How big is your house?

We have this sort of joke around here right now. Any time the girls go up a size in clothes or stop playing with a toy, their old things "go in the attic to save for Adalie". Adalie is our hypothetical 3rd child. LOL. So tonight my mom was over here and she heard me say to put an old sleeper in the box to go in the attic for Adalie and she made the comment "you know if you have another baby you'll have to get a bigger house."

Our house IS pretty small, IMO, it is 3 bedrooms 2 baths, a little over 1800 square feet. But since the twins share a room we still have a 3rd bedroom we use as an office, so although it would be tight we COULD get away with it, I think. Of course ideally I would love a bigger house, but if I am going to be a SAHM I don't know how much bigger we can really afford, unless we are willing to move out to the suburbs.

I mean sometimes kids share a room right? How big is your house/how many kids do you have and do yours share a room?

 

Honestly, I think people expand to fit whatever space they have, LOL. When I first moved to New York City out of college, I lived in a 200-square-foot studio. Seriously. And, I was perfectly happy....DH and I got married three years later, and we bought an 850-square-foot condo, 2 bed, 1.5 bath -- and we thought we were living in the lap of luxury! (And in Brooklyn Heights, it really was.)

Three years later, we left the city, and we now have a 6 bedroom, 5.5 bath house -- master bedroom, one bedroom for each kid (the twins will share a jack n' jill bathroom, and Nadia will have her own), an office, and a guest bedroom.

I *love* having this much space....we're done having kids for a lot of reasons, but at least one reason is lack of additional bedrooms in which to put any more!

(Of course, if we couldn't afford it, then so be it -- obviously there's nothing wrong with kids sharing bedrooms.)

 

We have 4 bedrooms. The master, the boys room, older DD's room, and a guestroom. We need to keep a guest room in theory because all of our family lives out of state. So the boys will share a room no matter what for now. No more kids for us either.

 

I am dying for a bigger house. Ours sounds about the same size as yours and space is tight!!!! It's even worse that the boys room is right off the kitchen - I have to tiptoe around there after they go to bed. I am hoping we can move in another year...and hopefully baby #3 will be on the way shortly after. We'll see!!

 

I think in this day and age well are all spoiled with space. Some of us and especially our parents grew up in small houses with larger families. Until I was 14 we lived in a 3 bedroom house, and there were 7 kids. So you can do it. We all shared a room and 3 boys were in one room and 2 in the basment with no real room. Society has now programed us to think we need huge houses. My grandfather grew up in a one room logcabin. NOw that is extreem and I wouldn't want that but you don't need tons of space to be happy. We have a 1900 sq ft house wiht 3 bedrroms upstairs. (one down for on office where I would not put kids). We are not done having kids (pray to God) and I want a guest room as all family is out of state as well. We will make do as things happen.

 

My last house was 1800 square feet, and we fit 5 kids in 3 bedrooms just fine. I agree that it's nice to have more space (and we have plenty in our current house), but you can certainly be happy and comfortable in an 1800 square foot house. So no, you don't need a bigger house. =)

 

:rotflmbo: I would hate to think what she would say about our house!!! Seriously, we live in a 1.5 bedroom apartment w/ one bathroom... It is maybe 1000 square feet... The people who live there are:
1. Me
2. My Husband
3. Isabelle - 3 almost 4 year old daughter
4. Ethan - 4 Months
5. Ian - 4 Months

We all sleep in our 1 bedroom like this: Arms reach Co-sleeper on each side of a queen sized bed and a toddler bed at the foot of the bed!!! The other rooms are as follows: 1. 3 season playroom for kids 2. kitchen 3. dining room w/ dressers & changing table 4. Living room

Our original plan when we bought the house... was to live in the bottom fix it up rent it out and buy another house with the equity in it... Now, if we don't lose it within the year we will be doing well! Is the house to small, yes... Are we managing? Most of the time.

 

Our house IS pretty small, IMO, it is 3 bedrooms 2 baths, a little over 1800 square feet.

:rotflmbo:

We live in a 2 bedroom 1 bath house that is approx 840 square feet and has little to no storage.

That's myself, DH, DD (almost 3) and Dtwins (almost 1).

The twins sleep in my bedroom, DD in the nursery, but yes, they will be sharing a room soon.

It is *incredibly* challenging, but you know, you make do...

When we had DD, we were convinced the house was too small and we'd have to move as soon as she started walking.

When we had Dtwins, we were convinced the house was too small and we'd have to move as soon as they were mobile.

We're still hanging in there!! :icon_biggrin:

We live in a very expensive area, hence the living arrangement. We will most likely move out of the area to afford the size of house we really need.

 

we have about 2500 square feet, 4 bedrooms. One is a guest room, one is my hubby's music studio, and the last is the boys room. We plan for them to share a room until they are old enough to present a good argument for why they need their own room. (I figure we'll separate them before middle school). There are a lot of good lessons to be learned from sharing a room with a sibling, I don't want them to miss out on that, but then, there is a time when they need their own space, and when that time comes, they'll have it.

 

QUOTE(LV twinmama @ Mar 10 2008, 09:48 PM) [snapback]662763[/snapback]
I think in this day and age well are all spoiled with space. Some of us and especially our parents grew up in small houses with larger families. Until I was 14 we lived in a 3 bedroom house, and there were 7 kids. So you can do it. We all shared a room and 3 boys were in one room and 2 in the basment with no real room. Society has now programed us to think we need huge houses. My grandfather grew up in a one room logcabin. NOw that is extreem and I wouldn't want that but you don't need tons of space to be happy. We have a 1900 sq ft house wiht 3 bedrroms upstairs. (one down for on office where I would not put kids). We are not done having kids (pray to God) and I want a guest room as all family is out of state as well. We will make do as things happen.


I agree with this. If you look at houses built in the 50s and 60s they are tiny compared to houses built today, even though people often had between 4 and 6 kids then. Same-sex kids shared rooms, and no one thought that they were being deprived of anything because of that. (I shared a room with my non-twin sister even though my parents had another bedroom, which was my dad's study.) Having one's own room is not some sort of crucial requirement for a happy life. Everyone I knew back in the 70s shared rooms, unless they were opposite-sex siblings.

After all, as adults we all share rooms with our spouses, and places like college dorms and military barracks require roommates. Sharing a room is just good training for life.

 

QUOTE(LV twinmama @ Mar 10 2008, 09:48 PM) [snapback]662763[/snapback]
I think in this day and age well are all spoiled with space. Some of us and especially our parents grew up in small houses with larger families. Until I was 14 we lived in a 3 bedroom house, and there were 7 kids. So you can do it. We all shared a room and 3 boys were in one room and 2 in the basment with no real room. Society has now programed us to think we need huge houses. My grandfather grew up in a one room logcabin. NOw that is extreem and I wouldn't want that but you don't need tons of space to be happy. We have a 1900 sq ft house wiht 3 bedrroms upstairs. (one down for on office where I would not put kids). We are not done having kids (pray to God) and I want a guest room as all family is out of state as well. We will make do as things happen.


You are EXACTLY right! In fact, America is heading towards a recession which is going to put us back TWO years.. And we wonder WHY we're broke? We wonder why we are all in debt??? Uh.. It's because we are PROGRAMMED to NEED MORE AND MORE AND MORE......

If we could just 'get back to basics' we'd all be just fine. As a pp said, you'd be surprised how you can deal and you WILL be happy with whatever you've got. It's that FEELING that you NEED MORE that is killing us all... I'm a victim of this also.. "I need a bigger car, I need an SUV, I need 5 strollers.."

We really do not "NEED" anything but food, water and shelter so.. It would be more appropriate to say "WANT" from now on.

I do not think the size of your home, car, backyard, or anything else.. should dictate if you have one more baby.. or anything really.. as long as you feel it is right.

I just read a TON about America and how we are struggling the most of out of all of the developed countries in the world.. It is because we are soo spoiled!! We don't make anything-- we do it the easy way-- we OUTSOURCE to other countries who will do it for less!! UGH.. It's really too bad.

Anyway just thought I'd add my 2 cents!! I'm sitting here staring at a GIANT flat screen tv that we "NEEDED" cuz we're going digital.. It's just crazy!

 

Currently we live in a one bedroom flat on the 4th floor without a elevator!
We were thinking of moving when we found out I was pregnant, but the selling/ buying homes process takes so long here that I'd likely have been heavily pregnant by the time we'd move, and I wasn't going to do that to myself, plus where we live now is very central to hospitals, my doctor, town etc (all walking distance). So we decided to stay here till we move to the USA, where houses are so much cheaper (for the price of our small flat here, we can buy a 4 bedroom home in Arkansas!).

 

We live in a 3 bedroom 1,056 sq.ft. townhome. Oldest daughter has her room and the twins have the smallest bedroom. Since we are expecting again we are converting the clubbed in basement for a bedroom for the oldest. The twins into the oldest's room and the new baby in the smaller room. Eventually the twins will go in bunk beds and my oldest will have a loft type bed downstairs so she has a sofa and more room. I'll make due with whatever room I have. My honey would like to eventually move. Me not so much. I hate the thought of packing up stuff etc. Bigger house = more to clean lol.

 

We have a small house, I think it's less than 1000 sq ft but am not sure (I can't remember, mommy brain :umm: ).
It's a three bedroom and 1.5 bath (we just got the second bath about 2 yrs ago). The girls share a room and my son gets his own. We don't have an attic but we do have a full basement so that is where all our storage goes and it's also the kids playroom. The girls room is tight since they are small bedrooms but they fit two beds in there with one dresser. I think you can make due with what you have. You just get used to things the way the are and if you don't have the room for things then you learn how to do things without the extra room. Now I do wish we had a little more space but we don't plan on moving anytime soon so we just deal with a smaller house. It's also nice sometimes having the smaller space since it helps me get rid of things rather than save them and collect dust someplace else in the house.

 

QUOTE(Penguin_ie @ Mar 11 2008, 07:02 AM) [snapback]663006[/snapback]
So we decided to stay here till we move to the USA, where houses are so much cheaper (for the price of our small flat here, we can buy a 4 bedroom home in Arkansas!).

If you're thinking Arkansas, let me know...that's where I live.

Our house is about the same size as original poster's house and the boys share a room. That leaves us with one spare room which we use as an office and "play" area. We also have 10 acres of land that I wouldn't trade for anything and we're out in the country. We also have two large "shop" buildings out on the back of property that we use for storage. So if we have another, we've agreed that we'd have to be prepared to give up the "office" but we're fine with that. We have a pull out sofa for any guests, although we haven't ever had any overnight guests except for my 14 y.o. BIL.

 

Mmmm i think we will still fall over all the baby and toddler stuff even if we are staying in the biggest mansion ever. The girls seem to live large anywhere anyway..

 

2500 square feet. Three bedrooms and an office. My boys share a room and they will until we can't possibly do it anymore. I think our house is plenty big, but DH thinks we need something bigger. :huh:

 

I think ours was just over 1000 sq ft when we bought it, and we've since refinished a playroom in the basement. It's a small 3 bedroom ranch, and every time we get pregnant/find out it's twins, my husband goes on the internet looking for houses But really, we won't move until I have a job, 3 or 4 years from now. Right now the older 2 share a room, and the small ones are in with us. Eventually, they all will share the master bedroom, with 2 twin beds and a pull out trundle bed for the small ones. They're just going to have to learn to share Besides, I think having a small house forces children to work and live together a little better than if we all were spread out over a massive house. Plus we save $ on heat, electricity, etc.

 

i have a 3 bed 2 bath apt..

my moms house is the same size and its free.. but im not aloud to go there per the court..

that being said.. its tight.. but if we had more space we would fill it..

that first year you accumulate so much crap..

after that you can monitor what comes and goes..

 

Aimee,

Our house is a colonial and close to the size of yours. Whether or not we have a third child we were planning on eventually upgrading as we'd like more room and I'll need an office to work out of later...

 

My house is 2000 sq. ft. My 2 youngest girls and the twins share a room. My oldest has her own room. One full bath can present a challenge and will in the future I'm sure (we do have a 1/2 bath). I agree with pp about wanting not needing. At times we feel like we NEED more room, but we don't. Actually we rearranged our 3 downstairs rooms--living room, play/tv room and dining room and it made our house feel bigger! Also, having less space forces you to be neater and have less clutter (I'm trying hard). I think you always can make do with what you have. I wouldn't allow space to stop me from having another baby!--(However, we aren't having anymore children!)


Lisa

 

QUOTE(aimeethomp @ Mar 10 2008, 07:55 PM) [snapback]662529[/snapback]
Our house IS pretty small, IMO, it is 3 bedrooms 2 baths, a little over 1800 square feet. But since the twins share a room we still have a 3rd bedroom we use as an office, so although it would be tight we COULD get away with it, I think.

Our split entry is 1888 sq. feet. We had to convert the guest room/storage to our new nursery. I feel your pain!! When the diagnosis was twins (early on in this pregnancy) I was hoping & praying for a boy & a girl so we wouldn't have to squash 3 boys in one room.

 

QUOTE
Honestly, I think people expand to fit whatever space they have


Totally agree! We moved into our current house(2800sqft) about a year ago, and before that, all 7 of us were living in a 1400sqft house! There was something(or someone!) in every corner, but we were happily making do with what we had!

 

QUOTE(ivfbound078 @ Mar 11 2008, 11:57 AM) [snapback]663002[/snapback]
You are EXACTLY right! In fact, America is heading towards a recession which is going to put us back TWO years.. And we wonder WHY we're broke? We wonder why we are all in debt??? Uh.. It's because we are PROGRAMMED to NEED MORE AND MORE AND MORE......

If we could just 'get back to basics' we'd all be just fine. As a pp said, you'd be surprised how you can deal and you WILL be happy with whatever you've got. It's that FEELING that you NEED MORE that is killing us all... I'm a victim of this also.. "I need a bigger car, I need an SUV, I need 5 strollers.."

We really do not "NEED" anything but food, water and shelter so.. It would be more appropriate to say "WANT" from now on.

I do not think the size of your home, car, backyard, or anything else.. should dictate if you have one more baby.. or anything really.. as long as you feel it is right.

I just read a TON about America and how we are struggling the most of out of all of the developed countries in the world.. It is because we are soo spoiled!! We don't make anything-- we do it the easy way-- we OUTSOURCE to other countries who will do it for less!! UGH.. It's really too bad.

Anyway just thought I'd add my 2 cents!! I'm sitting here staring at a GIANT flat screen tv that we "NEEDED" cuz we're going digital.. It's just crazy!

I just want to say amen to this! We purchased our townhome for all the wrong reasons: close proximity to the best restaurants, shopping, nightlife, seconds from "the loop", "cool" floorplan (3 stories which I LOATHE now), brand new, hardwoods, open concept, blah blah blah. Everything we loved about this place is making me sick just a year and a half later. I would give my left leg (which I currently need to climb my ridiculous amount of stairs) to just have one story, actual ROOMS, a yard, and a place to go for a walk with the boys without hearing the tunes of the freeway and ambulances. Not to mention, Houston zoning (or lack thereof) makes it to where you pay a pretty penny to live "in the city", yet 4 blocks from your gated townhome community is a crack house and prostitute post. We want out so badly but without moving way out to the burbs (which would give DH a commute from he&&), we'll have to settle for something small or dangerous. Okay, sorry to go off on a tangent. The answer to the question:

My house is about 1800 sq ft., 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, huge living and kitchen area. I would like something with 3 bedrooms, but the size of those rooms mean nothing to me-as long as they have doors that can hide the junk inside. My main concern is getting rid of these STAIRS!!!!

 

QUOTE(snoopytwins @ Mar 11 2008, 01:21 PM) [snapback]663102[/snapback]
If you're thinking Arkansas, let me know...that's where I live.


Cool, would love to get to know some locals Sent you a PM.

 

Right now, we live in a 2-bed, 3-bath townhouse with just the twins. I think it is 1400 sq. feet. We would buy a house, but for now I am a stay at home mom so we deal with it. I plan on returning to work in a year, then we can think about buying. We do want another baby, for sure. But probably not for 5-7 years. I love my townhouse, though. It's right on the beach with a dock where I keep my Jet Ski. I will be sad to move from it when space becomes an issue.

I grew up in a large house with 2 other siblings....5 bed, 4 bath house. I don't think it was neccesary to have such space, though it is nice to be able to give each child a bedroom. I hope to be able to do that!

 

Our house is approx 1800sqft townhome w. 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths. We live in the city, so there is not a lot of yard space and with all the baby gear, it feels like that there is not a lot of room. Ironically, I grew up in a rowhome with 3 bedrooms and 1 bath and there were 6 kids in the house!

I would love to move out of the city, I am not a city gal!

 

QUOTE(Boni @ Mar 11 2008, 01:59 PM) [snapback]663168[/snapback]
Mmmm i think we will still fall over all the baby and toddler stuff even if we are staying in the biggest mansion ever. The girls seem to live large anywhere anyway..


Ain't that the truth!!

We have a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath that is plenty big. Probably more than we need right now ... the kids share a room, we have an office, spare bedroom, and our room. We are planning on finishing our basement to turn into a play area so I can take my family room back from the kids.

I think you live to what you have. If you don't have as much room, you make it work. If you have more room, you spread out into it. We would be fine with a smaller house. But I personally like the idea of the kids having their own rooms when they get older, and still being able to have a guestroom for our family.

 

our house was built in 1894 (yep, over 100 years old)

it has 4 small bedrooms
9x10 oldest has it alone (bedtime is 9:30) computer in his room not hooked to internet, for school projects, and computer games
10x10 boys ages 14, and 12 share (bedtime is 9:00) no wall space for anything extra (strange window, closet and door placement)
11x11 boys ages 8 and 5 share (bedtime is 8:00) PS2, Gamecube in here too
12x12 boy twins, me, hubby (the new baby will share when born) we all go to bed together

the kids bedrooms are only really where they are assigned to sleep.....they can go into the other bedrooms to play the games and computers without permission of the kids that sleep in there.


the kids are divided into the rooms as to what time they go to bed..............it works for us


larger rooms and more bedrooms would be nice, but we make do............no one has a dresser (we hang everything) and their toys are in a larger toyroom on the main floor

 

MANY children share a room OFTEN.
We have a 5 BR 3.5 Ba house and we currently use 3 br's. My oldest 2 (b/g) share and the twins share a room. Eventually we will move the girls into the same room adn the boys together. We plan that no one will have their own room, we all share.

Our house is 3500 sq ft but we probably live in about 2000sq ft. We hardly use the other part of the house, only when the kids have friends over.

 

Our house is a split level with about 1500 sq feet. We have the twins share a room and the older boys have their own room plus a small game room downstairs. We would love more room but we make do because the house payment is relatively cheap and I am not going to be working full time again until the twins are in school. You definitely can make it work.

 

LOL....We live in a one BR loft (680 square feet!) :crazy:

 

We were fortunate and bought a big size home 3,700 square feet w/ 5 bedrooms and big backyard. But now - I want to downsize to a smaller home w/ a medium size backyard. I want the small cozy home. We don't plan on having anymore kids so we can definitely live happy and comfortably with a 3 bedroom home. But thanks to the terrible house market.....we have to hold off on selling and buying.

 

This is a timely topic for me... It was very good to hear how families are content in any situation!
We moved from CA to IL 6 months ago... and left our 10 year old home (1650 sq. ft and 3 bed, 3 bath)... Since we've been here we have been on a house HUNT! We are currently renting a 3 bed, 2 bath duplex, built in the early 1900s.

We are really hoping to find a 4 bed, 2 bath (at least) home sometime soon! We've look at EVERYTHING on the market, and just haven't found "it" yet. Would love at least 2000 sq. ft. Most of the homes are really old here, 1860s to 1920's. Newer means 1960-70s. Its just a TOTALLY different world of houses to us.

 

We have a 2800 SF house with 600 SF of finished daylight basement space, 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths and 2 half baths. And I feel like it's filled to the rim (DH had to build extra storage in the garage last summer). That being said, I desperately need to purge and organize, I just never have the time to dedicate to doing it.

We have a master bedroom, a small bedroom the girls share, a large guest bedroom I'll be decorating as the big girls room this summer, and a 4th bedroom that is a storage area right now and will become the guest bedroom. And then we'll leave their current room empty just in case we are blessed with another baby. If we are not, when they are ready for separate bedrooms they'll move back into the two smaller bedrooms so they don't fight over who has the bigger room. We used to use the extra bedroom as an office until I started working at home, then we converted the family room to my office/craft room. We have a living room too, and our basement has a very nice area to watch the big screen.

I love going to Ikea and seeing what they do with the different sized areas...very cool. I think you manage with what you have. We have a lot of space, but I'd be willing to give some of it up to move somewhere with nicer weather.