One & Done: Only child

XP How big is your home?

Lurker here... 

How many bedrooms, bathrooms, and square feet is the place you live? Is it big enough for you?  

We are in the process of finding a home to buy, and we love one of them (just getting the down payment saved up, and hopefully it will be ours), but it is only 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and almost 800 sq ft. We have DS, and we are planning on adding at least 2 more children, but I'm wanting to see if this house is big enough for the three of us (maybe 4).

Thanks 

Edited to remove an obvious sentence. 

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Re: XP How big is your home?

  • We live in a 3br/2ba house that is just over 1900sf. I think we could use a little more space but I think space has a lot to do with layout rather than square footage. Prior to this house, I lived in a 2br/2ba condo with 1000sf. It had a better layout and seemed much bigger.
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  • We have 2br, 1 bath and 1150 square feet. I would LOVE more storage. It's an old house, so our bedroom closets are tiny and so is our coat closet. We have no pantry and no linen closet. It is enough space for the 3 of us, but I would like to have an extra bedroom where we could put DH's video games and where I could have a craft area so I am not setting up and tearing down every time I want to make something.
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  • I live in a pretty rural area and we have pretty roomy houses, but that seems small to me for a house especially. I agree with PP that it depends on layout and storage. 

    We live in a 2br apartment that is plenty roomy for us. Granted baby's room is in with us, we have 4 closets in those 2 rooms and tons of cabinet space. I couldnt imagine having another kid in here. Holy crap.

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  • We rent a 2br/1ba apartment with about 900 sf. We are fine with just the 3 of us but things would be very tight if we had another. But it really depends on the layout. Our old house had 3br/1ba and 820 sf. It seemed a lot bigger, though, and had great storage (plus a garage, which helped).
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  • We have a 3 bedroom, 1 bath 1000 sq ft ranch. We are lucky to have a LARGE garage and decent sized yard. If we didn't have the garage there's no way we'd fit in this house. 

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  • We recently moved into a new townhome that's 1900 sq/ft and 3 bedroom 2 bath loft. It's definitely just the perfect amount of space and we love having the loft as a seperate play room so toys aren't all over the house. We honestly don't need the third bedroom since we have the loft room but the closet in there is nice for storing stuff like gift wrap. Obviously if we ever have another kid that room would be taken over by kid stuff and we will be glad to have it.

    Before this though we lived in a 2 bed 2 bath condo 1100 sq feet. It was fine as far as living space but was a modern loft style building with limited storage. We really wanted a garage and that was the big reason we moved. We were tired of strollers in our living room.

    After we sold the condo we lived in a 500 sq foot rental 1 bedroom for 6 months and it felt really really small while our townhome was being built.

    I would say 800 sq feet of living space is doable with one kid for sure if you have some storage and a place for strollers and bulky baby gear and it would be tight for 2. If you could find a place with a basement or garage I think the living space wouldn't be such a big deal.
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  • Almost two years ago we moved from the absolute tiniest two "bedroom" / one bathroom condo with no storage to a huge four bedroom / three bathroom single family bungalow with more closets than we know what to do with (I turned one huge one into a reading nook because we weren't even using it). 

    Honestly, it's too much for me.  It's what DH really, really wanted.  He wanted a big house with a yard and garage. He also wanted to move back to the East Coast, so I saw the house as a compromise.  I'd rather be in a bigger condo or townhouse so there would be less cleaning, general upkeep, and no yard work. At least we are still in Chicago.

  • 800 sq ft for 3 just seems small.

    Our old house was about 1500, but it was 3 floors and narrow.  It was great for just the 2 of us and relatively fine when DS joined us.  But the layout wasn't the greatest and it was in the city w/  no yard. 

    Our new home is 2100 sq ft, 4 bed, 2.5 bath and it's PLENTY of room.  More than what we really need, but we plan to be here through high school for DS, so we feel there is plenty of room for us as he gets older.  

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  • eyenigheyenigh member

    I think it really depends on how much personal space you like having and how you like living.  If I had to live with one person in 800 square feet, I'd go out of mind, let alone with my very busy toddler and two dogs but I know some people do very well in small spaces and prefer it. Our current home is 2350 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and a full basement. I am, by no means, a minimalist and we take advantage of all the space!

    At the same time, our size home is very average in our area but, in a city setting, 800 square feet may be the best you can hope for in a certain price range. I guess I'd weigh my options as I considered the location but if I were planning to add more children to my family, I don't think I'd ever purchase anything that small. Can you maybe rent something now and save for a larger, future home to accommodate a growing family?

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  • imagechardonnay24:
    We rent a 2br/1ba apartment with about 900 sf. We are fine with just the 3 of us but things would be very tight if we had another. But it really depends on the layout. Our old house had 3br/1ba and 820 sf. It seemed a lot bigger, though, and had great storage (plus a garage, which helped).

    Same, here. This space is perfect for us now, thanks to an open layout for the kitchen/dining room/living room/breakfast nook. Since DD doesn't use the bathroom yet, except when accompanied by us for a bath, we don't need more than one. The bedrooms are a pretty good size, too. We could use more storage, though.

    Our goal is to save up for a 3BR condo (the 3rd BR will be a shared office/project room) in a better school district before DD goes to kindergarten. So we have three years to get that together.

  • salt78salt78 member
    2BR/1.5BA w/ den apartment. It's about 1250 sq. ft. It would be okay if we had another kid because we have the den, but I personally would want another bedroom option if we were having multiple children. (I would want everyone to have their own room, but that's just my personal preference.)
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  • Our house is 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and just over 1000 sq. ft. Our house is not nearly big enough for my liking, and we will upgrade eventually, even though we aren't having another child.
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  • aeh72aeh72 member
    We have a pretty big house (about 4,500 sq feet) with 5 bedrooms and 3.5 baths.  We bought it before we had DS and looked at it as our potential "forever" house but if not that then hopefully a good investment because we bought it when it was a buyers market.  Now that we have DS and are almost certain to be OAD, it does feel like too much space.  I like having a big open main living area and finished basement (which I think is great for kids whether you have 1 or 3) but we certainly don't need 5 bedrooms. So, we'd consider downsizing but I think we'd still want to have something with at least two living/family spaces so we have options of where to be whether we want to be watching TV, reading a book, playing a game, etc.  If we had more than one child, that would definitely be at the top of our wish list.
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  • KL777KL777 member
    I think it depends on personal taste.  For me, 800 sq feet with only 2 bedrooms would be too small for our family of three.

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  • We live in a 4 bedroom/3 bathroom house that is 2400 square feet, raised ranch.  

    The basement bedroom and bathroom were finished shoddily when we moved in, so they are useable, but not really, so our "living space" is 3 bed/2 bath for now.

    I am not sure what area you live in so I don't know cost comparisons, but usually you want at least a 2 bed/2 bath or 3 bed/2 bath for resale purposes. 

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  • We have 3b/2ba house that is ~1500 sq ft and it fits us perfectly.  I don't want anything bigger and something smaller would be a tight fit for us.
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  • 2 bedroom, 1 bath, almost 1000 square feet.
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  • Maybe 500 sq ft., one bedroom. LO is 5 months. We will look for a new place after she turns a year, but possibly not until 18 months. We want a second child, so we will have to get another bedroom at that point. I like small spaces though.
  • Ms.JadeMs.Jade member
    imageeyenigh:

    I think it really depends on how much personal space you like having and how you like living.  If I had to live with one person in 800 square feet, I'd go out of mind, let alone with my very busy toddler and two dogs but I know some people do very well in small spaces and prefer it. Our current home is 2350 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and a full basement. I am, by no means, a minimalist and we take advantage of all the space!

    At the same time, our size home is very average in our area but, in a city setting, 800 square feet may be the best you can hope for in a certain price range. I guess I'd weigh my options as I considered the location but if I were planning to add more children to my family, I don't think I'd ever purchase anything that small. Can you maybe rent something now and save for a larger, future home to accommodate a growing family?

    We somehow muddle through with 850 sq. ft. We don;t have a lot of stuff (I'm often shocked when I go to other people's houses just how much crap is piled into corners and on surfaces) and we need, use, and love every single thing in our house. We try to keep our footprint small. We do have 8000 sq. ft. of continuous yard so that helps, and we could add on if we wanted to, but I doubt we will. We live in an extremely HCOL area and this tiny house cost us a pretty penny. Even so, we did a 15 year mortgage and don't relish the idea of taking out additional loans to make more space. We're trying to get creative to make the space work better for us. For example, E's room is connected to the only bathroom. We want to switch with her and use that as our room even though it's smaller, and turn our huge laundry room into a 2nd bathroom. It's already got a sink and it right next to the existing bathroom. We'll get creative with bed arrangement to make E's room work for us, and having the larger room will allow her more play space. Things like that will make it work for us.  

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  • We live in a house that is *technically* three bedrooms, one bath and 1200sqft. BUT, the third bedroom is a converted attic(That is 450 sqft of our 1200 sqft) so we can't live up there, and it's really just used as storage because except in the dead of winter is its BOILING hot up there. So we live pretty much on the main floor which is between 800 and 850 sqft, two bedrooms that are fairly small, one bathroom, fairly good sized living and dining rooms and the tiniest kitchen known to man. It's enough space for us right now, except the layout sucks because of the small kitchen and our bedroom being so small. We also lack main floor storage which is another issue. But I think my ideal house would be around 1200 sqft total. 800 sqft is totally doable for a bigger family, but you have to think about the fact that the house is only 2 bedrooms. Your kids will have to share a room, which I think is great for two kids, but three? Maybe not so much.... I agree with PP, can you rent and buy a bigger house later? I know its hard when you really want to buy a house. We REALLY want to buy ourselves a house but can't afford the downpayment, so we are going to rent for a few more years.
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  • It depends on the setup more than anything.  I live in an area in NY where anything more than an apartment is out of price range.  I have exactly what you're describing and we make it work.  We keep things multifunctional and put alot of thought into any furniture we bought.  I think the more space you have, the more stuff you have.  

    There are other 2 bedrooms/1 baths in the neighborhood that are setup so much better and practical for a family but we chose this building because my inlaws(childcare) are here.  I would be happy here for a very long time with the 3 of us.

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  • I think you make any size house work for a family of 3.  we have a small 1300sq ft TH its 3br/2.5 ba with basement, unfinished attic  and good size yard we don't use really (wish is bad). 

    We are a family of 3 and probably one and done.

    So our house has an attic we use for storage, 2brs and 1ba are upstairs, the half bath, LR and kitchen are on main level and the mancave/playroom, other full bathroom and bedroom are in the basement with small laundry area we have frontload stackable.

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  • 4 bed/3 bath 3000square feet. But not really sure why you are asking on this board? Anywho....
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  • 2200sqft plus a finished basement. 4bed/3.5bath. It's plenty big for the 3 of us. Our next door neighbors have 5 children and their house is only slightly larger than ours (they have a den and a living room, we don't have the den).

     
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  • 3br, 2fb, 1hb townhouse. 2500sq ft. We will be finishing another full bath someday soon. It is plenty of space but could definitely use better storage areas. We don't even use the basement. That will change once LO is here.
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