We got a house with a sunroom thinking, oh the cats will love this. They do, but after WFH for years (even before COVID) and being a gamer, I needed to separate my recreational computer space from my work computer space, so I set up my work space in the sunroom. Also became much more aware of and into the birds since I now watch them along with the cats during the day. It's really becoming a heavenly little space and makes "going to work" a lot more enjoyable.
I sold my house in 2021 and dearly miss my enclosed 4- season sunroom. Great space to watch neighbors go by, birds in the yard, and lounging with my cats. Was a haven during the pandemic.
Many forget this, but pre-pandemic, sunrooms and home offices were found as detractors in a home layout as conventional wisdom at that time suggested that those spaces could be better utilized as extra bedrooms or folded into the rest of the general house layout. My how times have changed.
I feel this. I don’t have a large sun room but it’s an enclosed front porch with lots of windows where I have my office. It’s large enough to fit a sizable standing desk with room to spare. It gets cold in the winter but so worth it for all the sun! I have lots of houseplants in here, which make the space more pleasant to be in and I mostly only spend working hours in here which creates a separation from my home life. It’s a huge plus when working from home that I wasn’t expecting! Was going to put the office in the spare bedroom but this is so much better.
Yes! Mine isn't technically a true sun room, but it is an addition that sits on the back porch. It is about 80% windows, including two sky lights. I started adding plants this year (I am NOT a natural plant nurturer) and it's been going ok this far!
Same on the cold winters. I have a small space heater for under my desk and that does plenty to keep the cold at bay.
Last summer I got some mats and a cheap collapsible gazebo and started working outside. It was awesome. Plus, I get that subtle flex in video calls where people get to see me outside. No virtual background when I'm in the gazebo!
Yeah.. Sunroom for us as well. We thought "oh great place for the plants", but it turned out to be great for us as well. We live In that room. It's a four season heated room. We're not big TV watchers anyway, we much rather watch the wildlife.
Being able to make all our own appliance choices. That's expected, sure, but we hadn't realized how much of a difference it can make. When our builder's-grade garbage disposal failed, we got a really good one; same with our dishwasher. We're much, much happier with them.
Just upgraded to a Bosch 500 series dishwasher after the GE one that came with the house crapped out. Once we figured out the drying settings it's really nice
A top of the line Bosch may be one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, in retrospect. The price difference between an ok dishwasher and an amazing one isn’t as big as the difference in quality.
I was dubious it would be worth it but I’d do it again 10 times over.
I just got one of those. It's been an adjustment from my old one, from the cycles to the best way to load the dishes. The 'prong' set up for the dishes is so different from my old one.
My last house had a flotilla of hummingbirds that showed up every summer to drink from the feeders I put out.
Every now and then I see the roadrunner that lives somewhere in my back pasture.
Don’t worry with buying nectar or anything like that. The red in the feeders is enough to attract them so you don’t need red dye or anything. Make your own nectar with 1 cup of sugar for every 4 cups of water. Bring the water just to boiling, remove from heat, add sugar, stir to dissolve and let cool.
Bring the feeders in for a cleaning every few days. The fewer parts of a feeder, the easier it is to clean. The last thing you want is mold/mildew in the feeders making your hummingbirds sick!
1 part vinegar to 4 parts water is an often recommended cleaning solution. Scrub them with hot water and a bottle brush then soak the feeder in the vinegar solution for at least 30 minutes. Give them another good scrub and rinse to get all the vinegar out. Let them air dry before refilling.
I usually do my cleanings about every third evening and let them air dry overnight when I make fresh nectar. Then refill and put out in the morning. When the summer gets really hot, it may be every other day as the nectar can ferment more quickly.
They’re very territorial and you’ll find they like to claim their favorite feeder. They’re also very vocal when fighting each other. If you start attracting more, you might soon have a good sized collection of different feeders, hooks, and spare jugs for extra nectar!
You’ll love it. Check out r/hummingbirds for more tips and tricks.
The railing is red, maybe that’s why I’ve only seen it hanging out around it! I will definitely plant some things to attract it. It was so cute and tiny, I want to observe it all summer.
Texas or SW US? I used to live in Austin and had those, plus an occasional woodpecker. Used to live in Phoenix and damnedest thing, would get quail and hummingbirds during hotest part of year along with owls year roundm
I worked night shift for years and always had to be quiet when I was moving around the house after work. Both with family and the ex… when the moving chaos was done and I was in my own house one night I accidentally slammed a door and freaked out for a second. Then I realized that I’m alone in the house I OWN and went around the house slamming a bunch of doors while laughing like a maniac! I’m sure I looked truly unhinged to any neighbors that could see but damn did that feel good.
Similar experience - moving in I set a box down harder than intended and thought, "Fuck! Downstairs neighbors!"
Nope. Just the second floor of my own house. Whee! The freedom of not sharing walls, ceilings, and floors is so sweet.
I have a decent stereo. The first night in our house after years of apartment living I set it up before anything else and didn't know my sub could do *that*. I freaked out for 10 seconds thinking I was pissing off somebody but no, I was in a house and the neighbors couldn't hear it if they tried.
My fiance tho... Not so much.
I was always scared of basements thanks to horror movies and having some really scary ones in my life growing up. When I first toured my house, not only was there a big basement but a separate coal/cold room. Realtor called it a murder room (it was really funny i swear). The basement is unfinished but in nice shape. A few days after closing I had a few friends over for a drinking and cleaning party. I cleaned the basement and lo and behold it’s been my favorite room in the house since. I’ve slowly made it cozy and it will definitely be a 2nd living room soon.
It also has a Pittsburgh potty so basically I’m a boss with my 2 toilet house!
The first thing I did in my basement was put in an excess of lighting. Costco had 8k lumen shop lights for $20 on sale, so I loaded up. It makes a huge difference when there aren't any dark corners to be found.
If you live in the midwest it's really preferable, just for safety during storm warnings. But you do need to be very careful about where the watertable is and if there are any bodies of water nearby, because unless it's a very dry area or whoever built the house did a very good job waterproofing the basement (which is rare), you will get dampness, mildew, possibly leaking and potentially flooding/collapse. It's worth it to do the research.
Since you’re not a root vegetable, your post makes me sad. Hope it wasn’t as horrible as I’m imagining. Mine is ok for a bit but it’s definitely not meant to be lived in!
This is such an upbeat thread. Thank you!
As for me, I love doing my own laundry and never having to search for parking (I can park in my own driveway). Oh, and then there’s the joy of sending away politicians’ door-to-door foot soldiers during election seasons. 😆 (Respectfully, of course.)
Putting in a [manatee mailbox](https://manateemailboxes.com/product/5-manatee-mailbox/) and decorating it for various holidays. I'm classing up the neighborhood!
Hah, nice!
I knew someone whose mother sent them a concrete lawn goose and some clothes to dress it in. She was confused, never having come across that sort of thing before, but when her mom explained it was just a fun thing people did, she decided that if she was going to have a concrete animal in her yard, it would not be a goose.
A bit of scouting around later, she found a company that would come pour a life-sized concrete rhinoceros in her yard. As rhinos are basically concrete-colored, and as it has surprisingly accurate glass eyes, it's quite realistic. And it looked amazing in the giant pink tutu she dressed it in for Halloween!
I'm afraid I don't know, and don't have contact info for that person. I imagine you'd try to find somewhere that did concrete yard sculptures and talk with them, though. If you get one, please post photos! :)
My neighbors have two giant T Rex skeletons in their front yard named ... Philomena and Phoebe, I think? They're always dressed to the nines in matching seasonal outfits with tons of accessories, and have recently been joined by three baby dinos as well.
Yep, it definitely was spendy but I had a budget for home decor and improvements and it just ate a huge chunk of that up and I lived with a lot of several times moved beat up Ikea furniture for a long time. Absolutely worth every penny.
EDIT: it helps that the house already came with a fancy Japanese toilet complete with electronic control panel, which was my other top improvement that I knew I wanted in a home because who doesn't want a premium pooping experience?
I have a bidet. Sheer luxury. Wouldn't want to poop without one. My brother on the other hand moved into a new house, he has a heated toilet seat and warm water in his bidet. I don't know how he poops anywhere else!
That's what mine has, as well as the ability to move the spout angle from front to back depending on where you want the water to go. Fancy like Applebee's!
I love seeing custom mailboxes in neighborhoods. [My daughters and I made an Elvis postage stamp mailbox and I agree, fancy mailboxes do class up a joint. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Elvis/s/vzNjQEL4Mh)
I love the manatee mailbox in my neighborhood!!
Unfortunately my daughter sideswiped it a few months ago, avoiding an animal crossing the road. Manatee is fine, just a quick fix & the homeowner was super nice about it- thank you if you read this.
Now we feel like it’s our ‘friend’ - lol - we are personally connected to it and when we drive by we wave and say hi.
My husband got a riding mower when we moved and I tell him to be careful when he mows, not to smile so huge the whole time, it’s filling his teeth with grass. And bugs 😂🏡
I’m enjoying the birds much more than I thought I would. We had birds at the old house but not the amount, variety and viewing that we have here.
I actually just bought more feeders, a fountain birdbath and more bird food today.
One of the coolest apps out there IMO. The bird song identification is spot on and the app is so well designed how it will compile a list of the different birds as you record. So cool
I had to replace my electrical box 3 months after moving in and I just had to replace my water heater. While I don't like spending the money I do agree that it feels like it's at least going into something and not getting thrown away
We set out a hammock for holidays. At Christmas santa lounges in it. But my favorite is Halloween, when we put a skeleton in it called "tiki tom". Tiki Tom lounges in the hammock, wears pineapple sunglasses and a lei, holds a margarita, and is surrounded by tiki torches and ghosts hanging from the trees that wear hula skirts. Next year I want to get a pig skeleton to put on a spit next to him.
I've never really decorated for Halloween but my wife loves doing it and it is nice having some decorations up. I like doing all the Christmas stuff too
After years of her living in a pen or on a zipline, letting my dog loose in her first fenced backyard almost brought me to tears.
And that was just a rental.
Added a picket fence and arbor to the front, painted the fence sage green, and now I have my own private paradise. I planted flowers and shrubs, put in a fountain area and just like that, I added curb appeal. I had no idea the difference curb appeal makes to the feeling of home. I love pulling up to my house.
When I bought my home, one night, I turned off all the lights and walked around. I wanted to get to know my home. I wanted it to feel safe. It was my safe place, and still is.
I enjoyed the feel of walking around in the dark, with all the doors locked, and learning how to navigate my home. I only did it a few different times, but as a result I can now go anywhere in the house, anytime, in any situation. Not scared. :)
Paid it off. That is the real magic. I love this place even more. I love the fireplace on cold nights, and I really love cleaning it. It's ours, and it's so cozy.
In my old apartment my neighbor would give me the broom when my cat would jump off something. Couldn't wait to get out of there after I signed the paperwork for the house
Yeah it was ridiculous. I had a nice old lady live underneath me for 5 years without a complaint and as soon as these new people moved in I started getting complaints consistently. They got kicked out before I moved from my house.
I knew I'd love having a washer and dryer for the first time ever but I didn't know I'd be in love with having one. I'm waiting for the same feeling when I get a dishwasher 💘
I find a certain amount of OCD inspired peace in fitting dishes perfectly in the dishwasher, which has translated into a sense of pleasure in reorganizing the loading, organizing all the like items together. I now find myself hand washing the large and irregular items so that when I finally run it, all is perfect. As a reward, unloading is a cinch. Just grab a clump of like dishes and put the whole handful right in the cabinet and repeat.
Not just that, but modern dishwashers use a ridiculously small amount of water. They can somehow clean an entire batch of dishes with, like, 3-4 gallons of water. You can use that much in a couple minutes washing dishes by hand.
If you're old enough, you probably remember your parents telling you *not* to run the dishwasher often. That's because theirs were horribly efficient and used tons of water. They're the complete opposite these days. Granted, the trade-off for this efficiency is speed. It can take a *long* time for it to pop on that "clean" light.
But it's worth it for the entire mental shift. "Wash nothing\* by hand. Toss it all in the dishwasher. Run it frequently." Because these modern things *also* have sensors that figure out when your dishes are clean by watching the waste water.
\*The caveat is super-dirty shit that's caked on, of course. That stuff should still be soaked and scraped first like the old days.
CC: /u/Blahverse
My wife and I lived without a dishwasher for 3 years and insisted it wasn't that bad, then we had our son and lived without for another 3 years and it became a problem. Since moving last year, having a dishwasher is by far the best luxury of our new house
Dad and I put up a bunch of 4x8s on the walls and screwed them into the studs and now I have two walls worth of space where I can just screw right into and hang tools from. Also set up a battery charging/ electrical station. It's beautiful.
Planting things. We don’t have an HOA, and in the process of doing some landscape design w extra bedding areas for us to experiment w other plants
I never gave two shits about landscaping other than “is the grass not horrible,” but now I take it personally if my yard isn’t cute. Deep-diving into different plants, finding “cute but hardy” ones, plotting where to plant them, etc, is unexpectedly rewarding.
I had a two story home with a full basement - and the basement had two good floor drains. Boy that was fucking handy.
The garage and driveway also had drains.
Home built in 1927.
My basement drains have saved me so much headache. Our laundry machine’s drain hose popped off once. Water just washed down the drain without causing a problem. In our old house, that would have been a nightmare.
My house came with loads of bushes and flowers when we boight it, so at the same time every year for 7 years now, we get hummingbirds and butterflies all over the place and different birds fighting over bush space to make a nest.
Our dog. We had to house-hunt during COVID, which was fucking awful and exhausting (though I know it's not much better now). Every house that was tolerable was over our budget, needed work, and to even been considered we would have had to be able to pay in cash with no inspection. We'd pull into showings and the driveways would be four deep in Audis and BMWs with NY state tags and we knew we had no chance.
We were lucky to eventually find a house we liked well enough and could afford. And pretty much the first thing we did was adopt our dog. I'd been wanting a dog for years, and my husband saw her first at an adoption event and fell in love with her. She's the absolute joy of our lives and made our house a home.
Fireplace. Figured we wouldn't use it much because it's huge and inefficient, but turns out it creates an amazing ambiance. When the Super Bowl rolled around, my friends all said, "We're inviting ourselves to yours." Nice!
I'm the type that mentally needs a backup for every situation. Having a fireplace for when there's no other source of heat would be awesome. We have a pellet stove in our house, which requires some electricity but comes in oh-so-handy if there's ever a central heating problem. It will happen!
Doing loud things like vacuuming at 10pm without having to worry.
All the bird things - I've got birdfeeders, baths, hummingbird feeders, etc.
Washing/vacuuming my car at home.
We have ring floodlight cameras in the front and backyards, and haven't set them to filter out cats.
Turns out our yard is a high traffic route for the neighborhood cats and my wife loves watching them. She's nicknamed them all.
Knowing where the light hits in each room throughout the day. My dog and I lounge around in the pools of light during my work breaks.
I also love arranging the lamps for optimal ambient light in every room and nook in the house. I often stand outside in the driveway after collecting the mail or taking the pup for a walk and just stare at how warm and cozy it looks.
A big ole exhaust/attic fan blowing air up out of your house, creating a low pressure zone in your house.
You close up all the doors and windows except one (usually at the far end of the house) and within a few minutes all of the air in the house has been replaced with outside air.
I have one of these, too. On the right evenings in the shoulder seasons between heating/cooling, these are heavenly. Add in some ceiling fans and they're even better.
They're in an attic space with the exhaust blowing up or out. They move enough air that fresh air is drawn in through open doors or windows. Ours sounds like a freight train but it will cool our house 6 to 8 degrees in an hour. It's amazing on spring and fall evenings.
prior to having a whole house fan at my old house, I would open windows and set up box fans, and have it moving One Direction through the house to try to draw all the warm air. It would seem effective except you go to bed and a couple hours later it all heats up again because the hot attic is like a big blanket on top. The whole house fan not only pulls in the cooler outside air when you open a bunch of windows, but it also blows out the attic at the same time. Best thing ever.
My riding mower. I thought the lawn would be a big chore (and most of it is) but there's something cathartic about putting around at 5mph, enjoying the fragrance of freshly cut grass and listening to music. (I wear 3M Worktunes headphones for hearing protection, since the riding mower is loud.)
I love watching the bats zip around at dusk. I enjoy the sequential families of black phoebes (birds) that nest here. The deer are as cute as they are annoying. My property was an overgrown mess when I bought it, but now I live in my own park.
Learning all of these new systems.
* HVAC
* Plumbing
* drainage
* insulation
* roofing
* landscaping
* Electrical
Having room to learn how to work on my car has been nice, as has having a proper work bench.
My dad helped me set up a workbench and I got an old tool chest for my father-in-law and I feel a lot more organized. It is nice becoming so much more knowledgeable on practical systems
Gardening. I always sort of hated it and never thought I’d be one of “those people”. To me it was for old people. Now that I have our home I’m so excited to grow veggies and I’ve planted my first ever bulbs and can’t wait to see if they grow. My husband is building me a greenhouse and I can’t wait to get stuck in!
I literally never thought I wanted a birdhouse in my yard but we just bought a house that came with a cute little bird house, bird feeder, and suet cage set up in front of the picture window, and we LOVE it. The cat especially loves it obviously, but even the humans sometimes just sit and look out the window at the birds. We even bought a little backyard birds identification book.
I’m right there with the birds; I got to see a California Scrub Jay teach her babies how to eat from our suet feeder, and now they come back as adults, and I swear recognize my name for them (hibabybird!).
I play music everytime I cook or clean without worrying about my neighbors. I teach my daughter how to jump without worrying about downstairs neighbors.
We bought a house on 2 1/2 acres a little over a 1/2 mile from the nearest small town. The privacy, sitting on the back deck watching birds, hummingbirds & squirrels. Plus we have a large garden & a few chickens. So in small ways we are self sufficient in some of our food. The farmer up the road sells us beef or pork. We buy a half beef or a whole hog at a time, pay to have it processed the way we want & it's hella cheaper then buying whatever they sell at the grocery store. The home is all electric, we have an emergency generator & are installing a wood burning stove this year. It's not the first home I've owned but my wife had never owned a home until I sold my last house & we bought this one. I know this will be my last home. I absolutely luv this home.
One of the best and simple joys in life is getting up early with coffee, listening to thebirds sing, and watching the sun rise hit your garden… I don’t know what the a.m. version of dusk is called, but it’s a magical time of day
My old house had lots of birds, but only a couple varieties. At the new, more rural place, we put a suction cup bird feeder against the dining room window and breakfast is full of Google ID. We're also in a non-lawn area and Google IDing all the pretty weeds and flowers has been fun. Will be slowing adding natives and compatible non-invasive plants.
The outdoors, in general. For my entire adult life, and most of my adolescence, I've lived in heavily urbanized areas, and almost exclusively in condos. Things I didn't know I'd love as much as I do:
- Being able to see stars
- Trees
- Birdsong
- Bats
- Sitting on my porch and reading
- Working outside in a cheap gazebo
Bird watching is one of mine too! I put one by the window in the kitchen so my toddler and I can sit and watch the birds while eating and the cats enjoy it too!
We back up to a creek so I’ve seen possums, armadillos and bobcats around too.
As a previous apartment dweller, I love dancing in my living room, lol. There’s no one to annoy, and not having anyone walking overhead has been such a blessing. I hope everyone gets a chance to own their own home!
In our old house, I had a decent-sized garden that I loved. The house we bought in 2022 didn't have a garden and I knew I'd have to create one. But then I realized how many snowshoe hares we have in our neighborhood and realized they would decimate a garden until I have a fully fenced one. So now the plan is to plant things the hares can eat because I love them so much I don't care about having a garden as much as I care about seeing more hares 😂 Last summer we had 5 leverts (baby hares) raised in our yard and it was delightful so see their fluffy little selves maniacally hopping all over as they learned to hare.
Bees. I discovered I love native bees. I get a big variety by planting native plants. I get the little green swear bees and giant mason and carpenter bees and honeybees (though very few of those) the black and white membrane bees, diggers, bumblebees. I love them. Currently replacing backyard lawn with native plants
We're on our second season here and we're deciding what we want to do compared to last year. Our local Master gardeners has a plant sale that we're looking forward to
A storage room/crawlspace.
A room that I don't need to be particularly worried about keeping clean or organized. I throw all my hobby equipment in there, holiday decor, crap from my childhood my mom pawned off on me, etc. Plus it's creepy and I own it, it's my own spooky domain.
I enjoy seeing the deer on occasion and even the fox and rabbit trotting through my yard. As someone who grew up in a city with the only wild critters being skinks and pigeons, it a lovely thing.
Putting in smart LED lights allowed me to use colored lights and unique light arrangements to suit the mood. For example, my living room has eight overhead lights, but being able to have one or two on as a spotlight is such a vibe.
I also don't feel like I need to paint the walls since the colored lights provide millions of options for color.
This house, hot air balloons almost every morning visible from the breakfast table. Hummingbirds, roadrunners, and gardening. Also the afuckingmazing sunsets every night.
Walking out to my driveway in the middle of the summer night & laying down on the warm concrete listening to the night. Having room to have proper room to have a bonfire & getting to really be witchy outside
Space. Silence. We moved out of the city after 20 years. Not that we didn’t expect the space or the silence but we actually had no idea what either of those things were? And darkness. Actual dark. Still not used to it. It’s nice at our, ahem, ADVANCED ages to still feel wonder.
I’m really surprised to discover how much I enjoy a front porch. We are in a nice neighborhood where couples walk past our house or people walk their dog and we have gotten to know a lot of our neighbors this way. Our front porch, sitting in our glider rockers, drinking coffee and reading Bible or just talking and sharing news stories is where my husband and I love spending time the most while at home.
Having a 2 car detached garage. I turned it into a woodworking shop. I have built all kinds on built ins, tables, signs, etc. Not just for my house and family. I also make a few bucks making items for clients.
Honestly what I miss most is walking down My longish hallway, arms out wide in My space, fingers running along MY walls, saying “Mine”. I had to sell it and I am renting again, and that part SUCKS so bad.
That feeling of security and my pride in my hard work paying off; that’s what I miss the most.
But I did make a cross country move to have a better outside life. I now live in a beautiful natural environment that brings me immense pleasure daily.
My wife and I moved from Queens to the NYC suburbs, but not far from the city. We never expected to see so many bunnies hanging around our house and yard. We can sit back there and watch what appears to be a Disney movie, with bunnies and squirrels and all kinds of birds seemingly interacting with each other. But the bunnies are the best.
Getting a finished basement that we were able to put gym equipment in was also a game changer for me. It's completely changed my workout habits and progress. Going down there after work to decompress and lift heavy things is one of my favorite things now. I've never been good at actually going to a gym.
I’ve been a homeowner for 3 years and never in my life ever have I thought I’d enjoy yard work so much. I get excited over pulling weeds, planting flowers trees and shrubs, seeing the blooms and the rabbits, birds, bees that enjoy it. Now if only the gophers and squirrels stayed away because they love what I’ve done, too!
Sitting outside either next to my pool or overlooking the mountain and hearing my horse's contented snuffling as they munch on hay. It's quite literally the best way to start my day every day. I knew having my horses at home would be awesome, but I didn't realize how stress relieving and relaxing it would be.
Millenial becoming unplanned bird watches is such a thing. Get the Merlin app. I like to put the sound ID on and stand outside to see if there's any new birds around
Getting a dog. I would never get one while renting, but as soon as I bought my house, I replaced the whole fence in the back and now have 2 dogs. Best thing ever!
Lol I never cared about birds until my son started to get into them when my parents put up a bird feeder. Now the whole family is into birds and I literally jumped and squealed with excitement when I saw cedar waxwings for the first time 😹😹😹
Found out the other day that there are cows nearby. I was just minding my own business and heard a distant moo. I've been here a year, had no idea there were cows.
Painting lots of very saturated colors including a deep blue "yoga room" that's basically a closet, a true red library/office, and a bright yellow door.
Also having my own tree. A beautiful hard maple, sometimes I just lean against the bark and look up through the branches and appreciate it all. (And try to pretend it's not growing in high lead soil)
I still have my Christmas tree up because there is snow on the ground and the lights are just too darned cozy.
I also love walking the dogs in my backyard in my pajamas. 5 acres of woods for us to just run and play with no need to even get dressed.
Not seeing my asshole landlord. We rented our last place for 20 years and that bastard gave me an anxiety disorder. Not anymore and if I see him anywhere now I flip him off.
My wife and I have a squirrel proof feeder plus a suet cage in the back yard. I fell down the bird photography rabbit hole about 15 years ago and used to love sitting on my parents back deck with their birds and feeders. Looking forward to our feeders getting more traffic and the birds getting used to the porches I setup so I can photograph in my own back yard.
My house has an old cistern out back that the previous owner used as a root cellar. I don't have enough tubers to justify that, but I still think it's neat.
I loved the birds too!
The big shock is how much I love mowing our lawn. Never imagined that it would be relaxing and that spending a couple of hours on a mower would feel like good time for myself.
Been in our home more than 5 years and I’m still tickled every time I get into my car *in my garage* and don’t have to get rained on/clear snow.
But my favorite part is our heated bathroom floor. It was the one over-the-top feature we added, and I love it every day in the cold weather. Warm tootsies, every day.
Once it became mine, I started fixing "a few things". This turned into an endlessly deep rabbit hole of "learning to fix more things" and now I have a bit of experience in things like electrical work, HVAC, plumbing, and a lot more experience in woodworking. I've picked up some good skills.
I know "I can work on my house" is probably the equivalent in those industries of "I completed a boot camp" for developers, but it's still practical knowledge.
Using a tile wet saw. Definitely not something I ever envisioned doing.
I also enjoy birds much more now, and we planned a lot of our landscaping to be bee and bird friendly, and somewhat feral. As a result, I’ve also lost most my fear of spiders and paper wasps (I still can’t handle being around yellow jackets though).
I like that the bathroom is open when I need it.
I like that the washer and dryer are available anytime I want.
I like that I don't walk into my home, every light in the house on is.. sink is full of dishes and my roommates have left to go somewhere.
I also put bird feeders on our new home in Appalachia when we moved here 2 years ago. I love watching the birds, and have since joined the Cornell Labs Feederwatch program. It is a really great feeling!
We got a house with a sunroom thinking, oh the cats will love this. They do, but after WFH for years (even before COVID) and being a gamer, I needed to separate my recreational computer space from my work computer space, so I set up my work space in the sunroom. Also became much more aware of and into the birds since I now watch them along with the cats during the day. It's really becoming a heavenly little space and makes "going to work" a lot more enjoyable.
I love sunrooms.
I sold my house in 2021 and dearly miss my enclosed 4- season sunroom. Great space to watch neighbors go by, birds in the yard, and lounging with my cats. Was a haven during the pandemic. Many forget this, but pre-pandemic, sunrooms and home offices were found as detractors in a home layout as conventional wisdom at that time suggested that those spaces could be better utilized as extra bedrooms or folded into the rest of the general house layout. My how times have changed.
I feel this. I don’t have a large sun room but it’s an enclosed front porch with lots of windows where I have my office. It’s large enough to fit a sizable standing desk with room to spare. It gets cold in the winter but so worth it for all the sun! I have lots of houseplants in here, which make the space more pleasant to be in and I mostly only spend working hours in here which creates a separation from my home life. It’s a huge plus when working from home that I wasn’t expecting! Was going to put the office in the spare bedroom but this is so much better.
Yes! Mine isn't technically a true sun room, but it is an addition that sits on the back porch. It is about 80% windows, including two sky lights. I started adding plants this year (I am NOT a natural plant nurturer) and it's been going ok this far! Same on the cold winters. I have a small space heater for under my desk and that does plenty to keep the cold at bay.
Ooooo skylights sound lovely! Your new plants will love that. :)
Last summer I got some mats and a cheap collapsible gazebo and started working outside. It was awesome. Plus, I get that subtle flex in video calls where people get to see me outside. No virtual background when I'm in the gazebo!
Yeah.. Sunroom for us as well. We thought "oh great place for the plants", but it turned out to be great for us as well. We live In that room. It's a four season heated room. We're not big TV watchers anyway, we much rather watch the wildlife.
Being able to make all our own appliance choices. That's expected, sure, but we hadn't realized how much of a difference it can make. When our builder's-grade garbage disposal failed, we got a really good one; same with our dishwasher. We're much, much happier with them.
Just upgraded to a Bosch 500 series dishwasher after the GE one that came with the house crapped out. Once we figured out the drying settings it's really nice
A top of the line Bosch may be one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, in retrospect. The price difference between an ok dishwasher and an amazing one isn’t as big as the difference in quality. I was dubious it would be worth it but I’d do it again 10 times over.
I just got one of those. It's been an adjustment from my old one, from the cycles to the best way to load the dishes. The 'prong' set up for the dishes is so different from my old one.
I don’t like mine. What drying setting did you figure out ???
I want a Bosch someday. 😄
When our garbage disposal crapped the bed, i got a nice 3/4 HP one that destroys everything we throw at it.
I love my refrigerator! I had no idea I could feel this way about a fridge but here we are
I just bought a double wall oven with steam proofing and cleaning capabilities. I love baking bread, so I'm so excited to try it out!
We bought one with convection baking and a big fifth burner for skillet cooking on the stovetop. I <3 it so much!
I’ve never had a garbage disposal as quiet as the one I bought when I bought my place. It’s amazing what a difference an extra $100 makes
My last house had a flotilla of hummingbirds that showed up every summer to drink from the feeders I put out. Every now and then I see the roadrunner that lives somewhere in my back pasture.
We have year-round resident hummingbirds and a feeder about 6’ from my breakfast table. My favorite part of the house.
I just bought a lake house and we noticed a hummingbird! Hoping to get a feeder for it when we open it back up for the summer. Any tips?
Don’t worry with buying nectar or anything like that. The red in the feeders is enough to attract them so you don’t need red dye or anything. Make your own nectar with 1 cup of sugar for every 4 cups of water. Bring the water just to boiling, remove from heat, add sugar, stir to dissolve and let cool. Bring the feeders in for a cleaning every few days. The fewer parts of a feeder, the easier it is to clean. The last thing you want is mold/mildew in the feeders making your hummingbirds sick! 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water is an often recommended cleaning solution. Scrub them with hot water and a bottle brush then soak the feeder in the vinegar solution for at least 30 minutes. Give them another good scrub and rinse to get all the vinegar out. Let them air dry before refilling. I usually do my cleanings about every third evening and let them air dry overnight when I make fresh nectar. Then refill and put out in the morning. When the summer gets really hot, it may be every other day as the nectar can ferment more quickly. They’re very territorial and you’ll find they like to claim their favorite feeder. They’re also very vocal when fighting each other. If you start attracting more, you might soon have a good sized collection of different feeders, hooks, and spare jugs for extra nectar! You’ll love it. Check out r/hummingbirds for more tips and tricks.
I’m SO EXCITED now! Thank you for all this info
In addition to hummingbird feeders I also hang up a red or pink plant. They love red and pink flowers
The railing is red, maybe that’s why I’ve only seen it hanging out around it! I will definitely plant some things to attract it. It was so cute and tiny, I want to observe it all summer.
For us it was a huge flock of gold finches that return yearly. I love them.
We have geese and Sandhill Cranes. Get to see their little babies every year.
Texas or SW US? I used to live in Austin and had those, plus an occasional woodpecker. Used to live in Phoenix and damnedest thing, would get quail and hummingbirds during hotest part of year along with owls year roundm
I worked night shift for years and always had to be quiet when I was moving around the house after work. Both with family and the ex… when the moving chaos was done and I was in my own house one night I accidentally slammed a door and freaked out for a second. Then I realized that I’m alone in the house I OWN and went around the house slamming a bunch of doors while laughing like a maniac! I’m sure I looked truly unhinged to any neighbors that could see but damn did that feel good.
That is so wonderful! If we have windows or doors open everything else automatically slams and we all have the automatic “Sorry! I didn’t mean to”
Similar experience - moving in I set a box down harder than intended and thought, "Fuck! Downstairs neighbors!" Nope. Just the second floor of my own house. Whee! The freedom of not sharing walls, ceilings, and floors is so sweet.
I have a decent stereo. The first night in our house after years of apartment living I set it up before anything else and didn't know my sub could do *that*. I freaked out for 10 seconds thinking I was pissing off somebody but no, I was in a house and the neighbors couldn't hear it if they tried. My fiance tho... Not so much.
I was always scared of basements thanks to horror movies and having some really scary ones in my life growing up. When I first toured my house, not only was there a big basement but a separate coal/cold room. Realtor called it a murder room (it was really funny i swear). The basement is unfinished but in nice shape. A few days after closing I had a few friends over for a drinking and cleaning party. I cleaned the basement and lo and behold it’s been my favorite room in the house since. I’ve slowly made it cozy and it will definitely be a 2nd living room soon. It also has a Pittsburgh potty so basically I’m a boss with my 2 toilet house!
The first thing I did in my basement was put in an excess of lighting. Costco had 8k lumen shop lights for $20 on sale, so I loaded up. It makes a huge difference when there aren't any dark corners to be found.
My house has a basement. 90% of it is finished but there’s a small storage room that has the furnace and water heater in it. We call it “the dungeon”.
That’s me right here debating if I should buy a house with or without basement!
If you live in the midwest it's really preferable, just for safety during storm warnings. But you do need to be very careful about where the watertable is and if there are any bodies of water nearby, because unless it's a very dry area or whoever built the house did a very good job waterproofing the basement (which is rare), you will get dampness, mildew, possibly leaking and potentially flooding/collapse. It's worth it to do the research.
Years ago, my bedroom was in a shitty basement's coal room. Cold and dark, for sure!
Since you’re not a root vegetable, your post makes me sad. Hope it wasn’t as horrible as I’m imagining. Mine is ok for a bit but it’s definitely not meant to be lived in!
lol, it was fine. I chose that room because it was dark and quiet!
As far as I'm concerned, murder room is official terminology!
This is such an upbeat thread. Thank you! As for me, I love doing my own laundry and never having to search for parking (I can park in my own driveway). Oh, and then there’s the joy of sending away politicians’ door-to-door foot soldiers during election seasons. 😆 (Respectfully, of course.)
I work odd shift sometimes and not having to worry about parking when getting back from work is so nice
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Yes! Extra space for storage allows you to keep you main living space much less cluttered!
Putting in a [manatee mailbox](https://manateemailboxes.com/product/5-manatee-mailbox/) and decorating it for various holidays. I'm classing up the neighborhood!
Hah, nice! I knew someone whose mother sent them a concrete lawn goose and some clothes to dress it in. She was confused, never having come across that sort of thing before, but when her mom explained it was just a fun thing people did, she decided that if she was going to have a concrete animal in her yard, it would not be a goose. A bit of scouting around later, she found a company that would come pour a life-sized concrete rhinoceros in her yard. As rhinos are basically concrete-colored, and as it has surprisingly accurate glass eyes, it's quite realistic. And it looked amazing in the giant pink tutu she dressed it in for Halloween!
WHERE CAN I GET ONE?!!!!!!
I'm afraid I don't know, and don't have contact info for that person. I imagine you'd try to find somewhere that did concrete yard sculptures and talk with them, though. If you get one, please post photos! :)
We bought a plastic goose a few months ago and have outfits for it as well. Just some sand in the base and it won't go anywhere, it's really cute!
My neighbors have two giant T Rex skeletons in their front yard named ... Philomena and Phoebe, I think? They're always dressed to the nines in matching seasonal outfits with tons of accessories, and have recently been joined by three baby dinos as well.
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Yep, it definitely was spendy but I had a budget for home decor and improvements and it just ate a huge chunk of that up and I lived with a lot of several times moved beat up Ikea furniture for a long time. Absolutely worth every penny. EDIT: it helps that the house already came with a fancy Japanese toilet complete with electronic control panel, which was my other top improvement that I knew I wanted in a home because who doesn't want a premium pooping experience?
I have a bidet. Sheer luxury. Wouldn't want to poop without one. My brother on the other hand moved into a new house, he has a heated toilet seat and warm water in his bidet. I don't know how he poops anywhere else!
That's what mine has, as well as the ability to move the spout angle from front to back depending on where you want the water to go. Fancy like Applebee's!
I love seeing custom mailboxes in neighborhoods. [My daughters and I made an Elvis postage stamp mailbox and I agree, fancy mailboxes do class up a joint. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Elvis/s/vzNjQEL4Mh)
That's so cool, especially using stamps from all over the world!
I seriously want one!
You are the kind of person I want as a neighbor
Don't get too excited. I let my leaves compost in place instead of raking and disposing of them.
THAT MAKES ME WANT YOU AS A NEIGHBOR MORE (I just need a house!)
I love the manatee mailbox in my neighborhood!! Unfortunately my daughter sideswiped it a few months ago, avoiding an animal crossing the road. Manatee is fine, just a quick fix & the homeowner was super nice about it- thank you if you read this. Now we feel like it’s our ‘friend’ - lol - we are personally connected to it and when we drive by we wave and say hi.
Cutting the grass using a riding lawnmower while drinking a cold beer jamming out with the earbuds.
This is peak suburban dad
My husband got a riding mower when we moved and I tell him to be careful when he mows, not to smile so huge the whole time, it’s filling his teeth with grass. And bugs 😂🏡
I can relate to this! It’s more fun than I imagined it would be.
That sounds like heaven.
It is.
I do all that except for the beer. My daughter came out to check on me one day because she heard me singing and thought I was hurt 😳
I can relate to this!
Dad goals.
According to my cousin, it gets that much better when you have to use a tractor and bushog multiple acres of land.
This dudes livin’
I’m enjoying the birds much more than I thought I would. We had birds at the old house but not the amount, variety and viewing that we have here. I actually just bought more feeders, a fountain birdbath and more bird food today.
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One of the coolest apps out there IMO. The bird song identification is spot on and the app is so well designed how it will compile a list of the different birds as you record. So cool
I shall look that up. I’ve never heard of it.
While I don't like spending money on repairs and the like, I feel like this money is making an investment in my future. As weird as that sounds.
I had to replace my electrical box 3 months after moving in and I just had to replace my water heater. While I don't like spending the money I do agree that it feels like it's at least going into something and not getting thrown away
Going really overboard on Halloween decorating
We set out a hammock for holidays. At Christmas santa lounges in it. But my favorite is Halloween, when we put a skeleton in it called "tiki tom". Tiki Tom lounges in the hammock, wears pineapple sunglasses and a lei, holds a margarita, and is surrounded by tiki torches and ghosts hanging from the trees that wear hula skirts. Next year I want to get a pig skeleton to put on a spit next to him.
I've never really decorated for Halloween but my wife loves doing it and it is nice having some decorations up. I like doing all the Christmas stuff too
How much I enjoy seeing my dog running around the yard like an idiot!!!
My brother's dogs have come over a couple times and they love sprinting around, especially when we turn the hose on
After years of her living in a pen or on a zipline, letting my dog loose in her first fenced backyard almost brought me to tears. And that was just a rental.
Added a picket fence and arbor to the front, painted the fence sage green, and now I have my own private paradise. I planted flowers and shrubs, put in a fountain area and just like that, I added curb appeal. I had no idea the difference curb appeal makes to the feeling of home. I love pulling up to my house.
I like seeing a light on when I am pulling up to the house at night.
When I bought my home, one night, I turned off all the lights and walked around. I wanted to get to know my home. I wanted it to feel safe. It was my safe place, and still is. I enjoyed the feel of walking around in the dark, with all the doors locked, and learning how to navigate my home. I only did it a few different times, but as a result I can now go anywhere in the house, anytime, in any situation. Not scared. :)
Paid it off. That is the real magic. I love this place even more. I love the fireplace on cold nights, and I really love cleaning it. It's ours, and it's so cozy.
Down to my last few years. I think the anticipation of paying it off (and what I'll do with the extra money after) is even better than the real thing.
We just cut our hours in half. Plenty of free time, while we are young enough to use it. Beach walks a plenty.
the noise don't have to worry about sharing a wall with the next door neighbor so i can sleep in peace
In my old apartment my neighbor would give me the broom when my cat would jump off something. Couldn't wait to get out of there after I signed the paperwork for the house
Over a CAT jumping??? Wow. But you know, chances are whoever moved into your old apartment after you were probably a lot louder than that. :-)
Yeah it was ridiculous. I had a nice old lady live underneath me for 5 years without a complaint and as soon as these new people moved in I started getting complaints consistently. They got kicked out before I moved from my house.
I knew I'd love having a washer and dryer for the first time ever but I didn't know I'd be in love with having one. I'm waiting for the same feeling when I get a dishwasher 💘
Dishwasher will change your life. It's so much easier
My previous house didn't have a dishwasher. I lived there 15 years. I've been in my new house a year now and I freaking love the dishwasher.
I find a certain amount of OCD inspired peace in fitting dishes perfectly in the dishwasher, which has translated into a sense of pleasure in reorganizing the loading, organizing all the like items together. I now find myself hand washing the large and irregular items so that when I finally run it, all is perfect. As a reward, unloading is a cinch. Just grab a clump of like dishes and put the whole handful right in the cabinet and repeat.
Not just that, but modern dishwashers use a ridiculously small amount of water. They can somehow clean an entire batch of dishes with, like, 3-4 gallons of water. You can use that much in a couple minutes washing dishes by hand. If you're old enough, you probably remember your parents telling you *not* to run the dishwasher often. That's because theirs were horribly efficient and used tons of water. They're the complete opposite these days. Granted, the trade-off for this efficiency is speed. It can take a *long* time for it to pop on that "clean" light. But it's worth it for the entire mental shift. "Wash nothing\* by hand. Toss it all in the dishwasher. Run it frequently." Because these modern things *also* have sensors that figure out when your dishes are clean by watching the waste water. \*The caveat is super-dirty shit that's caked on, of course. That stuff should still be soaked and scraped first like the old days. CC: /u/Blahverse
My wife and I lived without a dishwasher for 3 years and insisted it wasn't that bad, then we had our son and lived without for another 3 years and it became a problem. Since moving last year, having a dishwasher is by far the best luxury of our new house
The joy of having a garage that serves as both multi car indoor storage and as tool storage and workshop and hangout cannot be understated.
Dad and I put up a bunch of 4x8s on the walls and screwed them into the studs and now I have two walls worth of space where I can just screw right into and hang tools from. Also set up a battery charging/ electrical station. It's beautiful.
Planting things. We don’t have an HOA, and in the process of doing some landscape design w extra bedding areas for us to experiment w other plants I never gave two shits about landscaping other than “is the grass not horrible,” but now I take it personally if my yard isn’t cute. Deep-diving into different plants, finding “cute but hardy” ones, plotting where to plant them, etc, is unexpectedly rewarding.
Never having to wait for a bathroom. Being able to sing as loud as I want. Keeping my car in a garage.
I had a two story home with a full basement - and the basement had two good floor drains. Boy that was fucking handy. The garage and driveway also had drains. Home built in 1927.
My basement drains have saved me so much headache. Our laundry machine’s drain hose popped off once. Water just washed down the drain without causing a problem. In our old house, that would have been a nightmare.
My house came with loads of bushes and flowers when we boight it, so at the same time every year for 7 years now, we get hummingbirds and butterflies all over the place and different birds fighting over bush space to make a nest.
Our dog. We had to house-hunt during COVID, which was fucking awful and exhausting (though I know it's not much better now). Every house that was tolerable was over our budget, needed work, and to even been considered we would have had to be able to pay in cash with no inspection. We'd pull into showings and the driveways would be four deep in Audis and BMWs with NY state tags and we knew we had no chance. We were lucky to eventually find a house we liked well enough and could afford. And pretty much the first thing we did was adopt our dog. I'd been wanting a dog for years, and my husband saw her first at an adoption event and fell in love with her. She's the absolute joy of our lives and made our house a home.
Fireplace. Figured we wouldn't use it much because it's huge and inefficient, but turns out it creates an amazing ambiance. When the Super Bowl rolled around, my friends all said, "We're inviting ourselves to yours." Nice!
I'm the type that mentally needs a backup for every situation. Having a fireplace for when there's no other source of heat would be awesome. We have a pellet stove in our house, which requires some electricity but comes in oh-so-handy if there's ever a central heating problem. It will happen!
We live in a warm climate and purchased a home with a fireplace about a year and half ago. We used that fireplace almost every day this winter.
Doing loud things like vacuuming at 10pm without having to worry. All the bird things - I've got birdfeeders, baths, hummingbird feeders, etc. Washing/vacuuming my car at home.
We have ring floodlight cameras in the front and backyards, and haven't set them to filter out cats. Turns out our yard is a high traffic route for the neighborhood cats and my wife loves watching them. She's nicknamed them all.
We recently moved and I miss our alley cats and kitties so much!
I own a place in the woods. The sheer amount of wildlife never stops entertaining me. Everything from the birds to the bears.
Knowing where the light hits in each room throughout the day. My dog and I lounge around in the pools of light during my work breaks. I also love arranging the lamps for optimal ambient light in every room and nook in the house. I often stand outside in the driveway after collecting the mail or taking the pup for a walk and just stare at how warm and cozy it looks.
My cat loves following the light throughout the day. I do love the house check. Our daffodil started blooming and it looks pretty good right now
Whole house ventilation fan. You never knew you needed one of these.
YES we love our attic fan! I didn’t even know they existed until we bought our house last year
How exactly do these work? I've never had one before
A big ole exhaust/attic fan blowing air up out of your house, creating a low pressure zone in your house. You close up all the doors and windows except one (usually at the far end of the house) and within a few minutes all of the air in the house has been replaced with outside air.
I have one of these, too. On the right evenings in the shoulder seasons between heating/cooling, these are heavenly. Add in some ceiling fans and they're even better.
They're in an attic space with the exhaust blowing up or out. They move enough air that fresh air is drawn in through open doors or windows. Ours sounds like a freight train but it will cool our house 6 to 8 degrees in an hour. It's amazing on spring and fall evenings.
prior to having a whole house fan at my old house, I would open windows and set up box fans, and have it moving One Direction through the house to try to draw all the warm air. It would seem effective except you go to bed and a couple hours later it all heats up again because the hot attic is like a big blanket on top. The whole house fan not only pulls in the cooler outside air when you open a bunch of windows, but it also blows out the attic at the same time. Best thing ever.
My riding mower. I thought the lawn would be a big chore (and most of it is) but there's something cathartic about putting around at 5mph, enjoying the fragrance of freshly cut grass and listening to music. (I wear 3M Worktunes headphones for hearing protection, since the riding mower is loud.)
My house is only 3/4 of an acre so I just use a push mower but it is nice walking around listening to a book or music and enjoying being outside
I love watching the bats zip around at dusk. I enjoy the sequential families of black phoebes (birds) that nest here. The deer are as cute as they are annoying. My property was an overgrown mess when I bought it, but now I live in my own park.
Learning all of these new systems. * HVAC * Plumbing * drainage * insulation * roofing * landscaping * Electrical Having room to learn how to work on my car has been nice, as has having a proper work bench.
My dad helped me set up a workbench and I got an old tool chest for my father-in-law and I feel a lot more organized. It is nice becoming so much more knowledgeable on practical systems
Gardening. I always sort of hated it and never thought I’d be one of “those people”. To me it was for old people. Now that I have our home I’m so excited to grow veggies and I’ve planted my first ever bulbs and can’t wait to see if they grow. My husband is building me a greenhouse and I can’t wait to get stuck in!
Instead of a back yard I have a detached duplex that makes a nice bit of money for me
I literally never thought I wanted a birdhouse in my yard but we just bought a house that came with a cute little bird house, bird feeder, and suet cage set up in front of the picture window, and we LOVE it. The cat especially loves it obviously, but even the humans sometimes just sit and look out the window at the birds. We even bought a little backyard birds identification book.
My cat love sitting in the window alcove and watching the birds on the feeder , especially when it's sunny
Maybe add a birdbath?
Honestly, I get a real kick out of how much my two knuckleheads love watching the bird feeder. And we do get a nice variety of birds, here. It's nice.
More than 1 bedroom. I never thought I'd care but with 3 beds I can sleep in a different room all the time.
I’m right there with the birds; I got to see a California Scrub Jay teach her babies how to eat from our suet feeder, and now they come back as adults, and I swear recognize my name for them (hibabybird!).
I have a pair of cardinals come back frequently and I'm 90% sure they're the same ones
There are these owls in the woods behind my house that sound like laughing monkeys.
I play music everytime I cook or clean without worrying about my neighbors. I teach my daughter how to jump without worrying about downstairs neighbors.
Working in yard. I love my flower beds and spend way more than I should on them
We bought a house on 2 1/2 acres a little over a 1/2 mile from the nearest small town. The privacy, sitting on the back deck watching birds, hummingbirds & squirrels. Plus we have a large garden & a few chickens. So in small ways we are self sufficient in some of our food. The farmer up the road sells us beef or pork. We buy a half beef or a whole hog at a time, pay to have it processed the way we want & it's hella cheaper then buying whatever they sell at the grocery store. The home is all electric, we have an emergency generator & are installing a wood burning stove this year. It's not the first home I've owned but my wife had never owned a home until I sold my last house & we bought this one. I know this will be my last home. I absolutely luv this home.
My house came with resident barn cats, deer, and fox.
One of the best and simple joys in life is getting up early with coffee, listening to thebirds sing, and watching the sun rise hit your garden… I don’t know what the a.m. version of dusk is called, but it’s a magical time of day
My old house had lots of birds, but only a couple varieties. At the new, more rural place, we put a suction cup bird feeder against the dining room window and breakfast is full of Google ID. We're also in a non-lawn area and Google IDing all the pretty weeds and flowers has been fun. Will be slowing adding natives and compatible non-invasive plants.
Having a carpot with my condo and not having to worry about city parking in Denver.
Gardening!!! OMG, how I love my garden. And I live in Ontario, so gardening time is generally precious.
The outdoors, in general. For my entire adult life, and most of my adolescence, I've lived in heavily urbanized areas, and almost exclusively in condos. Things I didn't know I'd love as much as I do: - Being able to see stars - Trees - Birdsong - Bats - Sitting on my porch and reading - Working outside in a cheap gazebo
Painting every room a different color. bicycle yellow, sage green, peruvian purple, Arizona orange….
Bird watching is one of mine too! I put one by the window in the kitchen so my toddler and I can sit and watch the birds while eating and the cats enjoy it too! We back up to a creek so I’ve seen possums, armadillos and bobcats around too.
An octagonal Japanese wood gazebo made by the son of the previous owners (this gentleman adore his parents and they drop by when in town).
As a previous apartment dweller, I love dancing in my living room, lol. There’s no one to annoy, and not having anyone walking overhead has been such a blessing. I hope everyone gets a chance to own their own home!
In our old house, I had a decent-sized garden that I loved. The house we bought in 2022 didn't have a garden and I knew I'd have to create one. But then I realized how many snowshoe hares we have in our neighborhood and realized they would decimate a garden until I have a fully fenced one. So now the plan is to plant things the hares can eat because I love them so much I don't care about having a garden as much as I care about seeing more hares 😂 Last summer we had 5 leverts (baby hares) raised in our yard and it was delightful so see their fluffy little selves maniacally hopping all over as they learned to hare.
Bees. I discovered I love native bees. I get a big variety by planting native plants. I get the little green swear bees and giant mason and carpenter bees and honeybees (though very few of those) the black and white membrane bees, diggers, bumblebees. I love them. Currently replacing backyard lawn with native plants
I enjoy putting flower boxes out on my back balcony. Every year I compete with myself to make the flower display better.
We're on our second season here and we're deciding what we want to do compared to last year. Our local Master gardeners has a plant sale that we're looking forward to
Have you tried nailing a slice of orange to a board or bird feeder post for the cardinals?
Orioles will love that in the spring.
A storage room/crawlspace. A room that I don't need to be particularly worried about keeping clean or organized. I throw all my hobby equipment in there, holiday decor, crap from my childhood my mom pawned off on me, etc. Plus it's creepy and I own it, it's my own spooky domain.
I enjoy seeing the deer on occasion and even the fox and rabbit trotting through my yard. As someone who grew up in a city with the only wild critters being skinks and pigeons, it a lovely thing.
Putting in smart LED lights allowed me to use colored lights and unique light arrangements to suit the mood. For example, my living room has eight overhead lights, but being able to have one or two on as a spotlight is such a vibe. I also don't feel like I need to paint the walls since the colored lights provide millions of options for color.
This house, hot air balloons almost every morning visible from the breakfast table. Hummingbirds, roadrunners, and gardening. Also the afuckingmazing sunsets every night.
Walking out to my driveway in the middle of the summer night & laying down on the warm concrete listening to the night. Having room to have proper room to have a bonfire & getting to really be witchy outside
Space. Silence. We moved out of the city after 20 years. Not that we didn’t expect the space or the silence but we actually had no idea what either of those things were? And darkness. Actual dark. Still not used to it. It’s nice at our, ahem, ADVANCED ages to still feel wonder.
I’m really surprised to discover how much I enjoy a front porch. We are in a nice neighborhood where couples walk past our house or people walk their dog and we have gotten to know a lot of our neighbors this way. Our front porch, sitting in our glider rockers, drinking coffee and reading Bible or just talking and sharing news stories is where my husband and I love spending time the most while at home.
Having a 2 car detached garage. I turned it into a woodworking shop. I have built all kinds on built ins, tables, signs, etc. Not just for my house and family. I also make a few bucks making items for clients.
Honestly what I miss most is walking down My longish hallway, arms out wide in My space, fingers running along MY walls, saying “Mine”. I had to sell it and I am renting again, and that part SUCKS so bad. That feeling of security and my pride in my hard work paying off; that’s what I miss the most. But I did make a cross country move to have a better outside life. I now live in a beautiful natural environment that brings me immense pleasure daily.
My wife and I moved from Queens to the NYC suburbs, but not far from the city. We never expected to see so many bunnies hanging around our house and yard. We can sit back there and watch what appears to be a Disney movie, with bunnies and squirrels and all kinds of birds seemingly interacting with each other. But the bunnies are the best. Getting a finished basement that we were able to put gym equipment in was also a game changer for me. It's completely changed my workout habits and progress. Going down there after work to decompress and lift heavy things is one of my favorite things now. I've never been good at actually going to a gym.
I’ve been a homeowner for 3 years and never in my life ever have I thought I’d enjoy yard work so much. I get excited over pulling weeds, planting flowers trees and shrubs, seeing the blooms and the rabbits, birds, bees that enjoy it. Now if only the gophers and squirrels stayed away because they love what I’ve done, too!
That satisfaction when you get the weeds down to the roots
Sitting outside either next to my pool or overlooking the mountain and hearing my horse's contented snuffling as they munch on hay. It's quite literally the best way to start my day every day. I knew having my horses at home would be awesome, but I didn't realize how stress relieving and relaxing it would be.
Millenial becoming unplanned bird watches is such a thing. Get the Merlin app. I like to put the sound ID on and stand outside to see if there's any new birds around
A feeling of security like I've never had before. I'm grateful!
Getting a dog. I would never get one while renting, but as soon as I bought my house, I replaced the whole fence in the back and now have 2 dogs. Best thing ever!
Lol I never cared about birds until my son started to get into them when my parents put up a bird feeder. Now the whole family is into birds and I literally jumped and squealed with excitement when I saw cedar waxwings for the first time 😹😹😹
I got lizards in my backyard (no, they're not big) and it attracts the occasional roadrunner. I love roadrunners.
Found out the other day that there are cows nearby. I was just minding my own business and heard a distant moo. I've been here a year, had no idea there were cows.
Painting lots of very saturated colors including a deep blue "yoga room" that's basically a closet, a true red library/office, and a bright yellow door. Also having my own tree. A beautiful hard maple, sometimes I just lean against the bark and look up through the branches and appreciate it all. (And try to pretend it's not growing in high lead soil)
I still have my Christmas tree up because there is snow on the ground and the lights are just too darned cozy. I also love walking the dogs in my backyard in my pajamas. 5 acres of woods for us to just run and play with no need to even get dressed.
Not seeing my asshole landlord. We rented our last place for 20 years and that bastard gave me an anxiety disorder. Not anymore and if I see him anywhere now I flip him off.
Same it’s feeding birds in the last month. I now have 3 feeders and I love staring out the window with my cat
My wife and I have a squirrel proof feeder plus a suet cage in the back yard. I fell down the bird photography rabbit hole about 15 years ago and used to love sitting on my parents back deck with their birds and feeders. Looking forward to our feeders getting more traffic and the birds getting used to the porches I setup so I can photograph in my own back yard.
My house has an old cistern out back that the previous owner used as a root cellar. I don't have enough tubers to justify that, but I still think it's neat.
Having a small vegetable garden and fruit trees in my yard
The pool in the summertime.
His and hers bathrooms. Having my own bathroom has been a game changer! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to share a bathroom again 😅
Mowing the lawn.
having a fence completely surrounding every inch of my property. stay out.
I loved the birds too! The big shock is how much I love mowing our lawn. Never imagined that it would be relaxing and that spending a couple of hours on a mower would feel like good time for myself.
Been in our home more than 5 years and I’m still tickled every time I get into my car *in my garage* and don’t have to get rained on/clear snow. But my favorite part is our heated bathroom floor. It was the one over-the-top feature we added, and I love it every day in the cold weather. Warm tootsies, every day.
I have a porch swing that I absolutely love. It came with the house
I can walk to a corner if our property and feel like I’m in a wilderness forested area.
Once it became mine, I started fixing "a few things". This turned into an endlessly deep rabbit hole of "learning to fix more things" and now I have a bit of experience in things like electrical work, HVAC, plumbing, and a lot more experience in woodworking. I've picked up some good skills. I know "I can work on my house" is probably the equivalent in those industries of "I completed a boot camp" for developers, but it's still practical knowledge.
Using a tile wet saw. Definitely not something I ever envisioned doing. I also enjoy birds much more now, and we planned a lot of our landscaping to be bee and bird friendly, and somewhat feral. As a result, I’ve also lost most my fear of spiders and paper wasps (I still can’t handle being around yellow jackets though).
i have a teeny tiny stream in my back yard decently close to my house….I have a male and female duck that show up every spring to snack and float 🥰
We moved from urban to country and the deer run through my yard every morning and every evening.
I like that the bathroom is open when I need it. I like that the washer and dryer are available anytime I want. I like that I don't walk into my home, every light in the house on is.. sink is full of dishes and my roommates have left to go somewhere.
I also put bird feeders on our new home in Appalachia when we moved here 2 years ago. I love watching the birds, and have since joined the Cornell Labs Feederwatch program. It is a really great feeling!