The husband and I have been talking a lot about what to do with our current housing situation now that baby #2 is on the way. We live in a small 3 bedroom house with 1.5 bathrooms. The third bedroom is pretty tiny-- perfect for a nursery, but a little sad and unfair for the kid that gets stuck with the shoebox room. It's our first home, and we absolutely love its charm, our neighborhood and its location/close proximity to everything. But even after Logan, we are already starting to feel a slight pinch with space. Thankfully, we have an attic and small semi-finished basement where we can store a lot of our junk (and Jean's junk!). But the spaces still aren't exactly ideal for the long-term.
Aside from space, there were certain things we loved about our old house that we realized were really ANNOYING when you have a baby. For example, original hardwood floors, like from 1929. Yeah, they look awesome but we didn't realize how loud the creaky floors were until after we had a baby. Everything sounds louder when you have a baby! The creaky floors. The toilet flush. My husband blowing his nose. Anyway, we look like ninjas tip-toeing across the 2nd floor! We also have super old crystal door knobs which are vintage and beautiful, but...they don't always keep the doors closed all the way which means more sound leakage. Consequently, when we have guests over and the baby is sleeping (day or night), they have to stay pretty quiet.
So, the husband and I vowed that our next home (whether we add-on or move) will have quieter floors, doors that close (seems like a pretty easy request, right?), a 4th bedroom, a master bathroom and a walk-in closet for yours truly. A bonus would be a bigger fully finished basement, a bigger office that we can share with the kids (because we are instilling a no-computers-anywhere-but-the-office rule), and a bigger kitchen that would open up to a much bigger family room. Yes, there is a trend here-- bigger.
But then we realized that bigger wasn't always better, unless you used a lot of gates (which I find to be annoying).
My in-laws have a sprawling ranch-style home and recently converted their fully finished basement into a dedicated playroom heaven for Logan. He likes playing at grandma's because he could run around from one end of the house to the other, climb up to the finished attic and run around there, go down to the basement and play in his playroom. The entire house is essentially his playground. It's great...if you don't have to chase him around and watch him all the time. Otherwise, it is EXHAUSTING! It's very hard to get anything done since you can't always keep him in one area, or he demands that you follow him to a certain area of the house (and then a tantrum arises).
It made us think that our current situation wasn't so bad after all. Yes, the rooms are small, but we can be anywhere on the 1st floor and not worry about where Logan is-- he will always be very close in sight. And when baby 2 comes along, it'll be only that much easier to not have to chase a toddler around while trying to nurse a baby. So, we'll keep saving our pennies and save the bigger space for when the kids are bigger.
In the meantime, here is how a family of four manages in a 500 square foot apartment in San Francisco! Although, I have to admit that their living room is totally NOT kid-friendly. They must have really obedient kids who don't knock books or anything off of tables :P.
http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/2013/03/san-francisco-apartment-tour-500-square.html
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