How Much House Do You Need?

03/09/2014

Buying a new house, one of the first questions out of peoples mouth is "how many sq. ft. is it?". For us, the answer is 1523 sq ft, plus a sunroom and a garage that aren't counted in the sq. footage. Many have people have commented how small or even tiny our house is, but to us its the biggest house we have lived in since we moved out of our parents.

Our house consists of three bedrooms, a master bathroom and hallway bathroom, two hall closets, a large living area, a midsize kitchen with umpteen cabinets, a coat closet, a laundry room, a garage, and a sunroom. To us it is by no means tiny.

Our household consists of two adults, two dogs, two ducks, two rabbits, and 5 quail. 7 of the animals were added yesterday!

The ducks, rabbits and quail are currently making their homes in the garage. The fence guys are out today finishing our privacy fence and then I need to make the duck coop, quail hutch, and possibly a rabbit hutch. For these guys we plan on them being housed in the backyard, or sunroom or garage if necassary. There is plenty of space in the garage since only my car will be placed in there, but the sunroom shouldn't get as hot...

Our indoor population consists of my husband, me, and our two dogs... who we are also wanting to spend more time outdoors, and also making dog houses for!

We have lived here two weeks and we have one room we never use, PLENTY of EMPTY cabinets/hall closets, and an entire half of the living area which is room size that isn't used. For us this is plenty of space for now. We use one of the bedrooms as an extra living/computer room. Our sunroom is also empty!

I recently posed the question to another blogger, Ashley from DomesticImperfection. Ashley has two adorable boys and a 1650 sq ft. house. You can read her blog on the subject here http://www.domesticimperfection.com/2014/03/reader-question-how-do-you-feel-about-the-size-of-your-home/


This picture shows how much the average home size for a family of four has grown. I am probably more of a minimalist, don't get me wrong I like shopping as much as the next girl... but I also love purging. Ashley wrote another blog recently about spring cleaning, or getting rid of unused clutter. I'm huge on that. I wonder if the increasing size of homes isn't due to items rather than people. As much as I love my privacy I also wonder if creating so much space for individuals and to get away from each other would be good for family bonds or not.

Anyway, these are my thoughts on the subject. I would love feedback from my readers. What is your ideal house size?

DIY bathroom basket

03/06/2014

Allow me to start this post by begging you, please PLEASE, try to avoid the hideous wallpaper in the background. I know its distracting but the focus here is on the basket.


I first came up with the idea of a basket on the toilet when I came across one at a yard sale. I thought it would look nice with some potpourri in it and then considered where to place it. Potpourri eventually will loose its scent but mine lasted months, it should last especially long and fill the room with scent if you keep the door closed. For some of you I realize it isn't practical to keep the door closed between children and guests (after all you want people to know the bathroom is free for use), however if it is then trust me the smell will fill more of your bathroom if the door is shut!

The candle isn't just for looks. Obviously this is placed in a bathroom, nuff said! I don't want to discuss details I find revolting, nor do I want to smell them.... please use the candle ;)


The total cost for this? $3!

Potpourri $1 (dollar store, kroger, anywhere)
Wicker basket $1 (Family Dollar)
Candle $1 (Kroger)

Our Home Story

03/06/2014

A short time ago I did a post titled "Our Home", this wasn't so much a blog post as a short entry. I was sooo excited that we had become homeowners that I wanted to share a picture of our first house with you and update you on the fact that finally we had signed and had keys in hand. Now that we have moved in and I have some time I'm re-editing this post. I want to include more information, I'm re-titling this "Our Home Story".

Here is our home, minus the car and the boat its all ours:

At 20 and 21, my husband and I have become homeowners. I am proud to say we did it all on our own, no co-signers, no help with a down payment, nothing! At 1523 sq ft. this house is the largest place we have lived in since we moved out of our parents and in together two years ago! 

We bought this house for only $85,500, which was under market value for our area. We, of course, had an inspection and while the house has some issues none were deal breakers, and all were minimal given the age of the house (it was built in 1975).

After quiet a bit of research on my end I found out all about the USDA rural development loan. The house we bought qualified, and the loan allowed us to put 0% down and wrap all closing costs up into the loan, so our loan is around $87,500 after negotiated closing costs from the sellers and credits from our lender. Well I don't recommend everyone get a 0% down it worked well for us since it freed up our saved up money.

Prior to purchasing we used online resources like bankrate calculators to try to determine what a comfortable loan for us would be. My husband is the sole provider, I'm fortunate that I don't have to try to work while being a full time college student. We are also hoping to start a family so we plan on being a one income household for a while. For us staying within our price point was our #1 priority (along with good schools), 2 bathrooms was probably our 2nd, land our 3rd! 

We got a 4.25% interest rate on our loan, dropping our house payments from the $625 we had been spending on rent to $580? that we will spend on our mortgage payment including insurance and taxes! While our hope is to pay it off early, to avoid paying so much extra in interest, even if we don't I think financially we made a wise decision. 

Towards the Finish Line: Closing on our first home!

02/18/2014

Growing up my family moved around a LOT, we sometimes moved more than once a year and the longest I lived anywhere was under three years. I never wanted that for my children, I want to raise my kids in a stable environment. I have also been a huge fan of HGTV and DIY for years. I can't wait to improve our house and do it myself!

Anyways here is our house

The car and the boat are not included =)
I have the final walkthru in two days and then we close on the house in four. In just five short days this will be home sweet home!
Our inspection on this house came back good, there are a few minor repairs and a couple medium sized ones. The house needs some remodeling, but I'm up for it! The kitchen needs completely updated! The inside of this house is still stuck in the 1970's, hence why I'm only posting exterior pictures right now.
As I remodel and do DIY projects I will post before and afters!

The house is 1523 sq. ft. on top of that the house also has a garage and a sunroom (pictured below).


Look forward to some DIY posts in the future as a tackle a bunch of remodel projects!