Happy Thursday.

Trying to make this one a little more light hearted today. We’ve all been in our homes the better part of a month now; Las Vegas since March 17th, other states before or after. We’ve probably learned about every square inch in our homes. What we like. What we don’t like. Where we can go to hide from the family for a minute if needed, and where to sit for a moment of peace.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably played this game, or a similar one…. “What would I change about my house if I had a good sized (or unlimited budget).” If you haven’t played the game, give it a try, it’s fun, and can be engaging, especially if you have a significant other to bounce ideas off.

Here’s what Sydney and I have come up with so far…

• Redo the kitchen in its entirety - new cabinets and counters etc, but also reconfigure some things. We have one of those ‘desk’ areas that we would get rid of. It would make the counter level uniform and give us some more cabinet space. We would also RAISE our cabinets up to give us a little more room for a custom backsplash. We would put new appliances in, something a little more professional grade as we like to cook. We would absolutely add a water filler faucet behind the range as well. Also, our island is 2 level and we would bring it all down to one to make it a larger, more usable space.

• New flooring throughout - Keep carpet in the bedrooms but definitely go with something else for the hallways and the stairs (we currently have carpet on the stairs and hallway upstairs). No carpet downstairs at all, and we would keep it that way.

• Add custom closets to our Master Bedroom - something clean that will maximize storage and look good.

• Remodel the Girls Bathroom - We redid our Bathroom in 2016, and are still happy with it. But it's time to redo the girls bathroom.

• Add a deck - We have a bump out in our Master Suite that has windows. We would push this out further, giving us a sitting area in the Master bedroom, and then run a deck off the area that opens up to outside our Master Bathroom.

• Landscaping - We would totally redo our backyard. We don’t have a pool now, and would consider a pool. But that’s not something that would be a “MUST HAVE”. What we would do is reconfigure so we could put in an outdoor kitchen with plumbing, and an area for an Outdoor Pizza Oven.

As I said, we’ve thought plenty of this. What would YOU do? Or, if that’s overkill… what would you make sure you had in your next home that you don’t have now?

If you could simply do a small remodel, what would you look to do? The biggest items usually are:

• Kitchen

• Bathrooms

• Flooring

• Exterior Landscaping / Pool Construction

But what would you do, specifically? Would you spend the money on the current home you have? Or, after being in your home as long as you have been, is the home simply too small?

If you think the home is too small, or too far beyond the updates… what are the one or two things that you don’t have now, that would become absolute MUST HAVES in the next home? Extra bedrooms? Home Office? Pool? Would love to know!

-GZ