So the progression of our living accommodation has been roughly:
1 bed apartment 50 sq m / 500-ish sq ft no kids
4 bed house with staff accom, roughly 350-400 sq m - employer supplied - no kids and then two kids
4 bed 200 sq m / 2000 sq ft
For four of us, 50 is too small but 200 is just far too big
Our kids currently share, so two beds are unused and we do not even enter them most weeks, they’re used almost exclusively for visitors a handful of weeks a year
Even if our kids had a room each, the extra bedroom is just dead space
The more space we have the more it seems to just accrue shit that we do not even know we have
Then I’m not sure if when the kids are older they’ll require more space
I think paying to heat unutilised space, cleanimg unused space and actually uying space we do not need or use is a waste of money
Even my wife now agrees.
Having had the space, the things we find we value are the living space and outside space, the rest is just functional and for utility
How much space do you have, how many are you, is it too much or insufficient. I think ideally I’d look for something 2/3rds what we currently have.
Wife and I have 2 kids, they are 4 and 17. We went from 1300sf, 2100sf, now at 3200sf.
I love the space we have now 4 bedrooms and another flex room to use as an office/kids/dining, we were using it as a kids play room to keep the toys and shit out of the living room.
Our youngest wanted us to move her bedroom upstairs so we recently packed all her stuff up moved it upstairs. Nice having all the kids shit upstairs out of the way finally. Now we have two rooms that will rarely get used downstairs. Will use one as the guest bedroom and plan on turning the other into a nice office, maybe I’ll work from home more if I have a nice dedicated office space. For us ideally I think 2800 would be the sweet spot.
1,200 sf first floor open concept living room, half-wall double-sided fireplace, dining room, kitchen, bike area, half bath, pantry. Other people use the bike area as an eat-in kitchen.
1,200 sf second floor. Master suite plus two bedrooms, one bath, storage closet, laundry. One bedroom I made into an office.
700 sf open space third floor which I made into my workout room plus an extra bed, love seat and big screen TV.
When we moved July last year, my wife commented that we should have done it 5-10 years ago. To get me to move, she said that she “would give me the 3rd floor (700sf) so you can have a studio. Plus, you get an over-sized garage.” Even though I was apposed to moving, I knew it was time, because we were cramped and had outgrown our home of 15 years. It still took me three days and a shower to come to a comfortable decision. I would be gaining a garage, which we we had not had for over 16 years, and the studio space…ah, the studio space. At 50 years old, with one in college, we knew it was a risk to make the jump, but almost 9 months in, we made the right decision.
Here is our progression, taking into account 5 people (3 boys - 20, 14, 12) and two large dogs, from most recent:
3450 sf - 4 bedroom (boys have their own room), 2.5 bath, over-sized garage, bonus over garage and finished 3rd floor. Lot size is .29-ish.
1475 sf - 3 bedroom (two younger boys shared oldest bedroom when he went to college), 1.5 bath, two sheds, Lot size around .375.
1400 sf town home - rented for 15 months. At this time we had 1 kid and 1 large dog.
1500 sf - 3 bedroom adobe style ranch, 2.5 bath, 2-car garage. Lot size 1.5.
995 sf - 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath, finished basement, detached 1.5-car garage. Lot size around 60 x 100 postage stamp city lot.
It always amazes me with friends that have become more affluent as they age and get the kids out of the house. Buy a bigger one for when the grandkids come once or twice a year. People can do what they want with their money, but just the upkeep on a McMansion would discourage me.
My in laws live in a 5000 square foot two bedroom house. It is a spectacular waste of space. They also have two children so if both children + grandchildren visit at the same time, one sibling stays in a hotel.
This always a fun topic, given the difference in American’s and most the rest of the world.
Still live in the same house we first bought. it was 1,400 sq ft with basement under 1,200 that I finished about 1,000 of. then we did an 800 sqft addition with basement. House is now 4 bed (1 is a home office) one kid has made a bedroom in the basement. Our masterbed with walkin closet, is stupid big in my mind. king bed with room to spare, a bay window and nook that my wife reads in, plus plenty of open space.
3 kids 2 now in college each are home for maybe a month total maybe a week at a stretch at most. The basement space has pretty much just filled up with crap. The wife barely uses her office, she prefers to sit in the new kitchen. I could easily get rid of the basement and 1,000 sq feet and still have plenty of room. But not really worth moving at this point. Retire in 8 to 10 yrs and will move into a much much much smaller place for the wife and I.
I am becoming more and more attuned to the fact that I don’t value it, I simply fill space with rubbish and its just like having unused inventory on hand. Lots of work and total waste of money
My inlaws house, I guess, is perhaps 3-4000 sq ft. Significantly larger than ours, perhaps as much as double
They have no friends over, we visit for perhaps 6 days a year, their other daughter for dinner twice a month
It’s completely bonkers. They live in their kitchen diner living room all open plan. Three bedrooms, a study, dining room and living room are unused.
1300 sq. ft., 2 kids. We just converted our detached unused garage to an in-law unit (500 extra). Nearly perfect for us as we near retirement, especially as the kids are leaving for college. Could probably do with a larger, more open plan for the living area.
Of course, our starter home is expensive enough as it is.
I have always lived in 500-700 sq ft apartments. At 30 we bought a 1200 sq ft house. I finished the basement but we rent it out so, while the house is around 2000 finished sq ft only 1200 is ‘ours’.
However, I’ve never lived in a suburb or in the country side, where houses and lots tend to be much larger.
If we have kid #2, our current place would be too small. If we had all 2000 sq ft to ourselves that would be plenty.
Currently we have 2700 sq ft. Both kids are in university so it is more than we need for sure. It was built when kids were 8 and 4 respectively. The extra space came in handy when housing two foreign students at a time in addition to daughter. It also has been default gathering place for Easter and Christmas which is nice. I would have liked to have built smaller. We have a dedicated living room which is 27 by 14 and it isn’t used much. But my wife really wanted that when we built so we got it. We are actually one of the smaller homes in neighborhood. Considering smaller home but almost nothing on the market locally. May have to build.
My dream house in many respects is https://rosschapin.com/plans/small-houses/gable-house/ This house has main floor living space and bedrooms upstairs for guests. Indoor/outdoor fireplace and nice deck. My wife is interested in downsizing maybe I can get her to bite.
A really good book series is “Not so big house” by Susan Susanka. http://www.notsobighouse.com/ It is a great way to learn about how to get a house that is smaller but doesn’t feel small and is very livable.
It is good you put square feet in your examples. North Americans don’t have a clue what sq meters mean in terms of space.
I’m house hunting as we speak (4 open houses to see This afternoon). 4 of us including 1.5 and 4 year old girls. The space is suitable now, but a designated play room and 3rd bedroom (adult hobby room) is what we’re looking for.
Currently have 2 b 1 bath 1050 sq feet.
We’re targeting 3 bed 1500-1800 sq feet. This will likely cost us over 800k in our Boston suburb.
We’re also contemplating a 2 bed 1300 sq feet or so with the plan of adding on a 3rd bedroom in the future which would allow us to not stretch our budget so much all at once.
Me, wife, 2 kids in a 3 bed, 2.5 bath, no basement, 1 car garage, 1,970 sq.ft.
It’s too small. No room for office space, no storage, no guest room for frequent visitors.
Ideal for us is 4 bedroom and finished basement, but not a massive size upgrade. 2,800 would be the sweet spot for us. Smallish but big enough, functional, and manageable is the goal. Character is a must, but hard to come by affordably in northern VA.
Not sure what is ideal…we currently live in a 3700 sq ft home and I would love to downsize and hope to in a few years. Our kids are now 23 & 20, with the 20 year old going to college locally and is living with us. What is cool we’ve had the chance to have different people live with us through the years because we had the space. My wife want to move out to the country and have a house with land…I would rather have a condo. Opposites attract.
My house is 1700 sq ft, 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath. Technically it’s a 3 bedroom but the 3rd bedroom is on the first floor and we use it as a family room. Laundry room is in the basement, along with space we use as a workout room (treadmill and bikes) and that’s not included in the square footage. It’s an older house built in 1890. I have two daughters and they share a bedroom. I would like something slightly bigger but in our area it would take a good bit of money to buy something bigger without it just being a generic box of a house. Being an older house it has a lot of somewhat unique features and customization and we wouldn’t get that in a newer and bigger place, not without spending more than we’re willing to. My daughters are in their teens now and if we had a bigger place we’d probably be looking to downsize once they’re out of the house anyways.
Currently have 1270 sq ft, 3 small bedrooms, 1.5 bath, another 200 sq ft of semi finished basement. Me, mrs Wimsey, 2.5 yr old wimsey jr and a dog.
We could use a little more space, in particular I’d like a second full bath. But like you, we tend to fill the space we have, so my preference is to stay relatively contained, whereas Mrs Wimsey would love a bunch more space to fill up with shit.
On my side, I would like to have a separate library/office of my own. Right now my work at home desk is in our 3rd/spare bedroom, and that works OK but is inconvenient sometimes. And in my more extravagant dreams I would love to have a dude barn, but that would have to be in a much different, more rural area.
What I find I miss most about our current living arrangement is just some elbow room with respect to our neighbors. Houses are too close together, and I really miss having green space between the sidewalk and the street where you can plant trees.
We were going to build, but wound up buying something similar … the floor plan we were going with was very economical. It’s a compact 2 story that’s 1512 s.f. 1 Master suite, 2 smaller BR + laundry upstairs and open-ish downstairs with K and DR/LR area, and another full bath. Full basement underneath, just a crawlspace attic. Detached garage. It was designed by an engineer not an architect and minimized plumbing and venting, and was meant for radiant heat. No A/C. Very efficient. Not sure if you’re building or buying, but that size range is more than enough. I agree with you completely, why buy, clean, and fail to use another 500+ s.f. if you don’t actually need it? Save the money to build fun things like a deck or basement workout room. When you’re talking $100’s/s.f. saving 500 s.f. is very real money.
