When you bought your house--what did you compromise on?

[Anonymous]

DH and I are looking to buy our first house right now and we're realizing that we're not going to find something that is "perfect" in our price range.

We know we're going to have to compromise on something--what did you feel like you had to compromise from your original list of "must haves" or "really wants" in your home?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

We decided we could live without a family room, large kitchen, off-street parking, and a first-floor guest suite (which we wanted for visiting grandparents). We did not compromise on location or condition. We love our house.

[Anonymous]

We ended up going with a house that doesn't have great curb appeal and was decorated in a fashion that put a lot of people off (e.g. every room was done in pink and green down to the carpeting and tile). What I like about our house -- it has great "bones" -- the rooms are good size and it has a nice layout -- so I knew that the changes that we needed to make would only be cosmetic, not structural. We chose to buy an existing home in an established neighborhood rather than a new home because we could get a good size home and a nice lot (1/2 acre) as opposed to a big house on a small lot (1/4 acre or less). We have a lot that has trees and is situated so that we are not staring into our neighbors windows. Since it is an established neighborhood, some of our neighbors have older children or are empty nesters. If we had purchased in a new community, there would probably be more young kids. That being said, we still have met lots of kids in our neighborhood and are lucky enough to have a fantastic family next door that has young kids as well. We also live on a cul de sac, which is a wonderful invention if you have children. Ours is pretty small, so the other kids in the neighborhood all come to our street to ride their bikes together.

[Anonymous]

I feel really lucky - we love our house. However I have heard our high school is not great (elementary is) so we will likely move at some point in the next 10 years or so if we can't do private/magnets, etc.

We have a great location, great neighborhood with lots of parks, bike/walk trails, lots of young families, it's very safe, Metro within walking (which is key because we only have one car), great yard, and plenty of room for now.

A few things I don't like about our house: because it was built in the 1940s the downstairs is small rooms - I would much rather have a big open kitchen than a medium size kitchen and a smallish dining room and a medium size living room. Also, we have a good size bedroom but only one bathroom upstairs, and it really needs to be upgraded!

Next spring we are knocking out our garage so we can expand and double the size of the kitchen, and hopefully knock out a wall in between the kitchen and dining room, so I will have my dream of a big, spacious kitchen that opens into a living room space!!! My uncle is an architect and he has already drawn up the plans for the kitchen/garage (just need to figure out if the dining room/kitchen idea is doable as well).

I would also like to put on some sort of deck or something. We have a great screened in porch but it would be nice to have some more usable outdoor space. Oh, and our front porch and driveway are kind of eye-sores and need to be re-done at some point. But we have a great front and back yard (husband takes good care of it) and some really beautiful trees, flowers, and bushes.

This is our first house so I wasn't really expecting our dream house, but it's been a wonderful place to start our family so far! Good luck on buying....

[Anonymous]

We wanted to be a close-in neighborhood so we compromised on a lot of things. We knew we likely wouldn't get a garage, and would have to look at older homes (smaller rooms, smaller/fewer bathrooms, etc.)

We ended up with a 3br/2ba in a great neighborhood in Arlington, close to everything, great schools, great neighbors. I would not have done anything differently.

A lot of our friends ended up with 4br/3ba houses with garages etc. outside the Beltway but I wasn't interested in that lifestyle. It's worked out great for us - close to work, family, friends, everything.

[Anonymous]

We loved our house! I wouldn't necessarily call it a compromise, but DH and I moved from Capitol HIll, which we loved (I lived there for 13 years) to Michigan Park. We got so much more house and so much yard for the money! We thought we would miss Capitol Hill, and of course there will be some things about Cap HIll that I'll always miss, but I love this neighborhood so much more! Our new neighbors came to our house with brownies and flowers -- who does that in DC? And the neighborhood is fantastic. So I guess we THOUGHT we were compromising on neighborhood to get more house, but it turned out to be another bonus.

OP, one thing I can say is your home will be your home once you buy it.

[Anonymous]

Honestly we compromised on nothing. This house met all our conditions, some of which are exacting and quirky.

How, you might ask? We looked for more than 2 years and were in no hurry to buy. We just keep looking, and looking, and looking ....

[Anonymous]

I had a pretty short list of "must haves" when we started looking at houses - I wanted our own door to the outside, at least one window in the kitchen, and a small yard. As we looked at house after house, we started to build a list of other things we wanted in a home - my husband realized he really liked the idea of a basement, we both preferred a home with two floors, etc. I think going in without one set vision of what the perfect home might be made finding a house we both really love much easier.

[Anonymous]

We compromised A LOT! What we wouldn't compromise was the area and the neighborhood since we knew we would be having a baby soon thereafter. We found an adorable house that needed so much work, not structural, but it's an old, sturdy, full of charm house with a big yard. We plan on having an addition to add a kitchen/sitting room and a master bedrrom/bath upstairs. Presently, our home has 2 bedrooms, a living room with a fireplace, dining room, full bath, and very tiny kitchen (an extension built in 1968) on the first floor and the downstairs has a family room with a fireplace, my husband's office, another bedroom that is my son's playroom, a laundry room and full bath. Our home is definitely considered small, but we love the charm and it's oldness. Children play outside without their parents hovering in our neighborhood, people walking their dogs-when we were having our front door refinished, we were doorless for 5 nights.

Make a list of what is a must have and when you find something you really like, look past the decor or whatever is blinding you. When I was condo shopping in the early 90s, I passed up a lot of great places because I couldn't get past the clutter or decor. Our house turned into a beauty.

[Anonymous]

We have been house-hunting, but I don't think we're going to have to compromise on much: my husband could live in a tent and be happy. More than anything, we just want to make sure it's structurally sound. We'll go for a cheaper house that needs renovation if it's an otherwise solid house (in our target neighborhood, etc.) I'm probably the one that cares more about layout, decor and features.

[Anonymous]

We moved from the outer suburbs (Loudoun County) to live inside the beltway. we now live in Arlington and LOVE it. What did we compromise on? Size of house. For what we paid, we could've gotten a much much bigger newer home than the 1941 house we bought. But, we got a well built WWII home, close to everything AND a reverse commute. On weekends we never take major roads (I66, the beltway) to get anywhere because we can use surface roads. We moved closer to our jobs, too, which helped out with our quality of life in a huge way.

Everyone thought we were crazy for moving closer in to town because of the dinky house we got. We've since put an addition on our house with the equity we built up by moving here (before the boom and bust). We never regretted our decision to move closer in to a smaller house.

[Anonymous]

We compromised on a 2nd bath (still in plans to add it at some point in time), age of the house (1930's), and a garage. But we're happy with everything else we got.

[Anonymous]

I almost could have written 21:44's post - our situation is very similar. For us, location, good public schools, and a house with good bones were the essential requirements. Our house needs extensive cosmetic work, and we've been slowly making progress over the past several years (we're also pretty fiscally cautious, which is the reason we're taking our sweet time). Do I love living in a house that is taking forever to renovate? No way. But I'm happy with our situation - we love our neighborhood, our commutes, our schools, our lot, and we love what our house is slooooowwwwly becoming. We've also been really lucky in that our neighbors are great - and that was something we couldn't have predicted or controlled. We bought during the boom, yet because we bought "ugly", we didn't have to pay a premium for someone else's taste.

So yeah, renovations! That's pretty much what we compromised on.

[Anonymous]

Our must-have list was (beyond having min of 3 br and 2 full baths): (a) location in Arlington or Mclean, (b) cul-de-sac location, (c) great schools, (d) guestroom + bath for visitors, (e) good sized yard, (f) open family/kitchen floorplan, (g) closets - the more the better, (h) garage and (i) no MAJOR renovations required b/c we had just finished totally gutting and updating our home and I was tired of construction. In the end we had to give up the garage and the cul-de-sac. The square footage was also a bit smaller than we would have liked but everything else was spot-on. That being said, after 3 years we've realized we still really want that garage and a more quiet street (we've got a pretty steady stream of cars which makes me nervous with the kids on the sidewalk) so now we'll be moving again some time in the future!

[Anonymous]

We bought a fixer-upper in a great neighborhood we could not otherwise have been able to afford. It had to have a master bath (check) it had to have a big yard (check) and it had to be on a no-through-traffic block (check).

It's needed a total overhaul: new kitchen, updated baths, totally new landscaping, new fence, new paint, refinished floors, new family room. We borrowed money to do it, slowly, and it's about 3/4 finished.

But I'm very happy. We live on a block we can't afford to buy on even now and it's really quiet and nice. We're in debt, and can't sell the darn thing because prices in our area have dropped so much, but we still get to live in a nice place, and that's what counts for me.