Small Baby Small House?

[yogagirl]

We will be finding out tomorrow if we are accepted into a Community Housing coop. I'm very excited about the location of the co-op than the actual living units themselves (and of course, I'm excited about the community living aspect as well) but the town house is even smaller (and slightly more expensive) than the house we're living in now - which is already munchkin size.

This size would be fine if it was only me and dh but now with girl: I'm trying to imagine what it would be like living in such a small quarter with a growing babe. I always imagined with our child that she would have her own "realm" to herself (ie a playroom). With this set up she will have to play in the living room which is by the kitchen. Mind you, its a three bedroom and she currently cosleeps but the bedrooms upstairs are so tiny they wouldn't be much of a play area. More for storing clothes/bed/possible office.

Like I said, our current situation isn't much bigger but is laid out so she would have a room right by our kitchen that isn't very big but her own and seperate from the tiny living room.

Any thoughts/advice? I can't decide if I want to move!!

[momto l&a]

We lived in a trailer that was about 500 sf. with our oldest 2. The oldest was 3 yougest was 1. We lived in that trailer for1 years 2 months. NEVER again! It was so small there was NO storage. The bedrooms where so tiny. If it would have been an open floor plan I am sure it would have been fine.

Our girls have always prefered playing in the living room.

I think a good floor plan and adaquate storage makes a small home workable

[Sungold17]

My house is on the small side. One thing that really helped was putting out TV and all the electronics in the 'computer room' which is really a family room now. Now there is a lot of room in my small living room for my son to play and for me to hang out. I even was able to set up a scrapbooking table. I also do not have a coffee table which gives us more room.

[madrone]

My family, while it was still 3, lived in a house about 400 sq feet for about 1.5 years. That was tough. We now live in a house about 750 sq feet and are much happier.

I think that our old house would have been do-able in a co-housing situation. All of the co-housing places that I have read about have community rooms. My kitchen was miniscule in our old house, but that would not have been such a big deal if I could have gone to a community building when I wanted to do something special. And if my son had had other children to play with in a large community playroom close by, I don't think we would have spent as much time playing in our house to have the toys get as spread out. From my understanding, houses are on a smaller scale in co-housing communities to encourage community. To get you out of your own house and into the community buildings, doing hings with others.

[canadiangranola]

Our house is 720 sq feet, with 2 bedrooms (1 for everyone to sleep and the other is used for play space for ds) We are expecting # 2 in September. We use our back hall/laundry room also as a computer space.
The only way we can make this space work is because we have a big garage that is all ours to store lots of our stuff in. For example, I keep all of my craft stuff out there, and pull it in for specific projects, sports stuff, camping stuff, etc.

I would say it really depends on storage space as a key element, but we also tend to save (like I saved all ds clothes for dc#2, so they are in the garage, etc.)...

We also have a yard, which is another saving fgrace for us...and the main reason we chose house over apartment (and laundry, we CD, and so to drag laundry up and down to apartment facilities would have been a real pain..).

Ultimately, it comes down to what stuff you have and need....you'll find dd might need more space as she grows older (especially if you are in a place where the winters are long and cold ...we're in canada, and start to feel a bit house bound in the winter when it's -30C)....then the space feels small and confining.

As for her having her own space, prob also more important the older she gets....our ds played in the living room for the first 15 months of his life and was perfectly happy with it....I like him having his own space because my living room now can also be a living room, not just a play space, and as he gets older and likes to play alone a bit, his room gives him the space in which to do that. But, I think he was perfectly happy to be in the public space as well.....maybe not so much as a 7 year old. I think a lot of our perceptions of need for space come from a societal belief that young kids need independence...I think we already puch that so hard in our society....also, if kid plays in common space, they are easier to supervise while you cook, clean, whatever.


Good luck with the decision.