I’ve just downsized to a 900sq ft one bedroom condo, a end unit with lot’s of natural sun light and I love it! Love the pool even more! Of course I had to get rid of the crap i’d been hanging onto, and dragging around for the past 35 years. Also changed my decorating style, shabby Victorian has WAY to many chochkeys. I accumulated a ton of stuff that I thought I needed to have in my life in order to feel complete, boy oh boy was I wrong! After a huge purge that I almost didn’t get through, some items I fought for my life just to keep (what a terd I was), I finally got to feel free. I never knew that I could live in such a tiny package. It showed me for the first time in my life how little of a space that I could live in and still be happy. And how I didn’t need ALL that stuff! Trust, it’s been really hard to curb my shopping addiction, after all that is what brought me to you guys! A new thing to tempt me every single day and at those bottom dollar prices, what a teaser. If I am to keep my new home clutter free I had to change my ways, for each new item I bring in I must let something go. It’s a whole new way of doing things but it wouldn’t work any other way. I was always a believer in bigger is better, not anymore! I was one of those people who always said I could never live in a condo, not anymore!
Never say never is my moto these days!
I agree with location. Lived in a 900sf home that I could spot out the window onto the neighbors garage. The house was fine, but too crowded. Then I moved to the country and couldn’t even see another neighbor when the leaves were up. That is until the guy across the street cut down all the trees, divided his plot and his friend built a house there…
@IWUJackson@therealjrn We rented a house in the country years ago that was in definite need of work, but somehow the owner thought it was better to put a bunch of mobile homes (aka trailers) in the front yard to up her income.
We moved shortly there after and couldn’t be happier.
What good is a giant house if you can’t get Pizza Delivery? LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!!!
Our current house can get pizza delivered from 5 different shops as well as Groceries and Alcohol from various stores, like Wegman’s, CostCo, Giant, Lidel and more… Everything gets delivered. We never have to leave the house!!! (Shipt, Instacart, Postmates and Grubhub are our usual providers.)
Bought our current house at about 900sq ft on an acre on the edge of town for 15K in 1988. Over the years the city has hauled off about 80% of it as I ripped out 1/4" sheet rock and old double hung windows with sash weights that had broken loose and fallen into the walls, moved interior walls, re-roofed it, expanded it etc.
It now has:
new sheetrock and is insulated throughout
new wiring to replace the old ‘post and knob’ stuff
new plumbing
new gas lines and 2 gas fireplaces
new windows and doors
new porches and decks
about 1800 sq ft now plus 800 sq ft shop/storage building
in-ground pool/hot tub
512 ft (two story 16x16) pool house/guest apt./future Air BnB?
and a bunch of custom kitchen cabinets and built-ins such as 4x6 walk-in dual head glassblock shower, garden tub, tile surrounds etc.
current value 120K +
Most all the work was done “pay-as-you-go” by me
Do I love my current house… yes
Do I wish I had burned down the old place and started over from scratch… definitely!
The size is obviously very dependent on the number of people and their needs, not to mention their ages and ability to spend. This is not a survey that will have a meaningful result. Sorry. (I did vote).
@dannybeans I spent the better part of a year living in tents while working in the outdoors… works well except in the pouring rain. Of course I also had stuff stored in my car too for when I was back at basecamp and between courses. Also lived in someone’s shed with use of their house. A little small in there but then again I was only trying to keep me, my cats and my stuff in there. I used my friend’s house for everything else.
@Oldelvis I wish that the inside of my house was a little smaller and the garage was a little bigger.
They don’t build too many real two-car garages around where I live.
Instead, they build “two-car” garages that are really just oversized one-car garages with an extra wide door. I don’t know how much money that saves in construction, but it’s pretty annoying.
3000+. You should be able to play tennis indoors next to your indoor olympic-size swimming pool and have half a dozen parasite relatives staying in the guest suites.
tbh this relies on me knowing the size of our current one bedroom apartment which…i don’t. and i also have poor spatial relation skills. but given the size of our bathroom i tried to guesstimate and i think i’d be okay with 500 or less but i picked the next size up just in case.
it would be nice to have one more room so my partner could have a nice office/gaming room, maybe with a couch for that one in a million chance a guest would have to crash for a night.
otherwise i’m content with size - it’s definitely more the amenities/extras/finishes i’m concerned with. a deck would be a must have, as well as lots of windows and good sunlight, off street parking, a washer & a dryer, a gas stove, a pantry, hardwood floors, smooth non-horsehair plaster walls, a bathroom with a tub. no oil heat. mature trees in the vicinity. if i’m getting greedy, a little yard space to garden would be sweet. if i’m truly dreaming, a pool. and if i’ve just completely lost my mind, on the beach (or a very short walk to the beach) somewhere in new england.
My house is about 1200 sq ft, and it’s fine. I wouldn’t want to go any bigger because we’d just fill it with more unnecessary stuff. It would probably be good for us to go smaller, maybe 850-900.
The bigger the house, the more crap (that you don’t need) to fill it with. How about a 800 sq ft place with a 1000 sq ft garage (for projects, not storage)?
@goldnectar The bigger the house, the more crap I do need!
Along with my 2500 sq ft house, I have a 1500 sq ft workshop. I need every sq ft for all my valuable crap!
My current house is just over 1000. While it’s completely fine since I’m by myself, I wish my kitchen, master bedroom and bathroom were bigger. My guest bath vanity is bigger than my master, but my master was converted to a tiled shower so I use that.
Sometimes I think about ripping out the wall and closet between my master and guest bedroom and making one giant room. Doubt it would be good for resale. I don’t care that much about resale, however. I know most people will hate my kitchen when I’m done with it. Hopefully this year.
@Kidsandliz@RiotDemon Doing things to your house for ‘resale’ value is almost always a losing proposition. Any changes (within reason) need to be to make you happy during the next “X” number of years you will be there.
/giphy be true to yourself
My house is just over 3000. But we currently have 3 kids under age 7, with one more due in a few weeks, plus one in college lives here over the summer. The littles are 2 to a room so it’s enough space, but I can’t see us being able to go any smaller at this point.
Do want a single family home with a patio/deck for grilling and sitting outside, and room for a small raised bed garden would be nice. At least a little distance to any neighbors’ houses.
#1 daily living requirement: a second bathroom, at least a powder room. No waiting on the only available potty.
#2 - A workshop and garage, or a very large garage for actually working on my old car and getting my wife’s car into the garage; can’t do it in our current crackerbox garage.
#3 - a spare room above and beyond a second bedroom to use as a den/library and maybe computer room.
#4 - A decent kitchen with enough counter and storage space. Pantry would be awesome.
#5 - reasonable size master suite with decent closet space.
Outside of the workshop/garage I think that will fit in 1500 -2000 square feet easily.
@Fen_Star I guess it just depends on what you feel ‘normal’ is? My current house is about 900sqft, and I want to go smaller. From the poll results, though, it looks like I may be the only person so far to select the 501-1000 option, so it looks like I may be much less ‘average’ than I’d thought I was
In Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, authors John de Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor examine the country’s love affair with ever-larger houses, and point out that just after World War II, the size of an average, newly-built home (in Levittown, for example) was just 750 square feet.
@Fen_Star@therealjrn I’d be curious where the auther is getting that 750 sq. ft. number. Everything I’ve ever seen on paper indicates the average was more like 1200 square feet.
Though the end of World War II was an aberration. That’s when tract homes and suburban subdivisions really picked up. I can absolutely believe that the immediate end of World War II saw a boom in two-bedroom “starter home” construction.
We sold our 3800 sqft, 3 car garage mini mansion to live in our “retirement” home of 1800 sqft. Yes, the 3 kids moved out so we didn’t need the big place. I miss it. Always don’t have room for anything, anymore.
To me, 2500 is the perfect house size. Bigger than 3000 would be too cumbersome to maintain and less than 1500 would be too cramped for any other than a single person or a fairly minimalist couple.
@infornography My wife, first 2 kids, and I lived in a 1400sqft house for 4 years. It was fine. I also had an unfinished basement to myself (that was glorious).
Yeah after living the last 8 years or so in du/triplexes I’m ready to live in a decent-sized house. Just too much shit between my roommate and I taking up too much space
@chienfou@therealjrn Well some property mangers are great. I have had a few. Others are total jerks. Had a few of those too. The better part of wisdom would be to be one of the “good” ones for the same reasons it pays off to be a good manager and not a jerk manager.
@Kidsandliz@therealjrn Sorry… didn’t mean to cast such a large net with that comment, it was really just a reference to her current situation as seen here.
I am the first to stand up for property rights, which is one reason I live in Alabama where I can do pretty much what I want to my own property. I do, however, have issues with people that abuse their ‘power’ by ignoring the set rules/regs that apply to them. There is a right way and a wrong way to do that kind of thing…
Landlords, like attorneys, get shafted by default in the court of public opinion. That sux.
A lawyer wanted to buy an apartment for his family, but kept being denied by landlords because he had 8 kids.
People keep telling him to lie about how many kids he has, but being a lawyer, he feels too guilty to lie. One day, however, he decides that enough is enough. He tells his wife to take the 7 younger kids with her and go to the cemetery. He then takes the oldest kid and brings him to visit a new apartment. They go over the details of the lease, and right before the man signed the papers, the landlord asked him a last question: “Do you have any other kids?” The lawyer answers: “I have seven others, but they’re at the cemetery with their mother.”
Landlords, like attorneys, get shafted by default in the court of public opinion. That sux.
If there weren’t some truth to stereotypes, they wouldn’t be stereotypes.
Until landlords, lawyers, “rogue” cops, fundamentalist bigots of all stripes, etc. stand by and don’t act to clean their own houses, then yeah, it sucks to belong to a shitty tribe the public will paint with a broad brush.
We’ve got 6 people in our house consisting of my wife, 3 kids, and my mom (soon to be 2 kids thanks to college). it’s somewhere around 2600 sqft and it’s a good size. Mom has her own kitchen so that helps and the basement is finished.
@Limewater According to the town, it’s not included, but that 2600 number includes the basement. I included it because we use it. The assessor has us at something around 1950sqft.
currently in an 1850 sqft house with 440 sqft garage…I’d happily swap those 2 numbers if it wasn’t for the 2 kids still at home and the wife that doesn’t really want to live in the shop most of the time…
With 4 kids the house was a lot tighter but saying we “need” more is a direct nod to first world problems for sure.
The bigger the house, the more the room for fridges and batteries. Win-win!
Location.
@eonfifty Location.
@eonfifty @therealjrn Location
@eonfifty @ybmuG Those are the 3 rules for real estate.
@therealjrn @ybmuG
/giphy nice
@eonfifty @therealjrn @ybmuG Wait a minute - what were those rules again?
@eonfifty @macromeh @therealjrn @ybmuG
They are located above
Don’t really care about the home size. Location is most important. A beach home is Santa Barbara preferred.
I’ve just downsized to a 900sq ft one bedroom condo, a end unit with lot’s of natural sun light and I love it! Love the pool even more! Of course I had to get rid of the crap i’d been hanging onto, and dragging around for the past 35 years. Also changed my decorating style, shabby Victorian has WAY to many chochkeys. I accumulated a ton of stuff that I thought I needed to have in my life in order to feel complete, boy oh boy was I wrong! After a huge purge that I almost didn’t get through, some items I fought for my life just to keep (what a terd I was), I finally got to feel free. I never knew that I could live in such a tiny package. It showed me for the first time in my life how little of a space that I could live in and still be happy. And how I didn’t need ALL that stuff! Trust, it’s been really hard to curb my shopping addiction, after all that is what brought me to you guys! A new thing to tempt me every single day and at those bottom dollar prices, what a teaser. If I am to keep my new home clutter free I had to change my ways, for each new item I bring in I must let something go. It’s a whole new way of doing things but it wouldn’t work any other way. I was always a believer in bigger is better, not anymore! I was one of those people who always said I could never live in a condo, not anymore!
Never say never is my moto these days!
@Lynnerizer that’s why there is an eBay and Craig’s list.
@bayportbob @Lynnerizer Yay! So we can buy more stuff?
As long as we get all of our family in it it’s the right size.
I need one the next size up from mine. Then I’ll need the next one up say…2 years later.
And so on. I’ll probably need to stop when I get to nine bathrooms and a 5 car garage, with a nice view. Kthnxbai.
@therealjrn Soooo many fridges and batteries…
I agree with location. Lived in a 900sf home that I could spot out the window onto the neighbors garage. The house was fine, but too crowded. Then I moved to the country and couldn’t even see another neighbor when the leaves were up. That is until the guy across the street cut down all the trees, divided his plot and his friend built a house there…
@IWUJackson grrr
@IWUJackson @therealjrn We rented a house in the country years ago that was in definite need of work, but somehow the owner thought it was better to put a bunch of mobile homes (aka trailers) in the front yard to up her income.
We moved shortly there after and couldn’t be happier.
What good is a giant house if you can’t get Pizza Delivery? LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!!!
Our current house can get pizza delivered from 5 different shops as well as Groceries and Alcohol from various stores, like Wegman’s, CostCo, Giant, Lidel and more… Everything gets delivered. We never have to leave the house!!! (Shipt, Instacart, Postmates and Grubhub are our usual providers.)
@xenophod ez quarantine
Bought our current house at about 900sq ft on an acre on the edge of town for 15K in 1988. Over the years the city has hauled off about 80% of it as I ripped out 1/4" sheet rock and old double hung windows with sash weights that had broken loose and fallen into the walls, moved interior walls, re-roofed it, expanded it etc.
It now has:
new sheetrock and is insulated throughout
new wiring to replace the old ‘post and knob’ stuff
new plumbing
new gas lines and 2 gas fireplaces
new windows and doors
new porches and decks
about 1800 sq ft now plus 800 sq ft shop/storage building
in-ground pool/hot tub
512 ft (two story 16x16) pool house/guest apt./future Air BnB?
and a bunch of custom kitchen cabinets and built-ins such as 4x6 walk-in dual head glassblock shower, garden tub, tile surrounds etc.
current value 120K +
Most all the work was done “pay-as-you-go” by me
Do I love my current house… yes
Do I wish I had burned down the old place and started over from scratch… definitely!
@chienfou Good work! (And a lot of it!)
@andyw thanks. I am especially proud of my choice in mates since she had to put up with all that shit over 30+ years!
@chienfou Yes, she must be very understanding and patient.
@andyw … she’s been married to ME for 42+ years… so YES, she is!
The size is obviously very dependent on the number of people and their needs, not to mention their ages and ability to spend. This is not a survey that will have a meaningful result. Sorry. (I did vote).
@andyw ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT MEH POLLS ARE NOT MEANINGFUL?
@therealjrn I hate to be the one to tell you…
@andyw @therealjrn
too late!
Living in a one-bedroom apartment, I’d be comfortable in a small-to-medium sized house. I’d say 44,000 sq. ft is probably about right.
I’d live in a shed if I had plenty of reading material and a few acres to roam.
@dannybeans Found the Unabomber.
@dannybeans I spent the better part of a year living in tents while working in the outdoors… works well except in the pouring rain. Of course I also had stuff stored in my car too for when I was back at basecamp and between courses. Also lived in someone’s shed with use of their house. A little small in there but then again I was only trying to keep me, my cats and my stuff in there. I used my friend’s house for everything else.
How big is a standard 40’ shipping container?
@tweezak I think it’s, like, about 40’
@tweezak 320sf.
https://www.curbed.com/2017/6/21/15839730/shipping-container-house-for-sale-buy
@RiotDemon That sounds just about right for my wife’s clothes, shoes and purses.
@RiotDemon @tweezak
Instant walk-in closet…
I could use any house, but it need a large 2-3 car garage…
@Oldelvis I wish that the inside of my house was a little smaller and the garage was a little bigger.
They don’t build too many real two-car garages around where I live.
Instead, they build “two-car” garages that are really just oversized one-car garages with an extra wide door. I don’t know how much money that saves in construction, but it’s pretty annoying.
3000+. You should be able to play tennis indoors next to your indoor olympic-size swimming pool and have half a dozen parasite relatives staying in the guest suites.
/giphy beverly hills mansion
tbh this relies on me knowing the size of our current one bedroom apartment which…i don’t. and i also have poor spatial relation skills. but given the size of our bathroom i tried to guesstimate and i think i’d be okay with 500 or less but i picked the next size up just in case.
it would be nice to have one more room so my partner could have a nice office/gaming room, maybe with a couch for that one in a million chance a guest would have to crash for a night.
otherwise i’m content with size - it’s definitely more the amenities/extras/finishes i’m concerned with. a deck would be a must have, as well as lots of windows and good sunlight, off street parking, a washer & a dryer, a gas stove, a pantry, hardwood floors, smooth non-horsehair plaster walls, a bathroom with a tub. no oil heat. mature trees in the vicinity. if i’m getting greedy, a little yard space to garden would be sweet. if i’m truly dreaming, a pool. and if i’ve just completely lost my mind, on the beach (or a very short walk to the beach) somewhere in new england.
@jerk_nugget
I’m gonna rent your guest house since we’re dreamin big here!!
My house is about 1200 sq ft, and it’s fine. I wouldn’t want to go any bigger because we’d just fill it with more unnecessary stuff. It would probably be good for us to go smaller, maybe 850-900.
The bigger the house, the more crap (that you don’t need) to fill it with. How about a 800 sq ft place with a 1000 sq ft garage (for projects, not storage)?
@goldnectar The bigger the house, the more crap I do need!
Along with my 2500 sq ft house, I have a 1500 sq ft workshop. I need every sq ft for all my valuable crap!
@daveinwarsh
Our home is 2500 sq ft.
That’s plenty large enough, now that the kids are grown and gone.
@daveinwarsh And before the kids left?
@Fen_Star
The house seemed pretty small at times with the kids still home.
My current house is just over 1000. While it’s completely fine since I’m by myself, I wish my kitchen, master bedroom and bathroom were bigger. My guest bath vanity is bigger than my master, but my master was converted to a tiled shower so I use that.
Sometimes I think about ripping out the wall and closet between my master and guest bedroom and making one giant room. Doubt it would be good for resale. I don’t care that much about resale, however. I know most people will hate my kitchen when I’m done with it. Hopefully this year.
And of course I would love a bigger garage to store all my decorations for Halloween and Christmas.
@RiotDemon I would imagine your yard is a priority too… gotta have room for those decorations
@Kidsandliz I’m actually content with the size of my yard as is.
@RiotDemon That’s good. I hate yard work so I always wanted a small one.
@Kidsandliz @RiotDemon Doing things to your house for ‘resale’ value is almost always a losing proposition. Any changes (within reason) need to be to make you happy during the next “X” number of years you will be there.
/giphy be true to yourself
My house is just over 3000. But we currently have 3 kids under age 7, with one more due in a few weeks, plus one in college lives here over the summer. The littles are 2 to a room so it’s enough space, but I can’t see us being able to go any smaller at this point.
@memini That is a lot of kids. Vacations must be a fortune.
@zinimusprime Most of our summer vacations are with extended family, so we share the load fairly well. I am dreading the food bill in a few years.
@memini @zinimusprime
congrats on the upcoming newbie!
Good lord, I cannot even imagine being anchored down with than many kids.
Do want a single family home with a patio/deck for grilling and sitting outside, and room for a small raised bed garden would be nice. At least a little distance to any neighbors’ houses.
#1 daily living requirement: a second bathroom, at least a powder room. No waiting on the only available potty.
#2 - A workshop and garage, or a very large garage for actually working on my old car and getting my wife’s car into the garage; can’t do it in our current crackerbox garage.
#3 - a spare room above and beyond a second bedroom to use as a den/library and maybe computer room.
#4 - A decent kitchen with enough counter and storage space. Pantry would be awesome.
#5 - reasonable size master suite with decent closet space.
Outside of the workshop/garage I think that will fit in 1500 -2000 square feet easily.
A “normal” home is ~2500 so shouldn’t that be a middle choice? I don’t think I can even store all the crap I have bought from here in 500 sq feet.
@Fen_Star “In 2017, the median size of a newly-built American single-family home was 2,426 square feet, according to US Census Bureau data.”
@Fen_Star I guess it just depends on what you feel ‘normal’ is? My current house is about 900sqft, and I want to go smaller. From the poll results, though, it looks like I may be the only person so far to select the 501-1000 option, so it looks like I may be much less ‘average’ than I’d thought I was
@Fen_Star
@Fen_Star Is that just houses? Or does it include apartments, duplexes et al.
@spitfire6006006 single family home would mean they are only include stand alone houses.
@therealjrn And if you go back far enough people shat in pots then dumped them onto the streets.
@Fen_Star I hear they just go ahead and shat in the California streets directly nowadays.
@togle that is what I picked too. I currently live in about 525sf and that is too small. I’d like about 900-1000. With a nice big 8’ deep front porch.
@Fen_Star and the family size after WWII was pretty large, the baby boom happened in 750 or so sq. ft.
@Fen_Star @therealjrn I’d be curious where the auther is getting that 750 sq. ft. number. Everything I’ve ever seen on paper indicates the average was more like 1200 square feet.
Though the end of World War II was an aberration. That’s when tract homes and suburban subdivisions really picked up. I can absolutely believe that the immediate end of World War II saw a boom in two-bedroom “starter home” construction.
@Limewater @therealjrn I had to read that book as well as Lies my Teacher Told Me in college. IIRC they both had some rather selective citations.
We sold our 3800 sqft, 3 car garage mini mansion to live in our “retirement” home of 1800 sqft. Yes, the 3 kids moved out so we didn’t need the big place. I miss it. Always don’t have room for anything, anymore.
@olperfesser, sounds like you’re too addicted to stuff. How much stuff do you really need?
To me, 2500 is the perfect house size. Bigger than 3000 would be too cumbersome to maintain and less than 1500 would be too cramped for any other than a single person or a fairly minimalist couple.
you’d hate the 900 sq ft I live in with my “friend.”
@infornography My wife, first 2 kids, and I lived in a 1400sqft house for 4 years. It was fine. I also had an unfinished basement to myself (that was glorious).
nahhh. It’s all about living in a beautiful area to drive around in
What size is Palatial?
Buckingham Palace/Floor space
828,820 ft²
@phendrick see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_largest_palace
Yeah after living the last 8 years or so in du/triplexes I’m ready to live in a decent-sized house. Just too much shit between my roommate and I taking up too much space
@spitfire6006006 It is the noise through the walls that bothers me in multi unit living.
@Kidsandliz … not to mention the asshats that manage them… amiright?
@chienfou @Kidsandliz HEY! Property managers are people too! I can’t help it if we don’t get all those lovey-dovey bumper stickers like the nurses do.
@chienfou @therealjrn Well some property mangers are great. I have had a few. Others are total jerks. Had a few of those too. The better part of wisdom would be to be one of the “good” ones for the same reasons it pays off to be a good manager and not a jerk manager.
@Kidsandliz @therealjrn Sorry… didn’t mean to cast such a large net with that comment, it was really just a reference to her current situation as seen here.
I am the first to stand up for property rights, which is one reason I live in Alabama where I can do pretty much what I want to my own property. I do, however, have issues with people that abuse their ‘power’ by ignoring the set rules/regs that apply to them. There is a right way and a wrong way to do that kind of thing…
Landlords, like attorneys, get shafted by default in the court of public opinion. That sux.
@chienfou @Kidsandliz Here’s a two-fer!
@chienfou @Kidsandliz Seriously though, landlords are sooo stuck up. They act like they own the place!
@Kidsandliz @therealjrn
/giphy rimshot
@chienfou @Kidsandliz
If there weren’t some truth to stereotypes, they wouldn’t be stereotypes.
Until landlords, lawyers, “rogue” cops, fundamentalist bigots of all stripes, etc. stand by and don’t act to clean their own houses, then yeah, it sucks to belong to a shitty tribe the public will paint with a broad brush.
@Kidsandliz @mike808 WTF Hunhhhh? Do you mean like immigrants and blacks?
We’ve got 6 people in our house consisting of my wife, 3 kids, and my mom (soon to be 2 kids thanks to college). it’s somewhere around 2600 sqft and it’s a good size. Mom has her own kitchen so that helps and the basement is finished.
@zinimusprime Is the 2600 sq. ft. including the basement or not? Standards on that seem to vary by state.
@Limewater According to the town, it’s not included, but that 2600 number includes the basement. I included it because we use it. The assessor has us at something around 1950sqft.
I prefer a simple life. 800-900 sq ft is good for two people.
@kittykat9180 with a garage, of course.
currently in an 1850 sqft house with 440 sqft garage…I’d happily swap those 2 numbers if it wasn’t for the 2 kids still at home and the wife that doesn’t really want to live in the shop most of the time…
With 4 kids the house was a lot tighter but saying we “need” more is a direct nod to first world problems for sure.