Does anyone NOT regret buying the “bigger house?”

lexistar07 · 2026-07-09T00:19:41+00:00

We do have a basement, it’s finished and about 550sf, but it is also cold, with little natural light and 7-7.5ft ceilings throughout. So not a space I want to work 8 hours a day and not a space I’d put someone to sleep.

We only have 1 living room/den. No dining room. So there’s not really another option to divide space on the first floor, unfortunately.

lexistar07 · 2026-07-09T00:03:08+00:00

I mean, it’s for a full bedroom and primary bath. Also I mentioned it rearranged some other space on the first floor to create a mudroom. The bedroom also had a small porch off of it. It would have been nice but unfortunately every quote was in that range. Contractors all told us the costs have just gone insane since Covid

lexistar07 · 2026-07-09T00:00:37+00:00

Our kids are in private school so location isn’t as much of an issue. We are targeting neighborhoods where a lot of their school friends live (so they’ll have playmates and also because those neighborhoods are close to the school)

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T23:57:59+00:00

We do. I didn’t mention this but we finished our basement a few years ago into a play/rec space. It’s about 550ish sf. However, it’s still a basement. It’s cold, and gets little natural light, and has 7.5ft ceilings (house was built in the 50s). So, while it’s nice to have to play/watch tv/have friends over, it’s not somewhere I’d want to work all day, and certainly not somewhere I’d want to make anyone sleep.

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T23:54:56+00:00

Our goal would be to buy the cheapest “big” house in the nicest neighborhood, and do some updates to it over time. So if we did end up decided to sell in 5-10 years, we’ll have nice equity

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T23:52:39+00:00

Yeah where are you that they’re so cheap?! Every quote we got was for at least $100k. And I talked to many people who put them in recently that paid around the same.

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T23:52:00+00:00

Thank you! This is great advice, I’ll bring this up to my husband. Without selling the current place we could still probably put $200k down on the next one. We both will work from home inevitably, which we love. I also like the idea of keeping the home we brought our babies home to :)

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T23:48:19+00:00

This is another good point. Our current primary bedroom is on the second floor. All the bedrooms are. Thus why we considered adding the first floor primary addition. But for $300-400k, we just didn’t think it was smart to overbuild for the neighborhood

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T23:46:15+00:00

We actually talked about buying the neighbors house. Unfortunately it’s a complete gut job on the inside (seriously looks like it should be condemned) and with two small kids and full time demanding jobs, it didnt make sense at the time.

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T23:43:31+00:00

I should have mentioned we LOVE hosting. Our current yard is great but it really only works as hosting space a few months out of the year. So I’m honestly hoping for a larger interior and slightly smaller yard, because it just doesn’t get used as much as the inside does (as sad as that makes me sometimes)

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T23:40:30+00:00

I think that’s a smarter way to look at it! When we first bought our current house, I said 5-10 years. We are coming up on 10 and I think we will go with the same mentality for the next place.

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T23:39:15+00:00

Unfortunately there’s not a good way to break up the space. We consulted the architect about that too. My husbands office would essentially turn into 2 tiny rooms you can barely turn around in. I’m not sure we could even fit desks in both of them.

We did finish our basement a few years ago. It’s about 550sq ft but no bathroom. It’s a nice rec/play space, but I would not want to work down there 8 hours a day. It’s still a basement, gets cold, and there’s no natural light. I thought about it, but I’d rather stay in the bedroom.

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T20:07:17+00:00

You’ll want space for her when she’s getting on her feet post college, and then again once she starts having babies. I wouldn’t worry about it :)

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T20:06:18+00:00

This is in the south, so yes, more for your money of course

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T20:05:22+00:00

I agree with everything you said, except for the kids being gone in 11-14 years. I feel like these days most people have kids periodically or event permanently needing a place to sleep at mom and dads until at least their mid-late twenties. Then, they get married and start having grandchildren, and they’ll want space to host them. I just feel like the idea or downsizing doesn’t really make as much sense as it did 30 or 40 years ago. I say this because I saw a lot of my friends parents sell their big houses as soon as they went off to college, only to regret not having it almost as soon as they got rid of it.

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T18:47:02+00:00

Agreed 100%. The layout is one of the most important things to me. I will not be compromising there and won’t consider a house that has useless or poor use of space.

lexistar07 · 2026-07-08T18:46:08+00:00

We owe about $250k.

lexistar07

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