This is a question i've been thinking about. Is a big house the be-all end-all of life? And if so, why? Right now, we live in a very small apartment. It has a little living room, a small kitchen, one bathroom, and an OK-sized bedroom. It is all we need, at least for now. It takes very little time to clean it entirely. When we have overnight guests, we give them our room and we sleep on a comfortable air mattress in the living room. OK, that situation is not ideal and something you'd want to do all the time, but we probably have overnight guests only a few times per year -- and it's really no big deal. It's hard to lose something in this apartment for very long, because there are only a few places it could be. The rent is cheap. The utilities are low. There is actually a lot of cabinetry/storage space for such a small apartment. It has charming built-in bookcases in the kitchen and in the living room, and an ironing board that comes out of the wall. The board itself is small, which is great becuase you can put a pant leg all the way over it. :) I hate ironing pant legs --how do you iron one side without the other side getting wrinkly?
I can think of a few reasons to have a big(ger) house, such as kids, but mostly I can think of high property taxes, high insurance, high mortgage, and high maintenance. So why is it the goal of so many people to have a house way bigger than they need or can possibly use all of? Is it status? Or is it just relaxing to have a lot of room to move around in? Or what?
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hey anya, I love the advantages you listed on the little apartment side. Esp the easy to clean and easy to find something you have lost. i think the goal for us was to have a place that is big enough and I guess that is a different size for everybody. Our place just happens to be bigger than we need (wasn't necessarily what we were looking for but just happened upon us) and i have to admit that the more room we have, the greater the disorder. It is fun to be able to have a yard and a place to run around on that belongs to you. You can make changes that suit your style and taste and just sit back and survey your little kingdom. I guess I get a lot of satisfaction out of that. I feel like I could condense our 'stuff' to fit in a much smaller place but I would have to hire an organiser. It is nice to have a guest room or spot when you have a lot of visitors going thru the revolving doors. By the way, when are YOU coming through our revolving doors? Nice to be in touch with you.
Try five generations under one roof and you really want a big house! :)
Oopsy daisy! I miscounted. It is only four generations!
Hey swiss miss! It's nice to be in touch with you too. Blogger ate my whole comment back to you this morning so I'm trying again. I did think later about the fact that hospitality is another really good reason to have more space. Yeah, speaking of your revolving door, I'd love it if we could come visit! My husband has a brother in France, which is only a hop, skip and a jump, so maybe some year we can show up at said door (we'll call ahead)! Would be awesome to see your kids, your place, and yourselves.
jay aitch, yes, I can definitely see that reason for needing a big house. In your case, I don't think you have a square foot too much!
agree with most of what you mentioned---but the idea of having a house too big for what you could use it for...that's mostly the reason I would love a little bigger house---not because I want a mansion but because it'd be SO nice to have a place for everything instead of trying to stuff it here and there. I periodically throw stuff out, too, so it's not like I'm hoarding stuff. With five people, though, and guests coming and going, space is just so NICE. Imagine all the blankets you could have!
We too have thought it is crazy to have a huge house to heat in the winter and cool in the summer as well as the cleaning bit. It is kind of nice for all kids to have a room and to have a guest room. We kind of got into the idea of the "Not so big house". Look it up in the library. It is basically designing small houses that use their space well. We have looked at and currently own a house that does not make the best use of its space. That would be my 2 cents.
Our 2 bdrm/1 ba house is much smaller than I'd have thought we could survive in, and you know what? It's fine. Sure, it'd be handy to have more room, particularly bedrooms since many of our guests have kids, and napping can be tricky, but that isn't a weekly or monthly situation anyway. I *will* say that in a smaller house, a room of disarray is necessary (in my humble opinion, of course.). Our play room is what makes this house liveable, space wise. And living small forces us not to accumulate. The thing I don't get is gigantesque houses on a teensy strip of grass, so there isn't a yard at all. It's like a huge apartment. No sense at all. Unless you have 4+ generations within those walls, but I'd still say I'd want a yard to go to.
Interesting comments, all. I really like that idea of the "not so big house." No yard at all if you can afford a huge house seems really odd, especially if there are kids... Anyway, it has been a fun challenge to see if/how we can accommodate what we think we need and jettison what we really don't. I think it's working. Course there are only two of us. I think it's possible that another reason I don't "want" a big house is because guess what, it's great to not want what you can't (yet, anyway) afford. Happiness all around. Win-win!
Your post just reminded me of an article in our paper last week looking for people to "adopt a family". Nothing wrong there; lots of folks have it pretty bad, but this was a young couple with a baby who had to (of all things) live with his parents in a 4-bedroom house instead of having their own place. If that were a problem in Ukraine, 40,000,000 people would need to be adopted. Except, there they would have grandma and grandpa in a one or no bedroom place, teeny kitchen and 1 bath in a 10 story building, no yard, no car, 150 dollars a month wages.
I know a family in our town who have always lived with the man's parents in a poor neighborhood. One bathroom, 2 bedrooms. Grandma helped with cooking and child care(2 little girls) The young mother cleans houses, Dad and Grandpa hold down jobs. After 15 years they were able to buy a beautiful 4 bedroom home in a nice neighborhood. Talk about being able to focus. Grandma and Grandpa are still there and they all get along fine. They even manage, separately, to take a six-week or more break every year to visit their homeland. It's a matter of perspective and being nice to each other. Sorry, Anya, I used your blog-site for my platform. ;-)
Thanks, mamacita, for that perspective. It is amazing what we think we need sometimes.
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