Small house thread - Page 8

[2babybees]

Our family of four plus dog and two cats has 1400 square feet. We also have one home office in that space. It is like a mansion to us after living in a 792 square foot home for years. I never want to live in a house bigger than the one we have. Ever. Whenever the kids have moved out I want something 1000 square feet or less to live out my days. I love the simplicity of less space. After doing a major decluttering I can't imagine how hollow a house any larger than ours would feel. We have an amazing open floor plan that makes the downstairs feel huge even though it isn't by most peoples standards. The kids rooms are small but they only use them to sleep in mostly. Our room is larger but usually we seem to have two little ones and all the pets with us most nights so I enjoy the bigger master bedroom.

Sometimes I wish we had a guest room but it just forces us to be creative. Or at least make sure we really want to have the visitors that are coming because they are right there sort of thing.

[sabrinat]

Originally Posted by dflanag2

e.I have pictures of my remodel, and could probably put together some 'before' pictures but I am a bit Internet-illiterate and don't know how to share them with you all. Any suggestions?

Thanks for reading, sorry for such a long post! It felt so great to write!

-dflanag2

I'd love to see pix. Did you guys live in during the remodel?
I reserved the book you suggested from the library. I've actually looked at it before at the bookstore, but never "read" it, just looked at the pretty fotos. Now I'm going to read it.
I have an ambivalent relationship w/our house sometimes. I love the area, the price...but it's very basic and we perceive it to be too small. The reality is that we live in about 3 rooms, we have too much crap and that the home has alot of nice features and potential if we just do stuff. Dh is hesitant to spend money on the things that would make it more livable becuz he wants us to move to a bigger place. I'd rather take nice trips, save for retirement and the kids education than move up to a bigger mortgage. I'm working on it though. I keep reading the threads and in the last few months I've done some major decluttering...still have a long way to go, but I'll get there!

[sabrinat]

what happened to all the small house people

[UmmBnB]

We have about 1300 sq feet. I'd be perfectly happy with the house staying exactly this size but the kids are going to eventually need their own bedrooms. The two basement rooms don't have safe egress so we can't really use them as bedrooms. We're going to add on a small master suite in about 3 years. We have a very nice sized yard so even with the addition we'll keep lots of outdoor space.

In some ways it feels like the basement is unnecessary space but on the other hand I do love having a separate toy room!!! The other room serves as office/studio for dh's band. I get so much more work done when I work from home now that I have a dedicated office! The laundry area is also down there and there's room for me to set up a sewing space once dd is old enough to leave my projects alone. One of the greatest things about the basement is that it was dug out after the house was already built (built in 1948. So behind all the walls is a "fruit shelf". We are cutting in storage cabinets in a few areas to utilize this awesome space.

We might also make the current useless tiny attached garage and expand the living room. Dh is a contractor so we can do all the work for materials only. He has plenty of trusted subs for the plumbing and electrical and we often do trades with them as it is.

<<<<< So many of us have professed to love our small spaces. If cost weren't an issue, would you move if you could. >>>>

We just bought this place in June and it's intended to be an investment property. The neighborhood we bought in is sandwiched between a super pricey older neighborhood (early 1900's) and a super pricey brand new urban development. We are about 7 mins from downtown so its highly desirable. The houses are flipping like crazy. I doubt that when and if we sell we'll look for more sq footage, but a better layout would be nice. That said, we may get all the work done and decide we just want to stay.

[sabrinat]

bumping...
This was a good thread

[kijip]

We (2 big people and 1 little person) have lived in everything from a 450 sf studio (where cubic space was valuable- loft bed etc) to a 8-- sf house to a 1500 sf apartment. Now we are in a 900-1000 sf apartment, 2 bedrooms. We are buying a townhouse that will have slightly less than that once the garage and den area on the ground floor are excluded. So less living space, but more storage. We love smaller spaces as they positively impact our day to day life- less junk lying around and more opportunities to be together. We have considered cottage living (going to a 1 bedroom house again for all three of us) but as the kid grows bigger and we consider a second kid, I just don't see it. I am too accustomed to my child having their own bedroom with kid centered stuff in it at this time.

[kijip]

Originally Posted by UmmBnB

<<<<< So many of us have professed to love our small spaces. If cost weren't an issue, would you move if you could. >>>>

No. We are buying and we are intentionally buying small. In our price range we could find a 3-4 bedroom house with 1500-2250 sf (we have looked at a few) but in the end decided on a smaller townhouse, for a variety of reasons. Even though the townhouses we are looking at are the same price for less space due to location, newness, being built green etc.

[lindberg99]

Originally Posted by UmmBnB

We have about 1300 sq feet. I'd be perfectly happy with the house staying exactly this size but the kids are going to eventually need their own bedrooms. The two basement rooms don't have safe egress so we can't really use them as bedrooms.

Do the basement bedrooms have any windows in them? If so, you can probably get them made into egress windows.

[sabrinat]

Lately, I've been in the "I really like our little place" mode. My mom is visiting and helping me do a few thing around it. And as I look around, it not a bad little adobe. The kids love it, it's a safe neighborhood, we live with in 5 miles of 4 parks, convienent to shopping and the schools are excellent. Sometime I have to admit I get envious of bigger spaces...but as my mom has pointed out some things that make me appreciate what we have...a lovely home.

[KathinJapan]

it is nice to get a fresh perspective. my folks came to Japan and stayed a month, the house did not seem to small. we did not go out much b/c of baby and toddler.
Kathryn

[sabrinat]

Bumping this...
We're a family of 6 and live in 1700 sq. ft. At times it's seemed small, but I'm determined to stay (love the location and the mortgage ) and create it into the home we can all love
Since we last talked I've been working really hard on making our small home a lovely place. I'm on vacation right now and doing some much needed purging.
We've had the interior painted and it looks awesome. We've gotten some new appliances and best of all hardwoods in the entire downstairs! Bye Bye gross carpet! We're getting a new front door too. My next big project is to do some landscaping and plantings.
What have ya'll been up to?

[mightymoo]

Our current project is our basement, I've done a lot of decluttering around the house, but generally I banish a lot to the basement, so this is hte hard part. Our house is also about 1700 sq ft, it's a dutch gambrel, so a basic rectangular shape, the basement is 1/4 one car garage which we can't put our car into anyway because we own a riding lawn mower and no where else to put that, so the car and the mower can't fit. So we have storage shelves in the garage. Then the other 1/4 of that half of the basement is the laundry area - the furnance and well are there. The other 1/2 is a big open unfinished space. My goal is to get all our storage into the laundry & garage half of the basement, so that the other 1/2 is completely clear so we can finish it as a playroom / family room. It's a walk out basement, so ideally we want to be able to walk out to the backyard and fence that area in.

So, we are working on getting rid of a ton of stuff!

[Juliacat]

Subscribing. Dh, 23-month-old dd, our cat, and I live in a 680 square foot house. All of the rooms are decent-sized except that the living room is smaller than some people's closets. (And the closets...but we won't go there. ) It would be nice to have a bigger living room and one extra room, but we like our house a lot and the mortgage payment is very low, so we figure on staying here for another decade or so.

Decluttering can be a full time job though!

[Juliacat]

Originally Posted by sabrinat

Lately, I've been in the "I really like our little place" mode. My mom is visiting and helping me do a few thing around it. And as I look around, it not a bad little adobe. The kids love it, it's a safe neighborhood, we live with in 5 miles of 4 parks, convienent to shopping and the schools are excellent. Sometime I have to admit I get envious of bigger spaces...but as my mom has pointed out some things that make me appreciate what we have...a lovely home.

Yeah, I kind of hear you on that.

[ani'smama]

Our house is 900 square feet with an unfinished basement which houses dh's woodshop.

There are 3 bedrooms, but one bedroom has our antique dining room furniture that dh inherited from his grandparents. Dd's share a room, which I like, but they would rather have separate spaces.

I agree about having people over, it's cramped. But, we usually try to entertain mostly when we can be outside on our fairly spacious patio.

We are looking for a new house - I like small spaces and don't want a big house, I just want something that better suits our needs.

[Cloverlove]

Finding space for myself

I live in a Cape Cod, so there are 2 big bedrooms upstairs and another, smaller bedroom on the main floor. I have been lucky to have the little room as my office/guest room because ds and dd have been sharing a room. The upstairs room is huge and I wasn't totally comfortable with ds alone on the 1st floor. However, ds is going to be 10 soon and I think it might be time for him to have his own room. *sob*

The problem is I have no idea as to what to do with all the stuff in this room- there is a futon, a desk, a trunk and a good-sized dog crate. I don't really want to sell it all off but I'm kind-of stumped.

One positive change we made was giving up our dishwasher. It was the portable kind and it took up a TON of space in our tiny kitchen. We eat in the dining room, but I really wanted a table and a couple of chairs in the kitchen for when the kids are doing homework and I'm making dinner or when we have guests over, etc. Anyway, we bought this table and chair set and it is perfect. So yay!

[KariM]

We're a family of four (soon to be five) with a large dog (95 lb black lab) living in a 1300 sq ft home.

It's a bit cramped and we're really working on decluttering. I think when we get rid of the STUFF, it'll be a great space. It was perfect for when we were a family of three. It's DD's toys that really seemed to start the imbalance.

I need to clear out the office and convert that into a playspace and I think it might solve our problem.

We do have an upstairs, but it's primarily just sleeping space and bathroom. All our living happens downstairs. Unfortunately our basement isn't really useable space - very old, partially dirt floor - just use it for storage and laundry.

[wombatclay]

We're selling our ~1600 sq/ft home (a 1912 crafstman that I honestly love) to downsize to a ~900 sq/ft "cabin". We are making the move since our current home is just to big for a family of 4 and a cat...plus the financial savings, the ability to stay home with the girls, and the chance to have some land a bit further outside the city while the girls are little.

[Twinklefae]

I don't know the square footage, but we just moved into a formally 3 bedroom mini-home (ie. trailer). It's plently big enough, but short on closets! I'm really struggling with this as a lifetime packrat. Although I've been slowly uncluttering since getting pregnant.

[sabrinat]

Love hearing everyone's stories.
It's funny because I'm cleaning our "small house" I'm thinking...whoa, it's too much to clean