Havregryn - I also grew up in an apartment and am raising kids in an apartment. When I read all these threads about how home ownership entails so much maintenance, I just scratch my head. We own our apartment and do no more maintenance work that when we rented.
I actually grew up in a big house on a large plot of land and it just makes me more convinced that the advantages of that kind of a set up are frequently overrated, while people often downplay the serious downsides, especially for people who are not passionate about the very act of owning and maintaining a property (i.e for people who only see it as a housing option and not a personal passion project).
On the house size, I really don't remember using any of it except the living room and my bedroom. I even shared a room with my sister until I was about 10-12 because it was fun. The rest was just there to accumulate random junk. I do remember it was a nightmare to heat the whole house so during the winter you'd have to walk through some really chilly sections in order to get to where you wanted to be. And if you made the terrible mistake of leaving your door open...ouch.
As for being outside, we really didn't go outside just for the sake of being in our backyard as much as people like to imagine. And that was before all the contemporary forms of indoors entertainment were invented. If we went outside it was to go for a bike ride, a walk in the forest, meet up with friends and explore some abandoned house somewhere, i.e. mostly stuff that you could just as well do if your starting point was an apartment. I really think the minute your kids are no longer toddlers the added benefit of a backyard is overstated at best. Especially if your backyard is just a small piece of lawn with a barbecue on it as seems to be common here in Luxembourg, for properties costing 1,2-1,5 million.
However, there was a very noticeable amount of emotional, logistical and financial strain associated with maintaining the whole thing. My parents both had white collar jobs and were not particularly handy people. So all of it was one big nightmare for them.
They were constantly stressed about it. Things break all the time. There is constantly something to do and if don't take care of it, no one will and it will just keep getting worse.
I would love more space but I am very concerned about getting a house. What sucks here in Luxembourg is that there are very few large apartments available because there is not so much apartment living going on for families. Also, I don't like living here so the transaction costs of buying a larger place bother me and I am not so comfortable renting in this market (long story, but it sucks) so I think we're really going to be improvising here until we start bursting at the seams. Or, hopefully, husband finally agrees to move somewhere else. The housing and traffic issues here are a major quality of life killer. We got really lucky buying this place (we bought it on a whim because it was next door to our temporary rental and it was "cheap" (it was freakin 500k € but on this planet that is cheap, interest rates here are below 1.5% and we have high incomes, it would sell for 650-700k now so I am not exactly weeping over that decision, even if it is not a forever home) when we really, really didn't want to move out of the area as finding a place where you can live without a car in Luxembourg is not something you take for granted).
But unpopular opinion, I think I am really more ready to have me and husband sleep on the couch in the living room than move out of here just for the sake of getting a larger place. I'd love to leave the country and move somewhere more human friendly (Lux is mostly shady money friendly) but apparently we're not there yet...
We have two bedrooms and about 1000 sqf and if we weren't getting a third kid it would not even be an issue...this way I am a little bit concerned...but only a little bit. It's going to be years before the baby is asking for private space.