What are your minimum living conditions to be happy?

In My Humble Opinion
41

My minimum requirements are a place to put everything and easy access to a school for my kids and shopping for food, clothing, etc. Also, not too big as I am a clean freak who hates to clean.

By ‘a place to put everything,’ I mean each kid needs a room as do I and each room of the house has to have enough storage for the activities of that room. It also means I need a garage or shed for bikes, scooters, etc.

So, a small townhouse with three bedrooms is kind of ideal (and what I am looking for right now).

42

Someday, I will be happy, which means I will have a garage in which to store such things. Perhaps with a fire-proof wall…

43

I am begging my husband to buy a palapa and small trailer on the beach in Quintana Roo, Mexico. I would be happy with that.

I currently stay in a cinder block home near the beach in the winter. With two bedrooms it’s too large. Air conditioning in the winter isn’t necessary.

All I need is electricity or fuel for cooking and lighting, transportation for groceries -a mule would work, and some access to wifi occasionally or reading material. And probably proximity to other humans.

Any kind of waste disposal system is ok. I wash my clothing by hand for as much as I need to wear there. They have decent heath care there and I’m still pretty solid in that department.

And a cat is obligatory.

I know none of that is helpful to the OP. My answer would have been considerably different when I was thirty.

44

OK, then a room in an assisted care facility with a droudimplanted, and plenty of electricity until I stim myself to death.

A roofed over walkway between house and garage is nice.

45

See dracoi’s post below. Also, if your house does burn down, a detached garage is less likely to burn as well, so you don’t lose everything.

Like I said, I like mine just fine. :slight_smile:

We’ve thought about doing that - maybe some day.

46

Happy eh? It really depends on the circumstances.

When I was fresh out of high school, I traveled to different short term jobs in different communities. The short term ranged from 2 weeks to 6 months. For two years I lived off of my Triumph motorcycle. A pup tent was my home. I was very happy with it especially during a rain storm. Warm and dry count for a lot.

For the next two years, I had either the Triumph, or my VW Baja, or a VW bus that I lived out of.

Then I went to college for three years. I lived in a 16 foot camp trailer on my uncles farm. These were all in the Pacific Northwest.

I was happy with all of these arrangements. Today I have five acres with a large barn and a 2300 square foot house, four bedrooms and two baths. I raised two boys and a fair-sized dog. My FIL stayed with us for a time. It was fun times.

Now the kids are grown and the grand daughter often stays overnight. My FIL has passed as has the dog. So it is just the wife and I for the most part. Still fun, but I do not need this much house.

Minimum to be happy eh? Hmm, well 1000 square feet, two bedroom and one bath. Large kitchen, stand alone house with at least a two car garage. A big barn would be nice. Five acres out of town for the cows. I could build my own garage and barn. I could build most of the house as well. So maybe just a 30 ft camp trailer on five acres. I can build the rest as I want it. No tent, as it can get cold here in western Colorado. Oh, and no Home Owners Association!

47

It’s interesting that almost none of the couples would find that a fulltime RVer lifestyle would meet their minimum space requirements–since the high end motorhomes with slideouts have a maximum of about 400 square feet–and most RVs are significantly less.

48

That would be an entirely different discussion. I think the OP was addressing how we would be happy living in our current general circumstances, i.e., spouse, belongings, pets. Switching to an RV lifestyle would be a major transition with vastly different considerations.

49

We’re actually mulling over these type of questions, as retirement is getting closer for us. We’ve been empty-nesters for a few months and are thinking about all the options and how much change we want.

Our minimums, from the standpoint of imminent retirees:

Minimum square footage
Around 1200 sq ft.

Maximum rent or mortgage
Zero. We want our retirement place paid in full.

Any exclusions on property type (e.g., no apartments, only two-story units, only houses with a yard, no shared walls, etc.)
Free standing, medium to large yard (as a moat). I’d say a minimum 75 foot distance between neighbors, mainly for noise abatement. I hate stereos.

Minimum number of bedrooms
Three I think. Ours, guests, and an office

Minimum number of bathrooms
Two. One for us in the master bedroom, and one for guests.

Any requirements related to proximity (e.g., within 10 minutes of work, within walking distance to public transportation, etc.)
None really. We’re avid boaters, and are more concerned about easy access to a lake (or the coast maybe… we’re still puzzling on that one). Don’t want the expense of waterfront, but prefer 10-15 minutes to a Marina.

Anything else you’d want to qualify
Room to store/park a few toys (RV, 4-wheelers, bikes, etc.)
What we’ll probably do in reality (if anyone’s interested)

Current house is about 3000 sq ft, 4BR 3bath attached garage. Since it’s paid off, we think our smartest option is setting up a small annuity to cover taxes/insurance in perpetuity, and just stay where we are. This would insure a roof over our heads in all but the most dire financial circumstances. We can zone much of the heating/cooling and minimize costs. It meets all the other requirements above, and we figure the cost of moving outweighs the savings from a smaller place. Probably a little overcautious, but the universe has surprised us before.

50

Do you have a lot of stairs in this house? That seems to be what eventually gets older couples out of their houses.

51

We currently live in an 1800 sq ft townhouse in Phoenix which is paid off, but the stairs are becoming a major PIA. Plans are to move to the PNW in about a year, so we’ve been thinking about our next living space kind of a lot.

Minimum square footage
Arbitrarily set at around 1200. With an ideal layout, I could live with less.

Maximum rent or mortgage
Hoping for $2k or less rent. Eventually would like to own rent/mortgage free again, which would be when real retirement hits. (10-15 years from now at least)

Any exclusions on property type (e.g., no apartments, only two-story units, only houses with a yard, no shared walls, etc.)
NO MORE STAIRS!! Spouse wants 2-car garage, I’d be happy with either 1-car with storage or a storage shed for our rolling shelves with tools and bike stuff and so on. However, off-street parking and no shared walls are a must for happiness. I’d like a small yard with room to grow something but not a lot of mowing, fenced for one small dog. Husband would like backyard of concrete if he had his way.

Minimum number of bedrooms
One for us, one for kid if/when he returns from uni, one for office/guest room.

Minimum number of bathrooms
At least 2 toilets and 2 ways to wash the body. If one shower goes out, having a spare until you get around to getting it fixed is super nice to have. Could be tub, shower, don’t care.

Any requirements related to proximity (e.g., within 10 minutes of work, within walking distance to public transportation, etc.)
<30 min to/from work in rush hour, less on off-hour. Within 15-20 min drive to interesting parts of the city. Feeling safe walking the dog after dark. Not terribly noisy. Ideally on a bus line, so could use public transport to get to work.

Anything else you’d want to qualify
No wall-to-wall carpet, please. For happiness, none anywhere. Big-time yucky dust and stain collector, IMHO, and makes it look like grandma’s house. Any cleanable flooring in good shape is happy for me: tile, wood, laminate, treated cement, linoleum.

I want to be near, but not downtown in, an interesting city with things to do, where it doesn’t get hot (SO DONE with the stupid heat) and I don’t have to shovel snow or deal with too much ice. And everything functions and the neighbors are nice. That’s my happiness house.

52
53

n/m

54

Right now, I own free and clear a 1500 sq. ft. ranch house on two acres. It has two full baths (one has a shower, the other, a tub/shower). The house is a bit larger than the one I grew up in, and the lot is the size of five lots from back then. My expenses, including property taxes and insurance on the house and cars is about $700 a month.

That said, I have lived happily in lesser accommodations. The first was a 10’ x 30’ mobile home. I then upgraded to a 10’ x 60’. I stayed happily there nine years.

I believe the greatest need for me is to not share walls with neighbors, and to live in a place where the neighbors aren't too close, nosy, or boisterous.
55

Just me? The old VW bus would work! For the wife? We would probably need at least a bread truck.

56

(Sorry about the other blank post)

Yes you’re right about that. Most of the bedrooms are upstairs currently, but we think we’ll be OK for quite awhile. Worst case we can move to the downstairs bedroom and minimize stair climbing. If/when we’re literally unable to negotiate stairs, it’ll probably be time for “assisted living”.

57

As long as the kitchen is a good size with a big pantry and there are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, I could be happy with anything between 1200 to 1600 square feet.
I don’t like sharing a bathroom with anyone if I don’t have to.

I prefer detached as I’ve lost too many hours of sleep due to people making noise in the middle of the night. And I want a garage.

I’d really like to be within walking distance to a lot of stores and restaurants since I like to walk anyway, but it’s never going to happen while I’m married to my husband. He likes it more rural.

58

Well, OP, is this thread giving you ideas, or confusing you totally? Is it helping you clarify what you need (at minimum) to be happy in a house?

59

Oh, I wasn’t really seeking clarification so much as I was interested in how different (or similar) my thinking was to other, normal* folk. I continue to enjoy the various responses.

The clarification for me mainly comes from looking at tons of different places and discovering with each one that there’s at least one thing lacking that keeps it from being considered ideal. And we have visited a LOT of places at this point. Two more appointments tonight, in fact. I would not be surprised if we wound up staying put for now and ultimately just buying a house so we can make things as close to the way we want them as possible. But that’ll be down the road a bit (both literally and figuratively).

Meanwhile, I will continue to publicly grouse about it, as is the custom. :slight_smile:

*Inasmuch as the Doper community would ever be considered “normal.”