Not counting dorm rooms and "just married" apartments that we've lived in (some pretty small places but they seemed fine at the time), the smallest was a one-bathroom 1200 square foot bungalow in England. Current house is 2300 square feet with a 2-car garage, and now that we're empty nesters it's more than we need. But no need to move at present, and it's nice to have room for the occasional visitors.

Lots of 4000 square foot houses (with 3 or 4-car garages and two or three pickup trucks always parked in the driveway) in our area. It's not unusual to have even bigger places around here (Eastern NM/West TX).

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

3060 sq ft with another 1400 finished in the basement. We bought this house in the summer of 2019. It has worked out well in the covid world.

For smallest I lived in a typical college dorm for two years, those might have been 10' x 15'. I did live in a studio, with seperate kitchen for a year, that might have been 600 sq ft.

3,100 sq ft. I live alone. I bought when my neighborhood was still sketchy. It just appraised for nearly 3x higher. I would move if I knew where I wanted to live.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

We are a family of 5 (oldest child is now 6’5”) living in a 1700 square foot house. Plus two dogs (15 lb & 75/80 lb)!

Isn’t your daughter only 5 or something? She’s half the size of one of my kids.

Yup she is pretty close to half that size!
Although, many of the women on my mother's side of the family are over 6' tall, so that might not be the case for long.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

1300 sq.ft. Used to house four folks, now it is plenty big enough for the two of us.

840 square foot two bedroom condo for me and my two cats. I moved from a one bedroom in spring as I wanted a separate office space and some where for guests to stay.

I shared houses or apartments with roommates for decades. The smallest place I’ve lived solo, aside from the dorms, was my previous condo at 640 sqf. In terms of volume, rather than area, my two bedroom basement suite where I could touch the ceiling throughout might beat that.

Our house is about 1800 square feet, two adults and three kids. As the kids get older we might need a bigger place.

I have spent most of the last two years living in a room on a mine site. About 20 square m. At least I have my own toilet and shower. I am senior enough to have my own room and not have to have a room mate.

What do you do with all that space?
Are there sections of your house that you just never really go in to?

Biggest house I've spent a lot of time in was 14,000 SQ ft, which a family of 3 live in.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

The first floor is the living area and bike area. Other people might use the bike area as an eat-in kitchen or lounge.

There are three bedrooms on the second floor. There is a second full bath, a storage room and a laundry room. The smallest bedroom I have made into my office.

The third floor is 33 feet x 14 feet x 20 foot vaulted ceiling. It’s one open space with large closet with the second HVAC. That’s my workout and other TV room. So yeah, I use them all.

When I first moved to Nashville I rented a 700 square-foot apartment and I had to get a storage unit because it wouldn’t all fit. And that was after getting rid of a lot of stuff before I even packed for moving. I could get by with less, especially if I was not working from home, but I don’t want to. I bought it before it was finished and it is more than doubled in value.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

For a few more days we will be in our 1270 sq ft house. It feels a bit tight, especially during Covid. But could be better if we ditched 30% of our shit, which I would do but mrs wimsey wouldn’t hear of it.

By end of month will be in new house with 1960 sq ft, plus a 400 sq ft 3 season porch, and a big basement. It feels massive right now, but I am resigned to the fact that we’ll probably fill it with stuff we don’t need over time.

Having a nice outdoor space is such a game changer.
We live out on our deck from May-Sept. It's like a second family room.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

New place has a 300 sq foot open air deck as well. Town has a 2 acre minimum lot size. We have three small sheds on the property. I’m already cringing at the thought of yard and lot maintenance.

House will be nice though. Yard is pretty, has a garden my wife is stoked about. Schools are great. Way more rural-feeling and car-dependent than I want, but it is a decent place to give it the old college try and see how we do. And we may eventually move to neighboring town, which has more of a “town” feel and shares a high school with the town we are about to move to.

I just don’t get the suburbs/exurbs in Massachusetts. Very few “feel” normal to me. The only ones that do, I can’t afford.

920sq ft bungalow, 2 of us, 2 dogs and a parrot. Helps we have 1/2 acre that abuts ocean estuary.

Zillow says 1978 but doesn’t include another 150 or so in a sunroom. Another 1000 or so finished basement. Four bedrooms and four bathrooms is ridiculous for just the two of us.

We’ve been looking to downsize, but in today’s market the math just doesn’t work. We rarely ever even go to the second floor.

We put a15x15 seating patio with a cute brick wall out front, and it’s been a great outdoor living space. It’s important for our parties.

My husband is drawing plans to add 450 sq ft to the back of our house. I think it makes more sense to increase the size of this house in a neighborhood that we love than to buy a bigger house in a suboptimal neighborhood that would necessarily come with a bigger lot (I do not want a bigger lot) and a less-ideal pool situation. We looked at those houses over the summer & they run $1.5m and up. If we’re spending that kind of money, the house needs to be pretty perfect.

How much does an addition cost? Even if it costs us $200k, which it won’t because my husband is cheaper than me, I think it’s still a better deal to add on to our existing home because I’m getting exactly what I want. Yes?

Generally, it is cheaper to add on yes.
Prices vary regionally, but recently we built a ~300 SQ ft addition on to a 1200 SQ ft house. We re-did the kitchen, floors, all the trim, new roof, painted the exterior and some other upgrades, and the total bill was around $300k.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

2800 sq ft. Lived for 12 1/2 years in just over 800 sq ft. It had 1.5 baths and 2 bedrooms. All 4 kids were born while we lived in that condo. So glad we aren’t there any more. Finally have space for the kids to play, a playroom and a big kitchen. Funny thing though, all 6 of us congregate in very small areas way to often. Big open area, all 6 of us will be in the kitchen right by the sink, or all of us in the powder room to see whoever’s latest lost tooth. Very crazy!

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Harry: "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."
Loyd: "I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man."

2,496 square foot log home. Wrap around porch in summer adds more living space and we recently finished half of the basement for an Endless Pool. 2 adults and 3 cats 🐈.

2 post and beam barns bigger than our house. One will someday be renovated into an art studio for my husband. I wish they didn't come with the property since they increase our property taxes :(

Smallest home as a couple was 700 sf apartment in Encinitas, CA in late 90s.

I could be happy in a small log cabin. We moved here for the land, privacy, remoteness, wildness, space from people. I do love our house but wouldn't mind if it was smaller.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Lucky you! I’m jealous of your work! Ideally, we would do exactly what you did. But my husband doesn’t want to redo the kitchen and we don’t need new floors. Thank you for the info.

Mine is about 4,000 sqft. 5BR, 4.5 BA. We also have a lanai that’s 600 sqft that’s like another living room when it’s not 100 degrees out.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

0.0001334366 sq. miles

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

1600 sq ft, 2 story with semi-finished basement and very large attic with two unfinished rooms (actually where I have my indoor trainer). Sorry Blep

When I was a kid, my family of 7 lived in a 900 sq.ft., 4 bedroom, 1 bath house. It felt like it was huge when I was a kid.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

I typed a detailed post, and then thought twice before posting because I don't want to come off as a dick...well, anymore than usual anyway.

Generally speaking, Australian houses are massive compared to similar countries and Im actually glad to hear you guys aren't as obsessed with housing as much as we are