Last year DH and I were in the process of buying a bigger house in the same area as we currently live. Our buyer pulled out and it caused the chain to collapse so we didn't end up moving. DH now says he thinks it was a blessing in disguise and actually had we moved and taken on the bigger mortgage we'd be far more financially strained than we are now. I do understand where he's coming from but still seem to be pining for a bigger home.
Our current house is lovely and has everything that we need but none of the nice to have extras. It's a 3 bed so our two DC both have their own bedrooms but they are very small, DC1 in a standard single room and DC2 in the box room. There's no hallway, you come straight into the living room through the front door and there's only one bathroom, no downstairs loo. The hallway and downstairs loo are my main issues with the house, otherwise it's great but DH thinks these aren't really big enough issues to warrant moving somewhere bigger. The house we were going to buy was a much larger 4 bed so we'd have had a guest room/playroom but would have increased our mortgage payments by about 50%. We could technically afford the increase although it would be tight but DH now thinks it would be better to stay in the house we're in, overpay the mortgage and be able to afford a nicer standard of living. I always thought it would be better to move to somewhere we could grow into and start paying off a larger mortgage earlier.
WWYD? Is it better to stay in a smaller house but be more financially comfortable or to stretch to a larger house but have more space? DC are 4 and 2 if that makes a difference.