Upgrade to Larger Home for When Kids are Teens?

[Anonymous]

9:02 again. To give an example- my oldest wanted to get together with friends to watch football. We encouraged him to use the rec room and we would order and pay for food. We have a large screen tv. Several of his friends have similar set ups. The boys spent a while on their phones trying to coordinate a plan to go out somewhere because none of them wanted to hang out at their houses. They ended up walking around Tysons instead.

I’m sharing because the idea of the large rec rooms sound so nice but our teens don’t use them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would not. Your question makes me wonder if you would sell again for smaller space when the kids leave home, or just rattle around and pay more to heat and cool that larger space until those rare visits with grandchildren... someday.

Agree.

Friends of our with huge homes often do not know where their kids are half the time.

Plus, there’s more opportunities for teens to have sex in a larger home. Not good.

[Anonymous]

Nope. Save the money for college.

[Anonymous]

This is DCUM! A MINIMUM of 2000 sqft per person over the age of 12 plus 500 for each pet to keep from being hit will the "Pimmit Hills Poor" label.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest is a teen and my youngest is 11. They love having their own room for privacy when talking on FaceTime or Discord to friends. As for the rec room, we have a large one and neither use it anymore. They want to go out with friends, not hang out at our house. My youngest sometimes has friends over but even then she prefers to be in her room for the privacy. We can hear them since they are so loud and her room is off the kitchen and it’s just laughing and talking.

I’m not sure I’d move since that is a huge financial and emotional stress. But if there is anyway to give them some privacy some times that’s ideal. My oldest liked hanging out in the garage with friends when he was younger and some of the kids FaceTime from there too.

Plus one. I would extend or modify to give teens more privacy, which is important developmentally - but not move (presuming you like your hood and neighbors).

In DMV, every extra square foot and bedroom adds a lot of value to your home for when you do resell eventually.

[Anonymous]

Teen years fly by.

I see people upgrade to these huge homes in late middle school and then want to downsize fairly soon when the rooms sit empty at empty nest.

[Anonymous]

We have a boy and a girl, so after a certain age we gave up our guest room to be a kid's room. We niced up the basement as a guest room, and when we have more guests, our kids know they will have to be flexible and share in various ways. This was explicitly part of the deal when giving them their own rooms, and they helped with painting and decorating the basement.

[Anonymous]

How old are the kids now? That you have survived 2 years in the pandemic with a year of remote school (if true) and are okay with it, makes me think you’ll be just fine as they grow. That said, we moved when the kids were 8 and 10 for more space and I’m really glad we did. By the way, once the kids are settled, we will absolutely downsize.

[Anonymous]

I found that our kids took up a lot more space when they were infants and babies than when they were teens. Teens, they were in their rooms when they needed space from us, and could leave the house to go hang out with friends. Toys were reduced to the size of tablets and video games, plus some legos.

Infants and toddlers constantly needed to be around mom and dad and always had tons of toys that took up lots of space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old are the kids now? That you have survived 2 years in the pandemic with a year of remote school (if true) and are okay with it, makes me think you’ll be just fine as they grow. That said, we moved when the kids were 8 and 10 for more space and I’m really glad we did. By the way, once the kids are settled, we will absolutely downsize.

Another random point. When kids are younger, I heard lots of people talking about wanting to have space where the kids’ friends could gather. But the people who said that and the houses where teens now gather don’t always match. It takes a lot more than ample space to host teens - frankly, now looking at the situation it’s more about temperament to deal with the loud, messy, not the little munchkin visitors.

[Anonymous]

No way OP. That doesn’t make any sense to me if your kids will go to college at 18!

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a 2 BR, kids shared a room. It was fine for sleep and study, but we were not the hangout house because there was nowhere to be. So, depends on whether that matters to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a 2 BR, kids shared a room. It was fine for sleep and study, but we were not the hangout house because there was nowhere to be. So, depends on whether that matters to you.

We have an almost 4K sq ft house and we are still not the hang out house. I’m told it’s because we have rules about not eating all over the place because they don’t pick up and leave it trashed… so they go elsewhere because we enforce picking up their own messes. After the last group get together here, I’m happy to not be the hangout place.

[Anonymous]

Ride it out Op. You need money for college

[Anonymous]

For the person who dug out their basement, please share contractor and cost.