My wife and I are thinking through a very common dilemma, which is what to do when one of us (me) thinks our family has outgrown our current home. Fortunately, we're in a comfortable position financially, so the question really prioritizes what will best support long-term happiness. I recognize that is personal to everyone, but I'm hoping fellow bogleheads have dealt with similar situations and I'm interested in your experiences (or advice from anyone else here). I'll try to keep it brief
- Us (both 37) plus 2 kids (5 & 6)
- Our 3BR house is 2,000 sqft plus a small 100 sqft finished basement that is my WFH "office", home gym, and storage area. We bought in 2011, before children when our HHI was a 1/3 of what it currently is. It's in a nice neighborhood and is one of the smaller houses (Neighborhood tends to be 2,600 sq ft houses with 4 bedrooms). Town is okay currently with good enough schools. Population growth, particularly due to new apartments, is a challenge and I worry the schools will be very overcrowded in the intermediate term
- Wife grew up in a small house and thinks what we have is totally fine. I dislike the noise level and appearance of my 'office' and think we'd benefit from an additional bedroom for not infrequent guests (that currently sleep on a couch...), actual home office, bonus room, bigger garage etc. Like many with a "2 car" garage, between Bikes, tools, and toys, there is no room to park cars. I understand that this is excacerbated by the Pandemic, but I'll likely be regularly working from home forever.
- I try to lean towards minimalism and while my wife is not a hoarder, is not opposed to stacking extra stuff against the walls or on top of each other. Wife is also very attached to our community and this exact house
- Option A is to fix up the basement a bit (insulate ceiling, renovate). It'd hit the necessities, but still would be overfilled with stuff once complete. This option could easily be cash flowed.
- Option B is to move to a larger house. I would do this in a heartbeat, but recognize that I don't have the local community my wife does nor the emotional attachment to our current house. Given that, I don't want to push my wife into moving only to create a long-term unhappiness situation. Though, she feels some guilt that I'm unhappy here.
- Option C is to build an addition. Because of the layout of our house and desire for 2-car garage, there is really no small option I can think of. I'd estimate we could add a 2-car garage with 2nd story living space on a roughly 24x30 pad with a new 24x6ft extension also built. This would give us a larger basement (finishing current garage), workshop/storage, office, 2 bedrooms + bath, walk-in pantry. I'd roughly estimate this would be $250k. Some considerations
- This would add about 850sq ft to our house and put us in line with the rest of the neighborhood
- My wife is fine with the addition if it'd make me happy staying here.
- I'm nervous about living (and working) through such a substantial renovation
- Would require moving a retaining wall holding up our driveway to create more width.
- Potentially could be awkward adding a backdoor by the garage. Possible worse, there'd be no way to then get into the backyard without going through the garage. I'd put a double door in back but still...
Thanks in advance. Happy to provide any clarifications if needed.