I currently live in a large (okay, oversized) house, but we are in the process of planning our retirement house. We don't have any desire to build a large house. Housework is no great joy to me, and we want to spend our resources on travel, hobbies, and (hopefully) grandchildren -- not on maintenance and taxes.
As we share our plans with friends, we're getting some flack: But this is a starter-house size! You can afford to build more! What about guests? What about Christmas and Thanksgiving? Yes, yes, we could build more, but it's not what we want.
Back to the subject -- how do we plan to deal with guests? We've thought this through:
- We don't have expectations of setting our friends up in a luxury hotel located inside our house. Some people do! I've been reading a custom-building board, and MANY people are building guest suites with bathrooms, closets and other amenities that rival the master suite. I do want to have space enough that my two children and their future spouses can spend the night, but I don't expect to house them as if they lived with me.
- We're willing and able to pay for a hotel. An occasional hotel is cheaper than building and maintaining the room all the time.
- We plan to buy a teardrop trailer within the next couple years. The one we're going to buy will have a comfortable queen-sized mattress in the back. I wouldn't have a problem putting guests, especially children into the camper to sleep. We live in the kind of place where it's fine to leave the back door open all night, so they could easily slip in to use the bathroom. I don't have the kind of friends who'd find this offensive, and I expect children would consider it an adventure.
We also have thoughts on how to deal with large family gatherings, something we enjoy and frequently host:
- Again, we do not feel the necessity to provide a large room dedicated to our friends' dining comfort. We are going to have a dining room that'll hold a good-sized 6-person table for everyday use. We're placing the table next to a walkway so that it can be stretched out to twice its size, though the guests will be somewhat more crowded.
- We're planning a large patio and ample outdoor space, where we can host gatherings of 50 or more. We already have folding tables and chairs, which can come out of the garage for casual, outdoor meals. This might be impractical for someone up North, but where I live, we have a 50-50 chance of having Thanksgiving dinner out on the porch, so it's realistic. We're also planning a small pool in this area, so I'm sure we'll end up being "the summer place", while other family members will host the winter holidays.
Bottom line: If you're comfortable with your small house, don't let other people make you second guess your choice.