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

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.

Maybe they use intercoms---LOL

Florence

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!

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 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.

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

It's all about perspective.

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!

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 ;-)

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...

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 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.

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

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