Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

Did anyone buy a forever home while they were married (but without kids)?

DH and I want to move to LI, kids or no kids. We currently don't have kids and are not sure if we will ever have them. We aren't TTC and are not sure if we will ever want kids, or be able to (should we try to have kids when it's too late).

Anyway we love the idea of a master bedroom and most of the houses that have a master bedroom have 4 bedrooms. I'm wondering if it is too much space for a childfree couple? It may sound silly but I get nervous that we will become hoarders if we have too much space or that we will become the people that everyone looks to when they get evicted or need a place to stay. If we buy a small house, I'll be kicking myself for it if we ever decide to have kids.

DH says we should buy what we want (as long as we an afford it).

What type of forever home did you buy without kids?

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

we bought a 3 bedroom house, no kids. BUT we do plan on having kids in the near future.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

I bought my house by myself, before I even met DH. It was a 3BR house, about 1450 sq ft - for just me. After DH and DS came along, we expanded another 900 sq ft or so.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

We did. We are expecting our first this summer. We were able to do a lot of renovations the last 4 years.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

I say you buy what you love (of course as long as it's in your budget)

I am single- not even dating anyone- and I am looking at homes now- I wouldn't buy anything smaller then a 3bed/2 bath (re-salereasons- I am a realtor- so re-sale will be a huge factor in my though process- I know this wont be my forever home- I am a need a project kind of girl)

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

we did, and right now we have 3 br, 1 bath..

but bc we want kids we'll have to expand-but i love my home-although we don't use the upstairs at all since it's just the 2 of us..until we have kids it's a lot of wasted space

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

we are looking right now, and we don't have kids. We want them soon though

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

We have a cape -
The boys are in the 2 separate bedrooms downstairs, and we renovated the entire upstairs to create a large master suite -

We have a huge finished basement and a large (well, large for nassau county) yard as well -

More than enough room for our family, not TOO much room if we didn't have the kids though ......

even with the kids, I honestly didn't want a huge house .......it's just more to clean, and more space to collect crap !!

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

Dh and i bought a 3-br home. the master had a private bath and there was a hallbath for the other 2 rooms. we turned 1 room into a home office and the 2nd room was turned into a guest room.

we lived kids free for 5 years. now that we are expecting, we're moving the home office into the finished basement (which previously we used as a home entertainment center w/DH's video games, etc.) and using that as a kid's room.

the 5 years though, the house never felt too big and we used the space effectively.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

I think you should buy what you want. It depends on your lifestyle and preferences. If you like to entertain, if you have overnight guests, if you want a home office, gym, craft room, etc. - you will be glad to have the space. Personally, I could always find use for an extra room (and we are not a huge family -- we have one child).

Also - There are many 3 bedroom homes that have a master bedroom suite (i.e., a bedroom with an attached bath). Many split levels are 3 bedrooms and have a master bath. I own a 1950s split, it's 3 bedrooms/2.5 baths, but our master has both a private bath and a walk-in closet. It's not a luxurious master suite with a huge bathroom (separate shower and jacuzzi tub) and his and her closets.

Most new construction colonials that have the modern amenities in a master suite are 4 bedrooms, but if that's what you like and you can afford it, I say go for it!

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

We wanted a 4 bedroom... with a master bath but our budget did not leave room for that in the areas we wanted. We bough a 3 bedroom that we someday plan to dormer... the house has tons of potential if we need to add in/expand. But if we could never afford to we could easily have 2 or 3 kids there and still be fine. And if its just us forever, then we have an awesome guest room

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

Yes a 4 bedroom colonial with no kids. 2 kids and a huge dog came a few years later!

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

Yes. Well, I don't know if it's our "forever" home but we plan to stay here a while probably. It's not that big but we have 3 bedrooms & I love having extra space. Not sure if we will have kids either. I'd love to get a bigger house even if we never have kids.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

Yes. I never want to move again so I hope this is our forever home.

3BR, 2BA, lots of play room in the finished basement, pool and deck in the backyard. I love it. We have no children (yet).

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

There is a small chance that we might stay in our home right now. It's 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. One of the bedrooms is where we keep the cats' food, litter boxes, toys, beds. It's their room, and they love it lol---the ceiling is kinda low (about 66 inches), so I'm not sure how great of a bedroom it would really be.

The other bedroom is currently an office, but we're turning it into a living room and moving the office to the basement.

Like I said, there's a small chance we will stay here. It's small because we'd have to expand to really accommodate the size family that we want, and we would lose a lot of our property, and I want to always have a big yard.

If we do move, we are planning on moving before we start having children, so I guess yes, we will most likely (if all goes according to plan)-whether we move or not-be in our forever home without kids.

Message edited 6/11/2012 6:37:10 PM.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

Well I have kids but I would go for the bigger house if that is the one you like. You never know 5 years down the road you might change your mind and want one or more OR end up with something like twins etc. If you don't ever change your mind you could use those extra rooms for guest rooms, make one a media/movie room, one an office, use one for a gym. You can certainly furnish it in other ways aside from a guest room so that people will not feel that they can "move in".

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

We have 3 bedrooms and a finished basement.
No children of our own but plenty of other kids have slept here so it's convenient to have all the space.
Sometimes it feels like a curse when certain people invade for too long but I wouldn't like it if the people we enjoyed staying here didn't feel at home with their own space in our house.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

We did, last year.

We bought a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath colonial with a fully finished basement and an attached 2 car garage, in a "good" school district.

We made this purchase with plans of having children but also with re-sale in mind.

We definitely hope to have kids but if we don't, it doesn't feel like its too much space because we have friends and family visit and stay over often.

We also love having two full bathrooms on the same level as the bedrooms (one in master, one in hallway). That and an attached 2 car garage were at the top of our must haves.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

We were in contract on our house before we were pregnant. We knew we wanted kids ASAP. It didn't matter because we were hoarders in our 1 bedtoom apt.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

We bought our forever home when we didn't have kids.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

Go for the big house!

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

Yup.
We bought a 3 BR 1 1/2 bath dormered cape. We have no kids yet but do plan on TTC in the fall

The nursery already had a beautiful mural painted so that will be the nursery. We'll use the extra bedroom as a guest room and/or a yoga/meditation room (yes..don't laugh at me lol) for awhile until we have 2 kids.

Since you have a 4 br, perhaps you could combine 2 rooms and make a large master, master bath, and walk in closet combo. Or like Christine said, use it as a guest room/craft room/computer room etc.

Buy what you love!

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

We bought ours 2 years ago, pregnant with our first right now...

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

If I didn't have kids I would not be in LI paying $10k-15K taxes and not taking advantage of the school system. I would be back in the city in a tiny 800sq ft apt. steps from thai food at 3am. But that is me, and what I want. It all depends on what is important to YOU.

Re: Anyone buy their forever home without kids?

We bought our 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house 7 months prior to our wedding. We knew we wanted children but were not in a rush. We lived in our house 3 years prior to having our first. In those 3 years, we did a lot of renovations. Even if we rid not have children or planner on having them, we would not have bought anything less then 3 bedroom, 2 bath tor resale.