What's small to you?

     I love discovering new blogs and usually end up staying up way too late reading them, since there are so many good ones out there. Last week I was looking at some blogs about how to make your space feel bigger and what to do with a small home so it doesn't feel so small. The blogger went on to say if she can host a large family party at her house then anyone can and also talked about how at times she felt embarrassed about her small home. I kept reading most of the tips she gave were decent, but not for us since most involved major construction.  Then at one point she mentioned the size of her home, 1800sq ft and I was in shock. Is it just me, but that does not constitute a small home.  I would say an average size home by us is 1400sq ft or so. Maybe it just depends on where you live, I'm not sure really but where we live 1800sq ft would be considered a good size, maybe even large.  I guess in the end I was just annoyed because I wasn't sure how she could have a whole blog about small living when her house was that size some people even made comments about that, so I know I'm not alone but I didn't want to leave anything negative, so at that point I just stopped reading it. Who knows, maybe where she is from that is small. When I talk about our house being small I feel it truly is at 968sq ft. I guess I was just wondering in other areas what is an average size home or what do you consider small?

Tough Decisions

 




  I'm not sure if it is just this time of year or what, but it seems I always get the itch to move every fall. I'm not sure if it's the thought of being stuck inside for months or what, but I've been feeling it again. I've talked about my house and how it is very tiny for the five of us. I am constantly trying to rearrange things and reorganize, so we fit better but it's hard.  Plus I have this personal issue, I know it's silly but I rented this place then bought it from my mom. I lived her since I was a freshman in high school and it still just doesn't feel like my house, but my mom's even though we own it now it doesn't feel like my own.
     Around this time last year we had our house on the market, but were unable to sell it, so we eventually took it off because with a baby we just thought it would be too hard and stressful. No one was even looking at it anyways, so all the stress of keeping it clean was for nothing. We have talked about renting our house since I don't think we'll be able to sell it anytime in the near future, but it makes me nervous. I've never been a landlord, so a hundred thoughts run through me head what if they don't pay rent? destroy something? one tenant leaves and we can't find another? The list goes on and on. I guess our debate is do we just try to wait it out and hope the market will get better or just rent it and get something bigger now. I just fear the market won't be getting better any time soon and if we wait a few years we still won't be able to sell it. Unfortunately our house is a townhouse, so an addition is not really a possibility, but I wish it was. We may try to put it back on the market, but I'm not sure we will have any luck since our neighbor with the same house had theirs on the market for two years, and just ended up renting it a couple of months ago. I know we probably won't do anything until at least after the holidays if we end up making a decision at all.
     I don't want a huge house, but it would be nice to have at least one extra bedroom (we have 2 now), one more bathroom (we have 1), and a little more room so we can have people over for birthdays and stuff. With the layout of our house it seems so hard to entertain when it's cold and I have limited their birthday parties to pretty much grandparents and a few others due to lack of space. I know as they get older they will want bigger parties, but we'll have to see how it works out. So we are stuck debating what the best decision is for us. I'd love to hear any input from you guys.If you are a landlord how it's worked out, thoughts if you have moved from a small home to a bigger one, or if you have tried to sell with no luck. Anything would be helpful at this point because we've been having this same debate for over a year now with no real solution. Thanks:)