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.
Re: XP How big is your home?
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.
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.
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.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
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?
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.
Burned by the Bear
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.
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.
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.
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.
Married October 16th, 2010
TTC #1 since October 2010
1st BFP 1-12-11
MC'd 1-22-11
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Our Wee One....**KENNEDY JO** born 10/3/11@ 36weeks via Csection
My BFP Chart
Labor Buddy to **MRS.ATCH** Welcome Quinn 11-5-11**
A+S | Met 8/24/06 | Married 9/27/08
Started TTC 12/2008 | dx PCOS 5/2009
6 failed clomid/femara/TI cycles, 1 failed clomid/ovidrel/IUI cycle
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2/13/12 - We proudly welcomed our daughter, Hadley Teresa!
Lots of Luck to all of 3T/IF