Extra Space Or Nicely Renovated?

We are in the middle of renovations at our place that I've been planning for a couple of years. We have a 3br place and there is me, DSD and DD. We're doing things like putting in a new kitchen, heaps of new storage, hallway carpet, a splash of wallpaper and FINALLY getting one of the bedrooms repaired so that DD can move into her own room (YAY and BOO at the same time).

DP has a helluva lot of stuff for his hobby so an extra room would kind of come in handy though our living area is pretty big so we can incorporate a double-desk into it no probs. We're also TTC which would mean that at some point, 4 bedrooms would be good though obviously the two littlies could share too.

I had a bit of a wobble last week though when I went to see a 4br house around the corner that was huge. Needed a lot of work in terms of carpets, new kitchen, bathroom, heating and eventually you'd want to knock down some walls and change the floorplan a bit.

It also had a big backyard whereas here we don't have much at all.

My decision was made for me because it went for a lot more than we could afford but it did get me thinking about what is more important to people - having enough space or having somewhere that's the way you want it? Having lived somewhere that has no storage and lots of things that 'don't work', I don't know if having the extra space is as important to me as having somewhere that 'works' IYKWIM?

What's more important to you?

I like extra space but not if the place is falling down. I prefer to have everything in working condition and newish flooring.
Often the older places have crap storage so in a smaller newer place you can fit more in.

I like extra space as long as the other place isn't actually falling down!

FWIW I've just moved into a much smaller home. We did a massive declutter and put half of what was left in storage.
It is so much easier to clean and look after a smaller home.

I would go small and well designed, over a larger home. We are now in our 3rd house in 2 years (first was a small house renovated in the last few months, 2nd was large lots of storage, now medium home that we will pull down).

Cleaning a larger home is a real pain, it becomes so easy to just ignore a space or room, as you can just live in another. I thought 2 living areas would be great, but I just hated it on the end. The hosue was long and I would get tired/bored before I got half way through vacuuming, sweeping or mopping. Lots of storage space, just means that you hang onto more. I really believed that once we had more storage in the house that I would use all those things that had been stuck in boxes, well I was wrong, the stuff was still not used.

We are currently looking as rebuilding and we will not being going for a large home, just one that is big enough to do what we need. There will be smart storage, so the things we need every day we will be able to access easily. Every thing else will be stored in the shed. We would much rather have a small well designed space, than large and useless.

One more thing going for small is sutainability - a small house uses less power than a large house because it has less space to heat/cool and light, it uses less resources in construction and leaves more room for a garden/trees.
IMO most modern houses have too many bathrooms - are we really so full of **** that we need 1 loo per occupant? :p

ROFL we need more than one bathroom or it would be war! But then it's all relative to the number of bums in the house ;)

A bigger house is more work to keep tidy but it's worth it if you don't like living in eachothers pockets. I'd consider a bigger house over a nicer finished smaller one if it only needed a few minor cosmetic procedures to spruce it up.

I'd be happy with a smaller house. I think 3 bedrooms 1 1/2 bath for the 4 of us is perfect. Maybe a study would come in handy, but our girls share a room so we have a study and 2 bedrooms really. I don't think we need anymore room. When the girls are older, they may want to have their own bedroom but we can deal with that then.