Dream House Must-Haves

Posted by Amy Long, Owner, Modern Farmhouse Glam on May 3rd 2022

Are you building a new house? Dreaming of a new construction or custom home? I'm sure you've started your list of must-have features in your dream home, right? Here's a list of some of my favorite features in our new home, plus some items that would be nice to add. What's on the top of your list?

KITCHEN MUST-HAVE LIST

Kitchen:

Large kitchen island-ours is 13'x6’, with seating for five+ at the island

Cabinets to the ceiling-makes your kitchen look grand

Extended counter space into the eat-in kitchen for a buffet area, for serving food

Pull-out spice rack next to the range

Pull-out cabinet next to the range for cookie sheets and cutting boards

Soft close drawers

Deep and wide cabinet drawers

Pull-out drawer cabinets all along the buffet

Large quality, impressive appliances show the caliber of your kitchen

Range with two ovens-extra large and small one, plus a wall oven

Warming lights on the range hood

Pull out garbage can cabinet

Large walk-in pantry, add outlets

Water bottle filler

Two dishwashers-working on this one!;)

Two microwaves

Under cabinet outlets

Under cabinet lighting

Reverse osmosis and soft water systems

Laundry Room:

Extra refrigerator-we love having the extra fridge in the laundry room rather than the garage.

Master bedroom closet connecting to the laundry room-this is so convenient! We have a door that goes from the master closet to the laundry room

Custom shoe holder and bench seating

Custom laundry basket holder

Plenty of storage and large space

Counter space-lots of it

Pull-out garbage can cabinet

DIY Shiplap Wall

2 washing machines and 2 dryers

Upper cabinets on the other side going in soon, stay tuned!

Video of laundry room here

BACKYARD

Dream Backyard Must-Have List:

Plenty of outdoor electrical PLUGS and HOSE BIBS-we underestimated how many we needed! Go with WAY more than you think you'll need, in every possible spot!

DIY Porch Bed Swing

DIY Smokeless Fire Pit

Propane Fire Table

Beautiful flowering plants, like our White Iceberg Roses

Vegetable Garden

Sunflower Patch

Comfortable Outdoor Furniture/Patio Set

Outdoor Kitchen and Bbq Area

Pizza Oven

Fireplace

High Quality Speaker for playing Music

Travertine- LOVE this stone, it is gorgeous

Viewing deck- we want to add this to our future outdoor kitchen

Security cameras

Good outdoor lighting

Sunset Views

Large open artificial TURF or real grass area

Video of backyard here

Video of DIY queen size bed swing here

GREATROOM/LIVINGROOM

Livingroom:

Large open concept greatroom

24 ft rolling wall of glass-opens the indoors to the outdoors. This is such a hit at parties!

7 1/4 inch baseboards-makes your house look grand! So glad we went for this upgrade

Quality flooring-we went with wood-look porcelain tile and are SO happy with it.

Conversation area

Separate area for comfy movie watching on a large sectional couch

Faux wood beams- we just had these installed in our home! Video here!

DIY Stone Accent Wall- Before and After Video Here

Lots of windows and natural light

Wide hallways

Here's our Conversation Area below. It's the space that everyone gravitates to because of the comfy chairs and seating set up in a circle for talking.

Shop My Home Decor and Furniture, Rugs, Lighting

QUALITY FLOORING!

Our flooring in wood-look porcelain tile. I consider porcelain tile to be the "gold standard" when it comes to flooring material. Flooring is one most important design choice in your home. Especially if it’s a large home. It sets the stage for the rest of your design.

I wanted something extremely durable and predictable, rather than trying out some of the newer products out there. The wood-look of this tile is gorgeous and I love the variation in the look of the grain. With so much floor space in our new home, I wanted to go with something top of the line and high quality.

Since I wanted white cabinets and light gray walls, we chose flooring that was a warm tone so that the space would not look sterile. The warm wood-look floors warm up and brighten up the neutral whites and grays. It’s a perfect balance.

Note: Installing porcelain tile is more expensive than LVT. Still worth it!

Details on our flooring:

The builder used a local company to supply our flooring. Wish I could give you a link!

HERE'S AN OPTION I FOUND AVAILABLE ONLINE THAT LOOKS SIMILAR.

Here's another flooring option that looks very similar to mine

Here is a 3rd flooring option that I found online that looks similar and has many color options.

Our planks are 8“ x 32”

10mm

I highly recommend that you get your porcelain tile and grout sealed. This will keep your grout lines and tile from looking dirty.

We selected a dark grout, which is also a key step in maintaining the clean look of your tile.

Why I love this flooring rather than alternatives like LVT, laminate, hardwood:

Durability- tile is a harder material than wood or vinyl plank, therefore more resistant to scratches, cracks, dings and dents, fading.
Water resistant. The wood look porcelain tile we chose looks similar to hardwood without the downsides. No issues with water damage, as with hardwood. Cleaning upkeep. Pet friendly. Scratches.
Tile does not warp of buckle like LVT can
Easy to clean (def get your tile and grout SEALED- it makes a HUGE difference)

Why I would NEER do hardwood floors again: We had hardwood floors in a home that we rented out. The tenants had a pipe that leaked on the toilet and did not know to put it into the bathtub to drain. Consequently, in the 15 minutes it took for us to get over there to shut off the water, there was an inch and a half of water across all of the flooring. The entire house of tile had to be replaced. What a nightmare.

Double RV garage:

My husband’s dream come true

It’s fully air conditioned and heated.

Plenty of room for storing boats, RVs, and dune buggies.

It's also a great bonus area in the summertime when it's too hot in Phoenix to be outside. the air conditioned RV area is perfect for doing DIY home projects in the summer.

It’s so nice to keep all of the garage storage items in the RV garage, which frees up the regular attached 4-car garage for cars and kids bikes, etc.

HOME THEATER

Theater Room:

Comfortable electric reclining seating with LED lighting

It’s so nice having a secondary option for a room to watch TV

Master Bedroom:

Door access to the outdoor patio

Seating area

Coffee bar in the master bedroom/bathroom area

Large custom master closet with chandelier. Windows in closet for natural light.

Board and Batten Wood Trim

Master Bathroom:

Hot water speed-We almost didn't do this upgrade and I'm really glad we did! If you have a large house, this is a must-have. You don't want to have to wait for the hot water to heat up on the sides of the house that area furthest from the hot water tank in the garage.

Extra large shower with double shower heads

Coffee bar

Separate his and hers sinks and vanities

Makeup storage vanity

Chandelier over the bathtub adds glam

Custom Master Closet:

Click on the pics for more details

Having windows in the closet is great for letting in natural light

Home Office:

Use a large dining room table for your desk-provides lots of open working space

Storage

Windows facing the front of the house, with lots of natural light

Built in custom storage, storage is so key in an office to minimize clutter

Barrel Room:

This is a home wine bar, entertaining area

Wooden wine bottle holder

Modern, chic furniture, like our black velvet loveseat and leather cigar chairs create ambience

Teen Room:

It's great having a separate area for the kids to hang out with their friends

Casita:

It’s so nice to have a separate entrance suite for our guests. This room can also be used for other purposes like a craft room or storage room.

OTHER GENERAL MUST-HAVES:

Single story

High quality flooring throughout

Storage

Large lot, privacy from neighbors-we are next to an open grass field, so no neighbor on one side and nobody behind us

ITEMS ON MY MUST NOT HAVE LIST:

POOL-We didn’t like having a pool bc:

1. It was a constant worry with our kids/the kids’ friends/our friends with little ones. The fence was necessary, but looked terrible. Plus still not without risk/liability/worry of kids sneaking in somehow.

2. It took up a huge part of the yard that could have been used otherwise for the majority of the year. In Phoenix it’s only hot enough for swimming for 3-4 months and during that time we didn’t want to be out in the heat/sun anyway. Instead we love having an open area with turf for throwing football, volleyball, etc. which can be done year round

3. Expensive investment, which did not add value to our home or get used as much as we thought. Weekly maintenance/expense, which especially gets annoying for the 9 months when we weren’t using it.

4. When the kids were little, it was not really fun sitting out in the heat watching them swim. As they get older, they only have fun swimming if they’re with their friends or else it’s boring.

Watch my VIDEO for more on why we didn't put a pool in our new home. We put one in our last house and regretted it.

MARBLE COUNTERTOPS

HARDWOOD FLOORING

OUTDOOR SPORT COURT OF BASKETBALL COURT-we decided this would take up too much room and the kids would not use it as much as we would think. Like everything else the novelty wears off and then you’re stuck with an expensive item that’s not used.

QUARTZ

DARK COLORED BASEBOARDS-shows too much dirt

TOO MANY OPEN SHELVES

FLOATING SHELVES SURROUNDING LIVINGROOM TV AREA-way too much clutter

Here are some additional tips that I have in my Instagram stories: