Help with Home Buying Tips.. What Works for Growing Families??

closet space and a yard.

1)Plenty of attic space (walk-in access if you can find it): as the kids grow, you will have lots of things you want to keep, but not have to keep IN their rooms. Especially in the younger grades, they bring home all sorts of art projects and trophies, etc. Especially if they are into sports. Maybe my kids are just overly sentimental.. but they NEVER want to part with ANYTHING. If I insist it leave their room, they want it to go into the attic.

2) Extra garage storage: I have an 11 yr old boy and an 8 yr old girl, and we have 2 scooters, 2 tricycles (one is that new razor 360 thing), 2 bicycles, bike helmets, fishing poles for each, etc. There is just not enough room for all the stuff to be accessible in a standard garage (and still have 2 cars in it and my husband's weight lifting machines and the lawn mower, blower, edger, brooms, fertilizer spreader, etc). If you can get wall shelf space organized well, you can at least have designated space for things like coolers, tool boxes, tackle boxes, seasonal wreath boxes, outdoor Xmas decorations, charcoal for the grill, flower and vegetable garden fertilizer and potting soil, etc.
Believe me... the longer you stay in one place... the more of this kind of space you need. The more interested in yard work or improvement you become (or your kids want to plant a vegetable garden) the more "stuff" you have to have. And it all becomes a mess if you have no space to organize it.
3) indoor closet/pantry space: You really do need adequate space to stock up on bulky items when they are on sale (think big packages of paper towels, toilet tissue, laundry soap, garbage bags, canned goods). You can save almost half price on these things if you buy when they are on a good sale and store it instead of waiting until you need it.

2.5 bath (So guests don't have to use the kids bathroom)
Lots of Cabinets and lots of counter space for sure in the kitchen
Large bedrooms
Walk in Pantry
Lots of closets space/storage
Study/computer room
Gameroom/play room (I like the suggestion of a finished basement for this)
Guest bedroom
Newer appliances -- double oven? If you cook a lot, this will spoil you. It's really very nice to have and makes dinners SO much easier.
Newer central air/heating
2 car garage

I personally think having a formal living room, foyer and a formal dining is a waste of space for my family. I would much rather have a playroom and a study for the same square footage. I don't know how much you entertain - so thats up to you.

We have a house that's 2100sqft and I really like it for our family. It's three bedrooms and every room is very large. The living room is 22x14 - very big and open. I love how open the house feels. We have bunk beds, and a crib in one room with furniture and it fits just fine! Look at room sizes, they matter. I just wish this house didn't have a formal dining area. We've turned it into our study. If I could have this house with a study and a playroom - it would be perfect! (We don't get basements in Texas)

Good luck on your hunt.

Hi Lisa,

We just moved to a bigger house. The things we love about our house...
1) the finished walk out basement. It's a great place for the kids to play and to entertain.
2) the den which is currently the toy room for the kids games and books. Keeps the toys out of the great room.
3) the huge kitchen. This is where the family hangs out after school while I cook dinner and the kids do their homework.
4)The big closets.

Some things I would change if I could....
1) I would love a bigger laundry room. Ours is very small and it is hard to do laundry for 5 in it.
2) A pantry. I hate not having a pantry in our kitchen.
3) A mud room. This could also be incorporated into the laundry room if it was bigger. I hate not having a place for shoes, coats, and book bags.

Good Luck in finding your dream home!

I'd make a list of all the things you love about your house and all the things you hate.

I few of the things that would be in my dream home...
a large panty or a pantry cabinet
a mud room - I hate all the shoes and book bags in the kitchen (the back door opens into the kitchen)
an office area - it doesn't have to be a room, maybe just a quiet corner for the computer and a place to pay bills and organize paperwork
an area/playroom for the kids
a laundry room - mine is in the basement, friends of ours have a washer/dryer on the second floor in a large closet, great because you don't have to run up and down stairs, but no place for all the dirty laundry, it tends to get piled up in the hallway
storage area
a bathroom close to the back door, kids are playing outside and need to come in to use the bathroom, I don't want them tracking the mud through the house,

.

Do you have a realtor? If not find a realtor that has access to listingbook.com. Talk with the realtor and tell them what it is you need, looking for in extras and etc. Listingbook.com I have found is the best website for house hunting. It has just about all the info you need to totally research houses, market prices and is the most user friendly out of all the housing websites.

My husband and I just bought our house last year and unfortunately had to find a second realtor who has listingbook to be able to find all the info we needed to locate the right house for us. It seemed to me the other sites did not always seem current and caused a lot of frustration. I hope this helps and good luck, it's a jungle out there. lol