Oh my, you do have a house full!!!

When we were raising our daughter, she's 20(the 2nd!) and in college now, we raised her in a 16 X 80 ft mobile home. Plenty of room for us, but the gathering during the holidays were just something to behold. We felt like sardines in a can. But we loved our mobile home, it did just fine for raising our young'un.

Now we have our dream home built and Jessica is home for the summer. But all her friends are coming and going so I am still filled to the gills.

And I'm loving every single moment of it!!! LOL

Deb

I grew up in about 900 square feet with an unfinished basement, just me and mom. Seemed luxurious to me, even when we rented out the upstairs three bedrooms and shared the bath.

My friends lived in the identical house 4 doors down, except their dad had added a shower in the basement. They managed just fine, Mom, Dad, Grandma and 8 kids.

I guess I just don't get it when my best friend complains about not enough room in her 3000 square foot home (not including a 700 square foot finished, walkout basement) for her family of 4.

I always wonder about these great big houses----What kind of comunnication can you have with your family??-----

Maybe they use intercoms---LOL

Florence

We don't have kids now, but plan to start in the next few years. With 3 bedrooms, one of which is a very big master bedroom, we're not too worried.

The main issue is that our downstairs (3rd) bedroom is currently the computer room/den area. I don't like the idea of having very young children downstairs while we sleep upstairs - but I'd probably be OK with it when they hit the age of 5 or so. The crib would be in our room for second, third, etc. children. The second bedroom upstairs will be large enough for two for sure, but if we have three (or two of opposite sex) the oldest would need to go downstairs eventually.

However, given that we plan to space kids 2-3 years apart and want 3 if we're so blessed, by the time we'd have a third child the oldest would be 5 or 6 and could go to the downstairs bedroom. The only downfall of that is that we'd have to move our computers upstairs to our room, and would lose the "den" space for overflow while entertaining. Entertaining on a grand scale only happens every 6 years for us (holidays for hubby's extended family) so it might not even be an issue in the end.

We live in a good district for elementary/middle/high school - one of the most desirable "sets" of schools in the city. And the neighborhood is quite safe (although that can always change and we're prepared to move if it becomes an issue). I can see few drawbacks to at least starting to raise our family in this small home. :-)

When you think about it, most baby boomers were raised in small houses and as part of much larger families than most today. Our housing stock built between 1945-1965 is generally 1200 square foot, 3/1 or 3/1.5 homes. So many couples raised 3-5 kids in such houses without any complaint. Makes me wonder why people now seem to feel that they have to have 3000 square foot houses to raise a kid or two!

I grew up in a barely 1000 ft. home (three bedrooms) with my mom, dad, and three older sisters...and one bathroom. My poor dad...lol.

I think some of our need for more space has to do with our having a different way of living. When I was little, kids were outdoors all day, unless it was very cold and windy. We had a handful of toys each, and we did not take them into the living room for very long. We sure did not have a pile of toys taking up a corner of the living room every day! Our TV was small - less than 20 inches - and there was only one of them in the house. Dad had a chair, Mom had a chair, and we three kids shared the couch or lay on the floor with throw pillows while watching TV. The kitchen had the one range/oven, a toaster, a fridge, and maybe a coffee pot. And a canister set ;-) Adults had few hobbies - if a wife/mother had time to waste there were books or interesting baking, sewing, or knitting. Working class fathers fixed their cars, drank a a few beers and threw horseshoes. No storage needed for most of these activities.

My clothes fit in my small closet with room for my toys too. We had some bookshelves and a toy box in the playroom at the top of the stairs. Most of our books came from the library, though. School books and supplies stayed at school all the time. (We maybe even needed special permission to bring a book home!) All my Barbie stuff fit into one case. Brother's toys (Hotwheels, for instance) took up more room, but we all played with them. Since I was a girl, it was assumed I did not need a ball mitt, so there was one less thing to find room for! We had a bat, some balls, my brother's glove. I had to catch bare-handed. We did not have a lot of equipment for games, Statues and Mother May I did not need any. Imagination takes up very little floorspace. Then there was the Rule: many families had one bedroom per gender of children. In my 1447 sq ft house, previous owners had seven children.

i have only one child in a 625 sq.ft. house. it works out well. she has her own room, which is small, but room enough to store her things in under the bed containers, two shelves mounted on the wall and a toybox for odds and ends. we go through her things once a year and get rid of the stuff she doesn't want anymore. fortunately, she's happiest with art supplies and doesn't want much in the way of games and toys. and art supplies are easily stored :)

i also have a basement that she can access when she's a bit older (she's 9 right now). i don't have stairs leading down to it from the main floor and have to go outside and around the back of the house to get down there (it was a very, very small basement apartment at one time.) but, at least it's a finished space for her to hang out when she's older. right now, it's mainly just a storage spot. (also good for ongoing projects).

when she's with her dad, she's in a 2500 sq.ft. farmhouse.. so MUCH more space. but, she also has 2 younger brothers and a younger sister to contend with. she's an introvert and needs her down time, and i get the sense that even though this space is so small, it's at least a quiet/calm space and she's a bit more comfortable here.

My husband and I raised two daughters in a 1,000 square foot home. We were cozy and always did things as a family. Each daughter had her own very small bedroom but they shared a closet. We didn't have a problem with the lack of space other than only having one bathroom. That was no fun, especially for my husband. My daughters were very close growing up and still are even though they are out on their own. Entertaining always depends on the company not necessarily the space. We just had a wonderful time with friends (20 of them) at a 500 square foot cottage. We overlapped into the backyard but squeezed many into the living room and porch for a toast.

Great post, nancy in mich. All so true.

Our daughter and her husband are raising and homeschooling 5, soon to be 6, kids in a 1200 sq. ft. house. This is the house they can afford to own and have her stay home, which they decided was very important to them.

The 3 oldest girls share a bedroom. Their son has his own and the youngest sleeps with her parents. That leaves one small bedroom which changes function from toddler's room to playroom to library as the need is greatest.

They have an open living/dining room which is also the school room. It is a bright room with high ceiling lots of windows and a skylight, which makes it feel very large.

They made a decision to have the computer in this room, so no one gets to use the internet in private. Privacy is not as highly valued as social interaction.

The kids play outdoors a lot. Open air distributes noise better than closed walls.

Margaret Mead: "Having two bathrooms ruined the capacity to co-operate."

My 2 girls and I shared the 750 sq ft two bedroom home where I still live. At one point the youngest moved her stuff into the 8x10 ft room that had been built to be a utility room. She called it her cabin. It was a sweet little space, Of course as she got older, her decorating ideas made me more inclined to shut the door and look away, but now that I live here by muself Ive been trying to convert the space into a little breakfast nook/morning room. It sits right off the kitchen, and has a nice doorway to the back of my garden, which is a lovely view. My delima is this, I wanted to install a window seat, and small table, but in the mean time, i brought in my 2 old white wicker chairs and a tiny table, and I love them there so much its made me rethink the table/eating area. my favorite story about when the girls were in highschool, and I worked at the middle school down the road is that the oldest daughter who was a real early riser would quiz us each befor she went to bed to find out whos alarm was set for what time so she could get up about 45 minutes befor us and have the bath room to herself. We made it. Every one survived. Oldest daughter still chooses modest tiny places to live, while youngest is planing to down size to a 2 bedroom as soon as her youngest is out of diapers and sleeping in his big boy bed.

I raised my son in one-bedroom apartments, one that was only 400 square feet, the largest which was 980 square feet. Sometimes we didn't even have the apartment - just a 100 square foot bedroom we rented in someone else's home.

My 1,064 square foot home that I bought last year is our blessed castle.

It's all about perspective.

I'm raising my two teenage daughters in a single wide mobile home that we adore... we have two bedrooms, they share the largest room just fine. And we have a large middle room (living room and kitchen) that is nice and roomy. It's all perspective! We had a 3,000 sq. ft house that we lost through foreclosure and divorice... but would rather have our beloved Moby now... it's brought us closer and sharing a bathroom is quite an experience! You can see more at our blog... we really do love our small home!

Here is a link that might be useful: The Mobile Home Woman blog

Wow, mhwoman, this is funny! I stumbled upon your blog just yesterday and read the entire thing, then I find you here today.

I love gardening, too, and I like the variety of things you have planted around your Moby.

I also really like what you did with the flooring. Great job!

I have 1450 sq ft and we have done OK but are planning now to build a slightly larger home further out in the country. I agree it's all about perspective! We have never had nintendo or that kind of stuff. Maybe it's old fashioned but I never thought they needed any of that. They have more than enough and we spend a lot of weekends camping so my kids have learned to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. My kids are really good kids. My daughter is one of the best 16 year olds any one could wish for. Mature, respondisble and seldom do we have any problems with her. My son we adopted and although it's been a LOT of work things are getting better all the time. I feel love and being there is so much more important than living in a big house and giving them 'things'.
Sunny

Our very first house had more space and fewer children than our later houses, but it felt more crowded because the baby/kid stuff was in every room.

When we moved to our second home, knowing that it was smaller made me rethink that, and I decided not to store any toys or baby equipment in the common rooms or my bedroom--it all went into their bedrooms only.

For us, I think this help so much in making living smaller feel like a positive. Without all the baby stuff in my bedroom, it felt much more like a pleasant haven from all the kid energy. Visitors and neighbors who lived with the exact same floorplan often commented on how spacious our home seemed, because we had less stuff than they did. So, it never felt too small.

The end result so far is that our kids have great relationships and are used to sharing their space and their stuff. No one has a lot of privacy, and I think that helps cut down on mischief of all kinds ;-)

mhwoman, I love your blog. I hate to hijack this thread but I'd like to know how you make your own butter. You can email me if you don't want to post here.

Thanks folks... glad you like the blog.... trying to stay active with it is the hardest thing!

I'll have to put up a post about making butter... it's really easy and fun too.. and tastes great.

And thanks about the flooring... we're very proud of it all, the moby looks great.... actually in a few days, June 3rd, will be our official one year anniversary!!! LOVE THAT!

Just to make this tie in... my daughters were outside putzing around and playing with the dog, etc., and my youngest came over and told me that she loves the Moby more than ANY house we ever lived in.... and she wants to live with me forever! hahaha... Not bad from a 15 year teenager! And my 19 year old is apparently planning the same. I think eventually they might have to consider like the moby across the way from us... that would be cool... have our own little moby compound! hahaha...

We planted 5 little dwarf apple trees this week and I am so excited about them.... they are doing great, we had a nice batch of rain and it's keeping them nice and watered in... (we're doing it as well, but it's nice when Mother Nature helps too!)

Thanks again folks! Great forum.... can't wait to post around and all!

Mobile Home Woman...

Here is a link that might be useful: The Mobile Home Woman Blog

I have 3 sons, 1400 sq ft. I am 5'11", DH is 6'3", DS #1 is 6'6" at 14, DS #2 is 5'8" at 12, DS #3 is 5'4" at 9. Believe it or now, even though we are all REALLY tall people, our house doesn't seem too crowded. DS #1 has his own room & the other 2 share. The tiny 4th bedroom is our computer & music room with 2 desks, piano & bookshelf. The basement isn't finished but is dry, so the boys have a couch, table & TV down there for video games, with a rug on the floor.

My only desire would be a bigger kitchen. I grew up in a big house & the kids would help mom with dinner & clean up and we would talk and talk while we were doing it. Our house has a "one person kitchen." Litterally, there is not room for 2 people to work in there at once. That's my only complaint about my small house (1/2 the size of the one I was raised in).

I'm usually a lurker, but I'm loving reading all the posts about small homes. There was a time when I felt less successful than others because of my small home, but now I have come to realize that a being house poor just isn't worth it.

I downsized from a 2,500 sq ft cape style home with a wrap-around porch on 3.5 acres when my ex-husband decided he didn't want to be married and had more important interests to pursue. I eventually remarried and we first lived in an old bungalow-style river cottage that was just under 1,000 sq ft. We couldn't have been happier. Our furnace room and laundry facilities were in the basement, which kept the house from seeming too crowded, but the bedrooms were the size of postage stamps. There was room for a queen-size bed, one nightstand and a chest of drawers (and a path around the bed). Our family and friends loved to come there and visit us and we had more company in that little cottage than I ever had in my big house. People would throw sleeping bags on the floor to sleep if the beds were full. I'm sure the river and the fun that went with it had nothing to do with it....LOL.

To make a long story short, the state eventually took our property to build a new highway and we now live in another small river cottage that, to me, resembles a birdhouse. It's slightly bigger and has 3 bedrooms, but one bedroom is so small that only a twin bed would fit. We use it for an office. Again, we have friends and family that live in huge homes, but still they continue to flock here. They've told us time and time again how homey and peaceful it is here and it does them good to get away from the rat race of the city.

I'll post a link to some pics here shortly. I hope it works.

Here is a link that might be useful: Life is Good on the River - 2009

For the first 10 years of my life, I lived in a 500-600 square foot condo with my parents, my sister, and my grandmother. When my parent decide to move to the US, we end up with a 1,000 square foot rowhome.

I think the pressure will come from the outside. When I was growing up, I never felt my house was tiny because everyone else's house was roughly the same size. I only notice the difference when I went to college and notice that some of my classmates lived in much larger houses.

Paul

Kellygirl ~ The link said I needed to sign in. I would love to see your pictures.

mhwoman ~ It's great that you are debt free and surviving in your mh that you are fixing up nicely. It was great the way you got the new flooring. The vinyl looks great! Keep up the good work.

FlowerLady

mhwoman, love your blog! I can so relate to so many things you have mentioned. We went through a lot of that, but things will improve. I think I am a stronger person because of having to find ways of doing things inexpensively. Take care and keep up the blog:)

My dad was one of 11 kids. They were raised in a house that is less then 1000 sq ft! Imagine how they were tripping over each other.
Our current house is 1100sq ft and we raised 3 sons. I thought that felt crowded.