How much space do you need?
This is something I have been thinking about, and you are about to hear my (scattered) thoughts regarding it.
We are selling our home. Well, we are trying to sell our home. It is listed, and we are praying that the Lord would bring the right buyer along. Of course, if our house doesn't sell, we will be just fine here. But there are certain wants and desires and goals we have for our family which we could attain if we were to move.
One big factor we are working with here, is money. We are not millionaires. (shocking, right?) We have a very very nice house right now. Sometimes, looking around it, and frankly, using it - I wonder why on earth we'd want to leave. Like when I was laying in our large, jetted soaking tub, enjoying a large private beautiful bathroom. Do I really want to give this up for a small ugly bathroom that the washer and dryer are also sharing???
Do I want to give up a dual sink master bath for no master bath? Can I go from having that luxury to sharing a bathroom with our kids and guests?? Of course I can. It would probably not be an easy transition or always enjoyable, but doable.
I say this, because we want land. Space. Animals. But, in order to have those, and still afford it, the house quality and size drops dramatically. But this begs the question - how much do you need? There are people all over the world sharing a small hut with six people; families in Europe having two or more families or generations all in a tiny apartment. And we really need a separate bedroom for each child? Or a dining room? Or a three car garage? (we don't actually have all those... it was an American collective 'we' I was referring to)
I have friends who have two boys. Their house is for sale also, and they are down-sizing to either a condo or a 900sf home. Did you hear that??? 900 square feet. She is brave. I'm having trouble with the idea of going from our 2600sf home to a 1947sf home. It's all about design I guess. (and organization, and having less stuff...) Our house may be 'small' compared to others on our side of town, but it is designed and arranged better than most homes I've toured. We have three bathrooms, five bedrooms, an office, and a small play nook. It is extremely difficult to find all those same features in a home with a thousand more square feet than ours. Trust me, I've looked.
I have some reservations about moving somewhere smaller. What about when one of the kids is sick or up in the middle of the night and I have three girls in one room? What about when I want to send them to their own rooms when they are fighting or driving me crazy?? There would be no 'their own rooms' to go to! What about when it is winter (like now) and outdoor activities and time are limited so you spend most of your life in your house, and the house is so small... and you're all driving each other crazy, cause there is no other room or level of the house to escape to?????
I am (still) reading Little House in the Big Woods to the kids. I read it to them with wonder. How did families DO that?? We Americans are well 'past' that now. It is our history, but completely unfamiliar to us at this point - kids sharing one bed, just living in a one room cabin, no multiple bathrooms (or any bathrooms to be exact). How do we as 'modern' people make the transition back to a simpler way of life?
If our house does sell, this a journey I may well be taking. The adventure, the annoyances, the fun and new discoveries. But most of all, I have this secret little desire. I don't like how technological our world has become (as I'm writing on a blog). I don't like how disconnected we all are. We have all these techno connections (FB, Twitter, email, cell phones, Skype), but we aren't really connected much at all. I secretly hope that by getting my family to a small - connected space - we actually stay connected. Through the teen years, adult years - all of it. After all, that is all we can take with us at the end of our life anyway - relationships. So, maybe not having a private, large master bath with soaking tub isn't the most important thing.
Tara!
ReplyDeleteI love this blog post and felt the need to encourage you. We built a home last year and while we were in the process we had an awesome family offer their guest house to us to live in. It's probably 1000 square feet, no cable hook up, no Internet, and very sparse phone service. It was about a 30 minute drive to get back into Birmingham. I say all this as I sit in our wonderful new home with my girls watching a movie in one room and me totally separate in another room sometimes wishing we had more of that little guest house. I am so thankful for our home now but I can confidently say you will not regret downsizing. It does amazing things for your family and you will spend so much time laughing, talking, playing and snuggling because you have no choice! Ha! It's awesome and I think looking for some land is fun too. Your kids will love growing up with some space to roam. So anyway, I think you are making a wise decision and will pray Gods direction for your fam! Hope you all are well! Blessings!
Rachel Schranz
Aww! Rachel, thanks! That was a sweet encouragement! Brought tears to my eyes! Of course, I don't know what will happen with our house, but words like that help to not fear the future!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your new house!
Tara, This is a topic I have to weigh in on :)
ReplyDeleteWhen we first got married we bought a cozy 1200sf, 3 bed, 1.4 bath, no garage house built in 1942 and did a LOT of work to fix it up and get it into the 2000s. In 2006 we were being blessed financially so we bought much newer a 2400sf, 4 bed, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage house and excitedly moved there envisioning it to be our "forever house" until old age. We rented out our first little house to some friends.
Then the recession hit. In order to keep our business and ourselves out of deep trouble we sold the big house and moved back into our cozy cottage again. The renters hadn't given the house the kind of love that we do, so we had to paint/carpet/clean it up once again.
All that to say: Having experienced both a newer, comfortable, spacious home and now back to the cozy cottage I can honestly say I prefer the smaller home. It is just more "homey" and we feel satisfied here. Personally I LOVE the challenge of fitting us into the smaller space, finding ways to use the space efficiently, and making the space we have feel roomy and open. We are also blessed with a gorgeous large back yard at this house, which helps make the whole place seem bigger. I just love love love this place.
Granted, I have far fewer kids than you. Our two do share a room. I was skeptical at first as to how it would work, but we wanted to have a guest room for my parents frequent visits. As it turned out, the kids love having each other in the room at night and are best friends. When they are not feeling the love and I send them to their room I have them each stay on their own beds (single beds across the room from each other) and that has worked out fine. When they get older we'll move one of the into the guest room and I will convert the living room into a guest room with an air bed and a curtain when we have guests (We have a family room too so the living room is a bit of an extra space)
Small spaces rock!
Brenda
Hmmmm... very good and very usual info Brenda! I was thinking today, we could do bed/matress time-outs. That should work...
ReplyDeleteI tell you what - you ladies are really encouraging and so helpful! Love ya! :)
Something in me resonates with your post. I think our generation in general is nostalgic for a simpler way of life. That I said, I often try to put myself in the place of those we envy/look up to and wonder what they would think of with what we have now. Sure, many would say we live in too big of houses and have too much stuff; but I think others would say "wow what wonderful things you've been blessed with that we didn't have the opportunity to have!" I think that is the key... the people we look back to didn't choose their lifestyle it was what was "given" to them, but they made the best of it and were content. The lesson for us is the same. With whatever we're given (big or small) to make the best of it and be content. If you happen to have more space then you feel you need, use it to bless others etc. Not to get all preachy on you, but contentment in whatever circumstance (Phil 4) is definitely the point! :)
ReplyDelete