by Karon Brandt

Created on: October 29, 2008   Last Updated: October 02, 2011

Homes cost money, but they can be your biggest and best investment ever if you plan ahead thoughtfully.

Our present generation is sandwiched between our parents and our children, and any of them might desperately need to share your roof some day. Be prepared.

We didn't start with a big home. It simply expanded with our family over the years. It's about 3000 square feet, which seems a bit much for three people, BUT it's not.

Owning a bit more of the American dream creates a good feeling! Forget fortress-like homes that speak of prestige and money or suggest you're in competition with the Joneses. Suggestion: if you can afford more space, buy it!

Thirty-five years ago, my husband and I bought a two-bedroom ranch house, with an add-on room attached to the back of the garage that had been a beauty shop. It was great for newlyweds.

After we had three children, we felt crowded for space and privacy. We wanted each child to have his/her own room, and we really needed another bathroom. Our contractor suggested that we look 20 years into the future and perhaps we wouldn't want so much space? Twenty years is forever; we couldn't understand his thinking process.

We expanded vertically, and our ranch house became a ranch "with a view." Our second floor contained a large walk-in closet for the whole family to store stuff in, a full bath with a shower, one large bedroom, and two smaller bedrooms. One room had 15 linear feet of floor-to-ceiling bookcases. As academics, those cases filled up within the first week.

Today, twenty-five years later, the house has 6 multi-purpose (bed)rooms, 2.5 baths, two garages, a 20 by 28 foot finished basement, and two well-insulated attics. The kids grew up and both boys moved away. I have remarried. My daughter still lives in her birth home. The upstairs bookcases are now filled with her personal collections of Barbie dolls and Breyer horses.

We considered moving to a smaller home. We even had the house on the market for 10 months, but it didn't sell. (It was mistakenly listed as a ranch house; not many buyers expected a two-story ranch.) Now we are very glad it didn't sell!

You know the old adage, "Our home is our castle." This is true. Your home fills with memories of a lifetime. Three kids grew up here. They climbed the trees out back and kept the yard filled with friends and activities. We experienced the childhood accidents and scrapes, and we buried several pets, over the years, in the backyard.

About 15 years ago, we filled in the

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