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| After discovering this forum last night I was hooked. Stayed up into the wee hours reading posts and was so happy to find people who were happy with what they have and who don't have the mentality that "more is better." There are many posts on why we love our small houses and if you have some to add..feel free. For me it mostly comes down to cost. Who wants to pay thousands of dollars EVERY MONTH for a house to keep you're stuff and family?
I live in Va Bch. 
I have a 2 bedroom 1 1/2 bathroom townhouse and I love it. It's approx. 1200 sf and it's perfect for the three of us and occasional person who stays with us. (friend or family) I have a small bathroom downstairs that we just painted.The color was supposed to be beige or a sand color for the beach themed b-room but it didn't turn out that way.Ironically, the color turned out to be the EXACT same color we painted out back room which I still (after 8 years) haven't discovered what it's supposed to be. A den maybe? Dunno. Anyway, back to the bathroom.
Turns out I'm not quite the painter I thought I was.
Oh well. It was all black with this horrible gold paint mixed in. Whose bright idea was that? Time to invest in a new toilet seat. Here's my garden from last year.
I love my little plot of land.
Mowing takes all of 10 minutes with a weed eater. Cleaning takes all of an hour to do the downstairs. The bedrooms are a different story. Laundry is my enemy. I love my quaint little house. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Hi Sunny, welcome to the small homes group. We are a very diverse group here, but all love our small homes. I live in South Carolina in approx 900+/- sq feet house. It was a 3/1 originally, but has been converted to a 2 bedroom. I have lived here 39 years and don't intend to ever move, so I can do what pleases me and not worry about future sales. I have been to Virginia Beach the last 2 years to visit a friend and see the Christmas lights on the beach (got lost coming back home). Looking forward to seeing more pics of your home. Loretta |
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- Posted by prairie-girl (My Page) on Tue, Apr 13, 10 at 21:40
| Hi sunny631, welcome to the smaller homes forum! :o) First off - I have some serious beach envy happening here!!! It's still pretty brown outside (snowed on the weekend) and spring is still aways off. I really like my small(ish) home, too. It suits our family just fine, and when the kids are gone, will still be big enough for when they come home toting spouses and kids (hopefully). We are in the process of remodeling our main floor (you can see my info here) and I'm SO SO glad it's not larger than it is LOL. ~Missy |
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- Posted by moccasinlanding (My Page) on Tue, Apr 13, 10 at 22:37
| Sunny, nice to have you join the flock. I have not been here very long, but this group of folks has welcomed me as I know they welcome you. We have a lot of fun exchanging ideas and solutions and learning from each other. In 2004, my fiance chose a vacation in Virginia Beach to introduce me to his children and their families. Love the memories of that vacation. We bought a house on the river in 2005 just a month before Hurricane Katrina destroyed it, and now we have this little 2 BR stucco cottage, which we bought on Valentine Day two years ago. HE has his home up in MA which we hope to sell before long, so we can spend all our time away from those northern winters, in south Alabama--which is where this Casa Del Sol is located. I never intend to move ever again, I fall in love with my home and identify with it too much to change again. I like the personality of this little place, which lets me tinker with it and seems to enjoy the attention. I like the story of the oyster who was irritated by a grain of sand and so created a pearl. Sometimes something is irritating us about our homes, but we keep working on it and create OUR pearls!
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- Posted by trancegemini_wa (My Page) on Wed, Apr 14, 10 at 0:06
| welcome sunny! the thing I love about this forum is I can really relate to the homes and problems we face with them. I'll admit though I do wish my 900+ sqft home was a tad larger, maybe a few hundred extra sqft would be nice but I do still love my little house and wouldnt want to move. thanks for showing us some pics of your home, gosh what an awkward spot to get to for painting behind behind the toilet there. I think one of the advantages of small homes can be less cost to decorate and renovate in some ways especially when it comes to replacing flooring. I definitely wouldnt want to clean a large house either. |
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- Posted by shades_of_idaho (My Page) on Wed, Apr 14, 10 at 0:42
| Hi Sunny, Welcome. I am late to the party. Been working and we also have company. So hit and run posts tonight. I need sleep. Just had to come check what every one was doing first. We have a 1300 SQ FT house and it is perfect for us. We use every bit of it. But it is not too large. I was used to larger houses. So this is down size for us. Still very large for some of the homes here. So glad you have come to post on this small house forum. Chris |
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| Thanks for the welcome, everyone. Idie, hope you enjoyed visiting the beach. The Christmas lights has been going downhill the last few years. Where they used to have a huge selection of decorations they are slowly weeding some out. Might be due to the economy. Sorry to hear about you getting lost though. Prarie, SNOW!!!! Ughhhh. We actually got some this past winter too. I haven't seen any of that stuff for over 7 years. I didn't miss it. The city of VB declared a state of emergency BEFORE the snow even fell. We only got about 7inches or so but, to us that's a blizzard.Hope it warms up soon! moccisan,yeah, I'm slowly (very slowly) making this my "pearl" too. Finances have been tight. Went from two incomes to one. Ouch. But things are getting back on track now.My son is 16 so in a few years we will have a SPARE bedroom. So family and friends can come over and crash whenever they want. When you live at the beach motels, hotels and campsites can be expensive so I get a lot of can I stay with you? I always say if you don't mind the sleeper sofa c'mon over. Trance, I know what you mean about the cost of remodeling. Well, sorta. 2 years ago ( or was it three....mmmmmm) we painted the entire downstairs, pulled up the carpet and laid the cheapo vinyl flooring we got from big lots. In a few years after son leaves (he's joining the military at 18. His "life dream" is to become a marine.) we will put in hardwood but we had to get that crappy carpet out of here. And the bathroom cost us all of $200 for everything. Paint, tiles (ceramic this time) fixtures and the like. Stinks that the original paint was black though. So we had to invest in primer and that that took 3 coats. Thats what's all over the toilet seat. After 3 coats you get lazy. Epc. when you haven't even started putting on the real color yet! Shades, thanks for the welcome. Hope you got some sleep. Go, enjoy your company. We will all still be here.
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- Posted by flgargoyle (My Page) on Wed, Apr 14, 10 at 17:49
| Hi Sunny- You'll find this to be a friendly group over here. I guess if you live in a small house, you HAVE to get along better with folks! Our house here in FL is big by this forum's standards- almost 1500 sq f. We are currently designing an empty-nest to build on our rural property in SC, and it will be quite a bit smaller. Our son is 23, and still hasn't officially left yet. I guess he won't have much choice when we sell the house and leave town LOL! I'm a big DIY'er, having just about finished our new kitchen. I'll be doing the lion's share of building our new place as well. It's either that, or live here forever, since we can't afford to sit back and write checks while someone else builds the house. Hope you enjoy our little group- come back often! Jay |
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| Sunny, welcome! I tend to lurk more than post, I live right "up the road" from you (Hampton). I too have a small home approx 940sq ft. I do wish my kitchen did NOT have a washing machine in it, but otherwise for just me and my dog it works out fine. I do have a decent size yard, but since I love to garden it is OK for me. I have tons of renovating to do, but like many others, the money is tight. |
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| Welcome sunny! Looks like you have everything you need in your townhome. That is a nice-sized yard for a townhome too. Our home is on the bigger size, 1406 with an extra 400 that we use but haven't added heat or air yet. I'm redoing my tiny master bath right now. Had the new neighbors over; they had just remodeled and enlarged their bath, and they couldn't believe we weren't enlarging it before doing this work. Kind of made me worry that I was making a mistake if we do sell. But then I reminded myself that it works just fine, is fast to warm in winter, and there's no where to expand anyway. |
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- Posted by moccasinlanding (My Page) on Sat, Apr 17, 10 at 2:30
| Marti, a comment here. Precious out classes spacious. With your good taste and attention to detail, I think a redo of your bath in its current foot print will do fine. |
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| "Precious out classes spacious"....What a great saying. |
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- Posted by shades_of_idaho (My Page) on Sat, Apr 17, 10 at 11:09
| It really is a great saying. The little Jewell box bath. |
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- Posted by moccasinlanding (My Page) on Mon, Apr 26, 10 at 15:12
| Sunny631, come on back now, ya heah? If you don't find the topic you need, start it. I'm sure you see how easily we chime right in...... Look forward to hearing your next thoughts on your small home. |
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