Diet-on living space, possessions

[Crankin]

Right when most people downsize, we bought a bigger house . But, we have no basement or attic, these are actual living spaces in my house, specifically a family room and guest room, and a loft which we use as an office and exercise space. My last house was the only one I've had that had a basement and it was amazing how much stuff we got rid of when we moved. This house has plenty of storage (closets), but it makes it so it has to be organized.
I'm not ready to move to a smaller place, although we are sort of planning for it in 5-8 years. This house was a project, it's very unique, and I want to enjoy it. I figure when I am too old and tired to ride up the hill, we'll move.

[jessmarimba]

Wanted to chime back in and say that I'm thankful that my kitchen is the biggest room in my house. Unfortunately, they put the cabinets on the two shortest walls and didn't really think the space through when they upgraded the kitchen sometime in the last 10 years, but that's storage space I can actually add when I have a bit more money. Architecturally, there really isn't a way to add closets so I'm working with what's here. Though I am thinking of adding built-ins in the eaves of my bedroom when I get over my fear of finding out what the squirrels did in there last summer!

My dream is a small cabin in the woods with a sleeping loft and one big open space downstairs.

[Roadtrip]

My dream is a small cabin in the woods with a sleeping loft and one big open space downstairs.

Ohhhhh.. we stayed in one of those type cabins in the Smokey Mountains a few years back. Most defiantly an excellent place to kick back while on vacation.

Shannon

[Becky]

My dream is a small cabin in the woods with a sleeping loft and one big open space downstairs.

DH and I talked about building a barn instead of buying a house. A nice big, clean barn, with a giant, finished garage-type space and an apartment upstairs to live in.

I still think it would be the perfect living arrangement for us....

[sfa]

I dream over the Tumbleweed plans--I love how compact and well designed they are! That would be my perfect house if I were living alone.

As it is, our house started at 1,000 square feet for four of us (me, DH, two kids) and it felt crowded--tiny bedrooms upstairs meant the kids played downstairs, and there was no space for toys (either to play with or to store), so we put on a 200 s.f. family room addition several years ago, and now I'm happy with our space (especially since that includes a woodburning fireplace, the one thing I thought our house lacked when we bought it). I suspect as the kids get older and toys become less of an issue, it'll feel positively spacious. We designed the addition so it could easily be converted to a bedroom, so theoretically we could have an elderly relative move in with us if necessary, or we could make that the master bedroom as we get older and can't/don't want to manage the stairs.

If we could only give up our books and our hobbies, we'd be fine with less space.

Sarah