Anonymous wrote:I would renovate the basement and then reevaluate. But I live in a smaller house with the same size family and have no intention of moving. It will feel tight for a decade or so but then the kids will be out and we’ll be rich with our paid off home. And yes, both adults work from home

This. You’re in a season of life right now that’s chaotic no matter how much house you have. But it is temporary and should ease once kids are a bit older and in school full time. Finish the basement to create a full bath, a play area, and an extra bedroom/office. You can do it in such a way to plan for potential future additions, too.

I second the coworking space suggestion. I can’t imagine that is more expensive than moving or an addition

Rates are coming down. We need zip codes to evaluate this

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Anonymous wrote:What do you plan to do in the renovation? I don't think you could turn your house into something like the 4200 SF 4BR/4BA for 200K. Adding 1400 SF plus 1.5 BA and renovating everything else is going to be more than that (double, probably).

If the other house is in your neighborhood, I'd seriously entertain it. You don't want to manage a major renovation with three young children and two full-time jobs. At some point, isn't it worth something to just have the space you need and be able to focus on your family?

Op - we would finish the basement to add a bathroom and rec room and then probably blow out the back of the house to make a large family room and expand the kitchen. But yea it would be expensive and horrible to live through.

I am just nervous about a) a new mortgage with a high interest rate, b) leaving our neighbors who would still be close by but not next door and we are very close to them and c) trying to sell our existing house.

If you're in the DC area, you're not going to be able to finish a basement, add a bathroom, build an addition, and expand your kitchen for anything close to $200k.

This. Just our basement (finishing with bathroom) in Burke is nearly $100k, kitchen was $70k.

I think for the addition/remodel you are looking at $3-400k

Could you share sq footage of your basement please? We are looking into finishing ours, 1500 sq ft, with bathroom, kitchen and walk up and got a quote of 140K! Seems high.

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Anonymous wrote:2600 sq ft is a lot of space. Is it a layout issue?

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.

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?

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.

OP, I think you should look for someone (interior designer or architect) who can design your basement to accommodate two offices and a guest room, or to make some other accommodation to suit your needs. Life with kids just gets more expensive - wait till orthodontia! college application and visit fees! tuition! unexpected health care costs!

As the saying goes, keep your powder dry.

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Anonymous wrote:NP - OP, just chiming in to say I get it entirely. We have three, DH and I now WFH mostly full-time, and space is an issue. Our kids are all in elementary and while eventually they’ll move out, we don’t want to be cramped and miserable for 10+ years. Quality of life matters, too.

I’d be very realistic about what a renovation could get you vs. the new house. Even if it needs cosmetic things done, you could do those over time and the extra space might be very welcomed.

Op - I grew up in a 4300 sq ft house and my sister (family of 4) has around 4500 sq ft house. It is always so nice when we visit.

We have visitors quite often and it is very cramped when we add 2 or more people to our already cramped space.

You shouldn’t decide whether to move based on visitors. This said by my MIL who visits me and sleeps in a pull out in our guest/ play room. We always offer our primary bedroom when they visit, but they sleep in the guest/playroom.


Good neighbors and location are priceless. Renovate although the $200k won’t cover it so maybe do in stages?

My in laws moved from an 8000 square foot home to a 4000 square foot home basically to accommodate guests. Now they are selling again to live at their beach house full-time until they move to assisted living part of the year (the one they like has a long waitlist). It’s nice visiting them with that much space but why should they live in a huge home for two people to accommodate my family?

I have 500 less square feet and one less kid than you, and it is plenty of space. Downsize your furniture, purge relentlessly, and finish out that basement with two offices and a guest space. Having the extra space across three levels makes all the difference in terms of day to day livability.

We had the same choice and did the renovation. Great location/neighbors is priceless. Yes, it was a hassle to use the living room as a kitchen (we lived in the house through the reno) but cleaning out a house we'd lived in for 15 years to move would also have been a hassle.

One thing that helped was we did the reno in stages. Combined/pushed out the kitchen/dining and added screened porch (in retrospect should have made it a more finished sunroom). Then did the basement rec room and bathroom. A few years later redo of our 1st floor guest/kids bathroom.

One consideration was that these changes made the house much more livable for life with teens but did not so overbuild the house that it would feel too big when we are empty nesters.

Heads up that I just got two quotes for a 8ftx8ft mudroom addition, and both were around 110k. There is no way you can get all work done you want for 200k inside the beltway.

*certain extent

Everything can be renovated but location, size and neighborhood. Even size can be altered up-to a certain by being creative or minimalist.

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Anonymous wrote:2600 sq ft is a lot of space. Is it a layout issue?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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Anonymous wrote:2600 sq ft is a lot of space. Is it a layout issue?

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.

OP - I agree with you that for your needs 2600 sq ft with 4 bedrooms is not enough space. You may have bedroom space that you could make work (for a while until they are teens), but finding the office space that makes you productive is a different ballgame. We have house needs similar to yours, with similar house size (actually 5 bedrooms) and family size and we need to renovate for office space. 200K won't get you what you want, so perhaps you focus on what you need to do to get comfortable a WFH space. It may make the other challenges of the house easier to deal with if you feel content with your workspace.

PP again - I finished reading through your other responses and see your comment about people visiting often. This is our situation as well and my office is also the guest room. Don't discount how disruptive it is to have guests in your office, which is supposed to be your full-time WFH office. Could you figure out how to solve the WFH situation as I mentioned above and rearrange the kids in the bedrooms where one of the kids' bedrooms is also the guest room and the kid is displaced when guests are there? If the kids need separate rooms as you mention.

OP here - yes that is our plan in our current home. Put oldest kid in the largest room with a queen bed and then displace kid when guest visit. BUT that means I am relegated to a random corner on a small desk on the main floor for my work station until we finish the basement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2600 sq ft is a lot of space. Is it a layout issue?

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.

OP - I agree with you that for your needs 2600 sq ft with 4 bedrooms is not enough space. You may have bedroom space that you could make work (for a while until they are teens), but finding the office space that makes you productive is a different ballgame. We have house needs similar to yours, with similar house size (actually 5 bedrooms) and family size and we need to renovate for office space. 200K won't get you what you want, so perhaps you focus on what you need to do to get comfortable a WFH space. It may make the other challenges of the house easier to deal with if you feel content with your workspace.

PP again - I finished reading through your other responses and see your comment about people visiting often. This is our situation as well and my office is also the guest room. Don't discount how disruptive it is to have guests in your office, which is supposed to be your full-time WFH office. Could you figure out how to solve the WFH situation as I mentioned above and rearrange the kids in the bedrooms where one of the kids' bedrooms is also the guest room and the kid is displaced when guests are there? If the kids need separate rooms as you mention.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2600 sq ft is a lot of space. Is it a layout issue?

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.

OP - I agree with you that for your needs 2600 sq ft with 4 bedrooms is not enough space. You may have bedroom space that you could make work (for a while until they are teens), but finding the office space that makes you productive is a different ballgame. We have house needs similar to yours, with similar house size (actually 5 bedrooms) and family size and we need to renovate for office space. 200K won't get you what you want, so perhaps you focus on what you need to do to get comfortable a WFH space. It may make the other challenges of the house easier to deal with if you feel content with your workspace.