Yesterday I celebrated the joy of living two full years in this house, and indeed, we do celebrate so much about this little spot on the
lake. Even with its quirks, it’s a delightful little home that fits us so
perfectly. But I would guess everyone has a thing or two they would change
about their home if they could. Even people who designed their own homes come
to find things that don’t work quite like they hoped.
A
couple of weeks ago I watched this video from a tiny
home dweller I follow on Instagram. She designed her tiny home, and it is truly
one of the best and most practical I’ve seen. She loves it, but she made the
video to share the things she would change if she could start over now – after
living in this space for four years.
I
enjoyed hearing her thoughts and decided I would borrow her idea. What would we
change about this house if we could? (Some things are adjustable – and with
time, they will be adjusted. Others are just character building. 😊)
For
fun, I asked Ryan to join in this one with me and share what he would change,
too!
Dining Room – The only thing I would change in this room is our front door. And hopefully one day that will happen! Unfortunately, I am deeply in love with front doors that have rounded tops, and we won’t be changing the structure of the house to make that happen. I did find an idea of one that fits into a normal door frame. WAY more than we can afford, I am sure, but I can dream. Realistically speaking, though, I hope to one day get a front door and storm door that let in significantly more light than we have right now.
Main Bathroom – We have never liked the shower in our
bathroom – and it’s the only thing we didn’t change about that room before we
moved in. I’m pretty sure that years ago, it was a tub/shower combo and
somewhere along the way, the tub was removed to make room for a walk-in shower.
I don’t mind that, but the quality of the shower surround they chose was
terribly poor, and it’s impossible to keep clean. This is on our short list of
projects, but we can’t quite land on the perfect replacement. (Part of the problem
in choosing the perfect replacement is our very limited space in that room. We
don’t have much wiggle room – literally and figuratively – so options are few.)
Ryan has spent, and will probably continue to spend, many hours researching
solutions for this someday-change, but so far, he’s not found something he loves.
Source
Kitchen – There isn’t anything about our kitchen –
from a durability or functionality perspective – that we would change. We were
so grateful that when we bought the house, it was one of the most updated
rooms, the materials were high quality, and the layout worked well. That’s the
good news. The bad news? None of it is our style. The room is very, very brown
and dark. It isn’t a deal-breaker (obviously) but if we were dreaming, I would
choose to paint the cabinets (at least the upper cabinets) a much lighter
color, and I’d put down a lighter-colored floor. One day, down the road, we
will probably make some adjustments to it, but it works just fine for now, and
we have made a lot of beautiful culinary memories in this room!
Bedrooms – Both our bedrooms are working well for us.
We overhauled them significantly in paint and flooring before moving in and
still love the looks of both rooms. We’ve adjusted the study to be more of a
study and less of a guest room, and that’s been a good choice. I think the only
change we would make would be to enlarge the window in our bedroom to enjoy the
view a bit more.
Living Room/Great Room – Our whole walkout basement
serves as our living room (and workout space). This is the room I would
probably make the most changes in, though the changes I want to make are all
cosmetic in nature. I adore all the natural light in this space and love how
light and bright it feels. That is a real gift in a walkout basement.
The room does have a drop ceiling, as many basements do, and
I know some companies sell ceiling tiles that lean more toward pretty and less
toward second-grade-classroom. I feel like a change in that area would make a
HUGE upgrade in the look of the room.
A previous owner installed a fireplace in a strange (to me) spot, and if I could go back and change something big about the house, I would put that in a much more usable location – one I could build a whole room around. It’s functional and keeps us warm, which I appreciate, but it’s not at all logical for crafting a gathering spot.
The other major change I would make – and will, years down
the road – is to get furnishings that better fit the space. Our couch and TV
were purchased for a previous home that had a lot more space. They fit in
this room, and we will use them until they wear out, but when they do need
replaced, I’m voting for smaller options that fit this space more
appropriately.
Garage – Truly the only structural change I would
make to this house if I could (and I can’t) would be to attach the garage.
Ironically both Ryan and I lived the bulk of our adult years in homes with
detached garages, so we know how to do it, and it’s a first-world preference,
for sure. I’m thankful for the years we had in Kokomo and Bluffton, where we
did have an attached garage. And you know, in Grabill, we didn’t have a garage at
all, so this is quite an improvement over that. But when Indiana is being all
icy and snowy, we sure do miss our attached garage.
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