What feature of your house did you think you'd use frequently but actually don't?

My friend built a 3 season room on to their house a few years ago and his wife likes to joke that they call it a 3 season room because that's how many seasons it is empty during the year.

 

Everyone loves a pool when it's not their problem to maintain

 

We purchased our current home last year. It is 5 bedrooms (we have 4 kids) and also has a bonus room over the garage along the side/back portion of the house. When things shut down last year, my wife began working from home and used the bonus room as an office. Since then, one of the kids has uprooted from the house and the wife has now taken office space in a bedroom on the main level.

Since that change a few months ago, we have only been in the bonus room a handful of times. Feels like now that space is almost useless but at the time it was very needed. Might be time to make that a game room, but who knows.

 

Rec room, home theater, home gym, tanning bed patio, gazebos and workshop. I go downstairs less than a dozen times a year.

In fact damn near the entire downstairs.

We don’t use the outside fire pit area even a tenth of what I thought we would. It’s a shame really.

The garage. I’d love to use the 2.5 garage but it’s so packed with toys that we are building another 2 car. (To be fair to HUBS, I did park the Corvette in there when I had it.) But I have not seen the inside of the garage since 1999. That’s all his. Guys only. I guess I get the kitchen??

I do use the bar more than I thought I would.

I keep asking for a pool or hot tub but hubs shoots me down every time. Even for the instant ones or the inflatables with pumps and filters. He even turned down his buddie’s hot tub with lights & sound working perfectly with the cabinet, stairs and cover. FOR FREE. I really wanted it too! He says pools and hot tubs are just too much work and we would never use it. I totally disagree.

HUBS and I should really move into a place half the size but with some acreage. Soon to be empty nesters and we need to declutter and downsize.

 

I would agree with that sentiment. It was here when I bought the house, so at least it wasn't my money that went into it. It was nice for hosting both kids' grad parties though.

 

He built a really nice room but he didn't take in to account the orientation and during the summer the sun is beaming in to the room for about 12-15 hours a day and it gets REALLY warm in there. He has done all the things he can think of to cool it down so the kids can play in there but they last about 2 hours and then complain its too hot. And they aren't wrong.

 

Fun thread. Great idea.

Like H2, I've long had a home office and essentially have spent the last 20 years of at-home work mostly outside the office. However, earlier this year we purged the more traditional office set up, made it more of a sitting/lounge area and I'm in there almost exclusively. Now what we don't like/wish we had ...

I think I'll start a new thread for that.

 

THIS too! We do use our deck and have added lighting features etc... But yeah, the firepit away from the main house and deck we've used twice in the last year...Thought we'd be out all the time.

 

I don't have any nearby so I don't care ;-) If we lived where pool svc was common (or even, you know, an option) I would do it in a heartbeat. But I know the work involved and I know neither of us want it, and that's why I haven't pushed harder. When we met, he was living on a lake, had a boat & jet ski - we had a lot of fun. He's a water baby. I am not. I don't like to swim or snorkel or dive - just sail. We made the decision not to stay on the lake and mostly we're ok with it, but in the summer, damn, it's just so hot & humid here in NC. We have a pond but it's an old farm irrigation pond - it is not good to get wet in. I bought a clawfoot tub for $10 from a house being demolished - planned to use it in the house but Mom gifted us a new one (floor model from lowe's - super good deal ;-) so the old one is outside on the patio-when I need to soak outside, I fill it ;-)

 

I have an office that we paid extra to have built in desk/shelves along one wall. It's never been used as an office, even working from home for covid I worked in the living room. It's just a big dated honey-oak knick-knack collector.

I never use the fireplace either. I’d love to use it more, but on days I want to use it it’s always a “no burn” day due to air quality.

 

That's too bad! Our porch is quite warm as well - when we started using it a couple years ago, it's because we added another fan and got sun-reduction blinds on 2 of the 3 sides. Helps so much!!! But also, we spend a lot of time outside so the heat & humidity don't bother us as much as they bother other people.....

 

The billiard room. We have a large Brunswick snooker table (6x12) that came with the house. The previous owners had recarpeted the billiard room and rather than lifting the table, they carpeted around the 8 legs of the table. So even though we didn't want it, they were happy to include it when we bought the house. For the first 4 years we had a lot of fun with it. It was a novelty and our friends and us enjoyed playing and testing our skills on such a large table. There was a lot of drinking involved too with the wet bar in the room and we really enjoyed it.

Then we had kids. We no longer enjoyed partying hard and getting giddy with our friends till late at night (or truthfully...early in the morning). We needed to wake up raring to go with kids on board. I doubt we've played a game on it more than 10 times since "the kids". Our kids were more outdoor types playing in the pool or happy digging tunnels in the back yard so they rarely used it either. We could sell it but we'd have 8 holes in the carpet.

So it sits there. It does make a great wrapping station at Christmas though. One night I'll bring down all the gifts, paper and bows and I have a huge wrapping table to use. It is useful for that.

 

The third full bathroom. I'm not sure I remember what color it is. Might get used once a year when my SIL visits for a week.

Our gas fireplace turns on with a switch on the wall so it's useless during a winter power failure. Give me real wood (and the mess) any day.

 

Realistically, I know I would never make a wood fire every day, even if I did get hubs or someone else to cut & stack the wood. But I have a gas fire every day that it's cold. Ours lights manually when needed - living how & where we do, we had to be practical about these things.

Gambler - love the billiards table story! We have a pool table in our game room we never use these days either - it serves as a cat bed and a place hubs places his r/c airplanes when he's working on them - he also has a lighted hobby bench right next to it. On the other side, I have a puzzle table ;-)

 

Basement. And this after getting it somewhat finished. Still used for storage only.

 

I'd love at least a half basement but we live in the wrong part of the world for that. But talk about wine storage!!!

 

The deck and by extension, the backyard - it needs some fixes, as I think the previous owners just kind of put a bandaid. I'd like to expand it out 2 feet, redo the pavers of the patio, and paint the shed and add new hardware.

 

I don't have a house, although I have been scaring myself by looking at them recently.

I do have an NYC apartment with a second bedroom. I thought I would maybe turn it into a guest room so people could stay over. Or when the internet became a thing, I thought I could turn it into an office.

Well, there is a guest bed in there. It was my old bed I moved in there when I got a new one. Total times it has been used? One night.

Office? Nope. I am working from home and doing so in my dining room.

So that bedroom is just a glorified laundry hamper because the only thing I use it for regularly is putting my dirty clothes into my laundry bag.

Bonus: I also close the door on the first hot day of the year and don't open it again until fall (save for throwing dirty clothes in there)

 

The sunken tub in our master bath. I call it the black Cadillac due to the color and it's oversized. Would be a real "bear" to replace due to the hole in the floor, and it's made of cast iron.
Been more than a few years since either of us has used it. A real white elephant as I see it now.

 

We thought that we would be in our giant soaking tub at least a couple of times a week when we bought this condo but it is more like once a month (if that).