Small house thread - Page 40

[Momsteader]

Shellie, that sounds wonderful to me too!  A fresh start is always so freeing :)

[sabrinat]

I haven't posted on this thread in ages. Life has changed a lot over the time. It's just me and the kids now. Still in the house, but I've been thinking tons about downsizing from 1700 to this cute little fixeruper cottage. I want to live in house that doesn't have an HOA and I'd like to reduce my expenses since I'm in Grad school now. I've been working on my ongoing effort to declutter and let go of stuff. It's definitely a process.

[Paxjourney]

New to this thread (I think). We moved from our 1900sq ft home to a 975 sq ft apartment for 6mos while looking for a more perm. place since moving 5 hrs away. Our new home is 1200sq ft. 2 bedroom 1 1/2 bath place. It's a perfect fit for us. 975 sq worked fine but it was a bad layout and we prefer our townhouse over having upstairs, downstairs and side neighbors.

[Paigekitten]

What a cool thread!  We have a 880 square foot house for the four of us, two cats, and a dog, but we are trying to downsize!  One of the bedrooms is completely empty, the living room just has my piano in it, which we may sell, and I prefer having our dining table in the kitchen instead of the little dining area.  We have a full and two twin beds in one room with a bookcase, and then a chair, side table, desk, tv, and all the toys in the third bedroom.  I really like living in less space, and keep thinking if we had a loft for the beds, all we'd really need is one room, a kitchen, and a bathroom.

[zoebird]

that sounds awesome, pax. :D i love when families have only as many bedroom as needed. two daughters in one, you and your partner in another, and the rest of the house a shared space. sounds lovely to me. :D

paige:

we have considered the idea of a 'sleeping room' and in fact have sort of ended up that way (for now). We're not sure where it's all going to go long term, but we do know that we can stay in this cottage for quite a long time -- until ds moves into his own bed, and who knows how long after that. we have a day bed in the living room, which is great for guests as DS still sleeps with us but he can move in there when he is ready. this, of course, is completely open to our bedroom, which makes the cottage kind of "loft styled" in a way.

so hard for me to describe. 

our "second bedroom" (10 x 7.5 ft) is essentially our closet. I plan to curtain off the closet part, add book cases along the remainder of the long wall, and potentially use it as a "reading room." currently, DH sits on the floor in there and reads, so it may end up being that anyway. LOL 

we work in our kitchen (which is where our dining table is), and we hang out a fair bit in our living room (DS's toys are there) and we need a book case in there for our day-to-day things: DS's toys, the books that are "in use" and also a place for our computer while charging or what not. something simple anyway.

i look forward to "moving into" this cottage in these ways. And, we can bring our boxes over from the US.

we work in our kitchen, so it wi

[captivatedlife]

We just moved from a 550 sq. ft. condo to our first house at 1080 sq. ft. When you almost double space, it feels amazing - but our last space looked like a hoarders place so this place actually fits all our stuff - with room - plenty of room - to spare! I can have my sewing machine out where it is handy! I can have my yarn where I can actually get to it! We stockpile food and we can actually have a stockpile! This size is perfect for us because of the layout - 2 bedrooms, living room, family room.

We are still small, but now we are happy with our small. It works for my very crafty, very handmade, which also means very fu8ll of craft supplies, life.

[zoebird]

it's so nice to have a place for everything and everything in it's place. :D

[samstress]

they had a tiny house challenge on design star.  it was fun to see what the three final designers could do with 110 sq ft of space.

[larablue]

We currently live in a 580 sqf apartment (living room, bedroom, kitchen, bath).

At the moment, we are 3, but next year, we will have another little one with us.

I guess, that will make a bit of a challenge.

The thing I miss at the moment is that our balcony cannot really be used, because the street is so noisy.

I would never have thought that it could be possible for me to live in such small circumstances, but it works pretty well for us at the moment.

[kitchensqueen]

This is a great thread. :-) Small homes are the way to go - I like things are human scale. 

My husband, baby and I currently live in a one bedroom apartment - not sure of the square footage, but it's under/around 600 square feet. We have a nice layout, so it feels like a little cottage and not so much like an apartment, which I like. We have a semi-private deck out back too, so that's been great. In the nearly ten years my husband and I have been living together, this is our first place with outdoor space! 

It's our goal to buy or build our own small home in the next few years. We won't go over 1000 square feet. Ideally, I'd like to buy a bit of land (1-5 acres) and build the Tumbleweed Enesti 3 bedroom model. If we go that route, the downstairs bedroom would actually be a dining room and the dining nook would get turned into a pantry. The other option we're considering is the Country Plans Universal Cottage. If we don't get to build, I'd like to buy something that has a farmhouse look and feel to it, or a bungalow. 

I'm curious - why did you decide that living small was the way to go for your family?