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Syncletica
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| Posted: March 04 2013 at 9:33am | IP Logged
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We will hopefully be in the market for a new house in a year's time.
I am wondering what wise advice all you ladies might have about what to look for: what you consider mandatory, what would be nice to have, etc.
Would also love to hear what size house you are in and what you like/love about it and what you wish was a bit different.
Just looking for food for thought in our preparations. 
This is our house, if you want to read it:
We are currently in an 1105 sq. ft. house -- and that's for both floors, so a total of 2210. We have 7 children, are expecting #8. We have 2 girls in one bdrm, and the 4 boys and the toddler in another room. The rooms are extremely tiny -- something like 9x10 and 11x9. Super small. No room for 2 sets of bunks. Girls' closet is full of extra stuff we need -- as well as a dresser, file cabinet, sewing machine, their clothes that need to be hung up. Their room has 1 bunk, 2 dressers and a bookshelf, plus my computer desk and a number of shelves on the wall for some books, baskets of stuff to put away, give away, knitting stuff, knick-knacks, etc. Boys' closet is full of plastic drawers on shelves. One shelf per boy. Older boys have 3 baskets, younger ones have four smaller ones. Also is a shelf for boxes of diapers/wipes, some of their toys. Bunk is a dbl bottom, single top. There is a crib, a change table, 2 dressers, plus a little tiny one for some of the 18 mo. old clothes (the others are in one of the dressers. The other dresser is divided between the boys for their special stuff.) VERY VERY tight!!! ALWAYS a mess!! The spare room is currently being used as a storage room. I've got the swing, baby bouncer, jars, headboard from old dbl bed, frame for old bed, bags of shoes and rubber boots, beach toys and inflatables, etc. in there. We plan on moving the 2 girls down there in the spring and some boys to the girls' current room, but that leaves nowhere to put the stuff that's in storage. (Granted, the baby swing and bouncer will be upstairs for a few months.) We have no garage, nor room to put an extra shed. Current shed is filled with gardening stuff.
Dining room is tight. No room to put a bigger table -- as it is, the 18 mo old is on her own chair away from the table. No room to put her at the table. Porch/laundry room is always a mess. This is the room that also stores recyclables, and you're anything like us, you can imagine just how messy it gets, especially since we generally only get to the recycle bins about once a week. The room also has storage bins for winter clothing -- mitts, scarves, toques, etc. A bin for skating bags -- 5 skating bags so far, plus some hockey equipment - padding & helmets - and sticks, a cabinet to hold swimming bags and bike helmets, a big cabinet for dh's tools and other odds and ends. It is also the only place that has a south-facing window with a ledge that I can place a few plants. Very few. Water heater and furnace are also in there.
My daughter is hoping to teach piano lessons in the not-too-distant future. The keyboard is in the same room as the school room and playroom....which would most likely mean no children could play in their playroom while lessons were going on. Not a biggie, but an inconvenience if there was room for a separate music room/office or something.
I'm trying to maintain/grow a business, needing room for some stock. Right now that's all cramped up, too.
Our living room is super tight. Hardly room for our Christmas tree each year.
Bathrooms are tiny. Just not the greatest layout.
Again, would love to hear what you have to say!
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"Live as though your judge were to meet you today, and you will not fear Him when He does come." - St. Augustine
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: March 04 2013 at 9:53am | IP Logged
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We are in the market as well (trying to sell ours), so I'm tagging along for the suggestions. 
__________________
Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool
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amyable
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| Posted: March 04 2013 at 2:33pm | IP Logged
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Ooo my favorite topic!  Well, actually I have a love/hate relationship with it, as we have been on a rollercoaster of on again/off again house hunting for 5 years now!  Every time we quit we find a good reason to go back to looking, and after we look for awhile we find a good reason to quit!  Like the day I finally said, "OK, I guess we'll just stay here and I'll learn to love it somehow" a boy brought a gun to school and opened fire just a stone's throw from my house.  (it's not the one you are thinking of)
On that happy note...
Here are our must haves:
** affordable (and this has been the big sticking point in this high cost of living area! I mean seriously, we can't afford to spend $550K+ to have a four bedroom home with some yard in a safe area!  )
** either 4 bedrooms or 3 bedrooms with a non-master bedroom being huge to fit all four girls w/o them killing each other (3/4 have *very* strong personalities)
** a dining room or kitchen big enough for us to eat in comfortably with a table that seats at least 9 (our 7 and then my parents who often eat with us). Eating together often is a core of "who we are" as a family and I won't give that up.
** at least 2000 sq. ft. total space (I'm including everything in this figure...unfinished area, etc) , more would be great.
** reasonably safe. I know I'm extra picky, but in the last few months we've had a school shooting right down the block, numerous break-ins where the homeowners were home, many armed robberies of local businesses at what would seem "normal" business hours (i.e. the drug store at 9 AM or a fast food at 9:30 or 10PM) and a few other things that I know happen anywhere, but I don't want them happening to me or my family. I'm *done*. We live in a "nice" suburb but it is right on the border of a city known for it's crime and the crime is definitely creeping.
** not on a main road.
** reasonable driving distance for my dh. He has back problems and can't hack a long day at work plus a commute over, say, 45 minutes TOPS (that would be pushing it). We have 20 now and he *really* likes it and would like less but that probably isn't happening.
Things we would *really like* :
**closer to Catholic homeschooling activities and especially things for teens. These seem to happen about 45 min to an hour from here.
** a main floor bedroom and bathroom. My dh has trouble with stairs sometimes, and my parents are getting older and really struggle coming into our house (it's a split foyer, more on how much I hate that later )
** more than 2 bathrooms, or at least a bathroom of some sort on every level of the house.
** at least 0.2 acres ... we want bigger but not too much. .2 is what we have now and I feel like the kids have no where to really get the wiggles out. Yeah they could run around the house but that gets boring after about 3 revolutions, lol.
Thing I think would be heavenly but probably won't ever get:
** a big sunroom to eat in
** a little brook/stream on the property or within walking distance that we could explore in
** an in-law apartment totally separate from the main house and completely sound proofed.
** a house with character - beam ceilings or interesting windows/doorways, etc.
** a separate room for quiet study apart from anyone's personal space (e.g. not anyone's bedroom)
I don't think I'm too picky here, but in 5 years of looking we haven't been able to find ONE house with all our must haves and nothing tremendously wrong with it. Or we would find one only to have it go under contract while dh and I were still talking about it.
I'm going to post before I lose this and come back to talk about our current house.
__________________
Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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amyable
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| Posted: March 04 2013 at 3:09pm | IP Logged
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OK so here is our current house:
1000 sq.ft. upstairs, 1000 sq. ft. downstairs split foyer. I know it's called different things in different areas, so it's the kind of house where you go in the front door to a little 4x4" foyer and have to immediately either go upstairs or downstairs. I can't tell you how many time's I've cried over the "log jam" that is created when we all come in the house and the little ones decide they MUST SIT RIGHT DOWN to take off their shoes on the stairs despite years of my trying to train them not to. Every day. I know, I know, first world problems and all... but it was very frustrating when I had 10 bags of groceries and a diaper bag and it was cold and rainy outside and everyone was already cranky and arguing (you know, like every day! LOL)
So I *do not* want another split foyer home. Something I forgot to mention in my first post was a coat closet - we don't have one and I would LOVE ONE. More closets in general would be great. I don't have a lot of stuff by American standards, but we don't have "a place for everything" and I need that.
So back to the house, it's 2000 sq feet total - including a little storage room downstairs which I use as a pantry (for the kitchen which is upstairs) and a laundry area that has a freezer and the furnace/hot water heater and dh's small workbench in it. I like having this much space in a laundry room because we have a bar to hang clothes and some room for folding and keeping the clothes until the kids come get their stuff (which can take days). 
No garage. I would love a garage! We do have a small shed like you do, Syncletica, but no room for another one either.
Upstairs I do love how open the rooms feel because they give the illusion that the house is bigger than it is. We have a connected dining and living room, and if we stay we are going to tear down a wall so that the kitchen and dining room become one space.
Along with the illusion of a bigger house comes the reality - that a large portion of the house is "dead space." The foyer and stairwell comprise about 100 sq feet of our 2000 and then you can't put seating near the railing that overlooks the stairs (because my ds is not yet beyond the age where he would dare climb the couch to fly over the rail into the stairwell below. ). Then we have a fireplace in the same living room that sticks out and takes up another 20 sq feet and you can't put furniture near that either. This is the room we spend 90% of our time. (I even sleep out here 'cause dh snores). Yes, it is driving me totally insane.
We did put in a bedroom downstairs which was great - now we have 4 bedrooms so there is enough room there. Until last year though we had our son in the 8x10 room and the 4 girls sharing the awkwardly shaped 9x11 room. The bunks blocked both windows and you couldn't open the dresser drawers all the way. But now it's so much better. I would not in any way choose to go back down to 3 bedrooms unless one was spectacular and everything else about the house was perfect.
We have one other big room downstairs (that holds our books, couches, TV and probably just enough space to set out a Twister board. Then the bedrooms are upstairs.
That's about it! Like I said, I would ditch the split foyer, and think a cape cod would work for us. I wouldn't want any main living area to not have enough seating for all of us. (My current living room has one couch and one bucket, LOL! Seriously, my kids all fight over sitting in one of these. They put blankets in it and it's actually quite comfortable! I'm thinking of getting more.
I forgot, I would love a mud room! Or at least some space for wet shoes, etc. Right now the shoes go in that tiny 4x4 foyer, and they are a hazard right there by the stairs. But I do love our laundry chute! I'll definitely miss that when/if we are gone.
Sorry for all this rambling! I could stand this place if A) it was safer, B) my children had friends around here, C) my family could actually come into the house proper without struggling or wincing with pain because they have to climb stairs.
__________________
Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Anyone wanna talk houses?
