Buying A Home
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
How important is bedroom size to you?
We looked at a house yesterday that was beautiful downstairs with all kinds of extra features -surround sound throughout the first floor including the porch and back deck, wrap around farmers porch, finished basement, amazing kitchen with a double stove. The problem was the bedrooms upstairs -they were so tiny. Basically in the master we could fit our queen bed android have to buy a tall bureau because our armoire and current bureau are too big. In DS's room we could fit his twin size bed and again would have to buy a tall bureau because his current one wouldn't fit and I don't think yo would be able to fit a desk in there without the room feeling very crowded. The third bedroom is the same size as DS's. The house is at the top of our range and our realtor thinks they will get close to asking and it will go fast, but at the same time everyone looking at it had kids and I wonder if they are thinking the same things as us with the bedrooms. I officially hate house hunting. We saw another house yesterday that was beautiful, but it was on a busier street and close to a major intersection.
Re: How important is bedroom size to you?
For me it would depend on whether or not that was typical of the area. Older houses tend to have smaller bedrooms. If that's the norm where you are I might be able to overlook it, but otherwise I'd be worried about resale.
H and I passed on a house because the size of the master bedroom. It had a balcony which was great, but the slider made took up one wall, the closet took up another and the bathroom door was on another wall. We would have had major space issues.
Is there a finished basement or anything where you could create a "study" are down the road for the kid(s)?
Hang in there. I know it's frustrating when it seems like you're trying to fit a square peg in a round hole all the time, but eventually you'll find something that meets all of your needs. Make sure you're not settling since layout is one of the more expensive things to change down the road.
That does sound a bit small, but I agree with the PP- is that the norm around the area?
I personally like smaller bedrooms. Big ones feel too airy and I grew up with small ones. I like having my bed beside a wall or two, it feels cozy.
Our master bedroom is almost smaller than all of the bedrooms in our house and I like it. We don't spend a lot of time in our bedrooms- we'd rather to have bigger living rooms, kitchen, bathrooms. I hope to encourage our future kids to stay outside/out of their bedrooms to play.
And hey smaller bedrooms = less stuff, less space to pick up messes, right???
As others have said, some of it depends on the space you have in your entire house.
In our old house, our bedroom was on the smallish side, but due to the odd shape (long entrance), we were able to fit all our furniture. DS's room, had we stayed there, wouldn't have fit much more than a twin bed and a small bureau.
In that house, if there had been good space where I felt DS could branch out, it may have been fine. But as the house was... well, it's our OLD house for a reason. It was a small house overall and for 3 people - we needed more room.
We now have 4 bedrooms and except for the smallest, they are all a good size. And the smallest has been empty for a year - so clearly that is a room that we can use to do whatever we want in it. Guest room, 2nd room for DS when he gets older.... who knows.
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Thanks everyone. There is storage in the attic and basement which was nice. DH and I have been talking this morning and I think we are going to pass for now. We've seen other houses that are less money with much bigger bedrooms. All of he extra features are nice, but not necessarily items that would make us want to go to our max for price or items that we would plan on doing when we moved into a place. In DH's mind he would rather go to our max to be in a nicer, family oriented neighborhood rather than for surround sound and a double oven.
I agree with him. You always add things like surround sound, ovens...but you cannot "add" or change location.
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Bedroom size is really not important to me. I sleep in there. I don't throw parties or run laps.
Kids rooms - same thing. Granted, they will play in there but realistically, homework gets done in the kitchen or dining room (or it would never get done!) and the bigger the room, the more room there is for mess. I'd rather the space be devoted to living spaces than sleeping spaces.
That said - you DO need room for furnishings, enough furnishings to make the space functional. But anything beyond that is just wasteful to me.
Ditto Sisugal.
We don't live in the bedrooms, and we try to live as clutter-free as possible, so the size isn't important to me.
As long as the main living areas are the right size and there's enough storage in the house, small bedrooms are no problem.
I remember house hunting once and seeing houses with HUGE master suites, but chopped up living spaces. Very frustrating. The big bedrooms seemed like such a waste of space.
A few weeks ago I posted a question along with same lines. I basically wanted to know what everyone thought was too small for a master. Most of the replies I got said it had more to do with personal taste and lifestyle. I was also reminded that if the bedroom size bugged or concerned me, it might concern a buyer when we go to sell. DH and I ultimately didn't go with the house I posted about, partly because of the bedroom size and also partly because we found a house in the same area, also new construction with a floor plan we liked more.
Also consider how much you will use the rooms? Do you like have a place to go, read and relax or are the bedrooms just the place where you sleep?
P.S. - The master in the house we considered was 14x12. And the bedrooms where 11x11. The house we are under contract for now, the master is 15x13 and bedrooms 10x11. A few extra feet really made the difference for us.
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On a side note, where are you looking? We are also in MA...
It's funny you should post this because it's definitely a conversation DH and I have had. Bedroom space was important in the sense we wanted our 2 bedrooms (besides the master) to be roughly equal in size. The master bedroom - big enough to fit our furniture and that's about it.
We've been in our 1 bedroom apt. for 5 years now and we really only use the bedroom for bedroom things. There's no TV in there - and no intentions of ever having one - so really it's just a bedroom. We spend most of our time "living" in the living room/kitchen area so those are what became important in the house hunt.
We looked at 2 houses we loved in the same neighborhood - 1 had a new kitchen and bathroom, a larger master bedroom with an attached bath, but the 3rd bedroom was MUCH smaller than the 2nd, and an unfinished basement. House we put an offer in on - smaller master bedroom by about a foot or so, but bedrooms 2 and 3 were equal sized. The first floor is a bit smaller, kitchen is not new (bathroom is) BUT the basement is finished - huge plus since we envision spending most of our time in the living room and basement..
It's really a question of what you use your rooms for. Good luck to you!!
We are looking in Westford, Acton, and Bedford, but my guess it that we'll end up in Westford where we can get more for our money.