To ask if you are happy in your 'small' home?

[Apricotmuffino]

We bought our house about 4 years ago and have been very slowly renovating it, it has cost a fortune in all honesty with the ever increasing costs, and we are due to get our very old kitchen refitted with new units.

We have 1 child, and would like another within the next few years.

When we bought the house we intended to upsize after 5-7 years but in all honesty it seems so out of reach now, despite having managed to put to the side a decent amount of savings it's not touching the surface, and the costs to move (legal fees, stamp duty, interest rates being high if we were to borrow more) is putting us off.

We are trying to make living in the current house better so we can happily live in it maybe 10+ years from now on, and considering perhaps putting money into the garden/bathroom instead. Problem is, it's small.. a small lounge, small kitchen (just about can squeeze a small table in there) and 3 bedrooms, albeit the 3rd is extremely small and space is limited in there due to the stairs eating into the room. Our garden is OK, but needs work.

Living here long term would mean we would have more disposable income but I'm not sure how happy we would be in a small house with 4 of us.

We are in a dilemma whether to spend our money on this house, or try and skimp and save over the years to make upsizing become a reality!

I know small is subjective, our house is around 1000sqft, perhaps not small to others but feels it to us. Hope this doesn't come across as goady in anyway.

Any thoughts opinions would be greatly welcomed!!!

Omg I would love a three bedroom house with a garden even if it's small!

We had the same issue with our youngest child and the box room. Had to get a bespoke single divan bed made a bit shorter than standard which was worth it. It has drawers under for extra storage plus we chose a shallow/ low mattress which makes her bed nice and low to get on to sit on, almost like a day bed.

Theres also a little folding desk next to her bed which stays folded up most of the time but has a small shelf all the time to put her bedside drink etc on. We changed her radiator to a tall slim one to maximise the space as well and her wardrobe is one of those slim IKEA pax ones.

Don’t know how to work out square footage. 3 bed semi ex council style house with lounge/diner and kitchen

tho do now have a single storey extension which is roughly same size lounge/diner across back of house which is a godsend as a playroom for dd

We're in the same position

Have been trying to move for over a year but it keeps falling through

Feel as if we're doomed to stay in a small house forever

One tiny box room. Second bedroom is tiny too

Bathroom is ridiculous.

Just can't catch a break

If your garden is a good enough size , consider a garden room. Can be a multitude of purposes, teen den when they are older etc, to keep the lounge for adults. Mines a music room( my kids both play multiple instruments and practising in a small open plan house can be difficult) /quiet/ office space. A neighbour ( two kids, small house) has hers as a playroom where the train set, Lego, messy craft etc all go.

We live in a small terraced house with one DS . It has 3 bedrooms but only one toilet which is hard sometimes.

When husband and I split I had a choice of a small house that was “done” or a larger repossession that needed lots of work. I went for the larger house but wasn’t too bothered as ex was a builder and would do the work. Turns out he was already seeing someone else and was too busy to help me. The work cost a fortune plus it’s a lot more for carpets and curtains . 20 years later it’s still not finished . At times I still regret not taking the smaller house.

I love my tiny house, I'd hate a bigger one. I grew up in a huge house with paddocks and gardens. I hated it. Much prefer my tiny terrace.

@Growsomeballswoman that's interesting. I also grew up in an enormous (albeit run down and in places quite dangerous looking back) house and now love my small place.

Our house is small and we have two DC. It worried me too especially as I have always lived in big (and cold) houses.

However… there are upsides in that we only have one telly and all spend our time in the one (only!) room downstairs - we knocked the kitchen and sitting room into one when we bought the house. When I go to friends’ houses I notice that everyone is in a separate room on screens / headphones. We only have the one telly so we watch it together. I can chat to everyone when I’m cooking, we all watch telly together, we play on the games console together … so small isn’t necessarily bad! It was difficult when they were little as the toys were everywhere, but as they’ve grown they need less stuff. The only rule I ever enforced was no bloody Lego downstairs as accidentally standing on a block gives me the rage 🤣

This is interesting timing as I was just thinking yesterday about upsizing. I have a mortgage of £140k ish on a house now worth approx £450k, a small 3 bed terrace in an expensive city.

If I sold and my partner went in on the mortgage too we could definitely get something bigger/fancier - but otoh i really like my >£500 mortgage payments and the house is just about fine for the 4 of us with regular decluttering. We did convert the loft so there is not much storage but we manage.

I think given the current climate we’ll be staying here!

Dh did that in ours. Moved a stud wall between a good sized bedroom and a very small one, to make them more even sized, but one still a good sized double, the other a much better single. He said it was easy enough, so why on earth the builders didn’t do it in the first place I can’t understand.

I had a tiny 2 bed terrace. I say 'had' because it's now a 3 bed due to a loft conversion and an extension into the garden.

Rather than looking to move, look at what you can do to the house you have. You have a garage. Can't that be integrated into the house, with a bedroom above?

The cost of extending and remodelling is way cheaper than moving.

Build a conservatory .

Only if you can get a cozy roof, or solid roof, basically making it useable all year round. A glass or polycarbonate roof is no good . We can’t use our conservatory in winter and it onot gets used mid March to about October. Out next big upgrade will be new windows and proper roof on our 20 year old conservatory

Don't build a conservatory. They're either too cold in winter or too hot in the summer. I inherited one in a previous house and it was dreadful. I looked into putting on a proper roof and windows but the structure wasn't sound enough and the foundations weren't deep enough to take the weight.

@Growsomeballswoman just curious, what did you hate about the big house?

It just felt big, it was very modern clean warm, but it felt too big and I felt a bit lost I think. I wanted to live in a small house with a little garden.

Sofa bed living room for sleeping over

Not addressed to me but I also hated growing up in a huge house so I'll answer. Firstly I HATED being alone in the house, I found it scary. Secondly, the toilet was down a corridor and getting up in the night to go loo was quite traumatic. It was also often cold, although I appreciate that's not always the case. But smaller houses are usually far cheaper to keep warm!

@ladygindiva interesting, thanks. Hopefully my kids don’t mind their small house, it is warm.

I think well designed conservatories can be great. We briefly had one which was sunny and warm in winter, and the best place to be. It was either SE or SW, I can't remember which.

A 90+ sq metre house is not small.

I wasn’t after I had the second one. We upsized from a small 3 bed, to a bigger 3 bed. There was nothing I could do to my 2 room GF if the old house that would have made me happy raising teens in it.

I'd much rather have a smaller house and large kitchen, and general privacy/good location.

Our house is detached but actually only about 1,000sqft. We've got a huge garden and the road it's on is great.

We'll be extending into the garage in the near future, as now we're working from home are needs are different.

I loved my first 1 bed flat, it was small but perfect.

The cost of heating a larger house is extortionate now. And the clutter just grows to fill a larger space.