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Lallyhop · Mar 9, 2019 12:27 AM

Are any of you living in your "dream home" right now? If so, how has that dream changed for you over the years?

I'm currently in a situation where I'm renting. I'm currently able, with the way my situation works, to afford everything with a passable amount left over (that's mostly being split up between savings and "other" stuff, not a huge amount, but enough to live on, even if I have to take a few paychecks to cover rebuilding from car repairs or other emergencies, etc.) I'm intending to move out in the next two years or so, which would include moving from a part time to a full time job. All of that being said, I would really like to go from renting straight to owning my dream home.

I know, silly, right?

Thankfully, my dream home will cost less than $100k. Not exactly a tiny home, per se, but small. I don't want a true tiny home - too tiny - but a two bedroom, one and a half bath, roughly 500 sqft place is exactly what I want, and have wanted for years. In other words, it's a pretty feasible option instead of buying, say, a town home for $120k that will have more problems than I can shake a stick at (current residence, that my rent is paying more than half the total bills of). There's even several small parcels of land nearby that sell for roughly $15k/acre, about a half hour out of town, gorgeous mountain view (pacific northwest here).

Now, the real question - I've gotten a bit of doubt about my plan, mostly due to the fact that I only have twenty-three tender years of experience on this earth to my name. My mother thinks that my dream home plans are pretty, but that my ideals will change far too much over the years for me to be comfortable there for any real length of time. This is not to cast shadows over my mother, who is a wonderful person and I am proud to call mom, but rather to bring up the point that I'm doubting myself, too. While I'm fairly certain that if I do change my mind about not wanting more than one child I can add on a room to accommodate, the fact remains that it is a small house and, as beautiful as it will be, and as confident as I currently am that it's what I want, I really need to reassure myself by making sure every detail is right. (I've held off on getting my first tattoo for years to make sure I'm 100% happy with the design, down to the last metaphorical pixel.)

That being said, I'd like to ask you all the above questions. Are you currently living in your dream home, and since when? If not, why not? Is there anything about your dream home that's changed over the years, and why? What has stayed the same? Are there any rennovations to your current home that, looking back, you'd make a different decision on? Anything you're really happy with? Granite or marble countertops? :P

Anything, really. I'd love to hear your home-related stories, your own dreams, your comments on cedar floors and stone hearths (a must have for me :D), amenities you have to have and those you could do without, home owning triumphs and regrets galore. Thank you in advance!

ApollosLegacy · Mar 9, 2019 2:20 AM

I think if you are I a position to be able to afford a move and build of your dream home then go for it! My fiance and I are currently renting, but we've been working on saving what we can to afford a downpayment hopefully in the near future. We live in a bad city and dream of moving out to the country. I have a blueprint that I found in a newspaper years ago that I'm in love with. Its ranch style, which my fiance though only 32 already has had a knee replacement and I have a serious autoimmune disease that literally is eating my joints away so one level living is ideal. Its 3 bedrooms with a study so possible for a 4th bedroom. It's my dream home. 2 1/2 baths, connected garage, back deck with a door both through the kitchen and the master bedroom. It's been my dream home since I was maybe 13 or 14, and I'm 29 now. I'll have my house someday lol it just may take a little time. But you know what you like @Lallyhop. I say go for it. Do and live how you are happy. I hate my little rental house. We live in a really bad city, super steep stairs, two bedrooms with a connecting bathroom. Have to go down a steep set of stairs to take the dogs out...it sucks. I just look to the future

MariaChapinFarm3 · Mar 9, 2019 4:28 AM

Id just like to say.. Hello, fellow pacific northwesterner!

Id say go for it. Buy some land, even if you DON'T build your dream house- or if you can't yet- and get a little trailer. In my opinion that is waaay better than owing someone money every month. And when looking at your moms point, sure, you're young, but not many people your age are able to buy land and build their own dream house. And even if your tastes do change, you could move away. Sell the land. Or maybe even rent it out- I know there is a lot of tourism here in the PNW because of the lush forests and mountains, so you shouldn't have any problems renting.

My own personal dream house is a two or three bedroom cottage, on at least 100 acres. The specifics of the house doesn't really matter- but I've been wanting to start my own nonprofit mustang rescue and rehabilitation center-a sanctuary for not only horses, but for people with addiction problems- a place where they can go to learn life lessons and "Sober Up" while volunteering to help with the animals (the name will be Laughlins Second Chance, after my father that passed away going on a year ago this may).

MariaChapinFarm3 · Mar 9, 2019 4:29 AM

I really hope the both of you are able to fulfill your dreams! :x

Windigo · Mar 10, 2019 4:23 PM

We live on our dream place, definitely not dream home tho lol, but we are working on that! My husband and I rented for several years, and about 4 years ago moved on to our place. Our place is 8 acres and about two weeks ago bought an adjoining acre to make it 9, all good pasture land with a pond. We have simple goals here and when we moved in, it was with the ambition to fix up the small 1 bedroom house that needed alot of work for us to live in. It was the land that we were after, so we could have our horses on our own acreage and not have to rent or lease a place for them to stay. We sure didn't even think we could have kids at the time we moved in, we had tried for 10 years with zero luck. Imagine our surprise when not a month after moving in, we find out we had a kiddo on the way! Our tiny 1 bedroom house that needed alot of work got small fast, and while we have done alot of things to it,(completely rewired, replumbed, and an entire bathroom and kitchen put in cause it was just a shell) we've come to the realization that we just can't afford to turn it into the place we want and the issues the house has are really not something we want to deal with long term.
So the new dream is to put a 3bedroom 2 bath doublewide on our property and tear down the house and reuse the good wood to build a nice barn for my spoiled ponies lol. Hopefully that will be happening in the next year or two!
If you can, do and get what you want! Although, my advice would be to go slightly bigger, just in case lol. You never know what a few years down the line will bring, and extra storage is awesome even if your life plans don't change lol.
Also, Wow! Land is expensive where you're at! We paid $3500 for the acre we just bought, our 8 acres(with a crappy little house) was $40000. That's not exactly the norm around here, but $100-$150k will get you a great 10+ acres with home, barns, outbuildings and all.
Good luck with your dreams!

HunterUnderSaddleGirl · Mar 10, 2019 5:53 PM

My dream home has a barn attached or near it. No specifics on the house except for a huge bedroom. Huge garage would be helpful too.

I think that dream homes are a lot like dream horses. Usually they are big and beautiful, extremely specific on miscellaneous details, but ultimately unpractical. I'm sure I've talked to you about my dream horse Lexi, and my heart horse Chrome. You would not believe the absurd ideas I've had floating around in my head for houses. Including but not limited fortresses built into the side of a hill so no one sees. Trap doors under my bed (I like my bed up on tall stands.) Underground passage ways to the barn. Etc. Your dream home however sounds very practical! Better to easily get something small, than be like everybody else constantly struggling, and refinancing, and refinancing it again ultimately never paying for it.

Even if you do end up changing your mind, property value almost always goes up, and never down. My cousin who isn't really that wealthy moved to Georgia for her husband was in the military. Eventually he was done there, and they moved to Arizona. The house is now more than paying for itself with renters. She sent it to an agency, so no drama from renters. I ultimately think it is never a mistake to buy property. It always rises in value. But especially important to never refinance it. So don't bite off more than you can chew. My grandparents bought their house 55 years ago. Had a 30 year loan. Could have payed it off by now. Had 169$/month payments. Now they more than 1,000$/month for it and have not payed it off (Maybe even more as its in Southern California). For that much money they could be on their 3rd house by now.

I'm like you. I only want maybe one kid. But probably no kids in my case. Maybe I'll adopt one. So it's almost exhilerating to me get buy on less. Sometimes I've consiered getting a fancy trailer with living quartes. Maybe room for 2-3 horses in the back. Maybe pulled by a big blue semi. Maybe a houseboat. I normally don't like a ton of material things.

PrismEquine · Mar 10, 2019 6:00 PM

Not currently living in my dream home, but we are saving and planning. My husband and I bought our first home two years ago. It’s 1,100 square feet and for just the two of us and a medium/large dog...it’s really tight. We don’t own much more than the necessities, not a lot of furniture etc. it’s tight. Add a kid to the mix and we might as well be living in a shoe box.

Some people are happy in tight spaces. You can safely estimate to double the amount of things you currently own once you have a kid. If you aren’t already living with an SO but would like to have one down the line (I know that isn’t the path everyone chooses, and if that’s not in your future then by all means disregard) go ahead and double your stuff again. But if you are a super minimalist then that may all work out perfectly in 500sqft.

Our dream home will be around 2000-2500sqft on about 20 acres. Room for us, 2-3 littles, and enough land for my horses and to homestead on.

Side note: Hubby travels for work right now and this assignment is in the PNW! It’s our first time in the area and we absolutely love it here! We are both born and bred Texans, so it’s definitely been a change. We live in a suite hotel (the size of a small one bedroom apartment. About 800 sq ft) Us, the dog, a weeks worth of clothes, a skillet, and a soup pot. No way I could do this long term. Especially not with a baby. We are absolutely on top of one another all the time.

WhiteMountain · Apr 7, 2019 9:00 PM

Make sure the part of your house you spend the most time in overlooks the outside area you want to see. For me, it's the backyard., so I can keep an eye on the dogs and my garden.
I wish my bedroom was on the ground level though.

Bourbon · Apr 8, 2019 7:40 PM

We're not living in our dream house but we've moved to our dream country where it's more possible for us to have our little homestead :) Atm we're apartment hunting and we're living with the inlaws. Houses in the area's we liked in the UK were over £180k and it just wasn't possible for us to have a house in the UK. We've moved to Sweden now and the houses of similar size and location are between £20-30k, way more affordable! Also land is cheap as heck here.

Maybe we're greedy but we'd love a 3 bedroom, separate kitchen, 2 bathroom with the typical outside swedish veranda. We're not planning on kids, but we do like to have our own studio space so an extra two bedrooms sounds absolutely ideal. Ideal location is on the west coast near a medium to biggish city. I really wanna be at least a 30 minute walk to a busstop with a 15 minute ride into town, or if I brave the roads here then the biggish city to be within an 45 minute drive. That gives us plenty of breathing space! Neighbours... I want 'em far enough that if a bear mauls me no one will know :)

persianpenname · Apr 8, 2019 11:01 PM

We're living on a ranch these days, looking after MIL and the cattle. We don't plan to change much about the house when we inherit, except to change from carpet to tile when we get the time and money, and do little things like paint and hang up art from our friends, and of course going as solar and wind powered as we're able.

The big things for us are fixing up the actual ranch (one day, one day we will have all new pens, and a new squeeze chute, and a hay barn), and getting new animals. I want chickens, guineys, meat and milk goats, mini guard donkeys, and alpacas (just a few whethers, I knit and spin), and the Husbeast wants some working horses. In a few years the cattle will be built back up that we'll both be able to just do the ranch full-time, and that's when we can really get started!

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