Whenever you do something out of the ordinary, people ask a lot of questions, and have something to say. When we started sharing that we were downsizing people thought we were crazy. "Who downsizes when the kids are still little?" "Who downsizes when no one is moving out?" "Are you in financial trouble?" Here are our reasons, and we are three days away from closing, so I look forward to writing future posts on other steps in this process. Here are our reasons, and apologies in advance if anyone takes offense.
We have TOO much space
When we bought this house eight years ago, I'll never forget how a friend said, "Beautiful home, who is going to clean it?" This was a different comment than most people were making, and it certainly stayed in the back of my mind. We have had help with housekeeping in the past, probably for about four of the last eight years. I was never totally comfortable with someone else taking care of our home for us, and I also didn't like my kids seeing others clean for us. Even if they weren't home at the time. This was not a luxury I was raised with. I will admit it was nice to not have to clean the bathrooms, and it did feel like a huge time burden was lifted. About a year ago, we decided to take on the housekeeping ourselves after I got the whole family to promise to help. Now the job we do is not as thorough as the housekeepers', but the extra money in the bank makes it tolerable. After a year of cleaning the house (and let's be real, I did a lot of cleaning/nagging others to clean and pick up) however, it became such an endless, consuming hassle. We have 4,000 square feet, plenty of room for piles to be ignored, stuff to get lost, always a spare bathroom to use and for mom to have to clean later.
Pretty much the same saga played out on the exterior. Ted gradually and laboriously repainted and repaired most of the exterior last year. He mows every 4 or so days in the summer so the crab grass doesn't take over. We have a large garden area which other years I loved tending to, but this year I saw more as a chore. We started talking about how our weekends were pretty much taken over by these maintenance tasks and we wanted more free time for hiking, adventures, hell just sitting and watching a movie together, anything but everyday maintenance. Our new home is literally half the size, 1/6 the property size, and the siding is Hardieplank (concrete = zero maintenance) and the decking is Trex (zero maintenance). We are so excited about this!
Better Schools
When we moved in, Hudson was a year old, we looked at schools, and it weighted in our decision even though we knew the zones could change at any time. The scores for Hudson's elementary school have steady declined and we have noticed, although we have nothing but positive things to say about Hudson's teachers. Even when we moved in we were concerned about the middle school, and the school has not shown any improvement since then. While we don't need the very best, we also don't want to be among the worst. Hudson only has 2 years left, but given the next 5 years weren't looking so positive and Sadie hasn't even started school yet, it was a large factor in moving. We also thought about if the school zones were to change, it would not be an improvement based on the surrounding schools. As of right now the High school is actually the same so Hudson may be reunited with friends after a few years! Current school ratings on Greatschools.org, elementary and middle are both, 5/10, NEW elementary and middle schools are both 7/10. I know better than to rely solely on these ratings but this was something we have been thinking about for the last two or so years. All three of the new schools will be 2-3 miles from our house!
Smaller Mortgage, etc.
Even though we're moving to a better area, we are saving money by getting a much smaller home, which is something we wanted in the first place! Even with higher interest rates, we will be saving about $300 a month on the mortgage. Our property tax will also be less, as will our heating and cooling bills. Our Home Owners Association (HOA) will go up by more than double. We are moving into a large, well-established community with well-maintained trails throughout. We think it will be worth it.
Shorter Commute (for Ted anyway)
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| Beautiful but no longer our dream home. |
We have TOO much space
When we bought this house eight years ago, I'll never forget how a friend said, "Beautiful home, who is going to clean it?" This was a different comment than most people were making, and it certainly stayed in the back of my mind. We have had help with housekeeping in the past, probably for about four of the last eight years. I was never totally comfortable with someone else taking care of our home for us, and I also didn't like my kids seeing others clean for us. Even if they weren't home at the time. This was not a luxury I was raised with. I will admit it was nice to not have to clean the bathrooms, and it did feel like a huge time burden was lifted. About a year ago, we decided to take on the housekeeping ourselves after I got the whole family to promise to help. Now the job we do is not as thorough as the housekeepers', but the extra money in the bank makes it tolerable. After a year of cleaning the house (and let's be real, I did a lot of cleaning/nagging others to clean and pick up) however, it became such an endless, consuming hassle. We have 4,000 square feet, plenty of room for piles to be ignored, stuff to get lost, always a spare bathroom to use and for mom to have to clean later.
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| Too much home inside and out! |
Pretty much the same saga played out on the exterior. Ted gradually and laboriously repainted and repaired most of the exterior last year. He mows every 4 or so days in the summer so the crab grass doesn't take over. We have a large garden area which other years I loved tending to, but this year I saw more as a chore. We started talking about how our weekends were pretty much taken over by these maintenance tasks and we wanted more free time for hiking, adventures, hell just sitting and watching a movie together, anything but everyday maintenance. Our new home is literally half the size, 1/6 the property size, and the siding is Hardieplank (concrete = zero maintenance) and the decking is Trex (zero maintenance). We are so excited about this!
Better Schools
When we moved in, Hudson was a year old, we looked at schools, and it weighted in our decision even though we knew the zones could change at any time. The scores for Hudson's elementary school have steady declined and we have noticed, although we have nothing but positive things to say about Hudson's teachers. Even when we moved in we were concerned about the middle school, and the school has not shown any improvement since then. While we don't need the very best, we also don't want to be among the worst. Hudson only has 2 years left, but given the next 5 years weren't looking so positive and Sadie hasn't even started school yet, it was a large factor in moving. We also thought about if the school zones were to change, it would not be an improvement based on the surrounding schools. As of right now the High school is actually the same so Hudson may be reunited with friends after a few years! Current school ratings on Greatschools.org, elementary and middle are both, 5/10, NEW elementary and middle schools are both 7/10. I know better than to rely solely on these ratings but this was something we have been thinking about for the last two or so years. All three of the new schools will be 2-3 miles from our house!
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| Our new dream home 2018 |
Smaller Mortgage, etc.
Even though we're moving to a better area, we are saving money by getting a much smaller home, which is something we wanted in the first place! Even with higher interest rates, we will be saving about $300 a month on the mortgage. Our property tax will also be less, as will our heating and cooling bills. Our Home Owners Association (HOA) will go up by more than double. We are moving into a large, well-established community with well-maintained trails throughout. We think it will be worth it.
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| More time with these three! |
Shorter Commute (for Ted anyway)
Ted is a contractor, but he's been at the same site for most of the last 6 years, which happens to be 40 minutes away. When we were house hunting we zeroed in on areas that would cut down that travel time. He'll save at least 15 minutes each way. The drive is slightly further from my office but I rarely go directly to or from the office anyway.
There are a lot of wins here so do you still think we're "crazy" for doing this?!
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