My mother raised and homeschooled my six siblings and I in an 1100 square foot house (with a basement) on half an acre. So I knew from the get-go that it could be done.
But I also knew that my mother spent a lot of time dreaming of adding on to the house because raising and homeschooling seven children in an 1100 square foot house can be… cramped.
We had file crates to hold our school books, and we generally ate dinner with our crates under our dining room chairs – there wasn’t room for a dedicated space for them so they ended up wherever they could fit.
So when Daniel and I designed our house and had it built in 2015/16, knowing we wanted a whole passel of kids and to homeschool them, we built a 1200 square foot house (with a basement) but had a large space built into the rafters that could be turned into a school room when the time came.
We finished the basement after 3 years in 2019, when we were up to four children and pregnant with another one (the first baby we lost.)
Another 4 years and we were adding our third student to the homeschool (we were up to five kids now, having reintegrated our foster daughter with her family and had a couple more bio kids.) We decided it was time to finish the upper room.
But then God saw fit to give and take away and give and give again. We lost a second baby and God added two more children to the family – one through adoption, one biologically. The process of all that was consuming enough that we put a pause on the school room finishing project.
But now, with a fourth student slated to join our homeschool in July and three preschoolers in the wings (one chomping at the bit to be taught to read), we are at last finishing up our school room – another 500 feet entirely dedicated to school.
Construction began today – to say I’m excited is a bit of an understatement :-P
How exciting!
This is wonderful!! How wise of you to plan for this possibility, way back when you were originally planning this house!