My Ideal Home Checklist

This checklist will only be relevant to me, HOWEVER, the reason for adding it to CheckListables is to demonstrate how to create a checklist that serves a very serious purpose. This might be the last house I ever buy. It’s taken me months of looking at different areas and different homes to determine what I like versus what I don’t like. It’s been a painful process! But my checklist is now very solid. When handing it over to the estate agent he said that he wished everyone created a list like this one!

My Ideal Home Cost

• Priced under $$$,$$$ (including fees and taxes)
• Low running costs – reductions due to less expensive area (tax), solar panels, high efficiency rating on appliances, etc. (All running fees – council tax, utilities, service fees under $$$/month. Any costs to get costs down this low need to be factored into the $$$k figure. For example, the cost to install solar panels)
• Option to buy home with rental option – holiday let.

My Ideal Home Location

• Walking distance to a medium sized beautiful town/village high street that is welcoming of ‘foreigners’
• Town/Village to have a coffee shop full of character and nice staff/clean bathrooms and fast/free WiFi.
• Within 20 minutes of an affordable marina for our boat (less than 5k/year mooring fees)
• Surrounded by nature, parks, woods/forest, water, trails and activities for family
• Good school system
• Nice sharing, caring, welcoming, social neighbors that are similar to us – have children, similar values, interests, etc.
• Sounds of birds, wind, water… (no traffic – car or airplane noise)
• Within 45 minutes of a proper city
• Near a train line to London and preferably within 2 hrs commute
• Within 2 hours of our friends
• Great golf club nearby (nice to have)

My Ideal Home Description

• Placement of house to be on a hill or raised (rather than on a plain or in a valley) with a view of countryside, hills, river and or the sea (preferably a river or sea!)
• House to have character – a converted barn, old school house or contemporary design – something quirky, fun and with personality
• Large clean, bright kitchen with loads of counter-top space – Modern, fresh with open plan kitchen/dining room or even open plan kitchen/dining room/living room
• Large spacious living area
• Excellent Internet connection
• Garage/parking for at least 2 cars
• Interior to be ready to move into – nice paint, clean, updated
• 3 Bedrooms (ours, our daughter’s and guest room) PLUS
• An annex or 2 large rooms (bedroom and living room) plus a bathroom for Granddad (no kitchen necessary) on the ground floor with doors.
• Office in the house to have an amazing view – room for me, my desk, a sofa and all my books
• Sun room, porch or separate living room for family time
• Nice sized garden with patio/decking for our hot tub
• Closet space in all the rooms with a loft for more storage

If you were to create your ideal home checklist, what would you include? Feel free to add it to CheckListables so that others can steal some ideas!