Found a house to buy but...

[iris lilies]

Our Hermann house is either 1200 or 1400 square-foot, I can’t remember which in the real estate listing. It’s a 1941 bungalow so it has Small bedrooms and smaller bathrooms. But I’m OK with that, I mean I’m thinking about it a lot and sometimes with my own bedroom I get claustrophobic when I think about it. This probably has more to do with ceiling height than with room size. My victorian house has 10’ 6” ceilings.

Anyway – our Hhermann living room is a nice size with a fireplace and BIG wide windows ( not skinny victorian windows) at either end and in the middle, so I have one spacious room. Then we’re going to add on a sunroom which will be spacious-ish and will seem that way because it will have lots of windows.

So I think of this space as cozy if I want that, but spacious if i want THAT.

Our basement runs the full length of the house and I have told DH that is his space, he gets the entire thing. But he may not bring furniture into the first floor. We haven’t really talked about the second floor where there are two bedrooms and will be a bathroom, all small 1940s- 50s size rooms.

[Tybee]

Is the basement finished? Or is it more shop space and storage space?

[iris lilies]

Is the basement finished? Or is it more shop space and storage space?

Our Hermann basement is not finished, it is will be shop, storage, and (apparently) a summer canning kitchen. I am watching this latter development with amusement.

[Tybee]

We bought a house with a summer canning kitchen once. The guy made maple syrup from the trees on the property. Everything in the kitchen was covered with a fine mist of dried maple syrup, like shellac.

[iris lilies]

We bought a house with a summer canning kitchen once. The guy made maple syrup from the trees on the property. Everything in the kitchen was covered with a fine mist of dried maple syrup, like shellac.

Ugh. You’d have to sandblast those surfaces to get them clean.

It seems we need a summer canning kitchen for the extensive food preservation we do in order to feed our 8 children. Oh, wait...No, that’s not it. We don’t have any children.

We need extensive food preservation (and already have two large freezer units down in that basement) because we once starved and are now very very skinny and in need of constant calories. Oh, wait...that’s not it either. Neither of us ever starved nor are we low on body weight.

We need to preserve crap tons of garden produce BECAUSE WE ARE INSANE. Yes,
I think that’s it! As a secondary reason, we need to preserve the foods, making decades old freezer burned stores, to drive Iris up the wall.

hahaha.

[Teacher Terry]

Luckily my husband canned food once and I didn’t help at all. He has never done it again and as it’s 6 years old I am slowly throwing it away jar and all. I sold our chest freezer when we moved. Unfortunately our garage came with a ancient refrigerator that refuses to die.

[pinkytoe]

I have eight tomato plants coming along nicely so I may have more than I bargained for. Canning is not in my future. Sun-drieds maybe as the sun here is intense.

[catherine]

I have eight tomato plants coming along nicely so I may have more than I bargained for. Canning is not in my future. Sun-drieds maybe as the sun here is intense.

I have never canned, but I have gone through the process of blanching to remove skin, de-seeding, and dicing tomatoes and then putting them in freezer bags in batches.

[Gardnr]

It is 2500 sf. It has everything we are looking for but is way bigger than we want or need. Fantastic lot with lots of beautiful well-trimmed oak trees and garden spaces. Not on the market yet so we have a little time to think about it. Bigger means more of every expense but most importantly property taxes. We were shooting for around 1600 sf but there just aren't a lot of them out there. Still deciding whether to go for it or keep looking for smaller.

I would not "settle" for something bigger with higher monthly and annual expenses for the coming decades. You're better off with a short term rental while you watch for a rightsize home. If I recall, this is your intended final home?

[Tybee]

Is it resalable, if you get there and find it's not for you? I know you'd be happier back home near your grandchildren and daughter, so there's that to think of. This might be a good next house, and more resalable at that size, if that is customary there.