Feeling Rich #4 Even in a Small House in a Small Town

This is just a bit of house cleaning. I went back through my archives and realized I never finished this series about Feeling Rich. There are past posts #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, and #5 that you can read before I finish off my top ten count down.

We fell in love with our house the moment we saw it. We had only been married for 3 week. We had just returned from a moving honeymoon from California to small town Michigan. We were ready to buy our first home.

(To read more about our story, I did a guest post about the benefits of graduating debt free over at Good Financial Cents which helps explain some of our decisions on where we chose to live)

The older man who was living alone in this house was moving to an assisted living center. We were young and ambitious and saw the potential in this cute house. We didn't mind that it was 100 years old and had not been updated since 1956. It was close to Hubby's work, and it was the right price. It has the most unique fireplace on the front porch, and some great wood work in the entry.
We didn't, however, notice that there actually wasn't a shower, or a dishwasher, or that the refrigerator was in a different room. We chose to overlook the red and yellow carpet in each bedroom. We were young and ambitious when we imagined how we could transform the olive and gold kitchen
Even though we have easily put $25k+ into this house, we still feel as if we have gotten a great deal. This house has helped us choose a lifestyle that we love.
My Hubby is close to work which has many benefits. He walks/bikes to work which saves gas and commute time. He comes home for lunch, which saves huge money from eating out and time spent waiting. This also gives him time during a lunch break to run errands like the post office, or bank.
Our House is close to the town center. We can easily walk to the library, grocery store, or any of the downtown shops. There are 9 playgrounds within an easy walk or bike ride from our house.

Being centrally located is good for our social life, too. Because our house is close to the downtown, whenever we have friends in town, they often stop by just to say hi. I know this may not be a benefit to everyone, but we love spending time with friends, and not having to leave our house to have fun is just another bonus.
Back in my working days, I used to carpool. One major advantage to where we lived was that my carpool picked me up right from my front door. We didn't have to go to a more convenient meeting place.
We don't have room for more stuff. This really helps keep our expenses low. We can't buy more stuff, cause where on earth would we put it?
Despite its age, our house is easy to heat (hard to cool). We have an open floor plan, with two stories, so when we have our wood stove burning, our house gets nice and toasty. And thanks to our new, more efficient windows, it stays warmer, too.
But here is the major downside. Our house is getting too small. Our house has a kitchen, living room, office (potentially awkward bedroom), 1 1/2 bathrooms, and two bedrooms. Because of our Chalet style roof, we have major storing in our attic and basement.
Right now we have 3 kids sharing one room. Which, I know, for centuries, all around the world, people have been squeezing even more kids into even smaller places. But aren't we living in the 21st century?
So we should get a bigger house, but it isn't just the money that has kept us where we are.