GTKY Weekly Thread 3/28/16

atcwag · March 2016

Sorry for being a day late on this ladies!

GTKY 3/28:
What type of dwelling do you live in? Are you happy with your current living arrangements? Any upcoming changes?

hellopartyof5 · March 2016

We currently live in a 4 bed 2 bath small house. It's very cute and I LOVE the neighborhood, but the setup isn't great. Its a dormered (?) cape, so there's 2 bedrooms upstairs and 2 downstairs. With out kids so close together it gets uncomfortable. For now we'll have both kids in one bedroom upstairs, but DS is still not a great sleeper. It's making me a bit scared to be honest lol. In addition, the house isn't open concept soooo we'll be looking for another house that's bigger and has better options for expanding. Also want it in the same neighborhood, so that should be interesting lol.

comealongponds · March 2016

We live in a house in the burbs. It's a good size for us now, and will work with the babies when they're small but we've actually bought a bigger house that's being built and will be done in 2018 that we're very excited about. We're only moving about five minutes from where we currently live, so it won't be a big change of scenery, just a quieter street and a bigger house & yard!

Greencows4812 · March 2016

We live in a small 3 bedroom ranch. We are looking to buy by are currently stuck in deciding between a fixer upper or a remodeled house at the top of our budget.

ShallowSeas · March 2016

We live in a 3 bed, 2.5 bath house that we bought last May. Its a two story home that was built in the late 70's. The previous owners had updated it and added a bonus living room which is nice. I love our house. Before purchasing our home we lived in an apartment for a few years. While the apartment itself was nice, the neighbors were not and we had a lot of trouble with them and the management of the apartments.

TrulyBlessed22 · March 2016

We live in a 3 bedroom split level home. I love the neighborhood and we have a nice backyard but eventually we plan on moving as it only has 1 full bathroom and that's annoying (first world problems). Also the house is on the older side so no walk in closets and our storage space is limiting. While I don't want a big big house it would be nice to move to a more modern home with some of the modern day luxuries like a master bedroom bathroom and walk-in closets. A basement would be a huge plus too. Anyway for now we at least will have a bedroom for each child and us so no major complaints.

MrsDho11 · March 2016

We are in a rented duplex. We really like it, and it has two bedrooms so that's good. Even better, we are less than a mile from DH's work, so he can walk or ride his bike every day and leave me our car (we share). My only real concern stems from the fact that the landlord just forced out the other duplex unit tenants so that they could do some repairs and improvements. We've been here for more than a year, so we're month to month as well, and I'm worried that we'll get forced out at some point as well. When I've mentioned signing a lease extension, she brushes it off as "oh no, we don't need you to do that."

Sheybre · March 2016

We bought our home last June. 3bed2bath on 5 acres. The house is super small and required some renovating before we moved in. But we live within two miles of my grandparents and three miles from my mom so it's all about location. Eventually we will tear this house down and build a barndominium.

jstinkz · March 2016

@comealongponds wow that sounds great...bigger house bigger yard. I'd have a hard time waiting that long.

@MrsDho11 That would really freak me out! Could you email them so that you at least have the response in writing especially if it's favorable?

DH and I bought our house 4 years ago and I loved it from the start and he has slowly learned to love it. We basically gutted it and redid the entire house ourselves...well we are still working on it. Was a 4 bedroom 1.5 bath house and we have changed it to a 3 bedroom 3 bath house. We plan on staying for at least 10 more years. Still need to finish the remodeling but we are burnt out at this point. My only goal this spring is to fence in part of our yard.

LikeICantEven · March 2016

We moved here late last year for DH's new job so we didn't have time to buy a place. We are in a 3b/2ba apartment that's super close to his work. We are beginning to talk about buying vs. renting again in late summer. We could hang here with 2 kids for a bit, but our toddler is going to be 2 and I'd love a yard for him soon. I LOVE having my own makeup room (vanity?), that's going to be hard to give up. We're also 2 miles from the ocean and a million parks. Decisions, decisions.

But we live in one of the most expensive places to buy, so I'm really hoping we can find something somewhere in the middle of - close enough to his work, yet big enough for a yard.

It's so funny, few years ago we were worried about access to the city and walk in closets. Now it's good schools and a yard.

BmcD2016 · March 2016

We are currently renting and plan on moving to a nearby town soon. Our current city has really gone downhill the last few years, time to safely get out.

atcwag · March 2016

We live in a 3 BR/1 BA 2-story house in town. It was going to be our "5 year" house, but here we are almost 6 years later with no immediate plans to move. For the area, we have a large backyard which is nice.
The house itself is fine. It could use some updates (which we've done some) and the closets are minimal at best which makes things interesting. Generally, the layout isn't great, so that is frustrating. With all of that said, it's hard to think about moving when our mortgage is so cheap. Like...super cheap...can't even rent this cheap, cheap. Taxes, insurance, etc. included sub-$500/month cheap.
Ideally we'd like to move into a different school district before DS goes to school, but we'll see.
I also said, when pregnant with DS, that I wasn't getting pregnant again until we had a bathroom on both levels...alas, here we are.

ETA: typo

leaseee · March 2016

I just posted in the intro thread and answering this seemed like a good next step.

3 bed 2.5 bath house with a big yard. Bought a couple years ago as our house to start raising babies in. We plan to stick around for awhile and will be finishing the basement this summer.

mrs_hoyahoo · March 2016

HomeyDontPlayThat said:
It's so funny, few years ago we were worried about access to the city and walk in closets. Now it's good schools and a yard.

This! We currently live in a small two bedroom apartment in the city with easy access to shops, restaurants, public transportation. Buuut, we're moving to a new place in a few months that is seriously in the 'burbs and I can't wait. A yard, good schools, and drive-thru Starbucks are apparently all I need. 22 year old me would be so disappointed....

mrsflamingo · March 2016

We're actually living in the house I grew up in right now. Not permanently- just until we find something to buy. And my parents don't live here, so it's just us. Hoping to move by this summer at the latest but the housing market is crazy here and we're over bidding wars.

ETA: it ate my last sentence! Looking for an older house with some character, a big yard and some walkability.

zrain · March 2016

I love our house! It was built in 1926 and has two stories and a finished basement. Being so old it needs lots work, but we got most of the major stuff done, and the rest is mostly cosmetic and can wait a few years. The set-up is a little weird for babies. There's one bedroom in the basement (ours), one on the first floor, and two upstairs. Baby will probably officially be in the 1st floor bedroom but end up staying with us in the basement. I guess we have a little while to figure that out. We have a pretty big backyard and our neighborhood is lovely, lots of young couples with little kids, and there are plenty of restaurants nearby and a park 2 blocks away. Plus, we bought it a few years ago before real estate here exploded, so we totally lucked out there. We never plan on moving.

loko08 · March 2016

Right now we're in a 2 bed 2 bath apartment in the downtown area of a big city. It's close to my work, a bit farther for H, and we've lived here about 5 years now. Neighborhood is really nice with lots of new restaurants and bars... however, we're moving in a couple weeks to a 3 bed 3 bath house in the suburbs with a half acre. I am so excited to finally have "our" place and not deal with our crappy management anymore!

kms456 · March 2016

We built our home back when DD1 was a baby (lived with my parents for 3 months since our first house sold before this house was ready. Talk about stressful). Moved in a little over 2 years ago. We have 5 bedrooms 3 baths. It's great because one of the guest bedrooms is downstairs so we are using it as a playroom right now. When the kids get older we will most likely finish our third floor to give them a game/media room and turn the downstairs playroom into an office/craft room. We love our neighborhood. Lots of kids around and amazing amenities likes soccer field, pools, walking trails, playground etc.

AmandaR417 · March 2016

DH and I bought our 3 bed 2 bath Ranch in June. We really wanted a basement, but it wasn't in the budget. If we ever move, that will be at the top of our must-have list. That said, we really like our home. There's nothing fancy about it, but it has everything we need in a home and suits us just fine.

My only issue is that it isn't in a good school district. DH doesn't mind. He likes to point out that he went to one of the top-ranking public schools in the state and I went to a tiny country school that was barely accredited, but I'm the one with a graduate degree and no student debt. I agree that you don't have to be in a good school district to be successful, but it wouldn't hurt...

doraleigh35 · March 2016

We are currently in a condo, but we are moving to a 3BR/2.5BA townhouse next month. We own a house in a different city that we are currently renting out. We will probably rent here for another year or two before buying again. We want to make sure that we are staying here before we purchase another house.

NatashaSprout · March 2016

This is a sore spot for us. He has a house 3 hours away. I have the house we are living in with plenty of space and bathrooms and we own a summer home on 7 acres that houses our dog kennel and the dog business. Common sense would be to sell his house because we don't need it. He doesn't want to. Grr. We could use that 3rd mortgage payment for umm I don't know...the baby?

DunkinDecaf · March 2016

We're in a 4BR/2BA house in the burbs. It's pretty small and has a tiny little yard but it's in a great area. We're thinking it's probably a "5 year" house, and saving up for our forever house.

grannysmith912 · March 2016

Right now H and I rent a studio apartment in the basement of a family's home. It's definitely quirky: the ceilings are so low that H can't stand up straight in the bathroom; we can hear pretty much every conversation our upstairs neighbors have; and the painting/decor is ugly as all get out. However, the area we live in is super expensive (and H is a full-time PhD student, and I only work part-time), so we're saving a load of money by living there for the time. Obviously this apartment won't be suitable once baby comes along, but I also plan to quit work and stay at home once he/she does, which means that H will be looking for full-time employment to support our family. I'm sick of living in Illinois, and there aren't many employment opportunities in the area anyways, so we're looking to move out of state in the next few months. We'll still almost certainly end up in another apartment, as we don't expect to settle permanently in any given place for another few years, but hopefully we'll be somewhere with more affordable rent, as we expect to upgrade to at least a 2 bedroom.

Thewizardofrhythm · March 2016

We live in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath rental. Its 1300 sq ft and where we live, that is considered very spacious. Especially because people tend to spend most of their waking hours outside of their abodes. I'm obsessed with our neighborhood. Within a 10 minute walk we have an art museum, a children's museum, a zoo, several playgrounds, a central library branch, two giant parks, a skating rink, I could go on. The community is also really like minded and family friendly. There are tons of kids classes everywhere you look, drop ins and sign ups. Also, our apartment is a steal. So, I think we will be here another few years until the kids have to start kindergarten and we need to make choices about schools. Even though there are so many wonderful things, at the end of the day I think we really want to own a house. I'd love to have a garden and be able to bring my groceries into the house easily. The problem is that the area I live in is just so expensive. A three bedroom, 2 bathroom house on .3 acres of land in a good school district is easily $800,000 with 18,000-20,000 in property taxes. It's so depressing!

Greencows4812 · March 2016

@jstinkz did you renovate with children or is this your first?

SpiritYell0905 · March 2016

This a cause of a ton of stress for me. We live in a 2 bdrm/2 bath home. Side note: it used to be 3 but the master bedroom was so small that we knocked a wall down and combined 2 rooms. I was single when I bought the house so I bought a fixer upper and it kinda turned into the money pit. Now, obviously we're married and expecting and we have to have a closet built in the master bedroom (the wall we knocked down had the closet on either side) because we're using the 2nd bedroom as the closet and that will need to be the nursery. I just don't know how we're going to have 2 kids in this house but it overwhelms me to think about moving right now. And now I'm stressed again!

ETA: We don't have any kids now but plan on 2 pretty quickly, God willing. 2 small children in the 1 bedroom is prob ok for awhile but not for too long. It's a pretty small room.

yosemite2018 · March 2016

We live in a 2b2b duplex that SO owns (he rents out the other unit to a nice family with kids). We're really close to a great elementary school and a park where I played soccer as a kid. We have a roommate but after 1st trimester we'll let him know he has about 3 months to find a new place to live. He's rarely home so we don't mind him being there in the meantime (lower rent/mortgage for us!). We're in a big city so moving anywhere would be way too expensive, so we'll stay here with at least one kid and when we have a second we'll either build another bedroom/bathroom (bye bye most of the backyard) or we'll move. We are less than 10 minutes from my parents house so I would hate to be any further away from them.

rooftop · March 2016

Live in the basement of a split level house. its 2bed 1 bath which fits us for now but not sure how I 'll feel about it once baby gets here so we're on the look out for better housing but not actively needing a place. I would like to have a place with natural light though.

christineXU · March 2016

We live in a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house in the burbs. We built it 2 years ago. Right now we are in the process of finishing the basement. I look forward to moving all of my son's toys down there when its finished and getting my family room back!

ficbot · March 2016

We live in a fairly spacious 2-bedroom apartment, big by local standards. We are happy there. But my husband very strongly does not like kids sharing a room, and even though his son is not with us often, he wants both kids to have their own room. We could save some money by making it work for now, but we would need to get some things like curtains for that second room, and I am reluctant to spend money on such things if it's a place we aren't staying in. I'd rather just move, get everything done, and stay there for the next 20 years :-)

So, I don't know. My suspicion is we'll do our best to fix the place up a little for now and wing it for awhile. Then eventually, move to a three-bedroom place.

bzzrbee28 · March 2016

We actually bought our house 5 years ago to the day. Its a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house in a tucked away corner of a city. I love the city amenities since i grew up in upstate New York and the neighborhood is nice because there is a park across the street, however the schools are horrible and with a baby on the way we have outgrown it. I work from home and we have guests that stay for a week at a time. It's going to be a blast juggling these spaces to make it work for everything we need. In our financial plan we can move in 3 years so just have to make it work for now.

anotherlady2013 · March 2016

We have a 3 bedroom 2 bath house on almost an acre. I would prefer something a little less "country" but it's nice and we have done a lot of work on it. We keep our eyes peeled for other housing options but will likely be where we are for another couple of years.

NordyMN89 · March 2016

H and I bought our home together before we said I do (scandalous right?!) We've been here 2 and a half years. It's a 4 bedroom 3 bath two story with an unfinished basement. We live on a pond and have awesome neighbors. We love it here and can't wait to raise our kids here!

zrain · March 2016

NordyMN89 said:

H and I bought our home together before we said I do (scandalous right?!) We've been here 2 and a half years. It's a 4 bedroom 3 bath two story with an unfinished basement. We live on a pond and have awesome neighbors. We love it here and can't wait to raise our kids here!

We did too! Also, I am jealous of your pond. I've always wanted to make one but it would have to be tiny

Thewizardofrhythm · March 2016

atcwag said:

We live in a 3 BR/1 BA 2-story house in town. It was going to be our "5 year" house, but here we are almost 6 years later with no immediate plans to move. For the area, we have a large backyard which is nice.
The house itself is fine. It could use some updates (which we've done some) and the closets are minimal at best which makes things interesting. Generally, the layout isn't great, so that is frustrating. With all of that said, it's hard to think about moving when our mortgage is so cheap. Like...super cheap...can't even rent this cheap, cheap. Taxes, insurance, etc. included sub-$500/month cheap.
Ideally we'd like to move into a different school district before DS goes to school, but we'll see.
I also said, when pregnant with DS, that I wasn't getting pregnant again until we had a bathroom on both levels...alas, here we are.

ETA: typo

Holy Cannoli that's amazing

kns1988 · March 2016

We rent a cute 2 bedroom house in a cute little town. I freaking love it. We moved here from the city in November. H picked out the house without me seeing it because I had to work, and he did such a good job. The only bad thing is he works an hour and a half away so he's already talking about moving to another town that's closer to his job. I know it makes sense to move, but this place is so perfect!

ETA: We're also in one of the best school districts in the state, which factors into me wanting to stay here.

AdmiralKitty · March 2016

Currently in a large 1br 2ba condo that we rent from the owner. It used to be a 2br but she knocked out a wall back in the 80s so we have a massive living/dining room and a big bedroom (1100sq feet total). It's a little rundown and the owner is a bit kooky but it's a steal for the area. Most of the other units in the building that are rented out go for close to double what we pay so we've stayed for a few years and made do. We'll bring baby home here in Nov, but plan to move when our lease is up in Jan. There is room for a bassinet, changing table and rocker in my bedroom so that should get us through the first few months. I would love to stay in my same town (Hubby's new job is 5min away) but it's one of the most expensive towns in this area and we could never buy a house... so we'll see what happens next year.

KilgraveMadeMeDoIt · March 2016

We live in a 3br/2ba backsplit house that we are renting. We moved here last summer for me to attend school and we intend to leave once I'm done and we'll purchase something back home.

stepamos · March 2016

We bought a 3 Bed 2.5 bath house about a year ago that was a fixer upper. In the last year we have: replaced most of the siding, painted the entire interior, remodeled the kitchen and downstairs half bath and upstairs guest bath, and replaced baseboards/trim in all the rooms. Luckily the floors were in great shape and there was new carpet upstairs.

It has been crazy living in a construction zone for the last year but it's finally coming together and we already have some equity in it. We recently demo-ed our master bath but haven't done shit to it in nearly 2 months. Not too smart on our part but it was grossing me out and I was afraid we'd never get it done if we didn't tear it out!

talkthewholetime · March 2016

We live in an overpriced little house - the housing market is crazy. I get so jealous when friends who live in other parts of the country buy houses that cost less than mine and are 3x the size! We live about 15 miles outside of NYC in the nice part of NJ, so that's how it goes. Our house is 3 bedrooms and 1 bath, with a finished basement and a really nice backyard.

Oh and we just redid our kitchen, I'm so in love. Our house was very much move-in ready, so we didn't do anything except paint the living room when we moved in. (I now hate the color, hahahaha) It was nice to re-do a room and have everything exactly how i'd like. Well, we didn't change the lay out.

I plan to move eventually to a bigger house in a nicer town, but DH says he wants to die here. Yeah right buddy.

aquasocks · March 2016

We bought our forever home a year ago, it's 5br/4ba. I love it and I love the neighbors and location. I'm super happy and never moving! We lived in about 1000sqft for 5 years before buying this house. Tons of happy and sad memories there but I'm glad we found something for our family with a huge yard and in a safer area.

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