Small House Living

We live in a small house - 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, about 1,000 square feet. My husband bought the house 6 1/2 years ago, before we were married, and did a great job of renovating it...gutted the bathroom, re-carpeted, etc. There are so many things I really like and appreciate about our home - the flowers we've planted over the last few years, the small size is simpler to clean, the reasonable house payment.

Over the years, we've talked about whether to stay in the house or move. With the current market, we feel that now probably isn't the best time to sell. We got several estimates on a family room and bathroom addition, but the estimates were much higher than we expected. If we added on, we would definitely over-improve the house for the neighborhood. We would never get our money back.

Our newest idea is to remodel the kitchen and make it into a kitchen, 1/2 or 3/4 bath, and laundry room. The lack of a second bathroom is high on my list of concerns right now. We have no idea how much this kind of remodel would cost.

When thinking about moving, I really dislike the idea of getting another 30 year mortgage. We have been paying extra on this home since we got married and have made some great progress that I hate to see erased.

I guess if I'm honest, I would love to make this home work for us. We may have another child down the road, so the bedroom situation is on my mind, as well as my daughter's current bedroom situation. We have large bookcases in her room that will need to be moved (somewhere!) once she gets in to her big girl bed. In addition, she really doesn't have a "playroom" to speak of - all of her toys are in our living room.

If you have experience with this type of decision or living in a small house with children, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Comments

Annienygma said…
I lived with three kids and two dogs in a 10x50 mobile home. The baby and I slept on a futon in the living room. It was crowded because at the time I wasn't ready to downsize my life, and I moved to a larger place. Now it is me and one kid in a 2 bedroom house that measures 768(?) square feet from the outside, and I feel it is too big, as we have rooms we don't even use. I've had both large and small. I much prefer small. Smaller bills, smaller maintenance - smaller everything. If you can learn to live with a bit less you may be happier. I know we are.