Do you like your small home?

[walliceandme]

We have a 3 bed semi detached townhouse new build (bought in 2020) with good sized rooms. Over the last 5 years we’ve spent about £80k renovating it ourselves. We removed the hallway to create a big kitchen, added a small extension onto the lounge to create a dining room, ripped out our en-suite/redid it and decorated every single bedroom.

People often ask why we didn’t just move, and we're crazy investing so much money into an average new build but we love it here. It’s the right size for us, less to clean, and renovating was far cheaper than buying bigger. Whilst we know we probably won't make the money back on it unless we stay here for 10+ years but it’s exactly how we want it, and it feels ours.

I just want opinions, do you love your small home, or would you prefer to go bigger? What's the pros and cons?

Glad you like yours. I hate mine. Victorian terrace (one of the 2.5 beds) with very narrow, dark hallways. House faces in such a direction that light never really comes into it, it’s so gloomy. Courtyard garden, on street parking, no storage. 2 adults 2 kids, youngest is in the teeny box room (1.4m wide) and it’s just way too small with no way of extending.

My house was too small when the children were growing up. Four children in a three bed, so sorting bedrooms was always tricky. The smallest bedroom is 9ft x 7ft and has a chunk taken up by the airing cupboard so you can’t get much more than a single bed and bedside table in it. The whole house only has one bathroom and one toilet, both downstairs.

However, it is in a nice location and we have a big garden. Now the children are grown and not here so much it feels a much nicer size. I’ve always bounced between wanting a rambling farm house or cosy tiny cottage - depending on how busy the house is lol.

Over all, I’ve slowly realised this house is home.