Post by mrsukyankee on Jan 18, 2021 13:14:24 GMT -5
I think our house is HUGE at 2000 sq feet. We share it with my MIL, so we can have our own spaces. Both my H and I work from home, so I use the living room and he uses one of the guest bedrooms. The other guest bedroom is used for our gym and a lot of storage (built in wardrobes). If it were just the two of us, it would be ridiculous. We figure that when my MIL passes and when we're older, we'll probably convert this house to two flats and be happy to have a two bedroom, one bath place and rent out the upstairs flat (which will be 2 bedrooms, 2 bath).
Our first house was 1300 sq feet and it was perfect for the two of us and our big dog (and probably even bigger than we needed then).
We just moved to from 1400 to 1600 square feet with a family of 4 and we have great space I think. I don’t know what we would do with more. We have 4beds and 2 full bathrooms and are about to break ground on a 1 car detached garage (our first garage! Super rare in our area!). Our last house wasn’t laid out as well and felt cramped but this house even with only 200 more sq ft is great. We go for older homes that don’t have open layouts and I prefer that.
@@when DD1 was first born we lived in the city and her nursery was our closet - I think that place was 600sq ft? It worked for us.
Another issue is investors pushing buyers to bigger homes bc their cash offers are more competitive. Modest, affordable homes are also what landlords look to buy.
When we bought in 2012 all the 2-3 bedrooms were being scooped up like hot cakes by investors with cash (and no contingency/short close, I understand the appeal to sellers), who turn around and rent them out. This forced all your would be buyers in that market to look at slightly larger homes that weren’t as appealing for rental revenue, which in turn made the market for 4 bedroom homes CRAZY competitive. I still remember one house we offered on went on the market on Friday and responded to their 17 offers on Monday!
Communal living with rando people could be very challenging. I don’t think I would want to be required to cook for the big group every week for example. However, as a single woman with @@no kids I worry about becoming isolated especially once I retire. Several small houses on one property (with people I know and chose) would be preferable to living alone.
My BFF and I are planning something like this. We have both made questionable professional choices that have limited our earnings but we also both made really smart real estate purchases in our 20s so we want to leverage them to have a secure and supportive place to age. Like sometimes you need a second person to do something, move something, help with medical stuff, etc. but paying for that help is $$$ if you don't have a partner. Literal roommates are too much for us at this age so we think this will be a good option.
I also don’t have a guest room because I secretly hate hosting lololol.
Our basement living area has a bed and we just turn it over if say family stays with us.
Also along those lines most people who save money if instead on insisting on a guest room they just paid for a hotel when guests came to town. Now I get why that isnt appealing. But really it would be cheaper in the long run.
My grandparents had a 3 bedroom, 4 bathroom ranch house with a full unfinished basement. It took years to empty out all the stuff. Years. That is my nightmare, outliving my husband and being left with STUFF...stuff that hasn't been touched in years because it was just filling space.
Yup, my grandparents built a rather large brick cape cod in the early 1950s. 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, probably a bit over 2000 sq ft. FULL unfinished basement - multiple rooms that could have been finished off, including rough ins for another bathroom. My grandfather was a steamfitter, and every room in that basement had boxes of nuts, bolts, nails, tools, extra copper pipes, metal sheeting, etc, etc. Not to mention the loft above the 2 car garage. My grandfather died in 1994 and when my grandmother died in 2003 my dad was no where near done cleaning that stuff out.
We definitely have a lot more "stuff" with a basement and garage now, and it's mentally not very calming.
Just need to say thanks to all sharing their situations, and I do have a question. H and I are also candidates for Love It or List It. We have 1700 sq ft and a finished basement that brings it up to 2000. I wish our rooms were bigger (our dining area is cramped), but I love our neighborhood and don’t want to leave. H wants to move to a bigger house. Has anyone ever converted garage space to livable space and extended existing rooms into that space? H is open to that if we build another garage.
@@@ below His mom complains about us not having a true guest room (bed in the basement office/playroom). I wish she’d take the hint that we don’t have a guest room because we don’t like people spending the night (okay. Not people. Just her and FIL. I loved when my family came pre-Covid).
Just need to say thanks to all sharing their situations, and I do have a question. H and I are also candidates for Love It or List It. We have 1700 sq ft and a finished basement that brings it up to 2000. I wish our rooms were bigger (our dining area is cramped), but I love our neighborhood and don’t want to leave. H wants to move to a bigger house. Has anyone ever converted garage space to livable space and extended existing rooms into that space? H is open to that if we build another garage.
@@@ below His mom complains about us not having a true guest room (bed in the basement office/playroom). I wish she’d take the hint that we don’t have a guest room because we don’t like people spending the night (okay. Not people. Just her and FIL. I loved when my family came pre-Covid).
Our neighbors did. It was a pretty expensive reno and it came out AWESOME with a big beautiful great room they built out of the existing dining room and garage combo but when they sold the house was on the market forevvvverrrrr and they sold at a loss (after reno costs) because they overimproved it for the neighborhood. If that isn’t an issue for your location at least getting a quote would probably be helpful!
We have been watching Tiny House Nation and Tiny House Hunters thus weekend, while 400 sqft isn't my jam for my family of 4 + dog in MN.
We currently have 1100 sqft 2bed/1bath which could totally be doable if it weren't a 1908 build. *ok, I'd like one more bathroom*
We want a new house and think we may build, because all of the houses in our neighborhood are either smaller (with same issues as we currently have) or new builds that are $$$$$$ and 2300+ sqft with an open floor plan. I want none of that. I want my 1100 sqft, just usable for this century.
Post by BlondeSpiders on Jan 18, 2021 14:29:58 GMT -5
We just bought our first (MY first) home in October, and went from a 1300 sq ft 3 bedroom rental to a 2094 sq ft 4 bedroom +den spread out over 3 floors. It's just the two of us. Many people have said (realtor, neighbors, MY MOM) it's too much house for 2 people, and maybe they're right. It's a townhouse, in a row with 5 others, and facing an identical row of 6.
We wanted 2 separate offices as well as a guest room, and now we have it. My office is also my dedicated craft room, so it won't spill out all over the dining room anymore.
I am now dealing with the difficulties of keeping a house of this size and with this many stairs clean.
Post by icedcoffee on Jan 18, 2021 14:43:28 GMT -5
This is more of a rant. LOL
My in laws live in a much more modestly sized home than we do. But any savings on the environment have been totally negated by the fact that they redo things like it’s nobody’s business. They recently redid their (perfectly fine) granite counter tips. When we asked why because they weren’t that old they declared that “you’re wrong, it’s been 15 years since we replaced them”. I didn’t even have it in me to explain that the useful life of solid granite is much longer. It’s soooo wasteful.
We’re still living with most of our 1986 finishes. 🤷♀️ it’s not going to win any magazine awards but it’s functional.
Ugh yes to open concept. Our house is around 2500 SF, but I find some of the space useless because it's blended with another room so you can't really have two different activities going on. Plus two of our three guest bedrooms only get used a few times a year (in non-COVID times, obv) and honestly, I'd rather people have to stay at a hotel lol.
I've offered to pay to have the inlaws do this, but H won't let me. MIL gets offended when we've offered to say in a hotel instead of at their house when we visit, even though there are not enough beds.
Its also the reason I refuse to turn a bedroom into another guest room. My house isn't a Travelodge.
We turned one small bedroom into a closet/storage area (old house with no closets) and the other into a craft room/office just so we can’t have overnight guests. It’s really worked out with COVID and working from home!
Just need to say thanks to all sharing their situations, and I do have a question. H and I are also candidates for Love It or List It. We have 1700 sq ft and a finished basement that brings it up to 2000. I wish our rooms were bigger (our dining area is cramped), but I love our neighborhood and don’t want to leave. H wants to move to a bigger house. Has anyone ever converted garage space to livable space and extended existing rooms into that space? H is open to that if we build another garage.
My parents converted a 1 car attached garage to a bedroom that was right off their living room. I don't remember maybe of the specifics when it was happening but I think it was fairly straight forward to do. The biggest issue now is heating because they never integrated into the existing system. They put an electric radiator in their and it functioned pretty well as my sister's BR.
My little family of 3 just moved into 2300 sq ft house. I wanted 1600-1800, but H wanted the bigger house. Currently we don't use the upstairs bonus room but other than that we use all of it daily.
The 'perfect' house except it had a non usable tiny triangle shaped backyard right up against a steep hill is within walking distance from my house. I walk past it almost daily and think 'if only'. It's 1600 sq ft 3 bd 2 bath, good sized kitchen, dedicated office/den AND two living spaces. It was exactly what I wanted except the horrible backyard. *sigh*
ETA: we're doing our part environmentally with our solar panels, composting & tesla. We recycle what we can but our city recycles very little. As we're able to we do send as much recycling as we can with family or friends who have better recycling options in their cities.
Also, my H wfh ft so no commute. And we live in the same city as family and closer to other family no long travel to visit anymore (except H's family, but they will always be a plane ride away no matter where we live).
Have any of you who are justifying your big house with your solar panels or whatnot done an analysis of your total environmental impact?
I haven't but I have a strong suspicion you aren't making up the difference as much as you'd like to think.
I think their point is that we all make different choices based on our own needs and priorities. Without nickle-and-dining every consumption in an effort to “even things out” we all make decisions to prioritize certain aspects of environmentalism even though we can’t make perfect decisions all the time (ie: maybe someone drives a hybrid or electric vehicle even though they live further away from work. Do they offset? Probably not, but it’s an improvement over a long commute with a gas vehicle). And over time, I suspect most of us are improving our consumption even if we still have a long way to go.
The other thing about larger houses is that they’re already built and decisions have already been made. I can try to find a smaller house that works for us, but this house still remains, someone else will just move into it. We bought this in a time when we had priorities that are different than they are now. We wouldn’t choose this house again, but we’re here. We will do what we can to make the home as efficient as possible and do the best that we can in other areas, too. It’s not to “offset” anything...it’s just trying to be responsible where we are with what we have and the decisions we can make now.
If/when we move again, we will choose differently.
Our house is plenty big. Not sure how much finished SF off the top of my head, but it's 4 bedrooms, plus a bonus room, 3 baths. Doesn't haven't a dining room. All the rooms are pretty small. I think it's around 2300sf?
We've renovated 75% of it ourselves in the first 6 or so years we lived here down to the studs to make the layout work for us.
It's got everything we need, room for all our ridiculous hobbies- though h wants a garage (more room for tools, bikes, beer brewing equip- not for parking cars).
Last summer, my MIL made an offhand comment about "our next house". Lol. No.
But that's the assumption. We don't have a dining room or a garage, we can't fit a king sized bed in our room, so clearly it's not big enough. And it's not small!! It's so frustrating.
I don't design houses, and have no business doing so, but I think about this a lot. There is something to be said about MCM and I know some people hate the era. Some of the best home I've seen are from architects of that time. Huge focus on maximizing space and creating function.
I also think about lake cabins/cottages. Many of the original lake cabins are super small, but the focus is the outdoor space. So many of them are demo'd for bigger houses because the land is so valuable (as is in the city/inner ring).
As for me, I really liked our 1950's era 1200sq foot first home, and it worked great for H and me. We had a decent sized yard and the location was perfect for our lifestyle at the time. @@@ When we had two kids at once, things got a little more cramped real fast. Having two cribs in an 8x10 bedroom was a challenge, but we did it. Ikea was our friend. @@@ We moved to the suburb we are in now for our jobs, and while I like our house, its probably slightly bigger than we really need. It has worked out great for the pandemic though, as H and I both have places to work, I have space for my fitness equipment, etc. When we were looking for this house my list wasn't that crazy...3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage. If I had the cash to design and build my own house, I think I could make that list a reality under 2000 sq ft.
MCM is my favorite. I love looking at homes in Palm springs. Our house has some elements of MCM, and I am trying to make it more so.
We plan to build our future lake house and it will be small, with indoor/outdoor living in mind.
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We lived in a 1200sq foot loft and never used the 2nd "bedroom" or dining area until we had our twins. My husband wanted a yard so we bought a house. The SFH in our town are falling apart small 3 bed 1 bath homes that need a ton of work and go for over a million, or large homes. We ended up in a home 3x the size of our loft. Our master suite is stupidly, pointlessly big. I can not wait to be back in a small condo again once the boys are out of high school or we find a unicorn house in this town.
When we moved out to the "burbs," everyone told us we would need a second car. We are a mile from the train and less than that to a bus. We can walk to a bunch of shops.
Its been almost 3 years and we still have one car. The comments haven't stopped. You would think we are committing some kind of crime or are some kind of crazy people who won't buy a second car based on reactions.
Why spend tens of thousands plus gas and insurance on something we would use maybe a couple times a week?
I also don’t have a guest room because I secretly hate hosting lololol.
I feel you on that! Because of the way we were using the space, we essentially had a 2300 square foot 1 BR house for years. It wasnt an accident. Guests slept on an air mattress in the living room or a couch in the office with no privacy whatsoever. Everyone bitched about the accommodations and yet, no one ever booked a hotel. So annoying! Visits are so much more enjoyable when everyone isn't under 1 roof. It wasnt until our last remodel that we relented and finally designated a room for guests (still shared with our music room). Just in time for Covid...no guests.
My big dream is getting a maybe 1200 sq foot house on a half-acre of land and building several accessory dwelling units that I rent out or give to my closest friends and family. We’d have a big shared communal garden and outdoor area. I follow several tiny house and cooperative living accounts on Instagram and there seem to be more and more people interested in this concept. Of course the big limitation. Is zoning.
Ooooh what accounts? I’d love to check them out.
There’s a ton of tiny house accounts on Instagram. I look at Tiny House Inspiration Many of the tiny houses on Instagram involve stairs or ladders to a sleeping loft, which wouldn’t be appropriate for aging in place. This Accessory Dwelling blog has some practical advice about permitting. Their work are all single storey.
Have any of you who are justifying your big house with your solar panels or whatnot done an analysis of your total environmental impact?
I haven't but I have a strong suspicion you aren't making up the difference as much as you'd like to think.
I wasn’t using it to justify myself. I was using to to assuage some guilt. But the move would also reduce my 50 mile one way commute by about half.
I can justify with a bazillion other things, that may or may not be valid in your eyes. The biggest thing being needing to get a bedroom downstairs because of my health.
Have any of you who are justifying your big house with your solar panels or whatnot done an analysis of your total environmental impact?
I haven't but I have a strong suspicion you aren't making up the difference as much as you'd like to think.
I think their point is that we all make different choices based on our own needs and priorities. Without nickle-and-dining every consumption in an effort to “even things out” we all make decisions to prioritize certain aspects of environmentalism even though we can’t make perfect decisions all the time (ie: maybe someone drives a hybrid or electric vehicle even though they live further away from work. Do they offset? Probably not, but it’s an improvement over a long commute with a gas vehicle). And over time, I suspect most of us are improving our consumption even if we still have a long way to go.
I wonder if we do reduce consumption over time. My assumption was the opposite, based on America's trajectory overall. I hope I'm wrong!
Have any of you who are justifying your big house with your solar panels or whatnot done an analysis of your total environmental impact?
I haven't but I have a strong suspicion you aren't making up the difference as much as you'd like to think.
I wasn’t using it to justify myself. I was using to to assuage some guilt. But the move would also reduce my 50 mile one way commute by about half.
I can justify with a bazillion other things, that may or may not be valid in your eyes. The biggest thing being needing to get a bedroom downstairs because of my health.
I'm not referring to anyone in particular, more Americans in general. Individually we all have reasons, and often I think we are at the mercy of the local market, ie, small houses don't even exist. But as the same time if we don't individually refuse to purchase stupid big houses, nothing changes. in order words, its complicated.
I think their point is that we all make different choices based on our own needs and priorities. Without nickle-and-dining every consumption in an effort to “even things out” we all make decisions to prioritize certain aspects of environmentalism even though we can’t make perfect decisions all the time (ie: maybe someone drives a hybrid or electric vehicle even though they live further away from work. Do they offset? Probably not, but it’s an improvement over a long commute with a gas vehicle). And over time, I suspect most of us are improving our consumption even if we still have a long way to go.
I wonder if we do reduce consumption over time. My assumption was the opposite, based on America's trajectory overall. I hope I'm wrong!
You’re probably right. I guess I meant that over time, we (people on this board, not people in general) make more conscious decisions to reduce our consumption. It’s still probably a net increase, for a long time, then I imagine it’ll go down as we age.
Post by rupertpenny on Jan 18, 2021 21:38:11 GMT -5
Late to this thread, but I lived in a 580 sq ft 3bd/2ba apartment with three adults total and one @ kid ( 2 kids the last few months) for three whole years. I’m not going to say it was great or that I’d love to do it again, but it really makes me roll my eyes at anyone who “needs” extra space.
Late to this thread, but I lived in a 580 sq ft 3bd/2ba apartment with three adults total and one @ kid ( 2 kids the last few months) for three whole years. I’m not going to say it was great or that I’d love to do it again, but it really makes me roll my eyes at anyone who “needs” extra space.
My sister back home (Ireland) recently bought a house for herself and her @2kids after a divorce, it’s around that size (600 square feet) but 3 bed 1 bath and when she told me I was wondering how three beds could fit but when I saw it, well they are small rooms but who cares- it’s for sleeping. The house is tiny but well laid out, she loves it.
On the other hand it seems a trend here in suburban America I’m seeing is a master bedroom as large as a decently sized entire apartment. It’s just such a poor use of space IMO when the room is ultimately used to sleep.
Post by irishbride2 on Jan 19, 2021 7:57:23 GMT -5
H and I started our marriage in a less than 500 sq flat. It was perfect for us. We now have 3000 sq feet and I admit there are times I would love to add on. But its more out of laziness than anything else. Like, part of me would love several rooms dedicated to a specific activity (working out vs crafts vs office) so I don't have to constantly keep getting things out and putting them away. But again, totally out of laziness. We won't do it, but I can understand the desire to keep growing especially when bombarded with images of consumption. I think many people don't care and have money to throw away so they keep building.
On the other hand, paring down to a tiny house also sounds amazing. I just want a small house in the mountains with no people nearby.
Post by fancynewbeesly on Jan 19, 2021 8:56:05 GMT -5
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I have a love/hate relationship with our house. DH and I bought my childhood house. My parents built in the 70s. Instead of moving they kept renovating and changing things. I literally would come home from school growing up and a wall would be missing.
I hate the design. Semi open. Bedrooms are massive. But three of them. Tons of built ins so it costs money to change the flow/layout of the room. DH and I calculated that for the most part we only use 50% of the house. The dining room and the big room with super high ceilings is unused except for holidays. But we still have to heat it. 🙄
We looked at moving but because my parents gave us a deal on the house we would be paying either the same or more for a lot less space and property. The house is on an acre. So we stay. Plus because it was built in the 70s there are a ton of things that would have to be updated/to do to get it sale ready. We have oil heat. So it works for now. But I definitely still look at other properties just incase.