How much house do you need?

[Dueller]

Left up to me I could live in a 1000 sf house so long as it had an attached 6 car garage.

But really...how much house does the average family need? Wife and I recently purchased 4br/3 ba house...a little over 3000 sf. At one and the same time it seems big enuff for us and the twins...with stepson coming home from college every once in a while. Then again it seems too big at times (like why am I heating/cooling rooms when I can only be in one room at a time?) yet I can see it beginning to fill up.

Aside from price considerations, what is the ideal size house for you and why? Do you have to entertain at home? Frequent family o'nite guests? Mother in law staying with you? Need to impress your peers?

[legion]

I think 2000 sq. ft. with a basement would be the ideal size for us. We have 1600 sq. ft. sans basement, want to start a family, and have zero additional room.

I don't want too big, and I don't want to heat/cool more than that.

[Christien]

As big as I can afford to pay people to clean Our house right now is about 2100 sq ft main and upper floor, with an addition 1500 in the furnished basement, and it's definitely not too big. We could use more storage space for big stuff (don't like to keep the track tires in the garage over the winter). But we don't feel cramped.

Personally, I like big open rooms, but I don't like "open concept" layouts. I like a room for a purpose - a separate dining room, a separate den, living room, etc. but I still want them spacious.

[IROC]

We've just gone through the whole house-buying thing and we found that it's more about neighborhood than house size. When we compared the kinds of neighborhoods where we could buy a 1500-1800 sq ft house (really all we needed) we weren't happy with the location. We ended up buying a 2350 sq ft house in a nicer neighborhood.

Also for us it boiled down to number of rooms more so than absolute sq footage.

[tabs]

I really don't see how I could get along with less than the 3700 sq ft Trailer I have now. I know I know it doesn't look like it is 3700 sq but believe me looks can be deceptive.

I often sit out in my recliner pondering what I will write next for this Board.

[Jims5543]

Wife, 14 y/o son, and 4 y/o with dog live in a nice 3/2/2 with screened pool and huge back patio. SF of the house is 1300 s.f., it will not impress you its not a show piece. Its a house we live in its home, its comfy and our kids have/will both grow up in it.

The mortgage is paid on it and thats all I care about, I own it not a bank.

When we have friends over the back patio / screened pool gives us ample room to spread out.

I got a wild hair 2 years ago to buy a stucco monster and stopped myself, I like owning my own home too much.

[onewhippedpuppy]

We currently have a 2400 sq ft, 4 br, 2.5 ba house. Eat in kitchen, dining room, living room, family room, unfinished view-out basement. 2 car garage that hold's my wife's SUV and my tools, i.e. not that big. We have two kids.

Right now, we have plenty of house. Each kid has a room with the 4th bedroom serving as a guest room/office. But, when my in-laws come down and stay (often) it gets very small. For our family, we probably have borderline too much house. Of course, we plan on having more kids, at which time it will get small quickly. I'm in the process of finishing the basement, which should give us a huge chunk of equity and extra space for guests. Another 1000+ sq ft, 2 br, 1 ba, office, toy/storage room, and family room. Were it not such a great deal, we wouldn't have bought it, but with a little work there's easily $100k in upside to this place.

A lot of it comes down to simple wants. Much of our house isn't used on a daily basis. Formal dining and family room? I go weeks without setting foot in there. Personally I think such rooms are silly, but it makes my wife happy. Personally, I'd rather have another 500 sq ft of garage.

[krichard]

We recently sold our 2 story 3700sqft house and moved into a 1 story 2600sqft house. I do miss some of the extra space, like a dedicated theater room, but for the most part we don't notice the missing 1100sqft. It's just the two of us and our dogs so I think that helps. Another thing that helps is the new house is on 2 acres so then we entertain we are usually out on the deck or around the firepit.

I do like the fact that my utilities are about 1/3 the cost of the last house.....

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by IROC

We've just gone through the whole house-buying thing and we found that it's more about neighborhood than house size. When we compared the kinds of neighborhoods where we could buy a 1500-1800 sq ft house (really all we needed) we weren't happy with the location. We ended up buying a 2350 sq ft house in a nicer neighborhood.

Also for us it boiled down to number of rooms more so than absolute sq footage.

Mike, we followed exactly the same process. We wanted 4 br, 2 ba, with a basement. We ended up buying more house than we had initially planned, because the cheaper neighborhoods were often iffy.

[Dueller]

I'm wid ya legion. But here's my dilemma.

We just bought our house a few months ago at a discounted price. Anxious seller (doctor) who had moved out of state. We did cosmetic renovation and now have an interested buyer that will give us 20K over what we have in it. Wouldn't you know, there's another house we looked at that was more than we wanted to spend and owner has contacted us and is desparate to sell at a price less than what we would get out of the existing house. But it is even bigger at 3600 sf.

As much as I like it and its a sweetheart deal I feel it is too much house.

[legion]

And the girls are going off to college soon, no?

Your current house will feel even bigger with them gone...

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I think our place is about 900 s.f.

More than enough for me, the wife and the cats. I think anything beyond about 2,000 or so would be just ridiculous - I'd never use it.

[Joeaksa]

2000 square foot house attached to a aircraft hangar with a underground drive in garage big enough for 5-6 cars and at least 5 motorcycles!

When I win the lotto...

[nostatic]

The old house was 1900 sq ft. I think my current apt is about 1000. That's about as small as I'd want to go for myself and my son, but we were in a smaller 1br before.

I used to have a separate "studio" room for my music stuff. Now a smaller setup is part of the living room. There actually is plenty of room and we could go smaller. The key is not having a bunch of crap that you don't use/need. As long as we have 2 bedrooms we're fine...

[Scott R]

3 story, 3400 sq/ft five bedroom, three car garage, biggest mistake I've made in the last four years. It's just me and the wife, she furnished all of the bedrooms, and they just collect dust. I have to pay each week to have it cleaned, it costs too much to heat, too much to cool, and I'm always working on it.

I suggested looking into a condo, the wife will hear nothing of it. she insists thats she's retiring in this home. Top this all off, there is only one night a week that we are both home.

[berettafan]

We have maybe 1900 sf, no basement (i am soooo envious of basements!) and a 2 car garage.

When my wife complains i spend too much $$ on the 911 i say 'this house has something other than 2br and a kitchen to please YOU, not me'.

If i had a basement i'd be fine for space.

Thinking about a storage unit to get rid of the clutter cause it's a LOT cheaper than an addition right now.

[Dueller]

Originally Posted by legion

And the girls are going off to college soon, no?

Your current house will feel even bigger with them gone...

Yeah. The only advantage is that the house I can buy for a song is its a two story with dedicated HVAC...so I can close off the upstairs with 3 BR's/2baths and not heat it when they're gone. Then we would be only dealing with about 23oo sq ft to heat/cool/clean.

On a semi related note (and since you saw the RE problems as severe way back in 2005), we have paid cash for the house. I hate house payments, but with interest rates as low as they are I'm tempted to finance say 40% (c. $100K and invest in something else). But I hate house payments. What say you?

[JavaBrewer]

It all depends on the floorplan. My home is a 2 story 3900 sq/ft on slab, 5 bdrm 3.5 bath. There is so much wasted sq/ft it makes me sick. I would love to go back to a single level home, 3500 sq/ft 3 bdrm (big ones) + office (small) + game/fun room (big), 4+ bath, kitchen and family room (huge), 4 car garage, and lots of storage.

[stomachmonkey]

Place I'm leasing while we build is 1800, 3 bed 2 bath and it's claustrophobic for us. Me, wife, 2 kids, 4 cats.

New house is 4700.

No basement so the space is welcome.

I'd go even bigger if I could.

Once kids are gone we'll downsize.

[Burnin' oil]

Family of seven in 1300 sf with a finished 600 sf basement. ONE bathroom. Yahoo.