My husband grew up in a 3br house – as one of 6 kids. His sister got the smallest bedroom, and 5 boys shared the middle bedroom. (a triple high bunkbed and a standard bunk bed.) It wasn’t unusual since they lived in North east Philly with lots of Irish and Italian Catholic families… The house was 1400 sf – for 8 people. He never felt cramped because that’s just how people lived in their social circles.
My husband was insistent that the boys share a room. He said he learned to cooperate and get along based on the experience. We’ve seen that happening with our 10 and 12 year old. We’ve considered converting the guest room to a childs room… but haven’t seen the compelling reason to do so, yet.
We’ve got a smaller family, in a larger house, than he grew up in. 4 people, 2000sf. But it’s a good size for us. We keep our stuff pruned down enough to park both cars in the garage, while still having bikes, boogie boards/surf boards, yard stuff, etc. It just takes efficient storage and creativity. We could probably get by in 1500 sf… we did in the rental before we bought this place.
As far as homes for kids to come home to… family homesteads… I think most of you know I purchased the house I grew up in. We’ve changed it some to fit our current needs… but it’s a good house, in a good neighborhood. My eldest has informed us he’s going to buy it from us. We also built a granny flat for my in-laws to live in. That worked out very well and will provide rental income going forward.
lpj -We are definitely on the same page. If I ever meet you at a Piggington meet up or something I’ll have to buy you a beer or glass of wine or something!
UCG – Thanks for adding the insight from a regional perspective and that it’s all relative too. It’s interesting how if your husband comes from a home with 5 boys in one room I would think 2 boys sharing a room is easy. Also interesting that you can say from your husbands experience as well as see it working first hand with your own boys.
That is awesome that you were able to buy the home you grew up in. Money cannot buy everything of course, but being in a position to do something like that makes all the work that led up to it worthwhile.
