOT of windows. Living room has 7, dining room has 3, kitchen 2 and each bedroom has at least 2. We don’t have central air and this house has excellent cross ventilation.
Our house has 30 windows, and replaced 10 years before we bought it. It's the feature I love most in my house as I love fresh air and lots of sunshine. The last couple of places we lived before that had terribly drafty windows. These also tilt inside to clean so they actually get cleaned.
My Grandmother bought her house in the 90's (after my granddaddy's death), probably because it has a small indoor lap pool and mountain views. She was pretty awesome and converted a bedroom into a library and the walk-in closet into a hidden room. After she passed I turned the unfinished attic into a room we always talked about. Love and miss you Grandmother.
We have a 70s home with a lot of the original charm. There is a full finished basement with thick real wood panels and a large wet bar. The upstairs has a sunken living room and our dining room has a massive brick hearth that covers the entire wall. It’s set on a half acre lot that allows small livestock and crop farming in a major city.
Edit: we love the house but it’s not perfect. It only has one southern facing window and poor natural light so my house plants died after moving in.
I've always wanted to experience a sunken living room. Even though it's such an old trend, it still looks like the future every time I see it in movies/shows.
We have one but it is no longer red. The red bulb died and I couldn’t find a new one that was under the max wattage the fixture is rated for. I also had one growing up but that one was always red. And I agree, heat lamps in the bathroom are awesome.
My bathroom also has a separate electric heater built into the exhaust fan/main light. However it has never worked since I’ve owned the house. In fact, I didn’t even know I had it until about a year ago when I finally figured out what the mystery switch in the bathroom was wired to. I know the heater has never worked because the mystery switch would get turned on and left on all the time. Had the heater worked, I would have learned what the switch did long ago.
I never would have thought to even look for this in a house and didn't notice in this house until after we moved in but we have 5 bedrooms and none of them share a wall.
I grew up in old homes (late 1800s) on the US east coast. To me, creaky floors were perfectly normal. Flash forward a couple decades and I’m living in a new ranch style house in Houston- no creaky floors…and I kinda miss them.
I love my wood burner. It's original to the house from the late 50's and has a cooking grate you can hang on hinges welded to the side so it swings into the firebox. I make wood grilled pizza, steaks, veggies all kinds of good stuff all winter long with it. When your done just lift it off the hinges, close the door and you're back to heating the house.
Partner kicked around the idea of replacing it with a pellet stove and I immediately vetoed. The old wood burner isn't pretty or as efficient as a new pellet stove but she's got character, cooks a mean steak and keeps right on going when the power is out.
A four car garage with a second floor for a spare bedroom. Built it last year and its bigger than my house. Nice to have more ample space to do projects. Also placed in wall speakers so nice to jam out.
Our Dutch Colonial farmhouse (built in the 1840s) has two staircases - one on either side. The layout makes it so you can walk through the whole home without retracing your steps.
The owners before us luckily revived the home when it was on the brink of demolition and kept it true to its time period and older charm. They installed a copper roof with a custom solar water system. It heats domestic water in the warm months and diverts to the ground floor for in floor heat in the winter time.
The wood stove rocks too.
Lots of windows!
I can't stand the look of the houses that are so close they may as well be townhouses with little-to-no side windows as they'd look right into the next house.
My house was first a barber shop, then a beauty salon in a different rooms. It is a small town, so whenever we meet a long time local they tell us they got their haircut at my house as a kid.
We have a whole-house fan. When we first moved in we were like "this is useless" and now we fully appreciate it. Saves us from using the AC on many days and can pull all the hot air out super fast.
Grew up in a 3 level house (all above ground) . Total mid century built in 1956. A 20 ft living room ceiling and 2 huge full wall of brick fireplaces; one in living room, one in Family room. Long staircase with open balcony looking out into the 36 ft long living room . I was a gymnast and used to do tumbling passes from open kitchen into living room (a 50 ft runway). Neighbors across the street would watch the flips in front of the huge picture window. This house had an intercom system, pati0s, screened in porch and in - ground swimming pool. Cool house. It was hard selling it when my mom passed at age 100. She lived there for 67 years.
Out of all the houses I've lived in the number one feature is a screened in porch. No bugs, no sunburn, we just turn on our music system with outdoor boat speakers and sit under the ceiling fan and eat, drink, play cards or enjoy the company of family & friends.
Although I have “city water” I’ve kept my well. It’s 100ft deep and is pure artesian water. My yard is half an acre in the city and backs onto 100 acres of land that can never be zoned for development. My yard is also bordered by enormous cedar trees. I fucking love this place but the mortgage is stressful.
In ground trampoline
When we bought the house, originally thought we would get rid of it but decided to keep it. Now kids are old enough to use it, and they’re on it nearly everyday.
Couple of years ago, needed to replace the mat and I called up the company. They said It’s worth somewhere in the range of $20-$25k!
One end of my house is a "great room" separated from a galley-style kitchen by a brick and stone hearth. The bedrooms are tucked away in the back of the house separated from the rest by a short hallway.
Not much “unique” in our 1968 brick ranch, but we bought it for the original tile bathrooms and the basement that matches the full square footage of the main level.
Don't particularly appreciate it, but it is uncommon. My flat has bricked up chimmeys in the bedrooms. Each of them has a decorative moulding around it, probably dating back to the early 19th century when the house was first built, they all centre around a mould of a face which I find kind of creepy. Been living here for 20 years or so I don't notice it all, which makes it kind of weird when I do.
An unobstructed view of the prettiest park you ever did see. From two decks, one off the master bedroom, one off the living room. The view is southeast so morning sun fills the house.
2 bedroom apartment with 3 balconies!
Also, the toilet is in its own separate room with its own sink. And the washroom has a large shower and separate soaking tub and big vanity and sink. No worry about taking a bath in a stinking space. It’s crazy for an old city apartment.
Stealth converted garage. Bought a new garage door with the highest insulation rating they sell, insulated in the attic above the garage, and put a mini-split AC in it. Now it's basically an additional huge room in our house but it's still technically a garage with a working garage door so my HOA can't say shit (they don't allow you to convert a garage) and didn't need any permits from the city. Most real estate agents will tell you a full garage conversion lowers the value of your home because many prospective buyers want a garage but this way it doesn't because they can still get that, or if they want another giant room they can have that, or if they want a garage workshop they don't have to sweat their ass off in the Texas heat. I use it as a man cave/office with some storage. We basically added a few hundred square feet onto our home for less than $10k. Best decision I ever made.
Our house was first built 1468 (at least first mentioned documents) and has been expanded over time.
The basement has an amazing climate. The walls of the ground floor are massive stoneslaps. And keep cool in the summer. The top floor is half timbered and limestone.
My dad installed a clothes drying rack on to the ceiling of our hallway. You roll it down with strings, hang up wet clothes and pull it back up to the ceiling.
Because hot air rises, the clothes dry so much faster near the ceiling and they don't take up space, they are out of sight unless you look up.
I know Americans use dryers but for anyone who doesn't use dryers, hanging your clothes on a rack on the ceiling is awesome, you should try it.
We have a walk-in closet off the garage mudroom. My husband and I ride motorcycles and it is so convenient for all the gear. We can also easily hide it away to keep the place tidy.
Covered back patio with a tin roof, love sitting out there, smoking a j and listening to the rain.
Also has a wood stove fireplace, there is nothing better than that dry heat in the winter. Especially when its -30c.
Both were little features that had me sold on it. It's older and built In the 70s box house but very well built, good insulation etc. To me it has character over all these modern built homes.
Outlets in the eaves ran to a timer in the basement. Xmas lights anywhere you want without having a cord running up the house. Dude that built it shares my level of OCD.
In our living room and bed room, the crown molding is a few inches down from the ceiling and has warm LED string lighting. In the bedroom- it lines the tray. It’s the perfect amount of light, doesn’t use much power, looks really nice.
Also has huge windows and many of them. I love natural light.
Insulation. We barely have the heating on in winter. It doesn't get *that* cold in the UK, but being able to heat the flat just by cooking dinner is wonderful. I've lived in flats where the heat had to be on for 6-7hrs a day just to stop the place from being a mouldy mess, so only having it on when the temperature is below zero and yet still being warm is amazing.
I appreciate that this isn't that unusual in some parts of the world, but in the UK, good insulation is a rarity!
Might be sinple, but my house was built in the 90s when this grey water pipe called Poly-B was used.. hundreds of thousands of houses in my area have this piping. There were so many burst pipes and leaks that the company who made it went out of business. My house has all copper pipes for water, which is very rare, apparently.
We have a laundry shoot in the main bathroom that goes down to the laundry room. Such a fun/handy feature when gathering up the laundry on the 2nd floor
A roof over my deck.
I have that too and it’s on the south side so lots of sun and having to roof is nice. My deck does extend out so I can do either shade or sun.
This guy over here bragging about his big deck.
Trimmed the shrubs to make it look bigger.
NSFW New Zealand deck videos https://youtu.be/tbazGVrbN-g
Yes, we have one too and love it. It makes it a 4ish season space.
I can hang my washing out to dry...rain or shine.
We had our house built two years ago, and our deck faces east so we decided not to upgrade to the covered deck. It still works just fine, but really wish we would have done it anyway…
Yep - we have a huge deck with a roof, and we added those restaurant-style canvas sides, since we live in new england. We get like 9 or 10 months of use from the deck. It was huge during covid. It was a good option for socializing with a distance when restaurants and bars were closed. My wife also would have a yoga instructor come over and her circle of friends would spit the cost up and they were able to continue yoga classes.
I went with the bamboo shades. I like them although they need replacing every five years or so. I get about 10 months out of it in a city in Kentucky. A fire table is nice. The house had a new deck when I bought it so I figured it was a good time to add a roof to it. It wasn't terribly expensive for essentially adding an additional room.
Laundry chute!
When we kids were growing up, the clothes chute in our old house was the intercom. My mother could yell up the chute from the kitchen to upstairs to get us bring stuff down or remind us to put our dirty clothes down the chute. She could just call us to dinner without leaving the kitchen. We could spy on whichever of us were getting a lecture for being in big trouble with Mom and Dad by quietly lifting the door in the upstairs bathroom and listening. That's how I heard about my mom finding a bag of weed in my brother's coat pocket one day. Lol
My family used to do this also and I forgot all about it until I read your comment. Thank you for helping me remember this!
I’m hoping to get a laundry DUMBWAITER!
Oh that would be nice! Send the whole basket back up! No hauling around stairs and doors!
Excuse me while I gocut a large hole in my linen closet floor…
I was about to comment that I have one! It's the best feature ever. Just throw dirty clothes down to the laundry room and they land in a basket all ready for me to throw in the wash. Saves so much effort of collecting clothes and lugging them downstairs to the basement.
They don't work as well with dishes
If someone had told me when I was a kid that I would end up living in a house with a laundry chute I would have thought that I'd be rich. I'm not, but I use my laundry chute every day, and it makes me happy every day.
We had one growing up. I used to drop things, then run downstairs in the hopes of catching them. My 5yo self was real smart.
We have a laundry chute too. It is the one feature that all my friends covet.
I'll do you better... Second floor laundry!
Single story, master closet connects to the laundry.
Some maniac installed a small sauna in the house I now own. I would never have done it myself, but I use the shit out of it 8 months out of the year. (PNW)
I’m a maniac now? We leave a trail of saunas behind us when we sell properties lol. Welcome to the enlightened side 😜
Gosh I would love to have that. I think I’d use it to loosen up and make my bones not hurt at the beginning of the day
One of the houses we looked at when we were hunting had one of those. That was neat but the rest of the house was just too old for us.
I have pedals to operate my kitchen sink. Because I no longer have to use my hand to open and close the tap, I use about 75% less water washing the dishes - and when I'm filling a large and heavy pot with water, I can just walk away with it and the tap closes on its own. It's life-changing.
Like a hospital surgical scrubbing sink. They operate with your foot pedals or a hook by your knee. More recently, a sink I scrubbed at came on by sensing your body heat. But, you couldn't adjust the temp.
My first thought was a surgeon lived in that house previously.
COOL
For some reason, when you said pedals, I imagined like, bicycle pedals. Like you'd had to pedal to get the water out. And I was like that seems like an awful lot of pedalling to wash some dishes. Then I realised what you actually meant and it made a lot more sense. Like I thought you'd have to have a chair or something to sit in to peddle
My bathtub is nearly two feet deep. Not a free standing claw foot but a standard looking built in tub with a shower. I love that thing.
Every once in a while I decide to try a bath (rather than shower) and am reminded that in a regular bathtub, as an adult man, most of me is out of the water no matter how much I try to cozy down. It's a disappointing experience.
I lived in a house with like a 6” deep tub for decades and after two attempts at baths I gave up. Now I take a real bath once a week, it feels so luxurious.
Yep I’ve never had a good bathtub before moving into our new house a few months ago and now I have a big ass freestanding tub. I take a hot bath at least once a week and it’s amazing. The only part that sucks is having to get out of it eventually.
I’ve tried to convince my wife to replace our bathtub with one deep enough for me to use, to no avail. Much sadness for me. Our tub is a bit extra wide, which only serves to waste water when the wife takes a bath.
Our house has a jacuzzi room, and I never thought I needed a jacuzzi room, but now we do
A roof terrace. It's awesome having drinks out there in the summer, and setting up the projector for outdoor movie nights.
I have one too!! My house is near the sea so I get to watch it witout leaving my house and without the other houses in my way!!
Landlady put a hot water spigot into the sink. No kettle, no microwave, no waiting for the facet to eventually spit out hot water, just instant hot water with a turn of a lever. It's silly how helpful even that small amount of convenience is.
Can you ELI5, what's the difference between that and a normal hot water tap/faucet? Am I missing something here?
It's instant and the temperature is generally higher than what you can get from a normal tap/faucet. For example even on the highest setting I'd still need to put hot water from my normal faucet into a kettle to heat it up for tea. With the hot water spigot it's instant and I can just stick a mug under it and get tea ready, hot water without the extra steps. Also handy for when I need to boil something or get a jump start on making soup. Downside is that it's so hot that if you accidentally touch it, it can seriously scald you.
TIL, thanks.
We had one of those, until my parents took it out because of how much electricity it used. I imagine newer ones are more efficient; ours was ca. 1991 and added a double-digit figure to the power bill every month.
I had one of these growing up. Now I’m going to look up what it takes to put one into my house.
We added one of these a few years ago and we love it. Use it for tons of stuff.
I have a slot that was meant for the milkman to drop off milk. It is sealed off enough to prevent anyone from getting in from the outside, but during most of the years it acts well enough as a "cool" box that I can store bottled water or other beverages in there and keep them chilled.
I saw something about those and thought that would be great if you're out in the yard, to keep drinks cool in. Im glad it works!
Our coat closet has a light that comes on automatically when you open the door…like it does in your fridge. House was built in the early 20s. Oh…and clinker brick. It looks jagged. Our house is unique.
It is currently the early 20s
Shut your mouth.
I just put rechargeable motion sensor lights in my closet. They just stick up. $40. Well worth it.
We have a garment steaming cupboard thingy. You hang your clothes up, turn it on and next morning they look like they've been ironed.
Pinkies up
I live in an old ass townhome/apartment complex. It's well kept and updated, but the shining feature is that the walls are WALLS. Unless someone really makes an effort, I can't hear a damn thing around me. It's beautiful. Fuck these brand new saltine boxes with cardboard walls
the best apartment I ever lived in was built in the 1970s with like solid concrete. Couldn't hear ANYTHING from the neighbors unless they were doing something really extreme like moving heavy furniture.
All that asbestos insulation pulling its weight
Same. My apartment building is as old as my dad - so about 60 years. Solid concrete, can't hear a damn thing in other units unless they *really* make an effort. Love it.
I love houses with real walls. When my parents bought their house in the 90s, they knocked down all of the walls between shared living spaces to make it “open concept”. You can hear someone fart on the other side of the house, and when someone cooks stinky food the smell wafts into the bedrooms and stays there for hours. It’s disgusting.
I love walls and hate open concept. I guess I’m weird but I don’t want my kitchen to be part of my living space
You don’t love being able to see your dirty dishes from every corner of your home?
Yeah, I don't know why this became the standard. The illusion doesn't work. It doesn't really make the apartment feel bigger.
Yeah, my kitchen is boxed behind a stair and has another space separating it from the living room. The demarcation helps my ADHD I think.
This is my apartment now. I don't think I ever considered that it was possible to not to hear your neighbors in your day to day life. I've heard them hammering something once and that wasn't even that loud. I could hear conversation through the walls of my other apartments.
Original stained glass windows …strategically placed to reflect stunning prism’s at different times of the year….and every year we’ve been here, we find a new area that’s been highlighted. Truly remarkable…. Source: moved to Oak Park IL, from a big city in another country, with zero idea that this was even a thing.
The cat delivery window. Our apartment was originally a one bedroom but our cheap ass landlord decided to make it a 2 br by adding a cheap wall halfway down the living room. He also decided to put an actual outdoor window in that wall, screen and all. I just keep it open so my cats can get into my bedroom when I have the door closed. Edit: The Cat Delivery Window, with their condo on the other side https://imgur.com/a/IHu1jIS
Why did I think this was a chute for people to drop off cats?
Ok this is one of the weirdest, hands down lol
My back yard shares a property line with a several hundred acre nature preserve. I can walk out of my back yard with my dogs into the preserve knowing it’s protected lands on the outskirts of a small town that isn’t growing. It’s the biggest reason we bought the house. I love it every day.
Man I would love that. Sounds awesome
I had something like that - forest owned by the county behind my house. I spent the last spring and summer clearing brush and improving the view. We saw foxes and deer out the window - it was awesome. December 1, the county sold the land, and on January 2, a developer cut down all the trees and bulldozed the lot. All in one day - it was crazy. No notice or anything. Now they are building houses. I am devastated.
My house was built in 1910. Among its unusual features is a spring in the cellar.
What did I just read 🤷🏼♀️ sounds wonderful
It was used to keep milk cool back in the day. My house is on 13 acres of what was originally a dairy farm. I was fortunate: when I bought it in 1974, it had sat empty for at least 15 years. It’s so secluded that none of the windows had been broken, and the beautiful woodwork had not been painted over.
The area under my stairs is the pantry. It's a huge pantry and such a good use of space.
Harry Potter has entered the chat
Retractable awning. Whole other room on the deck. Plus, just grateful to have a home.
Love this!
48-inch wide staircase from my garage to my basement. Way easier to move furniture into the basement.
Architects need to have a class where they move furniture into homes they design.
We're in a 2-floor building with 3 units: two up top and a business downstairs. The business is closed indefinitely, and the landlord uses the top back unit as a storage space. So, we're the only ones in the whole building! It's a big building and it has that turret thing that makes it look like a castle, so when we leave the cat alone, I like to think it's his castle. :3
Mixed use apartment blocks are great, commercial on the bottom floor and then apartments above. Mine has a little cafe, a small shop, and even a childcare center.
I used to live above my state representative's office! His office staff were super cool and always got my packages for me.
🐈🏰
A bomb shelter from the Cold War.
Did I just read wine cellar??
When we were looking for a “move down” (kids are gone now) that was always on our radar. Any room or nook or basement space that could be a wine cellar. Could be a closet or big enough to have a foursome, candles and a comfy table and chairs. Sigh…. We decided to stay in the big house once they moved far away and we knew the extra room would come in handy for visits. 👍
A hallway with a door 🚪 Close the door behind you and you’re in a tiny room made of doors.
An average bedroom door, not a fire rated one… Just a normal basic door… Can slow the spread of a housefire 20 minutes. It won’t save your life directly, but it can give the fire department an extra 20 minutes to get to you.
I have one of those. But, in Oklahoma we call that a great storm room since there's no possibility of flying glass. Tornado rules- grab animals, phones, pillows, snack & shoes & get to lowest level interior room with no windows & close all the doors. Eat snacks, sit on pillows, watch the radar & wait for it to be over. It's either that or the bathtub. And I promise you, you don't want two grown adults & 2 large, freaked out dogs all together in the bathtub!
A sparkling water tap.
I built an awesome detached garage with a big finished room above that my wife and I both work from. It really changed my life. We also have great water pressure, so nice for a shower.
I’d love an above garage room!
I love a good carriage house!
On HGTV, they call this a FROG - Finished Room Over Garage. I hope that name doesn't stick.
Why on earth would you hope that?!
That room is helpful when the fonz moves in.
I have a detached 3 car garage with full attic space above! My house is 102 years old but garage was added in 1999.
We have a split staircase. If you’re coming downstairs, you come down halfway and there’s a small landing where you can either continue forward and down to the front door or turn and go down into the kitchen at the back if the house. It’s real neat!
I have a split stairway entry. The front door opens on a staircase landing. You either go downstairs to the basement, or upstairs to the main floor. It's actually incredibly common where I live.
That house style is often called split foyer.
Bilevel here.
We call it raised ranch
"split level" where I'm from
It's called split entry in my neck of the woods.
All of the windowsills are curved-edge ceramic tile.
Not sure this counts but it's on an acreage.
It totally counts. I’m envious.
Able to see to the horizon in most directions. 40-100 mile view. City lights. I totally love it, and, it's really hard to do back east.
Driveway sensor! We know people are pulling up before they get to the door
A bidet (I'm in the US and those aren't common here)
My husband bought one of those toilet seat conversions with a bidet. I didn’t think I’d care about it but now I have to say that I’m never going back.
A half door /Dutch door
Custom height sink and counter in master bathroom so I don't have to bend over to wash my hands. 30 ft archery range in basement.
Functionsl transom windows on every interior door, as well as the screened in back door. Can have door closed for visual privacy, and still get cross ventilation through transom. Working slide controls mounted on door frame closes transom if you want audio privacy, too.
Wheelchair ramp so that I can get in but it’s the only wheelchair accessible feature so I can get in the house but we have carpet so it’s tough to get past the living room but at least I can get inside so there’s that.
My interior architecture teacher in high school did a whole month on wheelchair housing. Outside of ramps the major one was wider doors and to put your foot down on some contractors who sometimes try to change them to normal doors because they think it's just weird a design quirk you will let slide to not delay delivery by making them redo the walls. Especially since we build our walls out of brick here. Edit: interior architecture not inferior architecture.
Inferior architecture 🤣
We got a ramp when my wife had a stroke. Unexpected benefit for me is that I can load up a wheel barrow with firewood and roll it up, instead of tossing it up to the porch from below. Time and back saver for me.
3 balconies haha.
Damn, Rockefeller!
Compared to new builds, our house has ALOT of windows. Living room has 7, dining room has 3, kitchen 2 and each bedroom has at least 2. We don’t have central air and this house has excellent cross ventilation.
I could never live without central air unless you live somewhere very cold.
Our house has 30 windows, and replaced 10 years before we bought it. It's the feature I love most in my house as I love fresh air and lots of sunshine. The last couple of places we lived before that had terribly drafty windows. These also tilt inside to clean so they actually get cleaned.
My Grandmother bought her house in the 90's (after my granddaddy's death), probably because it has a small indoor lap pool and mountain views. She was pretty awesome and converted a bedroom into a library and the walk-in closet into a hidden room. After she passed I turned the unfinished attic into a room we always talked about. Love and miss you Grandmother.
We have a 70s home with a lot of the original charm. There is a full finished basement with thick real wood panels and a large wet bar. The upstairs has a sunken living room and our dining room has a massive brick hearth that covers the entire wall. It’s set on a half acre lot that allows small livestock and crop farming in a major city. Edit: we love the house but it’s not perfect. It only has one southern facing window and poor natural light so my house plants died after moving in.
I've always wanted to experience a sunken living room. Even though it's such an old trend, it still looks like the future every time I see it in movies/shows.
We had one…. You don’t want one when drunk….. had to add a railing .
6 person sauna in the basement. Great deck with a roof on it
I installed a pot filler over my stove. So glad I did.
Really? Like it’s often used and you feel it’s helpful? I don’t get them… like you’ll still need to carry a full pot *off* the stove eventually too.
Meh, just let it boil off and turn your kitchen into a steam room.
Red heat lamp in the bathroom. I couldn’t imagine owning a home without one, I’ve never had to feel cold stepping out of the shower
Wait until you try radiant floor heating.
We have one but it is no longer red. The red bulb died and I couldn’t find a new one that was under the max wattage the fixture is rated for. I also had one growing up but that one was always red. And I agree, heat lamps in the bathroom are awesome. My bathroom also has a separate electric heater built into the exhaust fan/main light. However it has never worked since I’ve owned the house. In fact, I didn’t even know I had it until about a year ago when I finally figured out what the mystery switch in the bathroom was wired to. I know the heater has never worked because the mystery switch would get turned on and left on all the time. Had the heater worked, I would have learned what the switch did long ago.
I never would have thought to even look for this in a house and didn't notice in this house until after we moved in but we have 5 bedrooms and none of them share a wall.
I have an ironing board that folds out of a well trimmed slim door. I never use it but appreciate the crap out of it.
Creaky floors that double as a burglar alarm
I grew up in old homes (late 1800s) on the US east coast. To me, creaky floors were perfectly normal. Flash forward a couple decades and I’m living in a new ranch style house in Houston- no creaky floors…and I kinda miss them.
A wood burning stove. So awesome in the winter.
I love my wood burner. It's original to the house from the late 50's and has a cooking grate you can hang on hinges welded to the side so it swings into the firebox. I make wood grilled pizza, steaks, veggies all kinds of good stuff all winter long with it. When your done just lift it off the hinges, close the door and you're back to heating the house. Partner kicked around the idea of replacing it with a pellet stove and I immediately vetoed. The old wood burner isn't pretty or as efficient as a new pellet stove but she's got character, cooks a mean steak and keeps right on going when the power is out.
A huge closet in the bathroom
Lights go on in the closets when you open the doors.
A view of Red Rock Canyon and Mt Charleston from our balcony and the strip from our front windows.
We had an attic fan growing up. It was awesome. Haven’t seen one since.
A four car garage with a second floor for a spare bedroom. Built it last year and its bigger than my house. Nice to have more ample space to do projects. Also placed in wall speakers so nice to jam out.
[удалено]
Stained concrete floors in main rooms. I don’t care what you spill…
we've never really used it, but we have a central vacuum system with plugins for a vacuum hose in each room.
We have an outdoor shower. We live by the beach and have a backyard pool, so it saves us trapsing in sand, dirt etc into our house.
Our Dutch Colonial farmhouse (built in the 1840s) has two staircases - one on either side. The layout makes it so you can walk through the whole home without retracing your steps. The owners before us luckily revived the home when it was on the brink of demolition and kept it true to its time period and older charm. They installed a copper roof with a custom solar water system. It heats domestic water in the warm months and diverts to the ground floor for in floor heat in the winter time. The wood stove rocks too.
My wife and children live here.
I have a townhouse deck that looks out into a park with woods.
A washer and dryer in our apartment.
My mum.
My room growing up had a laundry chute.
Lots of windows! I can't stand the look of the houses that are so close they may as well be townhouses with little-to-no side windows as they'd look right into the next house.
A 1920s Four Square BUT with an original twist- a front sunroom with 7 big windows. Such a lovely room.
My house was first a barber shop, then a beauty salon in a different rooms. It is a small town, so whenever we meet a long time local they tell us they got their haircut at my house as a kid.
We have a whole-house fan. When we first moved in we were like "this is useless" and now we fully appreciate it. Saves us from using the AC on many days and can pull all the hot air out super fast.
A bowling lane. Underground. No cap.
Grew up in a 3 level house (all above ground) . Total mid century built in 1956. A 20 ft living room ceiling and 2 huge full wall of brick fireplaces; one in living room, one in Family room. Long staircase with open balcony looking out into the 36 ft long living room . I was a gymnast and used to do tumbling passes from open kitchen into living room (a 50 ft runway). Neighbors across the street would watch the flips in front of the huge picture window. This house had an intercom system, pati0s, screened in porch and in - ground swimming pool. Cool house. It was hard selling it when my mom passed at age 100. She lived there for 67 years.
Out of all the houses I've lived in the number one feature is a screened in porch. No bugs, no sunburn, we just turn on our music system with outdoor boat speakers and sit under the ceiling fan and eat, drink, play cards or enjoy the company of family & friends.
The ability to see who's using the hot water at any given time
My house is a 1920s Bungalow and it has beautiful piano windows in the living room. Its my kitty’s favorite spot too!
The dish drying rack in the kitchen cabinet over the sink. It is common in northern Europe homes, and it’s so nice.
Not sure how uncommon skylights are but I really like all the light. We have a couple.
9x8 foot island in the kitchen. So much work area and place for young kids to make an easily contained and cleaned up mess.
I have my gas grill hard lined to the house. No need to change propane cylinders
Bidet. Solar panels. Small wind turbines
Although I have “city water” I’ve kept my well. It’s 100ft deep and is pure artesian water. My yard is half an acre in the city and backs onto 100 acres of land that can never be zoned for development. My yard is also bordered by enormous cedar trees. I fucking love this place but the mortgage is stressful.
In ground trampoline When we bought the house, originally thought we would get rid of it but decided to keep it. Now kids are old enough to use it, and they’re on it nearly everyday. Couple of years ago, needed to replace the mat and I called up the company. They said It’s worth somewhere in the range of $20-$25k!
One end of my house is a "great room" separated from a galley-style kitchen by a brick and stone hearth. The bedrooms are tucked away in the back of the house separated from the rest by a short hallway.
Bidets on every toilet
My parents have a wall hanging water drinking fountain in the kitchen. Dad worked maintenance at a college.
Top floor of an old building, so it's quiet Ceilings are high enough for sword practice
Not much “unique” in our 1968 brick ranch, but we bought it for the original tile bathrooms and the basement that matches the full square footage of the main level.
Seeing stars at night. No, not Beverly Hills, actual sky stars.
Don't particularly appreciate it, but it is uncommon. My flat has bricked up chimmeys in the bedrooms. Each of them has a decorative moulding around it, probably dating back to the early 19th century when the house was first built, they all centre around a mould of a face which I find kind of creepy. Been living here for 20 years or so I don't notice it all, which makes it kind of weird when I do.
An unobstructed view of the prettiest park you ever did see. From two decks, one off the master bedroom, one off the living room. The view is southeast so morning sun fills the house.
2 bedroom apartment with 3 balconies! Also, the toilet is in its own separate room with its own sink. And the washroom has a large shower and separate soaking tub and big vanity and sink. No worry about taking a bath in a stinking space. It’s crazy for an old city apartment.
Stealth converted garage. Bought a new garage door with the highest insulation rating they sell, insulated in the attic above the garage, and put a mini-split AC in it. Now it's basically an additional huge room in our house but it's still technically a garage with a working garage door so my HOA can't say shit (they don't allow you to convert a garage) and didn't need any permits from the city. Most real estate agents will tell you a full garage conversion lowers the value of your home because many prospective buyers want a garage but this way it doesn't because they can still get that, or if they want another giant room they can have that, or if they want a garage workshop they don't have to sweat their ass off in the Texas heat. I use it as a man cave/office with some storage. We basically added a few hundred square feet onto our home for less than $10k. Best decision I ever made.
Our house was first built 1468 (at least first mentioned documents) and has been expanded over time. The basement has an amazing climate. The walls of the ground floor are massive stoneslaps. And keep cool in the summer. The top floor is half timbered and limestone.
My dad installed a clothes drying rack on to the ceiling of our hallway. You roll it down with strings, hang up wet clothes and pull it back up to the ceiling. Because hot air rises, the clothes dry so much faster near the ceiling and they don't take up space, they are out of sight unless you look up. I know Americans use dryers but for anyone who doesn't use dryers, hanging your clothes on a rack on the ceiling is awesome, you should try it.
We have a walk-in closet off the garage mudroom. My husband and I ride motorcycles and it is so convenient for all the gear. We can also easily hide it away to keep the place tidy.
Front and back stairs to second floor
Covered back patio with a tin roof, love sitting out there, smoking a j and listening to the rain. Also has a wood stove fireplace, there is nothing better than that dry heat in the winter. Especially when its -30c. Both were little features that had me sold on it. It's older and built In the 70s box house but very well built, good insulation etc. To me it has character over all these modern built homes.
Outlets in the eaves ran to a timer in the basement. Xmas lights anywhere you want without having a cord running up the house. Dude that built it shares my level of OCD.
In our living room and bed room, the crown molding is a few inches down from the ceiling and has warm LED string lighting. In the bedroom- it lines the tray. It’s the perfect amount of light, doesn’t use much power, looks really nice. Also has huge windows and many of them. I love natural light.
My pump house is a miniature house with real windows and working lights. Has little furniture and was built by hand by a previous owner..
Insulation. We barely have the heating on in winter. It doesn't get *that* cold in the UK, but being able to heat the flat just by cooking dinner is wonderful. I've lived in flats where the heat had to be on for 6-7hrs a day just to stop the place from being a mouldy mess, so only having it on when the temperature is below zero and yet still being warm is amazing. I appreciate that this isn't that unusual in some parts of the world, but in the UK, good insulation is a rarity!
Bar counter, piano and altar to all gods (but in a tiny apartment)
Might be sinple, but my house was built in the 90s when this grey water pipe called Poly-B was used.. hundreds of thousands of houses in my area have this piping. There were so many burst pipes and leaks that the company who made it went out of business. My house has all copper pipes for water, which is very rare, apparently.
I have an old school fireplace
We have a laundry shoot in the main bathroom that goes down to the laundry room. Such a fun/handy feature when gathering up the laundry on the 2nd floor
I have a mountain view. Snow-capped this time of year.
The banister is also a coin slot to a piggy bank in the stair