Washing machine, dryer, air conditioning, couch, oven, soundproofing, curtains, the permission to have pets.
When remodeling our downstairs bathroom, I put in ADA compliant rails in the tub/shower. My Wife and I are closing in on 60yo.
Damn good idea, I had my hip replaced in November, and lived on the first floor for three weeks.
Quartersawn oak floors in every room
Fence the rest of the yard
Colonnades
Actually, there is one thing I’d change inside the house. There’s not nearly enough counter space in the kitchen. I’d knock out the wall between the kitchen and the breakfast room, and expand the kitchen. My next-door neighbors did exactly that, and it turned out great.
Plenty of things, but # 1, I’d say, is central air conditioning and heating.
A bigger garage, and maybe extend the driveway more around back for parking. Our driveway wraps around the house after the auto gate, and it’s difficult to get all 4 vehicles arranged so the gates can shut. Also, due to the geometry, it’s only convenient for 3 cars to park and only one can fit in the garage*, so the last car in blocks everyone else. I’m tired of playing musical cars in the mornings.
*Tight turn to swing into garage makes it nearly impossible to fit 2 cars in there. I’d like to extend the garage further into the backyard to fit at least the rest of the cars, if not my truck.
A bigger kitchen sink. The one we have is so small, everything you set down in it immediately falls into the drain.
Nice furniture. We used to have nice furniture, now we have dogs. Our leather couches are 40% duct tape now, and the creatures have begun to chew the coffee table.
A dishwasher. I had grand plans to redo the countertop and add an island so I could fit a dishwasher in by the sink and keep some cupboard space, but everyone’s so busy around here that no one seems interested in doing the job.
A connected garage. Our last two places had one and I grew to take it for granted. Our new place is perfect for us in most respects, but now that winter’s here I’m remembering how convenient it used to be to just walk in and out of the garage to unload the car – as opposed to tracking in crap with every trip (or doing a sherpa impersonation to carry it all in one trip).
At least we were smart enough to buy a third opener to keep in the kitchen, so we don’t have to stand in the rain punching in the code to open the door!
Neighbor had upstairs laundry. A compression fitting popped off the end of a copper pipe, flooded and literally destroyed the place. It’s taken him a year to replace all the drywall, furniture and hardwood flooring on the lower floor. If it was me, I would have bulldozed the place and started over, that’s how bad it was.
Had a screened in patio - all it did was keep the bugs in, and since it was covered, no view of the sky and a blurred look at the yard. So we put windows in all around (great view of the yard if you remove the screens on all but a couple for air circ.
We built our house two years ago and it is damn near perfect. It has enough square footage that everyone has their own space when necessary. The features and functionality are just about everything we could want. The kitchen is awesome, there is tons of storage space. The one regret I have is not going for the option that had a tub in the master. We could have gotten a big soaker tub but were already over what we had planned to spend so we decided the large shower would work. It does for the most part but every once in a while, I really would like to take a nice soak when I’m aching bad. The tub in the kids bathroom just doesn’t cut it for someone my size. There is room to put one in and the plumbing is in that wall because the laundry room backs to it. We’d just need to chop the linen closet in half. It’s bigger than we need so that’s not a problem. The whole project could probably be done for $5-6K but I just can’t justify it right now. It’s still on my dream list if a windfall comes around.
My wife and mother want to fence in the back yard for the dogs but I am not going for it. The HOA only allows black wrought iron and it will cost a fortune. I keep telling my mon (who lives with us) that if she wants it, she can pay for it. I’d really prefer not to have it if the money weren’t an issue. Our yard backs up to a large open field and I like the clean view. I fought as long as i could to not get the dogs in the first place because I didn’t want to have to deal with letting them out. Of course the kids wore me down saying that they would take care of it, which is true when it is convenient for them.
We recently moved into a huge 3br apartment that also has a balcony that is twice as big as our previous lounge-room. It’s wonderful and has aircon in every room, two bathrooms, a dishwasher and all the regular mod cons.
Alas, it is up two 16 step flights of stairs. There is no lift. I’m getting too old for this shit. On the plus side, I’ve lost a few kilos since we moved in. 
Better appliances. We moved in last summer and the dishwasher, stove, and fridge are all GE and all crap. The stove is glass top and that is very hard to get used to because of the way the lights cycle on and off. And the oven is unreliable because it is much too easy to brush against the control panel and accidentally hit the off button. The fridge is simply too small because of the space wasted by the automatic ice maker and water cooler; the latter doesn’t work at all. And the dishwasher simply doesn’t do a good job unless you have practically washed everything anyway. It also somehow doesn’t fit our dishes.
I guess we will eventually replace them.
In no particular order: One of those fancy showers with jets coming out of the walls and ceiling; a big, open workshop space; a bar. There’s no space for any of it and the downside of living in a condo is that I can’t add space.
Crap happens. Nobody has a bathroom upstairs? It’s unfortunate for the neighbor, but a catastrophic pipe burst isn’t the fault of an upstairs laundry.
So what’s missing from my house? A coat closet at the front door, and closet space in general. The house has been remodeled at least twice in its 60 year history, so I don’t know if there was a hall closet originally or not. All I’ve been able to suss out so far is the living room is an addition, the master bathroom is not where it was originally, and it wasn’t an open-plan layout.
I would love to have a fireplace.
I can tell you that they are great!
We renovated the house (here in Poland) two years ago. Mrs ded wanted to preserve two rooms that had already been renovated, so we kept half of the old house, demolished half and added on a new part that was about 40-50% bigger than the old structure. With all the problems that builders had joining old and new, and the fun that the roofers had with an old roof that was not four-square, I wish we had demolished the lot and started over. We were restricted for space due to a relatively narrow, and local restrictions - 3 meters from the boundary for new construction. The original house was built before these regulations, so the old part could go within 1 meter, but the new part had to be 3 meters, putting a kink in the house.
If we had rebuilt the lot we could have made it wider, and that would have given us much more useful space. We considered a basement, until we heard the price.
What was good and bad? Much more storage space compared to the old house, but there is never enough. Hot water underfloor heating; we could only install is downstairs in the new part - one more reason we should have started from scratch, we could have installed it everywhere, A completely new house would also have eliminated one or two small steps due to changes of level. With the Deds getting older, that will matter one day. Good; we have plenty of electrical outlets. Bad: not as many as I asked for. Good - the fireplace with a wood stove is wonderful. Good, but could have been better - a roofed patio. Now Mrs Ded wants it screened in. My bank account says no.
What do I wish we had in the house? More space, but as said already, that would have meant starting over. I like the idea of a live-in maid, but Mrs Ded might just have another opinion. Appliances? We have just about anyything we need. I wish I had a workshop, which could b e done in the form of a shed, with the proviso that there garden is too small. A propos garden, we would certainly like a bigger garden, and we might get it one day, if the town sells the allotments that we are currently renting. But probably a developer will come in and outbid us.
More room. We have a 1010 sq ft two bedroom house and five of us living here. We had twins and, BOOM, house got smaller. We bought this house as a starter, intending to go bigger when we started having kids, but then the market got bonkers. We’re probably gonna die in this house. The upside is that we’re on the verge of becoming empty nesters in the next few years, so it’s okay.
A lot of what we want is stuff we actually have plans to do. I’m good with tools, so I can do most of it myself. Here’s the list:
New shed- old one is a menace. Rickety and falling apart.
Front entry deck.
Back patio cover.
Refinish hardwood floors.
New gas range.
Window or skylight in the kitchen.
Greenhouse window in the existing kitchen window.
French doors instead of the sliding glass door.
New computer desk.
Stuff I can’t have because money:
Bigger garage/ shop. It’s a one-car now.
Another bedroom. Moot because of impending empty nest.
Bump the back of the house out twenty feet. Extra living space and bigger bedroom. Room to rehearse bands.
And then there’s the rooftop cannon deck. Wife says no. Spoilsport.