How small is your house?

[trustno1]

Originally Posted by lucille

We were renting a very small house a few years ago. What made it so miserable was the layout. The hallways, bathroom & kitchen were so narrow you could not bend or squat to reach anything and I am not a huge person. If they had made most of the home an open floor plan or altered how rooms went together It wouldn't have been so bad. Layout and use of space makes a big difference.

I agree on the layout issue. I am still amazed at the number of homes I see where there is still a living room and dining room...that probably have not seen any use in years!

I take down as many walls as possible (not support walls), without collapsing the structure, .

My living rooms always became art studios, game rooms, and exercise studios. Dining rooms become libraries, dorm rooms for kid slumber parties, recording studios, etc etc. When I rented I did the same, just required more creativity making everything restorable to the original layout. I use colored shower curtains stapled to walls instead of painting, etc.

[sgfinancialfreedom]

Mine is slightly above 900sqft.

It is small but cosy enough for my little family.

I think a lot depends on how you design and decorate your place to make it look large. It is not the size that matters

[ModernTightwad]

My husband, our 60 pound dog and I all live in a 484 sf studio apartment. Something I found very helpful is finding wasted nooks. We have sterilite drawer containers in the sides of our closet, space above the kitchen cabinets, etc. We also purchased closetmaid storage cubes and cabinets and that houses a great deal. It's hard to stay organized in small spaces. Since my husband lost his wallet, we've started making sure we have designated places for miscellaneous items:
1. Hooks on the wall for keys and leashes
2. Shelf for wallet and cell phones

Some storage on wheels is excellent as well so you can move it from one room to another if you need a little extra space.

[RickLee]

The benefits of a small house are several.

1. Closeness forces me to talk to my wife and daughter more, because I see them more often. Since I am a mumbler, they can also hear me more clearly.

2. Lawn mowing has been reduced to a few heaves of a manual mower. My friend has to store a sit down gas guzzling mower.

3. I can sit in my living room, reach across for a cookie on the dining room table, watch the kettle boiling in the kitchen, listen to my daughter sing in her room upstairs, see a squirrel in my backyard, and watch as my wife walks through the front door, all from my rocking chair.

[Socal104]

I've lived in some pretty small places. My wife and I lived in a 550 square foot place for many years. It did the trick and we saved a ton living there. Location was great. We moved up over time, but we had two kids in a 1,300 square foot place for a long time and it was good but hard to work at night when you have two kids running around and screaming. Then we bought our "dream" home, the one that one day will be way too big when the kids grow up. 2.5 times the size of that last place.

I have to say, I like the space but that's with a bunch of people in the house. I had to stay here a week on my own and it was like living in a museum. Pluses and minuses about the place absolutely, but I love having a quiet place to work when the kids bring over 3 of their friends and tear up the place. Honestly, for 4 people I felt 1,300 was cramped, but only when someone wanted to watch TV and I wanted to work.

You can save a ton on expenses in a small place but there is something magical about having the "homestead". A lot of people visit us which is what we wanted. People sleep over and they don't have to sleep on the couch, or a pump up bed. We once had 8 people stay in our 800 square foot apartment -- good thing we were young. Now we can have 10 people stay over at our house and it is comfortable.

Some of the myths/truths of a bigger place though:
Higher electric - our electric isn't very different than what we paid in a 1,300 square foot place. We don't use that much.
Heating/AC - Probably would be a lot more if we did either, but we live in SoCal and barely do either one. So I don't pay any more for this.
Water bill - Yup, that one really is costly. But depends what you do with your lawn. Our front is sand over dirt with some small drought resistant plants. Backyard is grass and does suck up a ton of water even with lowering the level of watering.
Maintenance - Yes, this really can be costly. Plants just keep growing, in our case year round. Trees need trimming. We like doing the work, so for us it isn't that bad.
Taxes - Painful, taxes can be as much as rent was before. This is something I think people forget about but our tax bill is 70% of what our rent was before.

Would I want to move back into a sub 1,500 square foot place. No. But I really liked the places that I lived in that were smaller than that size and I always felt they were spacious. I can't imagine having the kids go away to college and living here though, but that's the plan one day.

SoCal

[brittanystyle60]

I am living with my family of 5 In A 2000sf home and it is not so bad. All Tho I would like more closet space!! Maybe Walk In??? LOL

[Socal104]

One thing about old houses. The closets are always small. Get a new house and the closets are almost like separate areas that you could sleep in. But I love old houses.

[wildgift]

Do you have a living room that you can convert into a dining room?

I grew up in a small (1200sf) house with a dining area, not a dining room. We had a living room, too, but didn't use it much, so our real space utilisation was less than 900sf. There were five people living there. I also lived with others in several small apartments. This advice comes from these experiences.

A table that can be expanded would be useful. Keep it small most of the time, but add a leaf when you have guests. If you can add two leaves, you can really expand it for guests.

Get padded dining chairs that double as seating. You can also buy cushions for your chairs, so you can sit in them longer. Then you can hang out at the table. Instead of a sofa set, stick with a smaller loveseat, and smaller upholstered chairs (like the Ikea Poang). Put this mini-living-room along one side of the room (away from the kitchen if possible). Arrange it like a conversation pit / horseshoe. Eliminate end tables and large coffee tables if possible. Go small.

If possible, get chairs with low backs, and a dining table that's a little short. That way, you can elevate the TV and watch it from the table.

You can un-jam the living room a bit by moving stuff into the kitchen. Cookbooks and DIY type material should go in the kitchen (duh!). Move knick-knacky stuff to the kitchen, and artsy stuff to the living room.

You can also move things to the bedroom. Books are a good candidate.

If you have a large stereo system, consider getting a smaller one. Small spaces don't need large speakers. Little bookshelf speakers of decent quality (Infinity, Polk) will work fine. Speaker quality is more important than the receiver's quality. The computer can even do double-duty as a music and video player.

Get rid of floor-lamps, or move them out of the living/dining room. Try to get ceiling or wall mounted lighting. Consider track lighting. Consider recessed fixtures. Table-lamps are okay, if the table can do double duty as a table or a place to show off art.

If there's a fireplace, try to centralize the room's focus on it. Maybe hang a flat screen TV over it. Yes, kind of tacky - but, all TVs are uncool. Build a wooden frame around the screen. Play a DVD with "art" on it, and you're an instant snob.

If you want to get extreme, look at contemporary floor plans for small houses. They consolidate the kitchen, dining, and living rooms. Maybe consider knocking out some walls or enlarging portals. I'd be too chicken to do that... but then again, I don't own (yet).