10 New Home Regrets We Hear Most Often

Six months after move-in, we sit down with every client and ask the same question: what would you do differently? Ten answers come back over and over again. Here they are, ordered by how often we hear them.

1. "We should have done more outlets."

Number one, every single year. Even clients who thought they over-spec'd outlets regret the ones they didn't add. The cost of an outlet at rough-in is $25. The cost of running an extension cord across your bedroom for the next 25 years is a low-grade daily annoyance you can't quite unsee.

Add 30% more outlets than the electrician suggests. Add 50% in the kitchen, mudroom, garage, and home office.

2. "We didn't put blocking where we needed it."

A close second. Every closet without a shelf-block, every bathroom without grab-bar blocking, every wall where a TV would be perfect but isn't anchored — all of those are stories we hear in the year-one walkthrough.

Blocking is the cheapest upgrade in custom construction. Don't skip the blocking conversation.

3. "The mudroom isn't big enough."

Almost universal. The mudroom always feels generous in plan; it always feels tight in life. By the time you have hooks for each family member, shoe storage, a charging station, a place for the dog leash, the camping gear that doesn't fit anywhere else, and a bench you can actually sit on, you wish you'd added another four feet.

Take whatever your architect drew for the mudroom and make it 25% bigger. You'll use the space.

4. "We should have planned the lighting more carefully."

Specifically: not enough dimmers, not enough lighting layers (ambient, task, accent), recessed cans on too few switches, the wrong color temperature in the kitchen. The lighting plan is the most underrated part of the design phase. Most builders default to spec'd lighting and most clients don't push back.

Hire a lighting designer for an hour, even if you're not a lighting designer's client. Or at minimum, walk the plan with your electrician and add a layer of accent lighting to every room.

The most common regret isn't a finish or a fixture. It's a small decision the client didn't realize was a decision until they were living with it.

5. "The pantry should have been a walk-in."

Or vice versa: "The walk-in pantry takes up too much square footage." The pantry decision is one of the rare ones that splits about evenly — both regrets show up.

The rule we've developed: if you cook from scratch and shop at Costco, walk-in. If you eat out or grocery-deliver, a deep hidden pantry behind cabinet doors is plenty. Don't default to walk-in just because everyone else does.

6. "We picked paint colors before we had walls."

The store swatch lies. Light, sheen, scale, and surrounding finishes all change how paint reads. Most homeowners pick paint from a deck or a tiny sample, see it on a wall, and want to repaint within a week.

Order the largest available sample of every color. Paint a 4-foot-by-4-foot patch on the actual wall, in the actual light, in the actual room — with the actual flooring and trim installed. Live with it for three days. Then commit.

7. "The primary closet is too small for two people."

Most primary closets are designed for one and a half people. Look at how each occupant actually stores clothes (hanging, drawers, shoes, accessories) and design for both of you, with at least 25% growth room. Closets that feel huge in plan are almost always tight in life.

8. "The TV is in the wrong place."

This one's universal. The TV ends up over the fireplace because that's the only wall it "fits." The viewing angle is uncomfortable. The fire is uncomfortable. Neither gets used the way you wanted.

Plan TV placement during design, not during furniture day. Sometimes that means a TV cabinet, not a wall mount. Sometimes that means two TVs (one for viewing, one over the fireplace for ambiance / sports background). Sometimes that means no TV in that room at all. The conversation matters.

9. "The kitchen island is too small / too big / the wrong shape."

Most kitchen islands are designed by people who don't cook on them. We see three common regrets: too short for the home's scale (under 8 feet), too narrow to actually prep on (under 42" deep), or shaped wrong for the way the family gathers (linear when L would have been better, or vice versa).

Test your island. Use cardboard. Set it up at scale in the framed house before drywall, and stand at it like you're cooking. Walk around it like you're hosting. You'll know within five minutes if it's wrong.

10. "We didn't budget for landscape."

Universal. Landscape is the line item that gets cut first when costs run over, and the regret that hits hardest after move-in. A $3M house on a bare lot looks unfinished — because it is.

Budget landscape from day one. Build a real plant palette, real hardscape, real lighting. If you can't afford it all at move-in, phase it — but plan the entire scope up front so the irrigation and grading support the eventual install.

The bonus regret no one mentions until they're moving out

"We chose the wrong builder." Not always, but often. The builder you choose decides the experience, the quality, the relationship, the warranty service, and ultimately the house you live in. The lowest bid is rarely the right answer. The fastest schedule is rarely the right answer. The flashiest portfolio is rarely the right answer.

The right answer is: the builder who showed up on time, gave honest answers, walked you through their bid line by line, took you to active jobsites, and treated you like the most important client they had. Find that builder. Pay that builder. Tell us when you're ready.

The honest takeaway

The most common regrets aren't about the finishes. They're about the small structural decisions — outlets, blocking, mudroom size, lighting, closet design — that happen quietly and once. Those are the decisions worth slowing down for.

If you take one thing from this list: walk your house, slowly, the week before drywall. Bring your designer. Bring your builder. Bring blue tape. Mark everything you'd ever want to change. Then change it. The cost at that moment is a tenth of the cost six months later, and a hundredth of the cost six years later.

You're going to live in this house for a long time. The week before drywall is the cheapest insurance you'll ever buy on it.

— Building soon? The Ultimate Home Building Checklist walks you through the pre-drywall, pre-paint, and pre-closing inspections that prevent every regret on this list. Free.