We knew there would be trade-offs with the new house, but we’re starting to experience them on a first-hand basis now…

THE KITCHEN

We could tell the kitchen was smaller. We had a square kitchen with a bar/island in the old house and this is more a galley-style kitchen. However, we counted the cabinets and saw that all we would be missing (storage- and counter-wise) was the island…which, granted is quite a bit of space, but we didn’t think it would be that drastic. Key words? DIDN’T THINK. Wow. The counter space we have is EXTREMELY limited: we have four sections that are maybe 18″ each (one on either side of the stove and either side of the sink). This leaves barely any room to set plates out for dinner and chop something at the same time. Or put the rice cooker and a plate on the counter, let alone chop something. So, our first purchase is going to be an island of some sort, probably rolling, so we can have more workspace, plus a little more storage space. OH, I almost forgot…yes, we do have about the same number of cabinets (minus the island, of course), but guess what? They’re ALL smaller in width! Where we used to be able to fit the mixing bowls next to the measuring cups, we no longer can! Each cabinet is at least 3″ smaller than we are used to…which adds up over an entire kitchen.

THE OFFICE

Granted we could have put our office in one of the bedrooms, but we chose to put it in the “sunroom” off the fourth bedroom (or bonus room) so we could have a dedicated guest room and a dedicated way-in-the-future nursery (besides, we wanted the office off the living room). Anyway, we thought we had a small office at the old house…but this is about 3′ shorter on one side, so we can’t fit quite as much stuff in as we did before. It will work, but it’s a little cramped.

BUT ON THE FLIP SIDE…

THE MASTER SUITE

We have a REAL honest-to-goodness master suite now, with a nice-sized bathroom we can BOTH fit in at the same time! With a double vanity and drawers (oh, to finally have drawers again!). And we haven’t finished arranging the bedroom yet, but there’s lots more space in there as well—not just a walkway around the bed! And we have a gorgeous 118″ triple window.

THE FOURTH BEDROOM

Pure and simple, we have a fourth bedroom which we didn’t have before! We are using it as our living room (i.e. room where the TV is) because I didn’t want a TV downstairs.

THE GARAGE

It’s larger than our previous garage, plus it’s nicer (has a brick foundation), plus it has TWO garage doors instead of one (so Tom can keep his side closed to hide all the woodworking stuff).

THE DINING ROOM

We had a dining room before, but it was small. And even moreso when the table was fully extended. Now we will have the table fully extended at all times (or so we think—we haven’t actually tried it yet) and no one will hit their head on the pot rack anymore!

So…there are trade-offs. You’d think spending as much as we did on this house there wouldn’t have to be any, but I don’t think there is such a thing as the perfect house—unless you have it custom built (speaking of—dad, get ready for when we come home to Michigan!). We looked at houses on the same street with much better kitchens, but there was always something else about the house that turned us off. So, hopefully the island will take care of our kitchen issues and we’ll be all set! Now it’s just a matter of finding one the perfect size that isn’t $400!