This Small House

Is anyone ever happy with the size home they inhabit? Do people who own million dollar mansions on acres of property think, "we really could use a little more space?"

We bought our modest 1100 square foot, 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom home in 2004. Yes, at the near peak of the housing market. A time when you walked into the home for 5 minutes and said, "great, let's write an offer!" You submitted your offer amongst the 6 other people wanting the same house. Spending numerous hours pouring over a market analysis of the area and excel spreadsheets figuring out just how little of a house you could afford. You offered sums of money well over the asking price regardless of what kind of shape the home was in. Then you sat back and waited for an answer from your realtor on whether your offer was accepted, denied or you needed to pony up and shell out more money for the home of your dreams.

We won the bidding war on our current house and moved in, in August 2004. Wow! Three bedrooms, 1 bath, a big eat-in kitchen and a living room. Not to mention, we actually have an ocean view from our front yard and an amazing backyard, with tiered decking and a hot tub! Newly engaged, what were we going to do with all this space!

Fast forward 6 years and 3 kids later...oh my god...we need more space! Of course, now the housing market has totally tanked. Our house is barely worth what we owe on the mortgage. No one will refinance us to a lower interest rate because we don't have enough equity. Great. So what is a family of 5 to do? We have gone through all the scenarios...none of which we could execute anytime soon:

1. We can move within Pacifica. We like it here. The community, the people, the close proximity to San Francisco, the weather (when its not foggy) and most importantly...the ocean! 
2. We can move to San Carlos, Palo Alto or Los Gatos. Public schools are better, especially high school. Nice houses, bigger properties, warmer weather and the possibility of a pool in my yard. Good luck affording a house in any of those communities. 
3. We can put an addition on our current house. We have plans and contractor estimates for this option. Again, good luck affording that right now.

Right now, we are not doing anything. The most immediate thing we would need for this house is another toilet. A small half bath in the corner of our garage is the most likely solution for this. That is, of course, once we have a tankless water heater installed to open up the space.

With each day, month and year that passes living in this house, we are coming to a very important conclusion...we really do love where we live. Even though it was a hasty decision to buy this house in such a crazy market, we couldn't have ended up in a better place. We live on a quiet street that doesn't have much traffic, we can walk to the shopping plaza, which includes a Safeway, we can walk to the beach, we have an elementary school 5 blocks away, there are a lot of kids in the neighborhood and most importantly...we love our neighbors. On all sides of us, we are surrounded by wonderful and generous people. We have made good friends on this street who have children around the same ages as ours. Really, what more can you ask for? Why would we want to leave? It is looking more and more like an addition will be in our future.

Our Humble Home