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Odd question but I was wondering 1 big house vs. 2 small houses? I ask this because most houses of the early 1900s are between 800 and 1500 square feet. Theres some over 2000 square feet but very few are bigger than 2500 square feet. You see, I live with parents in a huge house and am used to all the space. I also need the space for a guest bedroom when my parents visit me, for my collections, for storage, for my goldfish pets, etc.
I dont know exactly how they measure square feet and whether they include the basement and attic or not. If basements are heated, wouldnt this become part of the living square feet? Some attics may be heated and even have a bedroom! Other attics are nothing more than extra storage space but whats to say you cant convert it to an additional bedroom and possibly even include a half or full bathroom if room permits!
Very nice example of an attic conversion. Attics have a valted ceiling anywhere from 4 to 10 feet high depending on the house. Some owners consider it as a "half" floor. Id love a house with a basement(b1) at least two floors(f1, f2, f3, etc) and the attic(a1)
The advantages of having two houses is I can enjoy two nice different houses and two is better than one! The disadvantage is itll cost more than one bigger house and ill have to walk or drive to get to the other house. Two houses next to each other would be very convinent but unusual to find both for sale and if I do, one or both may be overpriced. Another thing is if I dont have enough money or I cant find a big house that strikes my fancy, I can buy a small, cheaper house now and in several months buy another small house when I have more money so I can downpay on the second house. They are inexpensive in some states and cities, as cheap as near $10k and quite a few in the $20s to $40s(mostly in towns and small cities with no real jobs) I saw a house that appeared to be quite nice for only $19,900! I also saw several houses for between $20k and $30k!
Some look like they dont need any TLC and have very minor cosmetic problems like a small crack in the wall, a piece of paint peeling, a stain in the bathtub, a scratch on the wood, etc. I am not interested in a house that needs TLC as I dont have the time, money nor skills for this. Id rather take a smaller house in great condition over a bigger one with problems. I see some houses as big as 1500 to 2000+ square feet for around $30k, if they really dont have any problems and arent in an undesirable location(increased crime, next to a landfill, far from stores, narrow crooked streets, etc) then its a good deal! but usually, you get what you pay for.
I was thinking I could buy a smaller house(around 1200 square feet) 2 or 3 beds, 1 bath for around $25k to $35k then another one a few months later. Has any of you bought and own two houses? I know alot of rich people do that but I am not rich but houses are cheap enough up north to own two(even more than two if I need more space )
Another question, can a basement have a bedroom(probably wont go for it) a bathroom?(more likey to go for it, a guest bathroom is not a bad idea) ditto for an attic? I could turn a 2/1 house into 4/2!
I personally would not want 2 houses, because that is double the maintenance work and double the cleaning. *yuck* I would prefer 1 house that is large enough to suit my needs. Rather than spend the money on a
2nd house, I would use the money to buy 1 house that meets all my needs and preferences.
Sure, you can convert attics and basements into extra bedrooms and bathrooms. If it is important to you to be able to do this, it's something to discuss with a professional before deciding to purchase a home. Some homes might be wired and such to make this kind of improvement easy, other homes might be more complicated and expensive.
The house I grew up in had the large main house and a small cottage (1 bedroom) behind it. It was all on one large lot. Now if I was thinking of 2 houses I'd try to find something similar. It might not be a good situation for a rental but it would work for a guest house when your relatives come to visit.
If you could not find 2 houses on the same property or next to each other than I'd go for one large house. Otherwise it'd just be inconvient running between 2 houses for maintence and cleaning.
I agree with Christina. (by the way, the attic pic you put in is really nice! It looks very German with the huge comforter on the bed...?). One house is much easier. My first house was smaller, built in 1929 with three bedrooms and one bath. My bedroom was the upper one at the top of a small half-staircase. It was only wired with one outlet! The middle bedroom I used as a pc room and had a futon in there for guests, and the front bedroom had two doorways, one to the room from the hall connecting it to the others, and one to the front entryway, so if I had both front bedroom doors open, I could be on the staircase and look through to the front door. The kitchen was small, the breakfast room was small, it had a nice fireplace, hardwood floors, barrel ceilings, and the house was California Spanish style- really cute. It was 1312 sq. ft. It wasn't a large house, but it was big enough for one man and I still think of it very fondly. It was my first house, so I guess I fell in love with it. My second house was 2254 sq. ft. with 5 bedrooms and 3 full baths, two stories, and lots of room. I used the master of course for myself (and it had a master bathroom), the next bedroom down the hall was empty the whole five years, though I stuck my grandmother in there on a blow-up bed one Christmas when everyone came to my house for the holidays, the next bedroom I put the futon in and used as a pc room, and then I used another bedroom upstairs for a guest room and had two twin beds in there with a seating area. The other bedroom was downstairs and I stuck my grandparent's Victorian couch in there, but otherwise, rarely went into it and never used it. The house had too many rooms. Now my house is actually bigger, but has fewer rooms and all of them are much larger, which is far more comfortable for me. It takes me a good day to do a thorough cleaning and this house is 2301 sq. ft. There's more than enough room for me and I use one bedroom as a guest room with the twin beds and then the seating area, the next bedroom I use as a tv/pc room and have couches in it and when I have company, we usually congregate in this room. My master bedroom is gigantic and there's also a large master bathroom and a walk-in closet the size of a small bedroom with shelving all around it that leads off the bathroom. I wouldn't want bigger at this point unless I had a cleaning crew coming in once a week, and I wouldn't want to go back to 1300sq. ft now that I've been used to larger homes for the last six years, but I think you can find what you're looking for and that would be suitably large anywhere from 1800-2500sq. ft. When it's YOU who has to use a pumice bar on three toilets to get rings out and clean the tiles, bathtubs and showers, plus vacuum all the main rooms, maintain the bedrooms, kitchen, and then outdoor spaces near the house...you don't want a HUGE home...believe me!
How much room do we need? I live in a house that used to be a middle class home in the 50's the father was college educated with a good job and the Mom stayed home, three bedrooms, a small family room, small kitchen, and one bath, the same type house that a lot of baby boomers grew up in. The house has added a large den, computer room, another bath and a nice screened porch, plenty for most people. The majority of the world even in wealthy countries do not live in as much room as we do and do fine.
My oldest daughter had and still has to live on or near the water and at one time she literally lived in a shack with her son, made money by weathering furniture on the beach, and as I look back she was happier in that small place with her son than she is now in a bigger townhouse even though she is still near the beach. I think that you should live where you love living and what you can afford. I have slept in a tent visiting when my daughter had her shack on the beach and now I have a camper on my truck just in case she decides she can't afford her insurance on her town house near the beach. I learned when I lived in the Fl. Keys {work related for about 9 months} that all I needed was a good cast iron skillet, good knives, and a roof over my head with a clean bathroom and a clean bed , my dog and good books. One house is plenty unless you can afford help or you want to be tied down, life is to short to be tied down to things.I can add to this my sister lives in NYC and owns her co op and she is very happy and it is very small and very expensive, easy to clean though and room for my mother to visit.
I agree with you guys. Ill try to get one bigger house, say 2000-2500 living square feet would be nice. If I cant afford or cant find this size, ill buy a smaller one and another in the near future when I start running out of room. My parents used to joke that all the stuff I collect, they need two houses for it all. I guess they were serious LOL
NA, I definitely agree with everyone about sticking with just one house. Since you'll be buying a home in the North, keep in mind the high cost of heating and cooling it. The cooling cost may be less then in Fla., but heating costs can be astronomical for a larger home. If you're looking at an older, large home, be sure they don't have the high ceilings that were popular back then. Your utility bill will be unbearable.
I know that heat rises so you are saying high ceilings will absorb all the heat and the floor will be very cold? I can live with 50 degrees to cut dramatically down on costs. If I buy two houses, I wont need a/c in the house im not living in at that time. Up north, the cool climate makes a/c a low priority. Ill heat the house im not in to about 40 degrees, enough so it doesnt freeze and the house I live in, ill heat to 50-55 and just wear long pants and a sweater. I have a friend that pays about $200 a month to heat his house(3 months winter) and $0 for air condition. I will buy one house and in the future if I need more space and can afford a second house plus its associated costs of heating and property taxes(will be less than $1000/year)
How much should I be looking to spend? If I dont have to spend $50k, why should I? Ill be happy to spend only $20k or $30k on a decent house
NA, yup, you can find very affordable houses in parts of the north. Could I ask you~do you work from home? The more affordable houses are in small towns and they don't normally have many jobs. If you have your own business, that would work out fine for you. Yea, heat rises, but you'd just have to pay a lot more to heat so much space if you have high ceilings. But remember, there's something about the coldness of winter and heating your house to 50 won't work. The cold winds that come down from Canada are REALLY cold and if there's snow on the ground it's awfully cold, too. Right now we're not near to having the cold snap of winter and we heat our house at 65 and we wear long pants, a t shirt plus a hooded sweatshirt in the house. When winter really gets here, we'll have the heat on 68 and we'll still need full clothing. Most people up here, especially men also wear thermals for a few months a year. I've been to Fla. and it's so nice and warm there. (Almost too hot sometimes) It'll take a while for you to acclimate to the northern weather. When my extended family come here, they're freezing and that can be in late Sept. I know you're thinking about Ohio and WV and since I've never been to either state, I can't really comment. But summers do get very hot in parts of the north. As you know, I live in So. Dak. and one of our area towns hit 120 this summer. It tied the old record for our state. We don't have the humidity of Fla., but we do have humidity, too. In our area, you can have many summer days that you reach the 90s and 100s so we do use AC a lot during the summer. We do have the benefit of not having to run AC at night except during the July/Aug. heat of summer. When you check the weather in the area you plan on moving to, be sure to check the windchill or "feels like" temp. Right now it's 25 degrees here, but the windchill makes it feel like 13. I hope you find what you're looking for.
I dont know exactly how they measure square feet and whether they include the basement and attic or not. If basements are heated, wouldnt this become part of the living square feet? Some attics may be heated and even have a bedroom! Other attics are nothing more than extra storage space but whats to say you cant convert it to an additional bedroom and possibly even include a half or full bathroom if room permits!
Very nice example of an attic conversion. Attics have a valted ceiling anywhere from 4 to 10 feet high depending on the house. Some owners consider it as a "half" floor. Id love a house with a basement(b1) at least two floors(f1, f2, f3, etc) and the attic(a1)
Another question, can a basement have a bedroom(probably wont go for it) a bathroom?(more likey to go for it, a guest bathroom is not a bad idea) ditto for an attic? I could turn a 2/1 house into 4/2!
Yes, you can turn an attic into a bedroom/living space. It has to be over 6'7" - 7' (something like that) to be counted as living space. So if you have a 30' wide home w/a 6/12 pitch you actually only have a couple of square feet down the middle that counts as living space. You cannot convert something w/such a short ceiling for living space (at least in my area) but it can be done as a "finished storage area". That's how we get away w/it here. Also, you have to check the joist size and other things such as that. You will need no less than 2x6 and maybe even have to have those beefed up as well depending on the joist span. Go to Lowe's or some place w/reference books and see what the exact specs are if you are considering finishing an attic. This way you will know what to look for when you purchase a home w/this idea in mind. I am considering some extra finished storage space in my home too. As far as the basement, I don't see why you could not do that as well. Just make sure you have everything waterproofed. I would not be cheap on this one, do it the right way the first time or all of your stuff will be ruined my water and/or mold.
Get one house. If you have never owned your own home, you have no idea how much time and money it takes just for maintenance. I can barely get my gutters cleaned out on ONE house much less TWO
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The cold winds that come down from Canada are REALLY cold and if there's snow on the ground it's awfully cold, too. Right now we're not near to having the cold snap of winter and we heat our house at 65 and we wear long pants, a t shirt plus a hooded sweatshirt in the house. When winter really gets here, we'll have the heat on 68 and we'll still need full clothing. Most people up here, especially men also wear thermals for a few months a year. I've been to Fla. and it's so nice and warm there. (Almost too hot sometimes)
Finished attics
