Empty Nest? Now we're adding the second nest! Ideas Needed!

Parent Cafe
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<p>NO bottom cupboards in the kitchen—ONLY big deep drawers.
By the way…you EAT SCONES…SCONCES are what wall lights are called! (Sorry- I am in the lighting business!)</p>

<p>Thus…great lighting…low voltage/LED energy efficient. Also no recessed lighting over you dining room table—put in a great chandelier!</p>

<p>Perfect drainage----do it now so you will never have to do it later!</p>

<p>Love my REAL hardwood floors.</p>

<p>Lose the living room- Go for a great room.</p>

<p>Outdoor plugs up high for Christmas lights. No more extension cords!</p>

<p>Have fun with your design experience!</p>

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<p>Love, love, love the deep drawers idea in the kitchen. I will have to redo my kitchen soon, and I am definitely going to take this recommendation.</p>

<p>I moved my mother into a smaller house when we sold the family home, and I installed light fixtures with easy to change light bulbs. These included canned lights in the kitchen, and inexpensive, but pretty, light fixtures from Lowe’s and Home Depot with open bulbs. I am 5’2 and my mother is in a wheelchair, so we also purchased one of those long handled light bulb changers that my husband uses for our security lights at home.</p>

<p>The home I moved my mother into had terrazzo floors, which was awesome, because if there was ever a flood in the kitchen, no need to change the floors. This was especially appreciated after Katrina. We had installed very expensive hardwood floors in the bedroom, which were of course ruined, but we only had to clean the terrazzo floors that were in other areas of the house. But her neighbor who also had terrazzo said she had come to appreciate her terrazzo over the years when she had had overflowing dishwashers, washing machines, where she would have had to replace a floor had she not had the terrazzo.</p>

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<p>I haven’t worn a high heel since 1984, so no worries about cork!</p>

<p>I completely agree about drawers instead of lower cabinets. That’s what I had when I redid the kitchen in my old house and I loved them.</p>

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<p>Ilovedcollege, if you look back at post #17, I spelled sconce correctly even though I’m not in the lighting business:)</p>

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<p>^He/She was referring to my post. I do know the difference between scones and sconces but sometimes my fingers get ahead of my brain and if spell-check doesn’t kick (and why should it? They are both words), I don’t pick up on the error.</p>

<p>Now…if we could only get people to understand the difference between loose and lose - my personal pet peeve. :)</p>

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<p>Lots of outlets outside. We have one on our back fence near the table and chairs which is great for lights/fans in the summer. On high, the fans even help keep the mosquitoes away.
At least one faucet on each outside wall.<br>
Our small laundry room is between the great room and the garage. The original plan put the appliances on the house wall but I had them move it to the garage wall. Very little noise from the machines, but till close enough I can hear the buzzer when they’re through.
If you watch TV, a built in on the wall for a large screen, recorder, etc.
If you’re music lovers, speakers built into the walls of all living areas, plus the master bed & bath, and outside. We have pull-out shelving in a large recessed space under the stairs (could be on any wall with space on the other side) with the electrical in the back for all the stereo components. With pull-outs, husband can get to all the equipment to work on it and hook up new stuff. We love this!</p>

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<p>I am reading this thread with a pen and paper in hand. Please keep the suggestions coming. We are in the planning stages of building a beach house on the Jersey Shore that we will live in June to Sept. and visit when we need a getaway (once '12 DS goes to college). Our empty nest/dream home is three floors of reverse living (very common for the area) where there will be an elevator (yes, most of the houses have them these days) to shuttle our aging bones later or our groceries (now) from the garage to the kitchen. Love to hear if anyone has any experience with beach houses.</p>

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<p>Mud room. A room between the backyard and the family room, where all the wet stuff can go, the shoes can be out of the way, the coats can hang.</p>

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<p>We have a beach house. Outdoor shower is something we have greatly appreciated in summer, and also with lower tap, can wash feet/dogs, etc off before going in as well. </p>

<p>We happen to have a lot of lawn so we replaced it with clover so we never have to mow when we are there and instead can relax.</p>

<p>Large decks a must- we have I think maybe more deck than house, lol. And we added a ton of french doors that when opened onto the deck, create a very open space connecting indoors and outdoors. </p>

<p>If you can put in outdoor storage for the furniture cushions etc., that is nice (esp if they can do double-duty as another table or place to sit). And for under your deck, have it built so you can use the bottom part to store lots of water stuff/toys. </p>

<p>We also added several mini-cabins so that visitors can have privacy and currently the younger generation enjoys using those. But maybe only possible with a lot of land (we have 5 acres of forest on the water). </p>

<p>We have a lot of built in lighting into our railings of our deck and stairs which we have liked. Makes for a great ambience for evening dining and parties. </p>

<p>No carpet- thank god we didn’t do carpet as much ‘outdoors’ seems to come inside. </p>

<p>We also maxed out the possible windows and skylights. Probably my favorite is the skylight in the main bathroom.</p>

<p>We also angled the master to get a ocean and sunset view, with french doors leading to a big deck.</p>

<p>And I would add, every choice we made- from size, to materials- was with minimal maintenance involved. The LAST thing I want to do is worry about upkeeping another house so ours is basic/rustic, durable, and designed so the cleanup aspect is minimal.</p>

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<p>We live in an old house with an addition that we had put on so these are my suggestions:</p>

<p>Don’t have your outdoor living area facing west. Ours does and it’s too hot and bright to sit out there in the evening in the summer and that’s in a neighborhood with a lot of trees.</p>

<p>Don’t put in a fiberglass shower. Soap scum bonds to it and the only thing I’ve found that takes it off is oven cleaner which is not very environmentally friendly. </p>

<p>Do have two refrigerators in your kitchen if you can fit them in – one for drinks and one for food. We still use them both even though we are empty nesters. </p>

<p>Do have your laundry room upstairs. </p>

<p>Do have separate pullout bins for garbage and recycling. If you have them in the same pullout, you will end up with garbage in your recycling. We have a single for garbage and a double for recycling.</p>

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<p>^ not to derail thread, but fantastic solution to the scum you mention above is Vim or Cif…or whatever it might be called in the US. Love this stuff. </p>

<p>The Cif product is sold under the names Jif, Vim, Viss and Handy Andy, depending on which of the 51 countries it is sold in.
In Sweden, Great Britain, and South Africa the products were sold under the name Vim before this was changed to Jif, the launch name in Ireland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. In 2001 the name in these countries was changed to Cif in order to harmonise marketing and product inventories across the continent. In English, it not clear how to pronounce the name, some people pronounce Cif like [Kiff] and some people like [Siff], whereas with Jif it was clear how to pronounce it in English at least. Resultantly, many in Britain still refer to the product as Jif[citation needed].
In Belgium, Finland and Portugal, the product was known as Vim for quite some time, after which it became Jif. In Canada and India, it is still called Vim. Recently advertisements for cif surface grease cleaner have started to appear in India. While Vim name is still used for the kitchen dish cleaning product. In Germany, the cleaner’s name is Viss.</p>

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<p>Can you get it in the US?</p>

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<p>^I don’t know as we are in Canada now. I tried to look it up but couldn’t see if its available in the US. Our housekeeper from Indian recommended it and it’s amazing stuff.</p>

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<p>Doesn’t clover attract bees? I would have a lot of trouble relaxing in the middle of a swarm of bees.</p>

<p>My mom replaced a lot of her lawn with pachysandra to minimize lawn care, but you can’t walk through that, so she also had to put in several paths through it.</p>

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<p>Beach houses really need mud rooms, preferably with the washer/dryer right there and something where you can wash off feet before you ever get into the house.</p>

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<p>I had worried about bees too, but it seems to not be an issue for us (some bees but nothing unusual). But we are at the water with a breeze so maybe that makes a difference?</p>

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<p>Our home will have a small “mud” room off the garage on the first floor. I am unfamiliar with that term but I am sure that is what the vestibule area at the entrance to the stairs and elevator is called. There is a small closet there too. We are thinking of putting a basic washer/dryer (to supplement the second story ones) in the garage to use exclusively for the wet/sandy towels and bathing suits. I am thinking that the outdoor shower will be right near there. I am looking up Terrazo tile…sounds like a good choice for the first floor mud room and den/family room. We will probably just put rocks around the house. Most houses in that area do not have lawns. The mantra is LOW maintenance.</p>

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<p>Our current house has a small mudroom. Our next house will have a LARGE mudroom. It will be the place where all the coats, umbrellas, shoes, boots, hats, mittens, beach bags, flip flops, and all the other miscellaneous “stuff” that doesn’t need to be in the house will STOP. I have a friend with a great large mudroom that has a coat closet, two sets of wall mounted hook racks, and a wall of cubbies and shelves. None of the extraneous “stuff” comes into her house because it has a place in the mudroom. Our small one just isn’t big enough.</p>

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<p>We stayed in a ski-in/ski-out home and the whole basement was a mud/snow room which is the room you entered from the garage and from the ski slope. It was awesome and huge and organized with space for skis, boots, outerwear, laundry plus a large desk area for all the paperwork that might come in if you lived there instead of skied there and also a bathroom with shower in case you came in dirty as well as a dog wash area. If I had the budget, I would definitely pattern my year-around home after it. You just go upstairs without all your stuff and it’s very tranquil in the living space because the debris of daily living is downstairs out of sight. Of course, you get upstairs and look out at fabulous mountain views which I wouldn’t have in my daily house, but oh, well…</p>

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<p>We’re going to get a second house when the nest empties so we can spend part of the year elsewhere. ShawWife’s primary wish is a lake. Mine are warm-ish weather in the winter and access to mountains (and hopefully mountain views). What goes in the house is less important, though I saw perhaps the nicest house I’ve ever seen on a lake in Nova Scotia. Glorious. Nice features included heated floors, huge windows from the kitchen/dining/great room overlooking the lake, an extended walk-way down to the lake, passing by a hot tub. I’d opt for your mud room.</p>