One of Mama Kat’s prompts for this week’s Writer’s Workshop is:

4.) Describe your dream home.

There are some things I love about our home. Our giant backyard just beckons you to run outside and play. We live in a great neighborhood and MM’s very best friend lives right around the corner – our back yards actually touch, making impromptu play dates super easy. Our washer and dryer are just absolute tanks that make getting a lot of laundry washed quickly pretty feasible. We just replaced our refrigerator about a year ago (finally) and it’s gorgeous and efficient.

But obviously there are things I would change if I could. I think everyone has ideas in mind of how they would improve their home if money was no object or what they want to look for in their next home.

Here are 5 things I’d want in my “dream home”:

1. More curb appeal. I’d love to give our landscaping in the front yard a real overhaul and eventually replace the siding on our home. Bonus points if I can somehow have a front porch with a swing. Short term goal: Replace the chip board siding on the front of our home with vinyl siding, eventually redoing the whole house and saying goodbye to the annoying woodpecker in the neighborhood.

2. Built in reading nooks / bookshelves everywhere. We are big readers and there never seems to be enough space for all the books. I would love a cozy nook with natural light to read by, but I’d settle for simply more bookshelves.

3. New counter tops. I love the look of this wooden counter top and it sounds like such a cool idea, but I’m not sure if we’d actually go with wood or not. I’d seriously consider it though. I also love the idea of white cabinets with an antique sort of feel but hubby strongly disagrees so this may never happen. I would love a slightly less generic looking kitchen someday though.

4. A laundry room that doesn’t suck to be in. I’m being a little picky here but doing laundry in a dark, unfinished basement with poor lighting and cramped space is not my favorite. I’d love a laundry room on the first floor of the house instead of the basement and if it could be pretty, I surely wouldn’t complain. My husband did work hard to give me some counters and shelves to store and fold in our laundry area though – baby steps!

5. Moments of whimsy. I’m a sucker for little details that make a house feel like a home and help to make childhood a little more magical with minimal effort. This one we might actually do if I ever remember to take the time and actually do it! Other examples of whimsy: a beautiful garden path, fairy gardens, backyard scrabble.

What would be in your dream home?