Look, I get it. You thought that cute little starter home would be perfect forever. Then kid number two came along. Or three. Suddenly your “cozy” living room feels more like a storage unit that happens to have a couch buried somewhere underneath the mountain of toys.
I was chatting with my neighbor Sarah last month about this exact thing. She’d been trying to figure out how to make their 1950s bungalow work for their family of five. After eighteen months of planning extensions and dealing with contractors who kept finding more problems (hello, asbestos in literally every wall), they finally called it quits and decided to start fresh. She worked with a House Demolition Perth Company Bellaluca to clear the lot and build their actual dream home instead of trying to patch together something that was never gonna work.
Best decision they ever made, she told me over coffee last week.
Here’s the thing nobody tells you when you’re house hunting with your first baby – kids don’t just need space. They need the RIGHT kind of space. And sometimes, honestly, the bones of an old house just can’t give you that no matter how many walls you knock down.
I’ve seen so many families sink crazy money into renovations trying to make an old layout work for modern family life. Open floor plans so you can watch the kids while cooking? Good luck with that in a house built when kitchens were meant to be hidden away. Need a mudroom for all that sports equipment? Yeah, that’s gonna be interesting when your entry is basically a door that opens straight into your living room.
The emotional side is real too. We get so attached to the idea of “fixing up” a place. Making it ours. But sometimes starting fresh is actually the smarter move. Financially AND emotionally.
Sarah said the hardest part was letting go of the guilt. Like somehow knocking down an old house was wasteful or wrong. But you know what? Building a home that actually works for your family, where the layout makes sense and everything is safe and up to code – that’s not wasteful. That’s smart parenting.
Plus can we talk about the hidden nasties in old houses? I’m not trying to scare anyone but the stuff they find when they start opening up walls in these older homes… Lead paint, dodgy wiring, pipes that are basically held together with hope and duct tape. Sometimes a clean slate is literally the healthier option for your kids.
The process isn’t as dramatic as you’d think either. Sarah said the whole demolition part took less than two weeks once all the permits were sorted. Then they had this beautiful blank canvas to build exactly what they needed. Master bedroom that’s actually master-sized. Kids rooms where you can fit more than just a bed. A kitchen where more than one person can exist at the same time.
And the best part? No surprise construction disasters. No “oh we found another problem that’s gonna cost ten grand to fix.” When you’re building new, you know what you’re getting.
I’m not saying everyone should knock down their house. But I am saying that sometimes we get so caught up in trying to make something work that we don’t stop to ask if we should. Especially when you’ve got kids depending on you to provide a safe, functional home.
If you’re sitting there right now looking around your place thinking “this is never gonna work for us,” maybe it’s time to consider all your options. Not just the add-a-room-here, knock-a-wall-there options. But the real, start-fresh options too.
Your family deserves a home that works for how you actually live. Not how someone lived in 1962.
Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is admit when something isn’t working and start over. Just ask Sarah. She’s hosting Christmas this year in her new place, and for the first time ever, she’s actually excited about it instead of stressed about where everyone’s gonna fit.
That’s the kind of home every family deserves.
