Reply to What would you do? Buy new house or renovate existing house?

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "What would you do? Buy new house or renovate existing house? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]2600 sq ft is a lot of space. Is it a layout issue?[/quote]

OP here - no the layout is pretty good.  We just have a lot of people in the house and need more space.  DH and I both work from home and need dedicated office space (apart from each other) and our kids are close in age so will be getting larger and taking up more space. 3 kids who are under 5 years apart, so they will all be teenagers in the house together. [/quote]

If the layout is pretty good and you have 2600 feet can you explain why you feel like there is no way you could make it work with a finished basement? I totally understand the feeling and the pull like "we will NEED the space when they are teenagers!" as i also live in a small house (good bit smaller than yours but only have two kids so that is different), but I try to remind myself that this is a pretty firmly American phenomena that we think each person needs so much square footage. with a good layout 2600 sq feet would usually be a good amount. So what is the current squeeze? Sounds like the work from home?

We just finished the basement in our smaller home for this reason. Husband works in the basement. I work in the small sunroom. Could two of your kids share a room so you could use one for an office? [/quote]

OP here - yes the work from home makes it much more difficult. It just feels like we are all on top of each other all the time.  Two oldest kids share a room but it is tight and over stuffed with all of their things.  Youngest is in the smallest room in the house and can barely fit a twin size bed.  I have one of the rooms as an office that doubles as a guest room.

Realistically we need all 3 kids in separate rooms (personality clashes between oldest two) and two separate office spaces plus a guest room for when guests come.  The guest room is a want, not a need, but we have a lot of family who come and stay with us and we would really like to have space to host them. [/quote]

Honestly, it sounds like you just have too much stuff, and that may be contributing to you feeling like there isn't enough room. Have you tried a thorough clean out and organizing? And if the oldest too aren't good roommates, what about a different combination? Why not let them choose who they want to room with? When I was a kid I got my own room first because my older and younger sisters wanted to share a room. A twin bed is plenty big enough, regardless of age. Another thing - are you optimizing your furniture? For example, My DD has a small room with a twin bed that drawers built into the base rather than a standalone dresser. All of her clothes are in the drawers under her bed. She doesn't have a ton of clothes, which actually makes laundry easier/faster to deal with when we do it once a week.  We put an IKEA bookshelf in her closet that stores books and toys and sheets (because we don't have a linen closet in our 1400sq ft house). Maybe you could do a lofted twin bed to open up floor space for clothes, a desk, a play area, whatever. Decluttering, organizing, replacing furniture or investing in built ins that work for your needs are all cheaper and easier than going through a renovation of buying a new house. Plus, there's a good chance you'll buy a new house and fill it too and may still feel pressed for space.

For the adults, have you considered joining a co-working space in your neighborhood? I live in a close-in suburb and there are many options that are within a 10 minute drives away. Or maybe constructing a backyard work space is an option? They are common in my neighborhood where houses tend to be less than 2000 square feet. You could even build something that has two shared office spaces and a bathroom that both you and your husband could use.

And I wouldn't make a decision based on what you think life will be like when they're teenagers, because it sounds like you're imagining that it will be just like it is with them at their ages now. I know with little kids, you're all always together, but that changes over time. I was rarely at home as a teenager - in school all day plus after school sports and theater plus hanging out with my friends on the weekend all meant relatively little time at home, especially in comparison to the siginificant family time together in the early years.

Anyways, if you love your neighborhood and your immediate neighbors, I feel like there are actually a ton more options than huge expensive renovation and moving to a new house. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics