Ask the Readers: What Do You Want in Your Forever Home?
Editor's Note: Congratulations to Kellie, Sheri, and Julie for winning this week's contest!
When we think about our future, it often includes the kind of home we will be living in. Many people begin homeownership with a starter home and plan to save until they can upgrade to a forever home — the home that they plan to live in for many years to come.
What do you want in your forever home? Where do you want it to be? What traits are non-negotiable, and what might you be willing to compromise?
Tell us what you want in your forever home and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
Win 1 of 3 $20 Amazon Gift Cards
We're doing three giveaways — here's how you can win!
Mandatory Entry:
- Post your answer in the comments below. One commenter will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
For Extra Entries:
- You can tweet about our giveaway for an extra entry. Also, our Facebook fans can get an extra entry too! Use our Rafflecopter widget for your chance to win one of the other two Amazon Gift Cards:
If you're inspired to write a whole blog post OR you have a photo on flickr to share, please link to it in the comments or tweet it.
Giveaway Rules:
- Contest ends Monday, November 16th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. Winners will be announced after November 16th on the original post. Winners will also be contacted via email.
- You can enter all three drawings — once by leaving a comment, once by liking our Facebook update, and once by tweeting.
- This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered, or associated with Facebook.
- You must be 18 and US resident to enter. Void where prohibited.
Good Luck!
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I am tired of old boring appliances in my home. I want all new Stainless steel appliances in my home!
Data ports...data ports as far as the eye can see. Our entertainment is streaming videos and playing video games. Nothing puts a damper on that like spoty WIFI.
I'd like my forever home to be 1 story.
I want my forever home to be someplace that's warm and sunny year round and walking distance to the ocean. I would like a chef's kitchen and a big yard to host BBQs. I would also want lots of natural lighting as well as a fireplace.
I want an Arts and Craft style house, but on one level, since the next home we buy is likely to be the last home we buy. (Mid-50s.)
A man cave with the proper video game setup and beer taps. Other than that, happiness, of course, and it has to be the perfect place for multiple dogs.
I want a big backyard and stainless steel appliances in my forever home
I want a gas fireplace in my forever home. In my area, power goes out a lot in winter, and I want to stay warm.
Solar panels! They are quite an investment but a money-saver, and eco-friendly in the long run.
Non-negotiable is a good location and a home that just feels right. A home is a sanctuary and where I need to feel comfortable, so that matters more than details like flooring or number of rooms. Of course, that may take more time to find since you can't exactly search by vibe, but it's worth it to take your time on something like that.
My forever needs a roomy kitchen and bathroom. I will sacrifice back yard space.
I want it to be close to work and good restaurants; bonus if it has a pizza oven
A gas oven
My family taught me to always have a small pantry room for any emergencies. I will like to have a garden and a spa room to avoid going to a spa to spend hundreds of $. I want to have my place in my lovely Utah state, being surrounded by the mountains is the place I call home. I will be willing to pay a little bit more if I find the perfect place with easy access to schools/farm markets.
I would love a walk-in pantry. I could buy nonperishables in bulk and save money!
I would love a deck in my backyard, with a nice backyard. I love listening to jazz with my windows open at night, so I always imagine doing this on a patio in the Summer, with citronella candles and a nice glass of wine! :) I will negotiate for a patio instead, but the must-have with that would be Garden Lanterns.
I want a library with a gliding ladder, a dummy waiter, a laundry shoot, and a murphy bed.
My forever home would be a straw bale house with a basement, one water wall, at less than 500 square feet, and totally off grid, with solar power, a rain catchment system, composting toilet, etc. I love tiny houses, but I also like to craft, have a lot of pets and like to foster cats, so the extra room would be useful.
My forever home would be a straw bale house with a basement, one water wall, at less than 500 square feet, and totally off grid, with solar power, a rain catchment system, composting toilet, etc. I love tiny houses, but I also like to craft, have a lot of pets and like to foster cats, so the extra room would be useful.
I hope we have our forever home! And all it's missing is a tiki bar in the basement.
I would love to have a home that had an extra room and garage so I could set up a pottery studio and put the kiln in the garage. This is something I am working towards but it looks to be many years away.
I would like to have large welcoming double front doors in my forever home. Also built-in vacuuming system (duct work is within the walls and you just attach the hose & head to outlets in each room). One more thing, a laundry room with a utility sink and lots of shelving!
My forever home is the tiny house my boyfriend and I are currently building! The financial freedom that comes along with living tiny was simply non-negotiable for us. After construction is complete we plan to move our home to land and start living our country dream. We're on our way (in our early 30s)!
heated floors and heated towel racks in the bathroom
A modest home with a finished basement, and that is aesthetically pleasing to me, if nobody else! A great backyard would be pretty great too.
I want a big living room and a finished basement in my forever home.
I like a nice yard for the dog and kids. I kitchen with lots of cupboards for storage and good counter space for cooking. A garage and fenced yard would be nice. A place that feels warm, inviting and that feels like home.
I want an open layout
We bought our forever home for a song because it is a niche house (odd, wouldn't appeal to a mass market) in 1999. We remodeled it to our liking in phases with the bulk of it being before moving in. Even though it's just the two of us, this was a downsizer and a bit small but we both knew as we aged it would grow larger ... and indeed it has. What makes it possible for us to consider it forever is how inexpensive it is to run and it's on a large wooded lot (while still being in town and convenient to everything). It has many windows (42 in a two bed/bath!) with peaceful views. The bonus: it's on a short deadend street that's still a neighborhood, a street with a wide variety of people in equally wide varieties of housing. We call it the "Street of Misfits", delighted to be obvious drop outs from the American mass production consumer culture. It took a long time to find our spot but we found it!
Features we'd like in our "forever home": laundry chute (preferably from master bed or bathroom directly down to basement laundry); walk-in closet room, master bathroom not adjacent to bedroom for reasons of noise and light; kitchen with non-wood, high quality and easily cleaned cabinets; under-floor heating throughout the house.
I really want a wrap around porch and white picket fence! These probably aren't completely necessary because obviously the location is most important, but this would be awesome
I'd like my forever home to be pretty small so that it's manageable for cleaning and repairs, though I'm not too concerned about the amount of bedrooms. I'd like it to be in a relatively quiet part of a city like Portland, OR, so that I'm able to walk to a lot of places. The room I spend most time in is the kitchen, so I'd like it to be spacious enough to work in comfortably and the equipment to be good quality. I'd love lower counters, since I'm short! The size of the yard isn't terribly important to me, though some privacy would be nice.
I want a big backyard, a nice sized kitchen and wouldn't want it near power lines or train tracks/busy street/flight path.
I would love for my dream home to be in North Carolina. I would love for it to be on at least an acre of land, for my kids and dogs to run around and play. It would have to be a 4 bedroom 2 bath house. I'd be willing to live without a pool as long as I had a hot tub to relax in. :)
new cabinets.
My forever house would have a big updated kitchen and a game room.
My forever house would be small--a couple of bedrooms, a bath, a living room with a masonry fireplace and built-in bookshelves, a kitchen with high-quality, energy efficient appliences. All the finish work would be perfect. And ideally, it would be on property with a waterfront. And close enough to walk to a grocery store, a bank, and a bus stop.
My forever home would be a house with 2 bedrooms, 2 bath on 1 floor. A universal design-so handicap friendly. I want to be able to grow old in the house. A sun room overlooking my garden. Oh and very important a heated drive way, heated front and back steps. Minimize shoveling snow in the winter in Chicago.
My number one thing would be a master bathroom
My forever home has to be nestled among the pine and aspen in the mountains of Colorado, not far from a town, but far enough out where if my dog wants to bark, he can without fear of a neighbor complaining. A 36' Travel Trailer will do just fine and if I can live off grid, that would be okay with me. I don't need much, but do need room to produce the products I make by hand and sell at various craft shows. I want a simple, debt free life in my retirement with just enough income to provide for my needs and what supplies I need to purchase.
My forever home must have a porch.
I'm not sure I'm a "forever home" kind of person! I'm already discovering that I want different things for each phase of my life. The home we have now is wonderful but my children are in college or preparing to go so it seems bigger than I need. But I believe I will always looks for a cozy, elegant and well made home in a small town near a bigger city. And I will always want a single family home -- no sharing walls with the neighbors!
in my forever home i would want a garage, a yard, and enough room for guests
I would really like a nice bath tub in my forever home!
A garden!
I want an open concept house with lots of natural light.
House must be only one floor for when I am old, solar panels, great kitchen, well insulated and a beautiful glass shower professionally installed.
A steam shower!
What I miss the most from having a gym membership is the ability to relax in the sauna or the hot tub. Having a steam shower at home would really be nice after a long day at work.
My own bathroom! And an eat-in kitchen that's big enough that we don't have our washer/dryer in the kitchen. (I try to tell myself that our current kitchen is very European...)
And a basement. And garage. Is this too much?
Must be one story and have enough rooms for a sewing room/studio!
For my brothers to live nowhere near me.
I want good insulation, newer plumbing, space for children to play (where I live it's not common to have a backyard), and lots of windows. Homes in my area often also have a small loft or set of extra room/kitchen combination attached to the side - I want one to rent out to offset the mortgage on the one hand, and offer to my parents who have nothing saved for retirement on the other.
I would like an open floor plan, handicap accessible in a 55+ community
I would like a forever home with high ceilings and lots of windows. Open concept, with a big kitchen and a double oven. I would love heated floors in the bathrooms for the winter months and cold mornings. I would like the garage to be detached, with a mud room side entrance, and the yard to be big. This is a dream, right?
I would love to have a big backyard.
I dream of having a sun room! To read, to nap, to soak it all up.
In my forever home I would like a basement which I think it is very rare where I live. In the basement I like a huge Tv...movie room and a big game room. Also a small kitchen and a sewing room down there too!
My husband and I would love to downsize now that our children have left us with an empty nest. Our forever home would be small yet the space would be used efficiently, with plenty of storage. One story is most desirable. We'd like enough yard to have our raised garden beds, but would love little lawn to mow and no swimming pool.
In my forever home, I would love a safe room for weather! Would also love my family living with me!
I would love a spacious white kitchen.
I'd love my forever home to have a backyard big enough for entertaining and a front porch.
A house in a gated community with a community pool, tennis court and community center.
It has to have room for a large permaculture garden, fruit trees, nut trees, the whole works!
A 3 car garage and a covered back patio!
I want a one story home with lots windows that look out on the ocean. A warm climate and a pool.
My forever home needs to be full of love.
A walk in pantry and a walk in closet for the master bedroom!
This is an awesome giveaway, and I would use this to buy thomas and friends and garth brooks. :)
I would like universal design so that we can age in place.
I want a pool.
I'd love a wood burning fireplace.
After living so long without a garage, I would need a garage. A really nice kitchen for entertaining is also a must-have!