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!!!

I offered my children double picket money every week for whoever has the tiny box room. One child happily chose it as they wanted the cash; other one happy with a lot more space. They always have the option to swap rooms.

We live in a small house right now and plan to upsize as soon as we can. While our house is adequate now and we could in theory stay forever, we're looking to the future and we'll need the extra space.

Not just because he'll physically need the space (our lounge can't comfortably seat 3 adults, his room would be very cramped with a double bed and desk) but also with adult children staying at home longer then having more space would make living together much better emotionally in terms of not getting under each others feet or in each others business.

My friend built a big cupboard, accessed from the boxroom, into the neighbouring larger bedroom. They also have a very high bed with a desk underneath. Her teenage son has lots of storage, somewhere to sleep and to study. Not much space to entertain friends but he seems happy.

We're happy with our small-er (but more noticeably much less nice) house than all our friends & family, because this house enables us to have a nice holiday and do family activities.
We prioritise the experiences over the day to day living space.
We are expecting our second child and will have to make decisions about bedrooms when this baby is older. Whether they share, for how long etc.
We've decluttered hugely to give as much space as possible, removed unused furniture (for example we only have enough chairs for those that live in the house and have folding chairs for the rare occasions we have guests, a folding table for this reason too)
We bought this house knowing it would just about manage for 2 kids but expecting to move before they got old enough to need a lot of space (turns out that happens younger than we expected!) but now with the increase in cost of basically everything and the prohibitive costs of moving, we are hoping to stay put for a longer period of time. We also considered renovating our conservatory which is currently unusable in terrible condition but it was way more expensive than we expected so its basically storage.

One of the pros for me of having a small house are that I spend minimal time cleaning it. One small bathroom, very small (but perfectly designed) kitchen. Front door opening into living room which is open to dining room. The other reason I chose it over two other (larger) homes when we moved here 30 years ago was the double garage, large corner garden plot and fantastic view from front window. Once living here I realised that the house being at the end of the cul de sac meant it was safe for my children to play, the woodland next door was a great place to walk and led to the canal.

Yes, I would like a downstairs guest bathroom, a separate downstairs room, an ensuite, the ability to extend upward into roof. Nonetheless, we have adapted to the small size and I still enjoy looking out of the window at the mountains, and sea views.

@oldmanandtheangel is yours a one bed? It sounds really sweet.

I think you expand your life into the space you can afford. We now have the forever house we bought 30 years ago, and we are thinking about the next house we live in. Schools are irrelevant, but we are still walking a large dog, so good walking is important. We still drive, and both have cars, but maybe not forever. So we plan to move and relocate to an area where we are closer to family (a 90 minute drive, rather than four hours, so a lunch catch up is 45 minutes for either party.) The house we would like to find would have two large bedrooms and a study/office big enough for a double sofa-bed. There has to be a garage. And it needs to be detached, and on the edge of a big village/very small town that we like. We have an area in mind, but it costs nearly as much as the house we're selling, and then we shall be paying SDLT on top of all the other costs of moving. If you are happy where you are, why would you bother with all the hassle.

Could you use the middle bedroom as yours and move the children into the bigger one as they have their toys etc?

If it's been in the garage, loft or shed more than a year, you can probably do without it. Do a tabletop sale, eBay or Vinted, charity shop, skip, just ruthlessly declutter. Also consider if you can afford a small conservatory, it's the cheapest way of getting more space and light.

We increased space in our loft by having shelves put in between the struts we can fit the big plastic totes on them which give extra storage in our little bungalow

I wasn’t so we moved and our new house 4x the size. There was no room to socialise, no room for guests to stay so now that we have plenty of space our lives have improved massively.

Our old house was supposed to be short term but we ended up there for 10 years. It served us well until it no longer did.

Technically, DH and I could downsize to a one bed flat, [but we won't] and we would be adequately housed if the government was paying (murder would follow soon after). But the government wants the transaction fees too so it is more nuanced.

The government/any government need to understand that for the last 40 years, only property has consistently held value. We've lost sight of stocks and shares, because too few people understand them, so everyone uses their house to safeguard their savings value.

Cakeandcheeseforever...

Most definitely a one bed! It's only me and DCat.

However, we are a row of cottages and others contain two people (and dogs) and in the past have held two adults and a child in each cottage...but all moved away when the child got bigger! There is no outdoor space at all, not even a yard. But, in the heart of the Chilterns, a huge sweeping landscape and plenty of walks. Fantastic views from my little windows

I was miserable in our tiny house, it had a huge effect on my mental health and almost ruined my marriage. It was a 3 (but really 2) bed terrace, around 850 square feet. It was annoying but bearable enough with three of us, but once DD2 was born it was awful. No garage, no built in storage, a kitchen so tiny we had to move the (small) kitchen table every time we wanted to open the washing machine. A dark, cramped living room. The ensuite shower was used to store the ironing board, hoover and washing basket because we had nowhere else to put them. Our 'master' bedroom only had room for a double bed and a single bedside table, so all clothes were kept in the box room - once the baby came along they were moved into the ensuite too. A garden the size of a postage stamp so no room for a shed, let alone a conservatory for some more space. I used to spend hours driving around in the car with DD2 as a baby because I couldn't face walking through the front door most days, but I also couldn't bring myself to take her to baby groups because I couldn't stand overhearing people talking about their own houses. My hatred of that place grew and honestly consumed my life.

We spent eight long years there and I couldn't wait to see the back of the place. The house should hold lovely memories of both children growing up there but instead I'm just filled with bitterness that we spent so long there. We now have much more space, and life is far happier. The children own bikes, because we actually have somewhere to store them. Our clothes are hanging in wardrobes instead of in a shower. And we can open the washing machine without obstruction. Hooray!

Oh I’d like a small house , easier to clean , cheaper to run and maintain.
The thing is you probably need very good storage options.
eg ottoman beds , cabin beds for children , a coffee table for living room with storage under .
maybe some bespoke options too and wall mounted shelving where you can to store and display

We lived in a similar sized, 2 bed flat until our DC were 4 and 6. The 2 bedrooms were very decent sized, as was the living/dining room. The kitchen wasnt huge but was ok.

The major downsides were:
Only 1 toilet. This problem didnt become apparent until toilet training DC2! We kept the potty as a back up for a while for those urgent first thing in the morning pees

Zero outdoor space

Nowhere to put bikes, scooters, skateboards so they cluttured up our entrance hall

We have 2 highly active DC (both have ADHD) and we had to take them out twice a day, no matter the weather, as there was no space. We let them jump on the sofas to burn off energy (and not annoy the downstairs neighbour).

They also didn't get on sharing a room because they both are so unsettled at night and would wake each other up all the time.

We now live overseas (temporarily) and have a massive house and garden. Its fantastic. The DC still do everything in the living room with us (read, watch tv, play with toys, game, play football 🙄). They only use their bedrooms to do homework and to sleep. And to be honest if the living room is quiet, they still prefer doing their homework there rather than alone in their rooms.

I think small houses can work fine. I'm a minimalist so it wasnt stuff and clutter that made our flat too small, it was having 2 hyperactive boys absolutely bursting with energy.

We moved to a smaller house in a nicer place. Weirdly, the house seems to have expanded around us. I think you learn how to live in a space.

That’s a really good idea - would’ve worked well for my sister and me, though we’d probably have swapped every couple of years!