Big house with no yard or small house with a big yard?

[DCnDC]

You've moved to a new city and you're buying a house. This city has only two types of houses that fall squarely into one of these two descriptions:

A) a big house with no yard, like just a couple of feet all around, if that.

or

B) a very small, "cozy" house with a very large yard; the house itself takes up less than 1/4 of the lot.

Either of them has sufficient interior space for you and your family and belongings, but A will be very spacious and B will be *just* barely enough.

All other things being equal, including price, which do you choose?

[PandaBear77]

Small house, big yard.


Reasons:

1. You can always build onto the house.

2. You never know when shit's gonna happen that would make it necessary to grow your own food.

It never, ever hurts to have some land.

[Scubaqueen]

neither. condo.

[Acid Lamp]

Small house. I can always build on when needed and I love to garden. More room for the dogs to play as well.

[Shodan]

Big house, small yard. Less lawn to mow in the summer, less space I don't use in the other nine months a year.

Regards,
Shodan the Contentedly House-bound

[VOW]

I have 36 acres in NE AZ, and we put a 3 bedroom, 2 bath mobile home on the land.

Now THAT is a big yard!


~VOW

[perfectparanoia]

I vote big house small yard but where we live, there are about 8 months where you don't want to go outside and be in your yard.

So, if it were somewhere warmer, I would probably reverse that.

(Note: we actually went with small house, small yard and saved the extra cash.)

[Motorgirl]

There is very little in this world I hate more than yard work.

[CrazyCatLady]

Small house, big yard. More house=more housework all year round. More yard=more yardwork 4 or 5 months out of the year. Less house=less storage space to fill with crap we don't need. Less yard=taking the dogs for long walks when it's 15 degrees instead of letting them go outside to play on their own, no garden in the summer, no pet chickens.

No contest. None at all.

[Wheelz]

Originally Posted by Shodan

Big house, small yard. Less lawn to mow in the summer, less space I don't use in the other nine months a year.

I could write my own post but it would just say the same thing as this one.

[Rachellelogram]

I don't like large houses and I do like having more space between me and my neighbors. But I hate yardwork too! Hard choice. I guess if I can hire someone to maintain my lawn, I'd prefer the large yard.

I wouldn't be opposed to having a large house, I suppose--it'd be better than the no-house I currently own. I'd probably close off a bunch of it though... I just don't need all that much living space. Or maybe I could rent it out for extra $$.

[otternell]

Originally Posted by Acid Lamp

Small house. I can always build on when needed and I love to garden. More room for the dogs to play as well.

This is my take on it too. We had a small house, added a 2nd story, and now its a medium size house on a fairly large (for the area) lot.

[An Arky]

I'm more for a medium/medium thing, myself. I lived on a corner lot with a sloping yard for a number of years, and the mowing and snow shoveling were not fun. I now live in a bigger, but not huge house with a smaller, flatter yard and no sidewalk to shovel. I'm digging it. There's parks and ball fields nearby for that stuff, and since the back yard is kind of treed in, it's mostly patio and works well for that (except for the #$%&ing mosquitoes!).

A big house means more housework and more heating/cooling, not to mention furnishings. I'm in a close-in suburb, where size isn't a big deal, anyway. I think the future demands a smaller footprint.

[DMark]

Good question:
Big house - lots of dusting, painting, cleaning, upkeep, heating/cooling bills, etc.
Big yard - lots of upkeep, mowing, planting, trimming, etc.

If you go for the big yard, make sure that is a big BACK yard, and not front yard - you don't want to be doing all that yard work for an area you can rarely use, just to look pretty for the neighbors. At least in the back yard you can have friends over, strip naked and run around and play hide and go squeak. In the front yard, you can, uh, do nothing.

[Jophiel]

Big yard. The kids need a place to catch fireflies.

[shiftless]

Originally Posted by Jophiel

Big yard. The kids need a place to catch fireflies.

Me too, once upon a time. Now the kids are grown and gone and the house sort of qualifies as "big" without all those hulking teenagers under foot.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by Scubaqueen

neither. condo.

This.

But if this is one of those questions where I have to choose then I'm going to go with Very small house with big yard. I currently live in a very small room, so even a very small house will be more than what I have now and will be more than enough for me. I would also simplify the yard to make upkeep easier and I will not move anywhere it snows regularly.

[panache45]

Small house, big yard. Over the years I've lived in everything from a small studio apartment to a 3-bedroom house (now). I can always adjust the amount of stuff I have, but I can't adjust the space between me and my neighbors.

[brainstall]

Small house, big yard.

More space for the dogs to play, more distance between me and the neighbours. I like my neighbours, but I don't need to hear every belch and fart, nor do I enjoy smelling everything they cook.

I would also love some space for a garden and some pretty chickens. Even with severe neglect and minimal work I had fresh tomatoes from my wee patch of veggie garden this year.

[Moonlitherial]

We're already in a small house with a big yard (for the neighborhood). I would definitely insist on it being mostly backyard where only my sense of what needs to be done is important.

I'm not a fan of yard work but I am a fan of a private spot for the dogs to run and play freely.

[TruCelt]

Big yard, well fenced.

[Cat Whisperer]

Small house, big yard. I agree that you can always add on to your house if you have room, and you can certainly minimize the yard work if you really want to. Heck, you can hire a gardener, if it comes to that.

We had a kid who came around last winter a couple of times and shovelled our corner lot sidewalks for us; best $10 I ever spent.

[RTFirefly]

Small house, big yard.

Can always add on, can do landscaping that minimizes the amount of lawn-mowing (or pay someone to do it for you), and it doesn't feel like your neighbors' houses are right up against yours.

[StGermain]

Small house, big yard. Room for the 6 dogs and the 4 horses.

StG

[Rhiannon8404]

Big house, small yard. In fact, we chose house over yard when we bought our home 17 yrs ago. We have never regretted our choice. So much more of our time is spend indoors, that lack of a big yard has never been a problem. Plus, we have three gorgeous parks within walking distance.

[Infovore]

Big house, small yard. I spend much more time indoors than outdoors, and a big yard just means yardwork, which we both hate. Big house means more room to spread out and more room for the cats to play in.

[hogarth]

I like house B because it sounds like a TARDIS ("it's very small, but it still fits all of your family and belongings!").

But seriously, I'll vote for "small yard" regardless of the size of the house. I don't have kids or a big garden, nor do I plan to.

[PunditLisa]

Large house, small yard.

[papergirl]

I like a small house, and I like a bigger yard. My yard isn't huge, but it's roomy enough to garden and have room for the dogs and the kids to play, etc. It's like an outdoor extension of my living area.
I used to have a large house, and it was terribly hard for me to keep up. Now I have a much smaller house (about 1000sf for the three of us) and we can actually keep it habitable without too much trouble. I love it.

[SciFiSam]

Small house, big yard. I assume you're talking American standards of 'small' for the house, which isn't small by British standards.

[OpalCat]

Originally Posted by Motorgirl

There is very little in this world I hate more than yard work.

You and me, both. Unfortunately also on that list is housework, so I'm pretty much screwed until I can afford to hire people.

[ZPG Zealot]

Small house big yard, so there is space (where I can hopefully plant itchy thorny bushes) between me and my neighbors. Also, I would want to pay as little as possible for the house so the small would probably be cheaper to buy and cheaper to heat and air condition. If we need more space for more people, tents and trailers can be brought in according to need.

[Motorgirl]

Originally Posted by OpalCat

You and me, both. Unfortunately also on that list is housework, so I'm pretty much screwed until I can afford to hire people.

At least housework is climate controlled and the neighbors won't tsk tsk if you are a little behind with it.

[Rand Rover]

Big house, small yard, very very near a nice park.

[salinqmind]

There is nothing more ridiculous than a bunch of f'ing big gaudy McMansions shoulder to shoulder, squeezed onto tiny lots in a subdivision with a name like Butterfly Acres. Hopefully what butterflies are left might get nourishment from the single big gaudy hanging baskets hanging in front of each monster. The yards are tiny but it's not as if they're going to be doing any gardening after the landscaper plonks down bushes and stuff....Myself, I have a medium size starter house and a big back yard surrounded by a fence. There is a birdbath, trees, raspberry bushes, ferns, violets, flower beds, and it's quite a beautiful sight, half - no, two thirds - wild.

[Rand Rover]

Originally Posted by salinqmind

There is nothing more ridiculous than a bunch of f'ing big gaudy McMansions shoulder to shoulder, squeezed onto tiny lots in a subdivision with a name like Butterfly Acres. Hopefully what butterflies are left might get nourishment from the single big gaudy hanging baskets hanging in front of each monster. The yards are tiny but it's not as if they're going to be doing any gardening after the landscaper plonks down bushes and stuff....Myself, I have a medium size starter house and a big back yard surrounded by a fence. There is a birdbath, trees, raspberry bushes, ferns, violets, flower beds, and it's quite a beautiful sight, half - no, two thirds - wild.

Big house small yard does not necessarily mean McMansions. There are some blocks in Chicago where every single one of those big houses with small yards were built 100 years ago and cost over $2 million.

[Colophon]

Definitely smaller house with a bigger garden for me. I couldn't imagine living somewhere like (to choose the first random spot on Google Maps that fits the bill) here. Were the builders involved in some kind of competition to see how much of the plot they could cover with the house, or something?

[don't ask]

Big house, small yard. Less lawn for those damn teenagers.

Yeah you, ya little punk. Fuck off.

[chiroptera]

Tiny house, big yard (3/4 acre or so.) It's on a dead-end road that abuts a private school playing field, and a block away there's several acres of woods and open space. So, it's quiet.

It's just me and the dogs, so a big house would be a waste of space and energy. And, I'd rather do yard work than clean house. I used to live in a much larger house with the ex, but we only used a small part of it really.

About 1/3 of the lot is trees, brush and ivy no mowing required. A neighbor rides over on her mower and mows everything else for $30 every 7-10 days.

I'm having a small enclosed front porch built this fall, and next year hope to have a big covered back deck built in the back. As others have said - it's not difficult to add on space.

[FairyChatMom]

We hit the jackpot with our house. Just under 1700 sq ft, not counting the basement sitting on 3 mostly-treed acres. Our landscape could use some serious attention, but I can call it a nature preserve. What little lawn we have can be mowed in about an hour (riding mower, except for the ditch) and in the fall, we have a mulcher/vac that's towed behind the mower, so getting up the leaves is pretty easy. Then we dump them at the far end of the yard where they rot into wonderful compost.

Last place we lived was about a quarter of an acre with neighbors as far as the eye could see. I hated it. Plus there was an HOA there. Here, we have peace and quiet and no one giving us crap about our yard or making us pay dues. Yep, we've definitely got our little slice of paradise right now.

[Agent Violet]

my husband decided as a doctor, he just HAD to live in a 5,000sqft house on 3acres of land.

We've been there for 5 years. it took us all 5 years to get it the way we want it as far as decorating painting,etc.

it's the prettiest house i've ever lived in....and I hate it.

I'm not a house person.I'm not a yard person.

Given the choice I'd be in a gorgeous condo somewhere near to my office.

[VunderBob]

Neither.

Small house with medium sized yard. I have short attention spans for yard work and house cleaning.

Defining terms: Small house is 600-1199 square feet, not counting unfinished basement or attic. Medium yard: 1/3-1/2 acre.

[MsWhatsit]

Small house with a big yard. We like to do backyard gardening.

[Biggirl]

Small house, big yard. I, too, like to garden. What we actually have- small house, small yard. I have two small beds in my side yard because that's where the sun is.

[salinqmind]

There are many old, tiny houses (no garages, attached or separate) lining the major street in the town where I used to live, with postage stamp size lawns. They were built years ago for factory workers, who walked to work. Now, being there is no more factory, they are rented out, cheap, to all manner of transient riffraff. One mile away, there are a few stunning old mansions with beautiful grounds, (not lawns, but grounds!), set back from the quiet streets in the woodsy hills overlooking the defunct factory. Guess who those houses were built for?

[Krouget]

Small house, big garage.

[LurkMeister]

Assuming that "sufficient interior space for you and your family and belongings" includes expansion room for my constantly growing library and plenty of storage space, I could live with a smaller house with a big yard. As others have pointed out, a big yard means that if necessary you can add on to the house or even put up a separate building. And I'd like to have room for a garden, especially with food prices the way they are.

[Oredigger77]

I'd take the small house with the big yard. I tried to buy a 970 sqft house on 10 acres earlier this year. I like being able to go outside and relax but its hard to to with people around. If I had to still be in a suburban setting I'd take the big house and lock myself away from the world. I guess my answer would be whatever would allow me to see the least number of people.

[D_Odds]

Originally Posted by Motorgirl

There is very little in this world I hate more than yard work.

I concur. The little yard I have now gets mean griping and bitching every time I go out to work in it.

[chiroptera]

Interesting. Right now, poll numbers are 2:1 exactly for "small house, big yard" but comments indicate exactly the opposite.