After 18mths we are however fairly stressed out as the maintenance that goes with our dream home NEVER seems to end. Cleaning pool, vacuuming, hedges, lawn mowing, pruning and general maintenance. Whilst I enjoy doing these things it means I need to sacrifice quality family time and feel it's not doing the kids/ wife any good.
So ... we are considering renting out our PPOR (deductions would be a bonus) and finding a 3 bedder unit until the kids get a bit older. As crazy as this sounds this is the situation we have found ourselves in and just wandering if anyone else has made such a dramatic change going from a big home to a unit ? If so I would be interested in hearing thoughts here. After all life is too short !
G'Day success
To get back to your original post - yes, this sounds like a good idea.
We can sometimes forget that it is
our house, we are
not it's Human!
Over the years I have seen many families working hard in their small houses, then lo and behold, into the big house they go, and before they know it they never see each other, it's all work and precious little play, and frequently that's when the rot sets in.
The house, the furniture, the toys, are there to protect, provide for and amuse us.
After a while, the shine wears off and the fun becomes drudgery.
We had the big house on the acre. Mike bought a Deutscher self propelled mower, and it still took him nearly four hours every other weekend literally running behind the darn thing, to just cut the grass. No edging or other fancy stuff, just mowing, and the block sloped too much for a ride on mower which would have taken as long although perhaps not so much effort.
The children rarely went far from the door, either, the space was just too big for their comfort. Beautiful, yes, practical, no.
We then moved into a 1970s shag pile and Mission Brown house and that was the first time we really enjoyed being together as a family. It had a bush garden and apart from tree branches falling into the pool - which was a great swimming pool with plenty of length and depth - there was not all that much mainenance and our quality of life improved dramatically.
We are now planning for the HOTTA and I have discovered Sarah Susanka
www.notsobighouse.com and will be planning and building the house for us, not building the house for the house.
Opposite the park, the beach at the end of the street, flat enough for easy walking and not far from walking tracks through ribbon parkland (not to mention the pub around the corner) - these are things of simple pleasure and at the end of the day, it's not us raking the sand or mowing the park or even washing the glasses.
Your children are children for such a short time. When they're older you can try the bigger house again, but the children don't care, they would rather be able to walk home from school and make a bit of a mess and have their friends around than have a ginormous house with shiny floors and immaculate gardens and flustered parents.
Anyway, if you rent the house you can always come back to it.
Good luck with whatever you decide
Kristine