Based on current trends, three of us and probably the dog need to move out.
We have a little house. Or is it little? We have a whopping 912 above ground square feet, and four people; 228 square feet per person. I can still hear a friend and my father referring to our house as "a great little starter house," when we purchased it in 2006 as a family of three. At the time, I was a bit insulted. "Starter?" What?
I was pretty excited that we bought our first house. After a few years I started thinking it was a bit small, then I read an article in a magazine somewhere that essentially said it is cheaper to re-do your small house to create spaces than buy a bigger house. Oh, good idea.
In a period of about 18 months between 2009 and 2010 I redid (or at least planned the re-do) of every square inch of our house. All new windows, doors, hardwood and tile on the first floor, new sink/faucet, fridge, oven, microwave, freezers, furnace, hot water heater, washer/dryer, bathroom (gutted--all new), no more wallpaper, all new paint, new basement stairs, finished the basement (pantry/laundry, school/playroom, shop), new drainage, carpeted the stairs, new deck railings, new fence, new playground, new shed/cabin, new fire pit, new landscaping, new porch, new chimney, two new ceilings...every.square.inch. Pretty much the only things remaining are the kitchen cabinets, counters, roof, upstairs flooring...yep, that's about it:) (Which was all new when we bought the house.) Needless to say, there was a LOT of dust, countless trips to Lowes, lots of measuring, and lots of research.
There are days that I would like more room. Once a year or so I get some crazy idea and a notebook and start planning on how to redo a house somewhere. This happened again last week. Wayne was actually listening to me until he saw the notebook and said "oh no, not the notebook!"
So after all the craziness here, why on earth would I want to start over? Insanity? Probably.
Here is the list of what I would like in a bigger house:
- A guest bedroom
- First floor bathroom
- First floor pantry/butler's pantry
- Second floor laundry (or Aunt Ann's laundry shoot)
- A dishwasher
- A larger range and/or double wall ovens
- An island with seating.
- A closet
- An office
- A fireplace
- Lots of parking
- To go out on my deck and not see my neighbors. I LOVE my neighbors. I'm devastated that they are moving away. Sometimes, I need quiet. I like to go out on the deck, but not always to socialize.
- To be able to invite everyone I'd like to events without worrying where we were going to put them.
That's about it.
I even asked Joey last week what he thought about moving. He said "We don't NEED a bigger house."
Darn it. He's right.
We don't.
The boys share a room. Joey is pretty sure that one of these days George will wake him up. So far it's only been the reverse. Is storage sometimes a challenge? Sure. Do they survive? Yep.
If we had a bigger house I could actually fit that beautiful table from PB in my dining room. I still couldn't afford it, but I could fit it.
From a budget standpoint, a bigger house comes with--traditionally--a bigger mortgage, higher taxes, higher utilities, more snow to move, more (some) lawn to mow, and more furniture to buy. If it were an older house that list of projects could take up two notebooks.
If I had more space, maybe I would hoard things rather then pass them on to someone who can use them. I wouldn't have to be as creative. I might not be as good at measuring. I would need more time to clean. I might not be able to find the kids. (There are moments when being on the second floor and hearing Joey's tractor noises in the basement can be unnerving, but hey, I know where he is:)
Not to say we will never have a bigger house, but we don't need one. I REALLY WANT to be closer to the farm, because the 12 miles each way does hurt the budget. If the option to pick up my house and move it closer were there, (and intelligent) that would probably be A-OK.
For now, I'll keep purging, creating, streamlining, downsizing, and organizing. There's probably six months before I start another notebook:)
I suppose I'd have to leave this here.
i love that!
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