Comments on: Excellent home searching advice, especially for first time buyers…

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 17:51:42 +0000

In reply to Christine. Yup - very true! And something I have to keep reminding myself of too every time I find smaller homes for a whopping $100k under budget! So tempted but prob not the best for our growing family!

By: Christine

Christine — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 05:45:41 +0000

At first, my dream was to just live in a minimalist type of house but when I got married and had pets and now a baby on the way, its a great decision that we had moved to a bigger place where there’s enough room for the dogs to run around, have a yard, extra rooms and a great living area where guests can also be comfortable. I believe that thinking of what you think your life will be for the next few year will help, like if you’ll expand your family etc.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:55:33 +0000

In reply to Carrie. That's so cool how it's morphed over time! The space that keeps on giving! :)

By: Carrie

Carrie — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 18:30:51 +0000

Having flexible space has been excellent for us as our family and needs have changed. Our unfinished basement was always our “flex” space. When we were young and short on cash we added a sub-floor and a carpet remnant to make a playroom when we had little children. Later it became a teenage hangout and a place to play video games. Now our children are grown it is being finished into a legal rental unit to provide extra income. We see the basement unit as one day becoming our “home base” as we travel during retirement. Then the upstairs will become our income generator.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 09:49:21 +0000

In reply to Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life.

Oh man, so hard to tell on some of this stuff until you’re living in it! Didn’t even know dishwashers come in different sizes, haha… Any chance you can put an addition to the house later if it becomes even more important for you? That’s what we’re looking out for in all the 3 bedrooms we see… In case a 4th babe accidentally comes out or the kids get tired of shacking up with each other, haha..

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 09:42:16 +0000

In reply to M T.

Oh wow – they really are a part, look at that! And double yes to that education… We’ve already selected the two school zones we like so now it’s about doing our best to keep our focus despite pretty houses popping up on the outskirts ;)

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 09:37:58 +0000

In reply to Krista. That poor dining room, haha... the largest room of the house too!

By: Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life

Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 00:31:55 +0000

Here’s a couple counterintuitive bits to consider: I didn’t realize that we didn’t “need” a bigger dishwasher because we rarely used the dishwasher before, and we aimed for exactly the increase in size that we would use all the time.

Turns out, we should have added maybe another 100 square feet and a bigger dishwasher. We never entertained before because we weren’t at that stage in life and we also didn’t have the space for it. By the time we moved, we were ready to have people over a lot more, and DO have people over a lot more, and it feels cramped. And we fill up that dishwasher really fast whenever we have one or two guests. And in fact, we have house guests staying over monthly, and every other week sometimes, so a bit more space would have been very well used. Whoops!

By: Krista

Krista — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 22:35:35 +0000

In reply to Bryan.

The concept of a heat map for house usage is so awesome! Googling “heat map house usage” led me to this blog post: http://lifeedited.com/residential-behavioral-architecture-101/ Already so intrigued, and feel like I’m just at the tip of the iceberg. Thanks for tipping me off to the idea. :)

By: M T

M T — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 20:52:40 +0000

In reply to J. Money. School Districts are very important. I moved 52 miles for the school district. I live in Fort Bend County and we moved from Clear Creek for the school district. If you can afford private school then the school district is not important. Otherwise its important to see the school district as well as how the schools are performing within the district as well. Also here in Houston the distance from your house to the school plays a role. You have to be 2 miles away or have a major road crossing to avail the bus service. You can always drop and pick up the kids everyday if that's your thing? :) BTW we went for a 5 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom, game room and patio. We have in laws always living with us, plus my kids are a few years apart. They are in high school, middle school as well as elementary. Its hard to mix them together if the school schedules are different. A lot of things to keep in mind when purchasing a home.