There are so many factors to consider when buying a home. If you’re like me, you have a list of must-haves and a wish list of bonuses. You have a budget you need to stick to, maybe a school district you’d like to stay in. All of those are important, but there’s one key component that often gets pushed to the back. It gets masked so easily by the trendy new tile in the bathroom or the fancy new refrigerator that cost as much as a car. It’s the biggest non-negotiable factor of all:

Floorplan. We didn’t realize how crucial this element was until #NixonPack house number 5. When we purchased this house, I was pregnant with Grey and we were itching to get out of our brownstone, sharing walls with the party people next door. The owners had rented it out to four sorority sisters, who each had boyfriends, (from the looks of it several) and there were no fewer than ten people on the other side of our wall at any given time. We could hear every footstep, every let’s just leave it at noise, and each morning we were greeted by whatever beer cans must have been on sale the night before, tossed over to our side of the roof deck. Mayday, it was time to move.

There was no lipstick in this fixer upper to mask the floor plan of the house we bought. It was just the ohmygoodness we’re about to become parents and can’t bring our baby home to a frat party kind of haze we must have been in. Here were the problems with the new house. We weren’t parents yet. So we didn’t realize the importance of having at least three bedrooms on the second floor. We had two. The master, and one additional bedroom. It felt fine for us with just one baby on the way. But for resale, a lot of people have more than one child and want all of the bedrooms on the same level. We heard that feedback loud and clear when we listed it for sale.

Second, there was only technically one area for family game night SportsCenter The Bachelor a living room. There was no finished basement, no family room and just one living room right when you walk in the house. Again, fine for us. Jon and I are lucky enough to share the same taste in Netflix bingeathons, but let’s be honest, ain’t nobody got time for that since having Grey. Many of the potential buyers who came through were not on the same page. They wanted their own rooms for separate shows. Apparently their husbands can’t appreciate the Real Housewives as much as mine (wink).

And last, but not least, the third floor. This space is amazing. It’s wide open and lets in the most stunning natural light. I don’t think we’ve ever even used the lights up there. But here was the problem with the third level. That was Jon’s office and it was located directly above the nursery. There was absolutely nowhere else we could have moved his work space unless I booted him to the garage. This floor plan faux pas may have earned me the nickname Noise Nazi but I’m still not mean enough to send him to work in the dog house. Poor guy had to schedule conference calls around every nap, couldn’t use the printer while the baby was sleeping, and may or may not have gotten some bladder issues from lack of being able to use the bathroom. TMI?

No matter your reasons for selling, or buying, be sure to study the floor plan at length. Consider how long you expect to live in the house, then add a few years for good measure. Think about all of the we’ll never do this scenarios and see if that layout would still work for your family if they all came true. You may have agreed on just one sweet babe, but oops, there’s something in the water in the new neighborhood and now you have twins.