My house is too big. Any food for discussion?

[shovel]

I don't have a huge house by conventional standards. And while I find them charming, I'm not ready for a "Tumbleweed" micro-home either.

But my house is too big for 2 people and we won't have children. Just under 1300ft, 2 floors, 3 bedrooms, 3 full baths, and a 2 car garage under the MBR.

I haven't been in 2 of the rooms in a year or more, and don't exactly use the rest of the house to its maximum extent either. I'm a lagom sort of dude so my TV is small and I don't have more furniture than I need.

The house is very affordable. I couldn't rent a studio apartment for what I pay mortgage on this home and the 1/5th acre it's on. We're having no trouble affording it. Unless it was a good & trusted friend, I wouldn't want the hassle of renting the upstairs to someone I don't know.

So... let's discuss this dumb problem of having too much house... what do you guys think I should do?

• Close the doors and drapes, let the rooms stay dark and lonely, stop complaining that I have too much of something, and forget they're there.
• Fill them with concrete and never speak of them
• grow "medicinal" herbs (kidding, we don't want to get involved in something illegal!)
• Sweet model train set?
• ???

[t vago]

Sweet model train set!

[Frank Lee]

Well, I port heads and blueprint blocks in the space between the dining and living rooms... you could have a projects workroom or two.

[shovel]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Well, I port heads and blueprint blocks in the space between the dining and living rooms... you could have a projects workroom or two.

I have a pretty big driveway pad, and we only have one car for now - so the garage is plenty of room for tools and automotive work, projects, etc.. and I do my smaller projects (building amplifiers and such) in the downstairs bedroom, which serves as an office/computer room/etc for both of us - it's sized generously as bedrooms go.

Since moving here I've tried using the spare upstairs bedroom as a workout/yoga/etc room but find it actually less motivating than doing those things in the great room. I tried using it as a relax/read room with a giant 8' bean bag, but that ended up being less enjoyable than just laying in bed or on the couch downstairs.

I suppose I could put a bed in the bedroom, for guests.. that would probably get used 1-2x/year I guess. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to be able to offer lodging to friends and but.. um.. I don't have a ton of either of those who don't already have their own homes in the same town.

[Jyden]

Rent out some of it, og make a bed and breakfast?

[DieselX]

We had a 1500' house for my wife and 10yo daughter and I. We rented it out and are full timing in our travel trailer (my wife is a traveling nurse) for the last 6 months. We don't miss the house a bit and most monthly rates are less than $500/month.

Point being most people have way more house than they need and use more energy as well. I understand it is not practical for most people, but our experience has taught us how much we don't need or use.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by shovel

• grow "medicinal" herbs (kidding, we don't want to get involved in something illegal!)

Why not to try to turn at least one of the rooms into a greenhouse to produce fresh organic vegetables?

[shovel]

Originally Posted by DieselX

We had a 1500' house for my wife and 10yo daughter and I. We rented it out and are full timing in our travel trailer (my wife is a traveling nurse) for the last 6 months. We don't miss the house a bit and most monthly rates are less than $500/month.

Point being most people have way more house than they need and use more energy as well. I understand it is not practical for most people, but our experience has taught us how much we don't need or use.

I'm with you, when I was house shopping at the beginning of 2009 there were a lot of so-called McMansions on sale - basically big cubes that occupy 95% of the property they're on and have 2500+ ft of floor space built as poorly and cheaply as possible. The price per square foot was very low, but I had no interest in heating and cooling 5 times more house than I was actually going to be using to live. I ended up with something on the small side of what's available but really it's too much.

3 years ago I sat down with a consultant to discuss remodeling and she said to draw my home exactly how I would like it to be if cost was no object and the only constraints were the property I'm on and the laws of physics. I moved the kitchen upstairs and made the whole ground floor a machine shop. Turns out that moving the kitchen upstairs would be really expensive when we switched off the "cost no object" fantasy... I'm also not zoned for manufacturing, which would limit how much a machine shop could pay for itself

I'm not entirely opposed to indoor gardening, but would probably want to do something about natural lighting since indoor growing puts an insane load on the environment - which isn't necessary when the plants you grow aren't illegal. There's no shortage of sunlight here in AZ.

[Ryland]

I like the model train set idea, spare bedrooms are also nice but they get dusty, renting it out to someone is an option but you also have full right to refuse to rent to them and that is where keeping the rent really cheap and only using word of mouth can work well.

If you want to let the rooms sit empty first thing to do is turn off the heat to them, plastic shrink wrap the windows to reduce heat loss, a layer of bubble wrap in there helps even more, set a few mouse traps if you are worried about mice, maybe a dehumidifier if you have humidity issues and close the door.

[redpoint5]

Shut the doors, close the heating/cooling registers, and draw the drapes closed. Then use it for a model train room.

I'm renting 3 of the 4 rooms in my house out. The rental market in the Portland area is insane right now. I've never had a serious problem with any of my 6 tenants so far. I'll be getting married this summer, so the tenants will have to go. Once the novelty of marriage wears off, I'll probably rent out rooms again. I've already discussed this with the future Mrs.

It's rather nice having an extra $1500 every month, and other people to talk to. Early retirement money I call it.