We bought a very old, charming and small bungalow last summer. I do love it, but with a second baby on the way, I really just see how small it is!
We technically have 3 bedrooms, but we use one as our family room and it works really well for that. We'd have to really do some downsizing if we turned it into a bedroom.
The plan for now is to keep baby in our room for 6-ish months and decide if we want to stay and make due with the space, buy a bigger house (my favorite option, but, money), or add a 2nd story to our house, which will probably cost as much as what we would pay for a bigger house and possibly not recoup the investment. Decisions, decisions!!
@jstinkz did you renovate with children or is this your first?
We renovated the whole first floor and 2 bedrooms on the second floor with no children and have done the rest since our first was born a year and a half ago.
We live in a little 1940's 2bed, 1bath with 1000square feet. It's in a really walkable area with lots of restaurants, bars, parks, etc. The town we're in has a lot of activities too - little town festivals, music in the park, an ice rink in the winter, etc. When we bought the house, we figured we would live here for about 10 years before moving on, but I love it so much I can't imagine ever wanting to move. I guess we could move into a larger house in the same neighborhood, but that seems like a lot of work for not much benefit. I guess I'll probably change my tune in 13 years when I have to share the one bathroom with a teenager, though.
I'm in the group who scandalously bought with DH before we were married. It is a 4BR/3.5BA on about 1/2 a acre. The house is WAY too big for just the two of us and our fur children, but we bought it with the plan to have a family. Half the women in the neighborhood are like Real Housewives & total snobbery which is super annoying, but we also have some terrific neighbors to balance things out.
it was new construction but we bought as a quick delivery so didn't design it ourselves so we have made a few changes. It's a work in progress which at times is fun & others overwhelming.
I'm stressing about when/if I can get back to my painting projects. Need to ask my RE. I would hope if I wear gloves and use low VOC paint & open a window it would be OK, but may wait until second tri.
Joining the "bought before married" group. We purchased this home two years ago, about 6 months before our wedding. It's a 2-story in the burbs with 4 beds/4 baths on a finished basement (one of the baths is in the basement). One of the bedrooms is on the first floor so we use that as a guest bedroom. The neighborhood is great with swim/tennis/volleyball/clubhouse/playground venues. The HOA is extremely active, planning Easter egg hunts and July 4th fireworks and the like. It may not be our forever home, but it is certainly perfect for a young family!
Me: 31; DH: 31 NTNP: May 2015 TTC #1: late August 2015 PCOS Dx: January 2016, starting Femara Feb 2016 BFP: 2/29/16 - Happy Leap Day!
We just moved back to where I'm from so we are currently living in my moms basement apartment. It's basically a one bedroom. (One is storage but would be a nursery) We are looking to buy now before baby H is born. We're conflicted. We looked at a place last night that is a new build but the bedrooms are all really small but the budget is SO good. With bedrooms that size it can't be a forever home so I'm wondering if we should wait and get a forever home or take this affordable opportunity now.
I am with the crew that just bought within the last year. We got a 2 story, 3 bed, 2.5 bath home with a big fenced in yard in the suburbs of our city (only takes 20 minutes max to get anywhere in the city). The home is just 15 years old and was move in ready but we have so many updates we want to do. We want to finish the basement, re-do the master bath, upgrade the other baths, finish painting, add onto the garage or add a shed next to it, and re-do the landscaping. If we do the basement and only have 2 kids the house is perfect. If we have 3 it could work but we may need to get something bigger.
DH and I have been renting a one bedroom one bath since before we got married, it was too small when we weren't expecting another person to be living there, so now we're looking to buy something in the area, ideally with a nice open floor plan.
Currently in a 4b/3b home in the burbs...love it! We moved from CA to TX and had lived in a 2b/1b 1930's Art Deco apartment which I also loved but 1, it was pricey and 2, we felt pretty cramped with a baby (and it wasn't toddler friendly). Now we have a room for us, room for our daughter, hubby's office and a guest room...the guest room is going to become the new kiddo's room. We will fit just fine but in a perfect world id love another room or an open space area for toys etc. Hate giving up a place for guests...but it's a huge upgrade from our apartment!!
We bought our home in April 2015. Its a 2 bedroom 2 floor 1 bathroom. Its got a couple of things we will fix up and update later on but we originally got it to fix it up and sell really soon. Now its looking like a 10 year project. Which I'm ok with. Ocean views are a really nice thing to give up. Hoping to build our own home in 10/15 years.
*Edit to add in that I am also in the 'Bought before married' Group ! Was dating 4 months when we bought our home.
DH and I bought our home just after we were married in 2012. It's in a quiet suburb and has 3 bedrooms/2 bath. We have a really great sized backyard and the lot is technically zoned R2, so we'll probably build another unit at some point, turning it into a duplex. At that point we'll rent it out and purchase something larger. FX that we'll get to have two babies eventually-- if that's the case, I'd like to have another spare bedroom in addition to their two rooms and ours... All years down the line though, and we're super happy with where we're at for the time being and can't wait to bring our first LO home to this house!
Me: 31, DH: 31 Married: September 2012 Began TTC: September 2015 BFP #1: 10/12/16, EDD: 06/23/15, (pPROM, 16 wks + emergency D&E 12/31/15) BFP #2: 03/09/16, EDD: 11/16/16
We live in a 3-story town home, 3 bedroom 1.5 bath. We're currently renting. I love our little place but could do without all the stairs.
But it looks like H is going to be accepting a job on the West Coast, which is exciting and terrifying (we currently live in New England). So we will likely move in with his parents to start (they have a 4 bedroom 3 bath and empty nest syndrome), and will hopefully be house hunting/house buying soon!
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."
This was our exact situation the year that DD was born - and we did end up getting booted because our landlord wanted to rent the place to her daughter. I looved out old place (and only having one car!). I hope you end up getting to stay!
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.
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
Yeah I can't even comprehend this.
That's crazy and amazing! I mean I'd keep that place just to escape for some peace and quiet every now and again. Prices for everything here in the Bay Area are just so insane... Makes me very envious!
Me: 31, DH: 31 Married: September 2012 Began TTC: September 2015 BFP #1: 10/12/16, EDD: 06/23/15, (pPROM, 16 wks + emergency D&E 12/31/15) BFP #2: 03/09/16, EDD: 11/16/16
We live in a 3 bedroom/2.5 bathroom house that we bought nearly 5 years ago. I love it, we've grown into our mortgage, and I hope to never move again. But DH is getting restless, wants a view, and claims we must have 4 bedrooms if we have 3 kids. I prefer the financial security of our current situation where we could weather a job loss reasonably well and I could hopefully cut back to part-time some day. We'll see what happens.
Re: GTKY Weekly Thread 3/28/16
We technically have 3 bedrooms, but we use one as our family room and it works really well for that. We'd have to really do some downsizing if we turned it into a bedroom.
The plan for now is to keep baby in our room for 6-ish months and decide if we want to stay and make due with the space, buy a bigger house (my favorite option, but, money), or add a 2nd story to our house, which will probably cost as much as what we would pay for a bigger house and possibly not recoup the investment. Decisions, decisions!!
it was new construction but we bought as a quick delivery so didn't design it ourselves so we have made a few changes. It's a work in progress which at times is fun & others overwhelming.
I'm stressing about when/if I can get back to my painting projects. Need to ask my RE. I would hope if I wear gloves and use low VOC paint & open a window it would be OK, but may wait until second tri.
Me: 39 DH: 40
Married: 12/6/2014
BFP#2: 10/28/15 MC: 11/24/15
BFP#3: 3/20/16 MC: 4/26/16
BFP#4: 7/15/16 DD: 3/18/17
BFP#5: 5/1/18 EDD: 1/12/19
TTC #2: April 2018 ~~ BFP: May 2018 ~~ EDD: January 2019
NTNP: May 2015
TTC #1: late August 2015
PCOS Dx: January 2016, starting Femara Feb 2016
BFP: 2/29/16 - Happy Leap Day!
We are looking to buy now before baby H is born. We're conflicted. We looked at a place last night that is a new build but the bedrooms are all really small but the budget is SO good. With bedrooms that size it can't be a forever home so I'm wondering if we should wait and get a forever home or take this affordable opportunity now.
- BFP: 3/10/16 — Baby Girl born 11/20/16
TTC#2 April 2019TTC since January 2016
BFP - 3/12/16 - MC 4/5/16
BFP - 6/11/16
Now we have a room for us, room for our daughter, hubby's office and a guest room...the guest room is going to become the new kiddo's room. We will fit just fine but in a perfect world id love another room or an open space area for toys etc. Hate giving up a place for guests...but it's a huge upgrade from our apartment!!
**TW**
Losses:
#1: 8wks MMC 4/16
#2: 13+4 T21 + Hydrops 3/17
Its got a couple of things we will fix up and update later on but we originally got it to fix it up and sell really soon.
Now its looking like a 10 year project.
Which I'm ok with. Ocean views are a really nice thing to give up.
Hoping to build our own home in 10/15 years.
*Edit to add in that I am also in the 'Bought before married' Group ! Was dating 4 months when we bought our home.
Married: September 2012
Began TTC: September 2015
BFP #1: 10/12/16, EDD: 06/23/15,
(pPROM, 16 wks + emergency D&E 12/31/15)
BFP #2: 03/09/16, EDD: 11/16/16
But it looks like H is going to be accepting a job on the West Coast, which is exciting and terrifying (we currently live in New England). So we will likely move in with his parents to start (they have a 4 bedroom 3 bath and empty nest syndrome), and will hopefully be house hunting/house buying soon!
Married: September 2012
Began TTC: September 2015
BFP #1: 10/12/16, EDD: 06/23/15,
(pPROM, 16 wks + emergency D&E 12/31/15)
BFP #2: 03/09/16, EDD: 11/16/16
TTC #2: April 2018 ~~ BFP: May 2018 ~~ EDD: January 2019