you really got a thing for the whole size issue huh? :tremble:

it's not about how big it is, it's about what you do with it......

I've been saying that for years but I wasn't talking about houses. :lol:

it is what it is......we did have largest truck
we did used to sleep in a queen
we did buy a king, woulda been nice to have a CA king.........

sometimes on weekends, we have 2 dogs + 2 kids + us

ZED, yup you can check the R values, and if you wanna upgrade the cheaper house it may come up to be an exp. house.

nobody likes paying taxes, it comes w/ the territory. i pay alot of taxes at work, why would i wanna make more $ then i am now?

our temps can go from below 0 to over 100, sometimes as much as 115 degree swing from winter to summer. I don't know anyone that has bills that low except spring/fall when the windows can be opened.

for me, I've lived in a 30' fifth wheel camper without slideouts before. I don't want or need a large house.

do you want your kids growing up in that?

if that's what I could afford, looks like that's where they would be living. my son and I did live in it when he was pre teen.

peoples mentality today just confuses me.

So raising happy, well adjusted kids has to do with sq footage? Self esteem has more to do with how big your house is, how much money your parents make, or what kind of car you drive. :cool:

I speak from experience. Been there. Done that. It's my idea of heaven! ;)

lol, whoever said that? do you want your kids growing up in a trailer park? vs a home? of any sq ft.

now granted some T/P may be nicer then some hoods, but by in large they're not.

and who's to say "rich" people can't raise well adjusted kids?


IMO parenting has to do more about the people then the $ they make. just cuz people earn good livings doesn't mean they can't be good parents, and vice versa......

but if you could what would you rather have, a home or live in T/P?

and you could afford either.

sean, just saw this thread now.

A appears not to be the choice for you. you listed a bunch of things right off the bat that makes the A house financially not appealing to you. so psychologically it seems you already made your choice, when you compare your positive and negative descriptive statements. anyway, just because you can get by on the payments of the big house, it seems you are still worried about shelling out more money for no real reason. with a house like that, HOA and upkeep should not be a deciding factor. if you can afford the house comfortably, the other shit is almost a non issue. but to buy it just to say you have a 3 car garage in a pimp neighborhood.... well its a lot of cash to trade hands just to be able to talk like that. also consider the size vs the people who will be living in it. look at bicho - K and him are moving out of their massive rental because it is just the two of them now, and the place is too big, with bills like 4-5 people should be living there.

agreed, my guess is = he wants house B, wife wants house A :skep:

btw, how old is house A and B ?

Maybe that it is because it's something YOU wanted together. I didn't want this house, SHE wanted this house. I comprimsed with HER for some things I wanted. The house is HERS and I am fine with that because OUR relationship works that way. SHE paid 90% of the downpayment to get this house and that got us a great interest rate and I was able to use the money I saved for the house to make some improvements I wanted to it. WE don't have children, WE both work decent paying jobs. WE use our own money for the things WE want. If there is something WE want together, WE pool our money to buy it. It will change when WE have children and SHE doesn't work as much, but for now it works for US. WE have no issues over money. I don't complain when SHE goes out and buys crazy amounts of shoes and do nothings and she doesn't complain when I buy gadgets and moto related products. This cuts OUR relationship squabbles down to mostly simple things since WE have no need to argue over money.

Why are WE capitalizing certain WORDS?

How many years and where at? I lived there long enough in the Eagle River/Wasilla/Palmer area to never want to go back again. The mountains of Tenn provide me with enough beauty and less winter. Even trade.

You may not be happy if you let other people make your decisions for you. ;)

That said, I personally like smaller houses. Someone mentioned that house A will appreciate more when the market comes back. Maybe it will, but I'd prefer to be 5 minutes from the beach. And I'd think house B would be MUCH easier to sell simply due to location. If you don't have the need for all that space, I'd go with house B and save gas money, utility money, sanity, etc. by having a shorter drive to work and a shorter drive to the beach. But that's me. You might want the seclusion of house A. I hate to clean, so I know I'd spend a lot of money on a maid coming in to clean all the time. :lol:

So we agree that no matter where you grow up, how much money/footage involved, that you can raise healthy children. :D

you are arguing a moot point, I don't have the money and don't desire to live in a house large enough to house 3 families.

I lived in what was called a "Resort" not a trailer park. I had access to a swimming pool and 3 large ponds to fish in any time I wanted along with a few other things.

it's people that wanted more than they could actually afford that helped get this country in the mess it's in. I may be contributing to a different part of the problem but not this part.

who's arguing, it's a simple ?, when your son was w/ you. would you rather have lived on "the resort" or a "normal" N-hood w/ a normal house (vs 3000+sq ft)?

and you could afford either.

oh, you're one of those people.

rich people seem to be more snobbish than ones without as much.

wish in one hand and shit in the other, see which one fills up first.

I have already said I don't have the money and don't desire to live in a house that large.

I would say that you are arguing with me. you think that to be happy I have to live in a house that I can't afford or even want.

I'm happy with what we are living in right now with a garage as big as our living space. we are at the top of the hill which believe it or not is better than the "hood" at the bottom of the hill. so far no one has bothered anything here, we've been here over a year. it's good enough.

you completely skipped over the important part of that post any way.

If you want to play the wishing game.

If I won a 200 million dollar lottery jackpot today. I would buy a huge ass plot of land in the country and build a 1500 sq ft house on it and probably have a 1000 sq ft garage out back. :lol:

What would you do? Build a fucking 100 million dollar home that was like 15000 sq ft?

there we go, I wouldn't need that big of a house though. think I'd also make my out garage on skids to get around some taxing of permanent buildings.

trailer park or normal n-hood?

so the answer is n-hood?

Why are those the only two options? Why don't you let out in the country away from people be an option? You are skewing the choices so the only option is for people to agree with you. That's fucking retarded. Of course people are going to be forced to pick n-hood if their only other choice is a fucking ghetto. It's a retarded fucking question.

How did this get to be a money/class issue? In his original post shmike said that both houses cost the same.

There are a lot of questions that remain to be answered in order to make an informed decision in this case. I fail to see how cost of the house and the perceived status that comes with it is one of them.

are you saying trailer parks are ghetto? cuz i didn't.

Since unlike SOME people I do not have a cleaning lady and occasionally ,the fire department to unclog my toilet, huge houses do nothing for me. In the end it's just more space to accumulate crap, more time time spent painting walls, just more time doing everything. Cathedral ceilings are just wasted space thats a bitch to paint.

I would rather a 1400-2000 sq ft house that has a thoughtful layout vs 3000 sq ft of wasted space.


A smallish "meh" house in a great neighborhood beats a grand house in "meh" neighborhood. It's nice taking a stroll around the neighborhood and having neighbors that smile and say hello.

agreed, and dinner at my neighbors house last nite was GREAT! pulled pork sammichs. and dinner sun night at the others house down the street was pretty dang good too! burgers and hot dogs for the kiddo's.

the place I lived at in the 5th wheel was great. never any problems with neighbors. it was located out in the country.

it was big enough for our needs. period. didn't want or need anything bigger.

HOA :tremble:

have you checked if you are allowed to park a bike in plain sight?

That's where this is going. If someone picks trailer park over an n-hood, that will be the next step. Theres a couple nice trailer parks out there, just like there are bad ones. The same with neighborhoods. I would pick certain trailer parks over neighborhoods and would want a neighborhood over certain trailer parks.

The biggest truck i could get from Budget was 25'.

It took me four trips to move all the stuff from our 1600 sqft, 2-car garage home to our new place. :willy:

I'll say this- we've got more than enough crap to fill our 2000 sq ft, 4 br/2.5 ba home, but we also have rooms that I don't go in for weeks at a time- we've got a dedicated guest bedroom, and my wife has a home office. The cats have their own bathroom. I use the kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom, and living room. 2000 is not a small amount of space if the house has a good layout.

Sure, i'd take 3500 if i could get it and move some more of my projects in out of the garage, but there's no way in hell i'd give up my location for it. That's why i personally said to go for B. There's no substitute for location.

about the same price but with A you have HOA to pay which raises the cost per month. does sound like a money issue, would be with me anyway.

Tina and I was just talking about HOA's, did you check to see if motorcycles were allowed in that gated community? you may not be able to ride that fiddy in the yard. better read the HOA agreement first.

NO YOUR WRONG!!! you can't want more, you have to want less............:lol

N-hoods (neighborhoods?) don't have to be some subdivision 20 miles from the city core. There are tons of older, more established neighborhoods closer to the city. Granted, the homes will be smaller, but IMO they have more character, and it's pretty much assured that they'll hold their value more (on a % basis) than the new developments 20 miles out.

It depends on your needs and wants. You want more, we want less. My wife wants more, I want less. It's opinion, neither of us are wrong. If you can afford more, good for you. There is a lot of people who wanted more and royally fucked up this country's housing market. So I say to them, they can go fuck themselves.

I have to agree with trip. If I won a shit ton of money, I'd buy a bunch of land and build about a 1500 sq. ft. house with probably the same size garage. Then I'd put a track on my land and have a shit ton of fun with all my two wheel friends. :D

now that would be cool as hell to have.

That was actually my plan too. I just didn't add the track part. It would be like 3-4 tracks in one. One big pavement, one that was attached to the big pavement, but went into the infield that was much tighter and shorter for fiddy motards. A portion of the big asphalt would jut off for some dirt section for a supermoto addition. And then have a full on dirt.

in houston, inner city means you also get inner city schools (which suck) so then add the cost of private school to your "cheap" house.

in houston, you buy a cheap house and your in n-hoods w/ alot of undesirables. you then you spend alot of $ to get a small house "in-town" thats nice then your still in the chity school, so then add exp house + private school......startin to add up.

i agree completly :boobs:

When we were setting up the deal to buy this house, part of my plan was to finance in a 2400 sq-ft garage... damn lender fucked it up :bash:

Birth control FTMFW :dthumb:

Ed, didn't uyou say just a few months ago that there were craploads of foreclosures in your boring cookie cutter house neighborhood? :whistle:

Neither A nor B is cheap.

They are equally as expensive.

'slices example is exactly what we are talking about. Smaller house, more established neighborhood, closer to "town."

The schools are much better in neighborhood B.

Boca Raton doesn't have an "inner city". :lol:

So you are saying there are NO desireable neighborhoods closer to Houston.......I find that hard to believe. In every major city, there are old, established neighborhoods only a few miles from downtown, where the homes might be smaller but they cost just as much as one of those McMansions 30 miles away, because the neighborhood they're in has always been well-known and in-demand.

Have you ever been to Houston? :skep:

There is nothing desirable about that whole area. Nothing.

Sure, the secondary costs have to be factored in. Shmike said that the HOA fee was high, but that is a relative term. Compared to house B with no HOA anything is high. In this area I have seen HOA fees from $20 per month to $120 per month.

It does sound like shmike has a money issue with house A, but I don't know if it is something he can't afford or something he doesn't want to pay. I assume it is something he doesn't want to pay simply because I hope he isn't thinking about putting in an offer on a house he can't afford.

True on the HOA and having a 50 track. Most will have an issue with that.

dunno about crapload there were 2 on my street, dunno about other streets. and 1 "weird" house where people bought 2+ yrs ago and never lived. so it looked crappy but it was never a F/C. co -worker has bought 1 of the F/C (4800sq ft, 2 people) , and it looks great now. the other was bought up, another HUGE house for 2 people.

i think there are more distressed sales in the "cheap" houses in tha back then where we're at.

Your homeowners insurance company would absolutely love you.:lol

sure there are, and they are alot more $ then our mcmansions at $200k. and most are still in crappy school districts. or lofts..... in the same bad school districts.

we call it "white flite" if you don't have kids, and don't go outside much, then the "city" might be for you. but if you wanna raise a family then you move out to teh 'burbs, i thought that was pretty common in most citiees.

then B it would b.

whats the HOA $ in B vs A?

:lol Yeah, but you got lots of OG, straight outta the original Ghetto (Warsaw)

Being that it is Florida I would try and research which area had the least foreclosures. In my opinion the foreclosure mess is not ever close to being over. I think an area with more foreclosures in the past is more likely to have them in the future.

so you're in a neighborhood like us. less desirable live at the bottom of the hill.

in FL. I'd find out which place gets hit with the worse weather/property damaging weather. increased insurance cost.

You think Houston is bad, what about Detroit......Google the Palmer Woods neighborhood to see what I'm talking about -- it's within the city limits and it's really nice. Some local broadcasters & politicians live or lived there.

you can choose to not believe this if you wish. Now keep in mind you and I do the same job for the same length of time. I could easily have either.

given just that choice I would choose the TP. I can't stand subdivisions or their stupid BS rules. Yes parks have rules as well but their not as snooty about them.


but my real choice was of course not offered, I'll take country, w/o neighbors. Thanks

seems to me that in these newer McMansion subdivisions, nobody walks down the sidewalk & meets their neighbors, they all just drive home after work and shut the door.

cheap bastard, if you bought a house you could actually afford you wouldn't have to beg food from the neighbors...................:lol


Yeah I know just kill me now. LOL I couldn't let that one get away.

it is what you make of it, that can happen in an place.

are you saying Ed lives in a manision in the ghetto? :lol

Unless you are living on a flood plain the whole state is expensive for insurance. Some of the most widespread damage from the 2004 hurricane season was in the Lakeland, FL area, which is over 30 miles from the gulf.

yeah, seemed like Orlando and a little south didn't get hit that much though.

I was just taking the opportunity to make a crack about how craptastic everything about Houston is. As a Texan who is not from Houston, I am required to do this every chance I get. :lol:

we live out in the country, right outside the hood are farm fields (corn and milo ) recently cut, then a lil further are a bunch of cows, dunno what dude does w/ them but prolly 100-150 in the pasture near us.

and nearby is one of houstons only curvy country roads, and i haven't ridden down it in the yr we've been here.

but alas the city is moving in, best buy is opening up 6-7mi down the road. and a big grocery store is opening 1 mi away. houston will be upon us in 10yrs.

Come on, page 10!

SPEAK UP EVIL BIG HOUSE OWNER! :tremble:

Nope. Take Ed, multiply him by about 3 million, add a few thugs, a few wealthy oil tycoon kids and a crap load of NOLA refugees and that's Houston in a nutshell. It is in no way desireable.

HA HA :nee: Please keep them.

you forgot MESSICANS! lotsa of em

most NOLA's have assimilated and starting working or killed each other off.


damm here i thought i was special, and there are 3 mil like me......:skep:

That area didn't get hit as bad, but it did get some damage and homeowners is still expensive there. Hurricane Wilma hit on the gulf coast of the state, traveled all the way across the state, and still managed to do significant damage in West Palm on the Atlantic coast.

I didn't not forget. You don't have any Mexicans there.

I'd take Detroit over Houston.



Less humidity. :lmao:

Houston has areas like that as well. The problem is the only people who can afford to live there are broadcasters, politicians, executives, etc. Instead of the two houses listed by shmike being the same amount you now have a 2,000 sqf home for $500k+ or a 4,000+ sqf newbuild for $200k.

Fiesta Supermarket would disagree with you.:lol

NAW, it'll be more like the old 2000sq ft will be $350k, and if ever sold, the house knocked down and new one built thats 4000sq cuz of the land.

and the new 4000sq ft will $500k.

example

old house

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSea...759290&class=1

next door

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSea...688422&class=1

Fiesta? You realize that is one of the few Spanish words that all WHITE people know, right? :lol:

I bet you think taco shells come from a box and taco seasoning comes in a little pouch you find near the gravy section don't you? :lmao:

I'm just messing with you, sorry. :scared:

Why? lol I don't care if someone thinks my house is too big for us. It's more fun to just read in this thread.

damm you! :boobs:

you can live in any house you want. tell racer we can too without feeling the want or need to live in a bigger one.

Yeah, who cares where you live? Just don't try and tell us that we are fooling ourselves into wanting 'tiny' 2000 sq ft homes over giant box houses out in the burbs.

I was using shmike's question as the model with the 4000 sqft home being in the suburbs. Something more along these lines:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...373_1108174739

YUP thats way out in BFE, nice house nonetheless.

I know vamanos and federales as well.:didntdo:

Only when done right.

I figured. I don't like Houston either. Real estate can be a smoking deal there though.

:lol
Big house vs small house gang fight!

just remember less $$ spent on house leaves more $$ for guns and bullets :rockwoot:

....or more room to store more weapons and bullets.....:rockwoot:

and more room/places to hide stuff when the obamanazi's come to your house lookin for the "goods"

we have the big yards though. lots of under ground storage. :skep:

Me too, but mine is only "city big", not "country big", -5 Points
Dammit...

OK, but how about this?

Upon the onset of the zombie apocalypse, the undead army will have to:

1. travel 40 miles out of the city (cuz that's where I live) +2 points

2. figure out which house is mine, (cause quite obviously they all look the same) +5 points

3.make it up my stairs (cuz you always run upstairs. always. how else can you throw baddies out the top window? plus zombies aren't really known for their fantastic climbing skills, so it could take a few minutes) positive 10 points goddam smiley

4. figure out how to get up into my (unecessary) 11ft high ceiling and into the attic, where I will be waiting. positive 10 points goddam smiley

I really think the scoring speaks for itself.......:lol


That is about all the BS I can muster now, sorry.

i can run into my attic from the game room, leaving the door open so they can follow. then i clamor up to the next level go over to the north part of the house, where i push down the roof attic door, and run behind the last Z and shut the door behind them.

HA it's TARP!

That is a beautiful area (Wasilla/Palmer...etc). I lived on Kodiak Island (Bells Flats specifically). In the summer it was hiking, fishing, and camping... In the winter it was hiking, snowmobiling, and camping. 6 years in a little tiny house and never for a second did I want to leave (once a year or so to Anchorage...).

To each their own, right? That's why there are BIG houses and little tiny houses.

Sean, I read 2 pages of this thread. And judging my page 20, it's changed dramatically.

I would say if they are both about the same price, I would go with option A. I would normally say that it's a waste. Too much house for the 2 of you, and that you shoudl start small, and use the equity you gain in house B (especially if you are planning on improvements), to get you a hosue like house A int he future once kids DO come along (unless youre planning on them in like less than 5 years. However, I think if they are the same price, you should go with A becuase you get more bang for your buck and you don't need to do anything once the kids come along because you'll already be there.

If A was way more expensive, but still affordable for you, I'd say no, save your money, you'll get there eventually. But if they're abuot the same price...I think you should go with A.