What is the smallest home you could stand to live in?...
We are considering buying a small home with acreage over a bigger home with much less land. With housing prices what they are we just can't afford the size home I think I want (2500 sq feet plus). Our last home was 1200 and seemed a bit tight, current one is more like 1800 but feels even tighter due to being on a tiny city lot. I miss our smaller house with a much bigger yard. So what is the smallest you think you could stand and what is your family size?
We had our four kids in 1400 square foot and what I couldn't stand was the fact that we had no yard. The house size wasn't really the problem.
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Honestly; I would go for more land...I have an acre and "want" more. Land is my anchor; my connection. There are six of us in a two bedroom ranch. That always raises eyebrows! But it really isn't that tight. We have finished half of the basement so it features a family room with an egress window and two bedrooms for the teens, I even have a treadmill down there. The two youngest share the bedroom next to dh and me. We have an eat-in kitchen, living room and one bathroom. Yes, one bathroom may seem like the hard part but I actually like it that way; less to clean and less water waste.
The (girls) teens will be moving on soon; leaving the basement free for my sons to take over. I think of how much we have and what we actually need and have never regreted the choice to go smaller than the norm. Even our relator thought we were making a mistake. I have never been the McMansions type.
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Honestly, I need my space. Currently we are living in a 1500 sf home. Maybe it's just the layout, but I feel like someone is always underfoot, bumping me, touching me, etc. I don't mind this sometimes, but othertimes I'd like my space.
We just looked at a house that was 2600 sf. It was a nice size with a playroom and an office. It had room to entertain. We 'd it. But the yards were terrible.
So, to answer the OP, I'd like a house around 2000sf to feel like we all had enough room. Oh, and indoor laundry is a must.
My hubby, his 3 girls and i lived in a 1120 sq foot single wide trailer. ( The girls 9,12,13) Not only that but we had a 130lb dog and 4 indoor cats sharing the space with us. It never felt over crowded.
Our living room had a couch, coffee table, 2 side tables, a futon chair, 2 computer desks with nice computer chairs ( which served also as additional seating).
The only real problem we had was storage space. I started buying the animals food in bulk and storing it in tupperware tubs which were labled and stacked which freed up a lot of space.
Our Fridge and freezer never seemed big enough though, but we did have a nice large walk in pantry the size of 2 average closets. So we could use the other cabinets for non food kitchen items.
I think that it is less the space, but more how it is layed out.. like my mother in laws house .. it is HUGE, but the high traffic areas seem closterfobic to me when there is more then one person in them.. ( although it might also be emotional since i really am disliking my inlaws right now or that they do not respect space) and there are weird projections that cut into rooms in their house wasting HUGE areas of space instead of taking advanage of them.
Like the one upstairs bedroom .. it is broken into 2 large alcoves like you could put twin beds in each but then there would be no room to walk between them at the foot. Then in the middle there is another alcove to a window. Then there is a larger main area to the room where there is a king size bed and it fills most of the space. There is a walk in closet for the room too it goes back into the shape of an L with the longest part of the L being a 3 foot space going back about 8ft. That means that there is about a 6X6 foot of wasted space in that room just between the closet and bed room. Yeah the room probubly comes down in that area, but they could have used it for shelving or a built in dresser or just left it open.
Right now there are 6, soon to be 7, of us living in an 850 sq ft single wide trailer. It's a little smaller than I would prefer, but it's mainly the lack of storage space and the dumpy condition of the trailer that bother me. I can live in this amount of space because I have to right now, but I will be so thankful to spread my wings a bit once our house is finished!
Before this we lived in an 1800 sq ft house and it was plenty of sq footage but it wasn't utilized in the best way. For instance our master bedroom was huge-- like 22 x 24 or something ridiculous like that while the two smaller bedrooms were both around 9 x 10. So I can do very well with a small house as long as the layout is functional.
ETA: I would always choose more land over a bigger house.
If it had a lot of land I could stand a pretty small house. Right now we're in about 1300 sq ft and I think it's pretty good. We have a very large yard for Southern Cali and we spend a majority of our time outside. We've had to get rid of many things to fit comfortably here (last house was 1800+). Just yesterday DH and I were discussing how unnecessary things like our second bedroom are and how we can condense the kids room setup in order to have them in one bedroom should we need to/want to (two kids).
eta: We had the same setup as Jenn in our old house, the master bedroom was HUGE, bigger than the living room! I would have rather had more storage area or pantry.
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We're looking at moving into an 800 sf cabin...and building a 1400 sf house for our "dream house" near it. But now we're wondering if we might be okay with just the cabin, or maybe we should just add onto it...
1400 sf that I lay out is plenty of space for us with two kids.
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We have a family of 4 and we have 900 sq ft with large city lot (it is a bit fat yard with a wrap around fence). We also have a small deck which is covered and in the summer that has been used as another room... but in the winter it is just to wet and dark here to get any use out of it. Anything larger would be great. We moved from 3200 sq ft (2800 was ours there was an apt in the basement which we rented out so we could not use that as living space) and the house always seemed way too big. Something in between. Around 1800 sq ft would be perfect for us... we are not sure if we are done having kids either... so getting something larger than "min" would be smart for us.... but tough luck finding that here with land for under $300K.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gloriel
Before this we lived in an 1800 sq ft house and it was plenty of sq footage but it wasn't utilized in the best way. For instance our master bedroom was huge-- like 22 x 24 or something ridiculous like that while the two smaller bedrooms were both around 9 x 10. So I can do very well with a small house as long as the layout is functional.
Yes yes and YES. That was the thing with the huge house. There were 4 bedrooms, 3 bath, kitchen, laundry rooms, living, dining, wreck room and two large storage hallways (and that is just our section). BUT two bedrooms were 14X14 (nearly perfect IMHO with two closets each) and the other two were 9x9... Um... yeah. Can you say CRAMPED?? My son had one twin sized bed and two small book shelves in there and that was it, and he barely had room to play. My dd was in our closet upstairs (walk-in with a window) until she was 3 yrs old because the room down stairs wouldn't fit anymore than the closet did so why move her??? The other smaller bedroom wasn't even big enough for a sewing room. (I guess it could have been if I had been as streamlined as I have had to be now. lol...) Just badly laid out. I would be happy with half the space if the lay out was better done.
This house, although small, the lay out is quite functional. Living, dining and kitchen are all one room seperated by a floor to cealing island with the oven in it. Then there is a hallway, and three little rooms (the biggest is my sons and it is 11x12 with a 9 foot wall becuase the closet sticks out of one side, smallest is dd's which is 10x10.) Closet space is great... yard is great... I am cramped... but happy in this small space becuase it is laid out SO much better!
Right now, we have 5 people, 2 dogs and 2 cats in about 1200sq ft. It's a tight fit right now, and I wouldn't want to be in anything smaller (at least with kids - maybe if it were just DH and I).
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We have 1700 square feet, and it seems very roomy. I grew up with 3 siblings and 2 parents in just under 1000 square feet and it was fine. I do sometimes wish we had a bigger living room instead of a 3rd bedroom. And our bedroom is really too big.
If it was a house like I grew up in I could do 1000 square feet no problem. To me a big yard is more important; ours is okay now but I would love fenced acreage. Of course, that isn't going to happen here in So Cal. We couldn't afford to move if we wanted to.
Day to day isn't when I need the space; it's when I wish I could have 10 mamas and their kids over that this house doesn't work.
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Maryalene, when did you get another cat?
Did I miss something?
We moved from a home with 960 sq. feet upstairs and 500 downstairs with 10 acres to a home that is 1100 upstairs with an open partially finished full basement on 1/2 acre. I like the set up of our new house much better because it is more open but I do agree that I could handle a smaller home if it meant I had land available.
Dh and I bought our current home because it is 3 minutes from his work and a half a block from a very good school (would have homeschooled if we were in the district we used to live in). We intend to be debt free other than student loans and mortgage after this year and then we will start saving to buy a minimum of 10 acres of land that we can build on after our kiddos are out of elementary school. Until then we will build a small cabin or temporary shelter on it so that we can use it on weekends and if it is close enough to where we are now we could even have some livestock on it. When we build we will keep in mind that it is our forever house so I will probably make the kids bedrooms smaller and have larger entertaining areas since the kids will each only live their for a 2-6 years.
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We've had the second cat since last summer. It was suppose to be peace offering from dh, I think. It's a black and white cat. I can't believe I've never mentioned it before - it's lucky it made it through the first few months. It was so tiny when we got it; I thought the kids were going to love (read squish) it to death.
I need to come see your new digs when it's ready for company! I agree that a lot of it isn't the square footage but what is done with it. I wish that our bedroom was smaller and they used some of that space for the bathroom and Madeline's bedroom but I guess that can't be helped now.
'd it. But the yards were terrible. 
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