I'm house poor in a different way...I live like we're poor apparently...

[phatchristy]

Our home is about 1800 square feet, no basement. Lousy storage space. But, it is 4 bedroom. However, not all of the spaces are really 'usable space or being used'--we have a storage room, guest room, foyer, kitchenette (where we have a game table). I'm a gourmet cook in the smallest kitchen that was likely ever built in a house. LOL But, it's in a nice, safe, quiet, good schools, awesome location (5 min from DH's job and in the middle of everything), all that good stuff. I birthed all my babes here, and it's difficult to imagine leaving.

So, with four kiddos, two adults, three cats it is feeling a little 'cramped'. But, I feel like it shouldn't be, because in other cultures a house this size would be luxury!

DH had on HGTV the other day. My DDs were watching it. My DD was looking at these huge homes...3,500+ and drooling. Her eyes were sparkling, she was so amazed at the homes.

So, I figured it out if we moved to a moderately larger house (about 2,800 square feet) increases in gas costs from commuting/heating/cooling/taxes/insurance/mortgage. Just to go up 1,000 square feet it would be 10-12K per year (and that's conservative really...if we did a 15 year mortgage like we have now it would be more like 18-20K per year). That seems like A LOT!

We bought before the boom, and have a 15 yr mortgage. And, even with that, our mortgage (including taxes/insurance) is about 15% of our gross income.

I feel like we should improve/streamline the house, donate the furniture we don't really like and use our space better than we are. Though we're getting so much pressure to 'upgrade'. Everyone else in our family has a larger house than we do...even those who are single, or just a couple. The one group that has our size family lives in 5,500 square feet.

I really feel like I need some outside perspective. I am feeling frustrated. That much money for 1,000 more square feet...it doesn't seem worth it!

[hookahgirl]

Its prob. not.
My eyes sparkle when I see bigger homes, esp. fancy ones. That is normal but doesnt mean I would pay 15,000 more dollars a year to live in a bigger house.
Plus you would need more furniture, to fill that space. Or then you are just heating space, which isnt worth it.

[loitering]

For starters, could you turn the guest room into something that you want more (play room, office, etc) with a futon instead of a regular bed? Or the bed pushed up against the wall?

If you posted pics in the decluttering, organizing & simplifying forum I bet you'd get tons of advice to open up your space.

Do you feel like you have a handle on cleaning your home right now? Because going from 1800sq ft to 2800 would probably be doubling the constantly-used areas of your home, right? That's a LOT more cleaning to do.

[Denvergirlie]

Try rearranging or investing in some better storage solutions. Perhaps a nice quality shed in the backyard for storage as well.

It's got to be a lot cheaper to spend a couple thousand dollars to make what you have work better for you as a one time expense that increase your costs year after year because your current place isn't storage friendly.

Even a cheap remodel of the kitchen, bust down a wall or doorjam, put in recessed bookshelves into current walls could very well pay for itself in a year or two over buying a new house.

[nadia105]

Would it be possible to find a similarly sized house in your area that is laid out better? I have gone to a lot of open houses, my mom and I are occasional recreational open house goers, and it is amazing how much bigger/smaller a hosue can feel based on layout. Maybe there is something that you can find that would suit your family's needs better but wouldn't involve such big costs?

[CameronsMama]

JMO, but I say it's totally not worth moving. We live in 1150 sq ft and people never believe us that it's that small. We've put some time and effort into arranging and decluttering to maximize the space we have, and our house feels plenty big enough for the three of us plus our two shepherd mix dogs. I think a large part of the drool factor for those houses you see on hgtv is how nice everything is- all the upgrades, etc. But you can do a lot of that stuff yourself to the house you're already in for not a lot of money, and I think that would be a better use of money than moving to a bigger house.

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by loitering

For starters, could you turn the guest room into something that you want more (play room, office, etc) with a futon instead of a regular bed? Or the bed pushed up against the wall?

If you posted pics in the decluttering, organizing & simplifying forum I bet you'd get tons of advice to open up your space.

Do you feel like you have a handle on cleaning your home right now? Because going from 1800sq ft to 2800 would probably be doubling the constantly-used areas of your home, right? That's a LOT more cleaning to do.

The guest room is really lousy right now. It's so small (I think it's 10 by 9 or something) and we have a queen sleigh bed in there. The sleigh bed literally takes up the room.

I probably should cross post to get ideas. I did recently get a metal trundle daybed for my girls because their room is about the same size.

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by Denvergirlie

Try rearranging or investing in some better storage solutions. Perhaps a nice quality shed in the backyard for storage as well.

It's got to be a lot cheaper to spend a couple thousand dollars to make what you have work better for you as a one time expense that increase your costs year after year because your current place isn't storage friendly.

Even a cheap remodel of the kitchen, bust down a wall or doorjam, put in recessed bookshelves into current walls could very well pay for itself in a year or two over buying a new house.

You're right. We could use a shed. Unlike pretty much everyone in our subdivision we use our garage. And, the garage is a very small 2 car garage...DH ran over our lawn mower that we used to store in there. Sigh. So, now it's on our lanai, and we should be using that for the kids to play in.

I'm starting to feel like everyone here thinks my feelings are reasonable, and that I need to really put effort into making this house work better for us.

[gini1313]

Originally Posted by phatchristy

Our home is about 1800 square feet, no basement. Lousy storage space.

That is about how big our house is (with lousy storage space, too). We don't have as big a family as you do, but I think 1800 square feet is just perfect. Big even!!!

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by nadia105

Would it be possible to find a similarly sized house in your area that is laid out better? I have gone to a lot of open houses, my mom and I are occasional recreational open house goers, and it is amazing how much bigger/smaller a hosue can feel based on layout. Maybe there is something that you can find that would suit your family's needs better but wouldn't involve such big costs?

The only thing I'd change really is the way that the kitchen is closed off from the rest of our house (I'm sure it was done to save space). But, otherwise it looks pretty open here. We have one large great room. The house is about 15 years old, so it's pretty contemporary. However, the bedrooms are pretty small--but we have four of them.

[mich]

I second the remodel idea. I'm not a gourmet cook, but I would fight you for the title of smallest kitchen ever in a single family home. We had a 10x10 kitchen with 5 doors and 2 windows. We remodeled, took down a wall, and now it feels like a large open space I love to work and be in.

Changing the floor plan can do wonders! If you love where you are, and have the money, I would look into it.

[major_mama11]

We're in sort of a similar situation- our house is (technically) 1700 sq ft, but 3 of the larger rooms are now wasted on junk storage, making it more like 1000 sq ft of usable space. I'm planning to do a lot of decluttering and rearranging in the coming months, to make better use of all the space that we currently don't utilize well.

Have you ever looked at any of the "Not So Big House" books? They have some excellent ideas for making efficient use of the space you have in a smaller house.

Maybe you could spend some $$ on remodeling your house to a more open layout, rather than having the permanently increased costs of moving to a bigger home? Part of why my house doesn't feel as small as it is, is d/t the open layout of the main living space and kitchen.

[Teenytoona]

Here's what I do when I'm feeling a little starry eyed. My Grandma (and gramps too, but Gram did all the raising) raised her 8 kids in a one story 750 sf home. And then I think we're living spaciously again. We've got about 1350 SF, and we do have a basement, but really I think it's plenty of space. We couldn't keep up cleaning something bigger.

But I'd say if you can afford a remodel, some kitchen upgrades could be a possibility.

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by mich

I second the remodel idea. I'm not a gourmet cook, but I would fight you for the title of smallest kitchen ever in a single family home. We had a 10x10 kitchen with 5 doors and 2 windows. We remodeled, took down a wall, and now it feels like a large open space I love to work and be in.

Changing the floor plan can do wonders! If you love where you are, and have the money, I would look into it.

There isn't a way to redo the kitchen. You'd have to see the layout for it to make sense. There's not a wall that I could knock out. The kitchen is like a large hallway between the dining room and the room we're using as a game area. And the one inside wall the kitchen is built next to is the only wall in the house other than the bedroom walls. If I knocked that out I would effectively eliminate half of the kitchen as the stove/fridge/cabinets all line that wall. The kitchen definitely is as good as it's going to get.

Plus, I believe it gets weird if you redo things here with the taxes...so remodeling is not an option. I can decluter, get rid of things, paint, add shelving, that sort of thing.

Of course, this is all within the limitations of having four kiddos including a 2 month old. And, I'm the only 'handy person' in the house, I'm the one who fixes, installs, etc. DH isn't very gifted in that respect LOL.

[loitering]

Okay, new idea: think of which would be easier. Slowly decluttering and decorating a 1800 sq ft house? Or moving said house with 4 children, including a 2 month old, underfoot?

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by major_mama11

We're in sort of a similar situation- our house is (technically) 1700 sq ft, but 3 of the larger rooms are now wasted on junk storage, making it more like 1000 sq ft of usable space. I'm planning to do a lot of decluttering and rearranging in the coming months, to make better use of all the space that we currently don't utilize well.

Well, we have one room that is basically like that...though it's not 'junk in there' but some of those things we should get rid of, but don't have space for. Our storage room has kids toys, a toddler bed, a wing chair, a twin bed, our large rice bed (broken down--we have our mattress on the floor for cosleeping safety), large piece of artwork (persian cat--I know, corny), two plant stands, train table.

There's just no other place to put that stuff...sigh. And, then the guest room is really prednominately bed . The room is so small I should have *never* put in anything larger than a twin really.

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by loitering

Okay, new idea: think of which would be easier. Slowly decluttering and decorating a 1800 sq ft house? Or moving said house with 4 children, including a 2 month old, underfoot?

You know, that's a good point. If I moved, wouldn't I have to declutter anyhow?

I mean, I know I'd be the one packing everything.

It is weird thinking about an actual move. I HATE moving!

[pollyanna]

I would probally sell the queen bed and replace it with the twin that you already have. I have been looking on Ikea.com for a new bed set for my son. They have a program you download so you can place the furniture in the room and see how it fits and look. I found a trundle bed and dresser for less than $900.

Pollyanna

[peaches1974]

I second the recommendation of The Not So Big House. This book really celebrates small houses. Small houses can be more comfortable and are definitely easier on the earth. Layout is the key to being comfortable. And it sounds like you know what you want, too.

One thing I've found is that while an open floor plan can work, it can also make space less functional. One of the basic tenants of the not so big house is to have lots of functional space. Sometimes the open floor plan and high ceilings makes for a lot of unuseable space.

Houses today have been super-sized beyond human scale. A lot of those big 5000 sf homes lack soul and warmth. I'd love to have an 1800 sf home! We've got 800 sf and I have to admit that's a bit snug (2 adults, 2 small children, 3 indoor dogs). We're looking to do an expansion to add on about 500 sf this year. Woo!

[WeasleyMum]

Originally Posted by phatchristy

The guest room is really lousy right now. It's so small (I think it's 10 by 9 or something) and we have a queen sleigh bed in there. The sleigh bed literally takes up the room.

I probably should cross post to get ideas. I did recently get a metal trundle daybed for my girls because their room is about the same size.

I'm going to second everybody else who says to re-work the space you already have. I'm going through this process now: we're going from two people in 850 badly-laid-out sqft to two-plus-a-baby in a few months.

Take a good, hard look at how you use each space!

The guest room-- how often do people actually come and stay the night? Do you have a constantly-revolving roster of weekend guests, or does the room go six months at a time without being used? Are you in an urban/suburban area where guests could stay in a motel or similar, or out in the middle of nowhere, where anybody coming to see you needs to stay in your home? At the very least, downgrading the huge queen-sized bed to a twin or a double would free up a lot of space, for psychological breathing room if nothing else.

The storage room-- what exactly are you storing there? Any way to down-size some of it? I know how difficult it is when we get so used to HAVING something, to contemplate NOT having it anymore, but sometimes stuff takes up more space than it deserves! Ideally, adding a bit of useful storage space to every other room-- so that kitchen stuff stays in the kitchen, your DD's stuff stays with them, etc-- plus utilizing the shed already mentioned for that bulky stuff (sports equipment? camping gear? holiday decorations? whatever your family's big awkward stuff consists of) would negate the need for an entire "storage room".

Look at every space and think, if I were starting from scratch and could do anything at all in here, what would I do? What is stopping me from doing that now? 1800 isn't really small, as you already pointed out, and storage can be added or re-worked. JMO, but I think that if you apply yourself to the house you already have, with all those advantages you listed-- schools, location, history-- it will be more satisfying than moving, and cost a lot less!Keep us all updated on what you decide to do, and good luck!