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Bigger house or better town?

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Re: Bigger house or better town?

  • I also think you should go for the better schools area.  My house I just sold wasn't in the best school district (or neighborhood), and I couldn't sell it for the life of me back in 2011 when I first tried.  I think the people that bought it in August were from out-of-state so maybe they weren't as familiar with what areas were good and which were bad, lol. 

    I know you say your next home will be your forever home, but the better school district will give you better resale opportunities if you guys do decide to sell in the future.  1200 is on the small side - I think the house we rent now is 1250 on the top living level (with a finished basement that adds another 1500 sq feet), and it's got a small kitchen, a fairly small living room, 3 bedrooms, and 2 full baths on that main level.  My house I sold was around 1000 square feet and it was TINY, especially when I had FI and the 2 teens staying there over Christmas when he was home on R&R. 

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  • I say the better town, education-wise. Remember that kids are adaptable, and it wasn't that long ago that we washed our babies in the kitchen sink. Heck, it wasn't that long ago that a lot of people's babies slept in drawers. Kids really don't need a ton of room. You can find closet nursery tutorials on Pinterest for crying out loud.

    It's funny, but for me, moving to the better town meant moving to a place with WAY more minorities. My old town was very predominantly white, but was a food / culture desert.


    Our first home we just purchased is only 1000 sq ft which when I think of having a family seems kind of small (more then enough room for the 2 of us). But then I remembered that I grew up in an even smaller home and then my dad told me his cousins (a family of 3 boys) grew up in a house just like mine! We get in this mindset that bigger is better, but sometimes you realize its unnecessary. That said... my opinion may change quickly after we start a family!


    As far as the "racism" I think many are really blowing this out of proportion. Typically I come to TK because I love watching everything get blown out of proportion, but now we are talking about where I live (Central MA) and Jenna is explaining her story with full background. If her OP really offended you I can't imagine how rainbow and puppy filled your lives must be.
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  • I grew up with a sister and 2 parents in a ~1200 sf house, and it did feel tight as we got older and having family functions there and everything.  I also have a 1250 sf house now, and I pretty much fill it myself all alone!

    That said, I bought my house in the same bad school district I grew up in as well, and it has gotten exponentially worse since I attended.  Luckily I didn't have kids, and actually bought my house assuming I wouldn't ever get married, so it depressed the property value enough for me to afford it! 

    I don't think it makes sense to invest in another larger house in the same area for you since you do plan on having kids.  Definitely look for a finished or finishable basement plus an attic though at that square footage!!

     

     

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  • huskypuppy14huskypuppy14 member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its First Answer
    edited September 2014
    jenna8984 said:
    Yeah I scratched my head at how minorities give the town a bad reputation.
    Sorry, but this is New England. Lots of wealthy, 95% Caucasian towns. They heavily look down upon the towns like mine that have a lot of Puerto Ricans. Tons of my friends from high school are Puerto Rican, and I love them. I was just saying these other towns call mine ghetto, it's sad but true. 

    Please share this thread with your tons of Puerto Rican friends.
    I think this against the TOS.


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  • ashley8918ashley8918 member
    First Comment First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited September 2014
    snippet17 said:
    jenna8984 said:
    Yeah I scratched my head at how minorities give the town a bad reputation.
    Sorry, but this is New England. Lots of wealthy, 95% Caucasian towns. They heavily look down upon the towns like mine that have a lot of Puerto Ricans. Tons of my friends from high school are Puerto Rican, and I love them. I was just saying these other towns call mine ghetto, it's sad but true. 

    .  Please share this thread with your tons of Puerto Rican friends.
    I think this against the TOS.



    Posing racist comments should be against TOS.

    And OP better have gotten a warning.
    Agreed. I am not offended by the word fuck. I am VERY offended by racist remarks.

  • Do people seriously not understand what causation is? Those schools are high achieving, and are mostly white. They are not high achieving BECAUSE they are mostly white. Jennas comment gives credence to the idea that towns are better BECAUSE they are more white.

    If she wants to call out other people for being racist, she can do that without saying they aren't wrong.

    If all she did was word it poorly, she wouldve come back and said "wow rereading it that sounds bad- I didn't mean it that way. What I meant was ...." But instead she came back and said sorry guys, its just how it is if you live somewhere white. People are racist and I have to repeat the racist stuff they say. ??

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  • I'm just logging in for the day.   I've seen all of you be able to have a good debate without throwing out personal attacks.   I do not want to have to start warning people.   

    debates are good, personal attacks are not.   






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
  • I think people are reading too much into what @jenna8984‌ is saying. She's not claiming that her safety is in jeopardy or that she doesn't want minorities for neighbors. She is (I assume) looking out for the resale value of the home. I don't think it was necessary to cite the minority makeup, however.
  • I grew up in many small homes. I lived in 1 bedroom apartments with my parents, subsidized housing (that's fancy talk for the projects), trailers, with my grandparents and parents, in a car for awhile when I was really small, in a one room farm house, studio apartments, you get the picture. I also lived in poor neighborhoods. There were white people, black people, mexicans, asians, it was damn Benetton ad. Except for all the poverty. 

    I was never in gang, arrested, shot at, and I went to college. Actually I feel in to the "nice" high school district, they were way worse then my ghetto ass schools. Oh I mean on the surface, everything was nice. All the kids got cars at 16, it was very white, parents were married, people owned homes. But ya know, I could score any drugs I wanted, kids showed up drunk to school, and were always trying to commit sucide. But ya know...white! Our test scores were excellent. Our teachers didn't give a shit what happened to us. But our test scores were really awesome.

    I went to college, because I wanted to learn. I wanted to learn, because my parents instilled in me the idea that learning, that knowledge, was important. That I needed to work hard. They got me involved in activities, and they stayed involved in my school (as much they could, they both worked). 

    On the flip side, FI grew up in a nice house, in a mostly white neighborhood, went to a nice school, and is also hardworking, educated, and a good person. Because his parents did the same things my parents did.

    You can put your kids in a huge house in a nice neighborhood with excellent test scores and all the white neighbors. And your kids can still turn out shit if you as a parent don't work to make sure they do well in life.
  • For some reason I have a hard time believing that these people the OP meets are saying things like, "Ew, that place is so ghetto, it's full of Puerto Ricans!" They're not saying that shit, right? They may be thinking it, sure. But here on this board, essentially, OP is the one saying it. "My town has a lot of minorities. People say it's ghetto. It also has shitty schools, so I guess they're not really wrong."

    If they're not mentioning the ethnic makeup of the town, why is it in OP's head? She literally says it's the minority population that gives it a bad reputation. It certainly seems to be informing her own perception of the town and her use of the word "also" suggests that she considers the minority population part of what makes the town "ghetto".

    Now, I can see how all of this may reflect (mostly) poor wording choices. Perhaps these people from other towns are explicitly stating that the minorities are the problem, and OP just didn't precisely say as much. I can't imagine why one would choose to associate with such people or give any credence to their opinion, but that's me. But that's not what actually came across in these words, and I don't think people are wrong for reading them as they're written and responding to them. I'm really not trying to pile on here, and I didn't even really see it myself at first, but a couple of other posters have articulated it quite well and I think it's definitely worth talking about.
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  • ashley8918ashley8918 member
    First Comment First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited September 2014
    I think people are reading too much into what @jenna8984‌ is saying. She's not claiming that her safety is in jeopardy or that she doesn't want minorities for neighbors. She is (I assume) looking out for the resale value of the home. I don't think it was necessary to cite the minority makeup, however.
    I mean, she specifically said, "People say my town is bad because of minorities". And then went on to say "Welp. The schools are bad, so I guess they are right". (And also, "But I have minorities as friends!" UM...) I don't feel like anyone was reading into anything that wasn't there. Ignorant racist comments are right there, plain as day.

    ETF spelling
  • I say the better town, education-wise. Remember that kids are adaptable, and it wasn't that long ago that we washed our babies in the kitchen sink. Heck, it wasn't that long ago that a lot of people's babies slept in drawers. Kids really don't need a ton of room. You can find closet nursery tutorials on Pinterest for crying out loud.

    It's funny, but for me, moving to the better town meant moving to a place with WAY more minorities. My old town was very predominantly white, but was a food / culture desert.


    Our first home we just purchased is only 1000 sq ft which when I think of having a family seems kind of small (more then enough room for the 2 of us). But then I remembered that I grew up in an even smaller home and then my dad told me his cousins (a family of 3 boys) grew up in a house just like mine! We get in this mindset that bigger is better, but sometimes you realize its unnecessary. That said... my opinion may change quickly after we start a family!


    As far as the "racism" I think many are really blowing this out of proportion. Typically I come to TK because I love watching everything get blown out of proportion, but now we are talking about where I live (Central MA) and Jenna is explaining her story with full background. If her OP really offended you I can't imagine how rainbow and puppy filled your lives must be.
    Can you please elaborate on what the fuck this statement means? What part of "My area is bad because MINORITIES!" is not offensive? Seriously? I don't have to have a perfect, happy life to be offended by this ignorant shit.
    Oh shut up and go back to your puppy rainbow life. Hey OP, I live in MA, and everyone I know who also lives here would think what you said was shitty and racist. So no, it's not normal.

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  • ashley8918ashley8918 member
    First Comment First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited September 2014

    You posted a shitty, shitty thing that was clearly racist, whether you like it or not.  I stand by what I said that was deleted. 

    And this isn't the first thing you've posted on TK that was shitty and classist. 

    This is exactly what leads me to believe that this wasn't just "poor wording choice", coupled with the continued defensiveness of the ignorant comments made in this thread.
  • Hey everyone,

    I'd just like to give you all a heads up that because of the reported posts from this thread, this thread is being issued a warning. Please note in the guidelines laid out in Knottie Tech Help (click) that if there are 5 more reported posts that violate the TOS this thread will be closed.

    If you have any questions please let me know.
    KP
  • I say the better town, education-wise. Remember that kids are adaptable, and it wasn't that long ago that we washed our babies in the kitchen sink. Heck, it wasn't that long ago that a lot of people's babies slept in drawers. Kids really don't need a ton of room. You can find closet nursery tutorials on Pinterest for crying out loud.

    It's funny, but for me, moving to the better town meant moving to a place with WAY more minorities. My old town was very predominantly white, but was a food / culture desert.


    Our first home we just purchased is only 1000 sq ft which when I think of having a family seems kind of small (more then enough room for the 2 of us). But then I remembered that I grew up in an even smaller home and then my dad told me his cousins (a family of 3 boys) grew up in a house just like mine! We get in this mindset that bigger is better, but sometimes you realize its unnecessary. That said... my opinion may change quickly after we start a family!


    As far as the "racism" I think many are really blowing this out of proportion. Typically I come to TK because I love watching everything get blown out of proportion, but now we are talking about where I live (Central MA) and Jenna is explaining her story with full background. If her OP really offended you I can't imagine how rainbow and puppy filled your lives must be.
    Can you please elaborate on what the fuck this statement means? What part of "My area is bad because MINORITIES!" is not offensive? Seriously? I don't have to have a perfect, happy life to be offended by this ignorant shit.
    Oh shut up and go back to your puppy rainbow life. Hey OP, I live in MA, and everyone I know who also lives here would think what you said was shitty and racist. So no, it's not normal.
    Damn, busted.
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  • Kahlyla said:
    For some reason I have a hard time believing that these people the OP meets are saying things like, "Ew, that place is so ghetto, it's full of Puerto Ricans!" They're not saying that shit, right? They may be thinking it, sure. But here on this board, essentially, OP is the one saying it. "My town has a lot of minorities. People say it's ghetto. It also has shitty schools, so I guess they're not really wrong."

    If they're not mentioning the ethnic makeup of the town, why is it in OP's head? She literally says it's the minority population that gives it a bad reputation. It certainly seems to be informing her own perception of the town and her use of the word "also" suggests that she considers the minority population part of what makes the town "ghetto".

    Now, I can see how all of this may reflect (mostly) poor wording choices. Perhaps these people from other towns are explicitly stating that the minorities are the problem, and OP just didn't precisely say as much. I can't imagine why one would choose to associate with such people or give any credence to their opinion, but that's me. But that's not what actually came across in these words, and I don't think people are wrong for reading them as they're written and responding to them. I'm really not trying to pile on here, and I didn't even really see it myself at first, but a couple of other posters have articulated it quite well and I think it's definitely worth talking about.
    She absolutely worded things poorly....but do I think she is making up that people say "ew ghetto" when she mentions her town....hell no. People do that ALL the time.

    I lived in Dearborn, Michigan for awhile after I graduated college. When people would ask me where I lived and I said dearborn a large number of people went "Ewwww. really?" or even (and I'm not even kidding) "Ewww ninja's!" - Dearborn, MI has the largest muslim population in the united states. Do I think those comments were ok?....No....did they happen....Yes. Did it influence my decision to not purchase a home there.....Yes, to an extent. am I racist for saying that....No.

    Was her OP worded very poorly....Yes. Do I think you guys are WAY out of hand. Yes. Especially those who are putting words in her mouth.
    The only words being "put into her mouth" are the ones that she directly typed. So, no. No one is putting any words into any mouths.
  • Hey everyone,

    I'd just like to give you all a heads up that because of the reported posts from this thread, this thread is being issued a warning. Please note in the guidelines laid out in Knottie Tech Help (click) that if there are 5 more reported posts that violate the TOS this thread will be closed.

    If you have any questions please let me know.
    KP
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    Oh, whatever. I only saw 2 report-worthy posts in this entire thread (including the gross racist OP).
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