Jesus, Oredigger. Just move! Seems simpler.
Is it basically like the sprayer thingie next to the faucet on some kitchen sinks?
It’s built into the toilet seat. The handle you see on the side is just the valve to turn it on. When you rotate the handle, the water pressure forces a small spray arm to project under your bum and spray water upward.
Not on your life. We bought this place 6 months ago for $200k under market value. We’re on a acre with a spectacular view. The house was well maintained but literally hadn’t been updated in 70 years. I’ve already gutted and rebuilt 1000 sqft of the living room, kitchen and entry way this summer and added $150k to the value of the house. When it’s all said and done we’ll have a 2-3 million dollar home that we will have paid less than $750k for and that’s not counting market appreciation.
I want my waterbed back (but I rent); I want my own washer and dryer; I want adequate counterspace (place was built in the late 60’s, when apparently no one had small appliances).
We live in a mobile home in the Sacramento area. We only have a swamp cooler in the roof to keep us cool in the summer. With temps in the 100s every summer, it doesn’t do any good. We need air conditioning. We’ve been quoted $9000 for a new air conditioner. No way we can afford that.
My mother, who’s 91, can’t stand temps that high. When it gets too hot, we have to abandon the house and go other places till the house cools off in the evening.
An emergency exit. There’s only the main staircase for two habitable floors, full basement, and walk-in attic. I’m thinking of installing at least a fire ladder from the upper floor.
Another one wishing for a basement. I’m in Florida and houses don’t have them here. It’s not practical because the water table is too high, moisture and flooding would be a constant problem. Grew up with one in Michigan though so I know how useful they can be.
Years ago, when our kitchen faucet was dying, I bought one of those. It is not arched, rather, just up and over (inverted-L). And it has two tap handles, because, in the kitchen, you typically use hot water or cold water but rarely need to blend them, so fuck those joystick things that end up where you have to struggle to find off when they get old.
Then, recently, I went with my mom to get her a new faucet. All of the two-tap models were arched, and when I looked at them, it was clear that the water would be coming out at the same spot as with a regular short faucet even though the arch part was some 6" higher.
I mean, why? I really like my tall outlet faucet. Why would the lower outlet be preferable?
Central heat, for God’s sake. Central heat.
I feel your pain, but moreso. I lived several years in a **400 **square foot apartment. There were no drawers in the kitchen, and laundry was in a laundromat in a separate building.
A dishwasher. We’d have to give up too much storage space.
Gas, I really wish we had natural gas. I don’t like having oil. It is making it harder to sell.
Next house will have gas.
I wish this house had been designed to make better use of the space. We were able to remedy that a bit, but I wish we could afford to have a pro come in and do it.
When we bought the place, it had a tiny kitchen (10 X 12), a dining room of the same size, and a huge “den” in addition to the living room. We knocked out the wall between the kitchen and “den” and added a pantry and a long expanse of counter, and it’s been good, but the layout does leave a bit to be desired. And there was no way to expand the dining room - it’s got the kitchen on one side and the bathrooms on the other.
I’d love to be able to reallocate the remaining “den” footage into the dining room and the bedrooms. Not that I want huge bedrooms, but the house was built in 1975 and the closets were 4 or 5’ wide, one per bedroom. Not very practical.
Tho the big thing I’d really like is a way to add an apartment wing. Right now, we’re sharing the house with my daughter, SIL, and granddaughter, and none of us really have the privacy we want. There’s space behind the garage, but there’s no way we can afford the addition. So we deal.
Less things needing repair. But other than that I would say a “Pittsburgh” (basement) bathroom. Maybe just a toilet or a toilet and a small shower stall but sometimes I get a little on the filthy side and hate to track upstairs for a piss or to clean at the end of the task.
The other thing I wish I had is a pot/pan hanger like I had at our last place. I hate having to scrounge in cupboards for the pans I use nearly every day. The one place where something could be installed is unfortunately a steel support beam. I suppose something could be hung from the ceiling over the small island we have, but I’d have to hire someone to install it.
This place could use neighbors who were not a—, um, who were less deserving of criticism.
We have a two story house with a full basement, so an elevator would be really nice sometimes.
I wish I had a washer and dryer. The apartment building I live in does not have hookups in the units; I don’t mind having to use the laundry room across the hall, but I’d really rather do it myself, in my home.
Otherwise, that’s about it. Oh, and more counter space, because I have a galley kitchen.
I dunno. We have one, have lived here 20 years and I don’t think we’ve used it even once a year. A bigger shower would have been better, imo.
And like FairyChatMom, our house (particularly the kitchen/laundry room/foyer area) could use a redesign to make better use of the space, but we have to pick our battles and that’s not one of them. We’re getting older so I am focusing more on things like getting the back deck refloored with materials that won’t require much maintenance, because we’re getting to the age where we won’t be able to do that sort of thing ourselves, and it will make the house more saleable if we have to go there.
A waterbed is in the very long-term plan. When we can afford to buy a house, we will have a waterbed.
I wish this place had gas heat. It’s an apartment with central forced-air electric heat, and it’s terribly inefficient. The thermostat in the living room always reads 70, but it will be 66 and even lower in the bedrooms.
I wish they had laid out the galley kitchen a little wider. It is impossible for 2 people to be in there at once, and the dishwasher and the refrigerator cannot be open at the same time.
I wish we had furniture. It doesn’t have to be new or beautiful, but a sofa and a table we could sit down and eat at would be great.
We’re grateful for a stacking washer and dryer in the apartment. The kind of jobs Mr. Celtic Knot has been taking means we need to do a lot of laundry, and doing it elsewhere would be a huge problem.
I wish we had more room for Mr Celtic Knot’s books. He’s almost a hoarder, and we have piles of books in the dining area because we have no more bookshelves and no more room for any.