Stay in tiny shack in Bby or Move to Coq for more space?

[joel]

so your argument sounds like it is coming down to space vs. location:

i live in a tiny shack in bby, so i can tell you my perspective.

the pros for location are pretty obvious, so i don't know how much i need to touch on this. basically, location directly affects your time spent doing what. consider all the places you currently visit and add whatever time it takes to travel there from coquitlam*2. work, church, friends, family, etc.. Say 30 minutes extra for work a day. maybe another 30 for church, 30 minutes to visit your parents, 30 minutes to visit your in laws. that adds up to maybe 4-5 hours of waking time a week that you could put towards other things.
the eventuality that will happen is you likely makes less trips out, b/c realistically how much extra time do you have to spend on travelling in your current schedule. you eventually prioritize and making that trip out becomes less "worthwhile".

more space - pros:
besides having the ability to have more stuff, i also think it'd be a benefit to have your own "safeplace" in your own home. in a small space, i think it's really possible to get on your spouses nerves and vice versa. More room does help mitigate that in my opinion.

less space - pros:
having less space, also means prioritizing your space too. in a way it helps you to curb the stuff you put in the home... i have probably had this conversation with the wife a hundred times. either her or me, "I want to get this." "That'd be nice, too bad we don't have anywhere to put it." as an analogy, it's almost like having a salary cap on what you need to get by... since you learn to live with less stuff, you just adapt to it.

for me, in the end i think i value my time more than space right now. i think personally i adapt better to having less space, that i would to having less time to do stuff i wanted to do. but i currently have the benefit of only needing to make a decision based on what's best for my spouse and i and not a family with young kids. and i figure that will weigh heavily on your decision as the difference could have a significant impact on your family.

i also think that having less personal space for your kids as they grow could force them to prioritize their space as well and forces them to adapt to that situation too. which i guess you can see as either a good or a bad thing.

[jeSteR]

More space = more time spent cleaning. Remember that too.

[nature boy]

i thought the argument was more space away from in-laws vs. location. actual physical space (at least with the house posted) would be generally the same, no? actually, i think alicia's parents' place is a bit more than 1600 sq ft. but then, there are 3 more people living there.

with our situation, we were fortunate enough to be able to take over a lot of the space that was there. aside from our basement, we have pretty much the whole living/family room and that other room by the front door, as well as a big chunk of a room upstairs. but having said that, i echo what joel said about having to curb what you keep. i so badly want to get rid of a lot of ryan's toys, but we feel that since we have the room, then we might as well just leave it there.

[joel]

[nature boy]

yeah, i figured. but i also figured that the house (which i wouldn't consider tiny by any means... nor a shack for that matter) only seems small because of the number of occupants. also the nature of said occupants make it feel smaller than it actually is. that was the number one complaint that dunc had ever since he first started the numerous threads on the topic lol.

[joel]

hey dunc, did you end up coming to any decisions on this topic?

[Duncan]

not really... still mulling over options. Gonna see how the market ends up in the summer and then decide. With alicia working more, it opens up more doors (pun intended) for us so we're gonna play by ear and see how it goes.

i did see a 2 bedroom unit in your complex go up for sale the other day. it's listed at $500k

[nature boy]

man alive, $500k for a condo unit. that's insane. wait, is the two-bedroom on the upper floors? those have two floors don't they? so more like a townhouse?

still, the market seems crazy man.

[Wetundies]

In DT, a 2 bdrm condo starts at $800k. Richmond is 500k+ for 2bdrms as well now.

Get one of those farm land on No.5 and 6 rd. Lease out the land in the back to some farmer, and build a giant house for urself up front.

[Duncan]

[joel]

[joel]

[nature boy]

[joel]

[nature boy]

i guess so. but those questions leading to potential problems were enough for us to stay away from the idea.