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Thinking About Houses

July 6th, 2011 at 04:46 am

For the longest time I have thought that we absolutely need to have a four bedroom house when we buy again. Four beds, two bathrooms, and a well put together kitchen were the priorities on our list. In the back of my mind I've always had it that we would have that spare room in case my mother ever needed to move in with us.

But four bedrooms puts everything into a price range, that while affordable on my husband's income, still isn't necessarily the amount of money I want to be paying. And we don't need four bedrooms. I mean if my mom had to sleep on a pull out couch she'd do it. And after all, my eldest is almost 15. She's not going to be with us forever, though I would like her to stay home during college to save money.

There's also the possibility that my eldest sister woud just move in with my mother again if she gets to the point of needing daily assistance. And my middle sister is down to a seventeen year old and an almost fourteen year old, so she has an extra bedroom as well. Both have made murmurs of takin her if it comes to that. I had always thought it would be left to me. It usually has been when it comes to my parents.

So now I'm thinking 3 bedroom houses would be a better choice. I just need 1.5 baths at the bare minimum, but would prefer 1.75 baths or 2 full baths. These 3 bedroom houses seem to drop the price by around $50,000 to $75,000.

As much as I have always dreamed big, I think I would rather downsize at this point in my life. Give me a single level house with a tiny yard to maintain, my big kitchen and two toilets in the house and I'm happy. I'm happy with 1,500 square feet, but could see myself going down to 1,300 if it had a basement or a shop or a garage for storage. Then I would just need a nest somewhere in the house where I could set up my writing station and be comfortable. If I have one give me it would be a wrap around porch, but that is not an essential. Just a long standing want and can always be built on later.

We have learned in living with my mother that we don't need a lot of stuff. Most of our stuff is in storage waiting to be moved when the day comes. But I'm of the opinion that except for some kitchen gear, keepsakes, photo albums, books, and artwork, there is very little in there that I want to keep. Most of it is kids toys that are far too young for them now, clothing that needs to be donated to charity and so many odds and ends collected over time. We might want to keep the antique sewing machine and table we got from Chris's maternal grandmother because it is beautiful, and the ottoman that goes with our sofa but takes up too much room here. But I can't think of much else that matters enough to me to keep. And neither can DH.

So I think when we start looking we'll start looking with all those things in mind. I do want space for the piano and treadmill (which could go in the garage) and enough room for our sofa set and one recliner so I can keep my knee elevated. Something else that has become important to me is handicapped accessability. Grab rails and such. And if they don't have them are they an easy install.

I'm glad we have over a year and a half to think about these things before. If we had rushed right out trying to buy right away, I think we would have regretted whatever we ended up and we'd still be fighting with credit card debt and I really don't want that.

12 Responses to “Thinking About Houses”

  1. MonkeyMama Says:
    1309964333

    I look forward to downsizing once the kids move out, myself.

    We have really enjoyed a large house with kids. So, I think we will surprise a lot of people when we make that move. But we've planned for it all along. The fact is, we never thought we needed all this space for just the two of us. Just the other day we were talking about how we probably don't even want a yard again. Maybe just a nice view, instead.

    Anyway, I think it's good to look forward and realize the kids are growing up fast and you might not need that space.

  2. LittleGopher Says:
    1309968454

    So true - and good to be thinking ahead!

    I too dream of less yard work and home maintenance projects. And our full house is getting less full as we go along, with the girls embarking on their own ways. Our space needs is increasingly more about housing guests - and well, there is a limit to how much a small house can hold sometimes. Luckily, there's a nice AmericInn down the road.

  3. Mozaik Says:
    1309969622

    The best thing we ever did was sell the house and buy a townhouse style 4 bdrm, 3.5 bth condo. [4th bdrm,1/2 bth in basement]. Kitchen is sm. galley type with breakfast bar but large breakfast rm and attached deck feels spacious and I can make a giant mess with four friends on a OAM cook/bake marathon.

    We did this primarily to facilitate taking out-of-country contracts as it provides so much security. Last year DS 2 joined DS 1 at university. Both DSs took 1st two years at Community College since it was so-ooo much less expensive and they were guaranteed slots for yr 3-4 at university.

  4. Mozaik Says:
    1309970342

    Part II
    No one mentions it but 1st year at university is general studies, compulsory courses, transferable to a 4 yr. institution. The 1st year, drop-out/fail rate is astounding and 2nd year often loses students to better rated universities or financial issues. There is no problem getting in for junior & senior year and your degree reads such & such university. BTW, except for the top 10, or very specific fields like vet sciences, or IT employers don't care which university graduates come from. [oh, they have a soft spot for their own alma mater].

    Robin: I'm gob smacked that you pay for an off site storage facility for stuff you acknowledge are out grown, out dated, not useful

  5. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    1309971141

    You are smart to think ahead to the possibilities.

  6. baselle Says:
    1309976578

    I'm a little gobsmacked myself on the off-site storage too. But we can't cast the first stone...we are full up on-site storing stuff for a friend for over 5 years. I think its time it goes. If you can't get it together by 5 years, you can't get it together.

    Somehow I think that a good Saturday project would be to go down to the storage area and take a few bags to Goodwill. If nothing else its cleansing and a tax deduction.

  7. LuckyRobin Says:
    1309984521

    As for the storage we are slowly going through it and getting rid of stuff. We've moved it to a smaller unit twice now. What we really need to do is hold a yard sale, but that would require moving a ton of stuff, which would require a truck, time, etc. I do hate paying for storage but at the moment it's an unwelcome necessity. What do you do with an entire house full of stuff while you are remodeling a house that pretty much has to be empty? It's a catch 22.

  8. Mozaik Says:
    1309990856

    "I'm of the opinion that except for some kitchen gear, keepsakes, photo albums, books, and artwork, there is very little in there that I want to keep. Most of it is kids toys that are far too young for them now, clothing that needs to be donated to charity and so many odds and ends collected over time. I'm glad we have over a year and a half to think about these things"

    Are used clothes popular in your community? Here they only go to charity outlets to bless someone else who will use and enjoy them. You could cart the toys home and evaluate whether it's worth the time and effort to hold a yard sale. Take pictures of the furniture/large pieces and post on Kijji+ name of your city [the local e-bay site] and Craig's List. Anyone wanting to buy will need to arrange transportation and if sold on-site will save you a tremendous amount of hassle.

    Work out the cost, 18 months still to pay for off site storage plus the number of months you've been at mom's would add significantly to the college fund.

  9. LuckyRobin Says:
    1309998291

    Yes, used clothes are very popular here. We have donation booths all over the place in my county. Unfortunately the used clothes are in the back of the unit so it's taking us some digging to get to them. We're actually going over there tonight to work for a few hours on sorting.

  10. ThriftoRama Says:
    1310001971

    I just went through similar thoughts in our house-buying process. We opted for a 1700 sq ft, 3 bed, 2 bath. The basement-- of about 1400 sq feet with an office and a giant media/living room sealed the deal. As well as the den. it can be closed off to make a guest room or den. I wouldn't be wed to a certain number of bedrooms. Just look for space that is multifunctional, that can be used in different ways by your family as your needs changed. I.e. our basement office could become a bedroom for a surly teenager, freeing up one of the upstairs ones for family emergency. Flexible usable space is the name of the game.

    We looked at bigger houses, and some of them had "stupid" rooms, that didn't really seem all the useful. No way I'm paying for that!

  11. LuckyRobin Says:
    1310015851

    *laughs* Yeah, I've seen some stupid rooms all right. But there are a lot of basements in this part of the country as well as shops and sheds and garages that are definitely usable space.

  12. omegaking Says:
    1310493637

    great post

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