Ideal house/apt size for singles?

[Cattusbabe]

I bought a 3300 sq ft three story home when I was in my late 30's and single. That was about 1992. I'm a "space queen" and just love the place. When I got married five years ago DH and I decided to downsize. We got hit with sticker shock when we went looking for smaller places and could not get our heads around paying more for less square footage so have decided to keep this barn and remodel. Sure, we do not use all of it but the mortgage payment is low as are the property taxes and believe it or not it is really not all that expensive to maintain.

Heating it in the winter is a pain but we are working on up grading the insulation and that is keeping cost within reason.

 

[W2R]

I bought a 3300 sq ft three story home when I was in my late 30's and single. That was about 1992. I'm a "space queen" and just love the place. When I got married five years ago DH and I decided to downsize. We got hit with sticker shock when we went looking for smaller places and could not get our heads around paying more for less square footage so have decided to keep this barn and remodel. Sure, we do not use all of it but the mortgage payment is low as are the property taxes and believe it or not it is really not all that expensive to maintain.

Heating it in the winter is a pain but we are working on up grading the insulation and that is keeping cost within reason.

Interesting that it's not that expensive to maintain! Depending on how far north you are, I can imagine that heating it could be difficult so I hope the insulation will help. Thanks for the input.

 

[RunningBum]

There are ways to cope with a bigger house in winter. Use space heaters to heat the room you are in. An electric mattress pad (or blanket) keeps you cozy at night even with the heat turned way down. Luckily the cold really doesn't bother me much but I have to remember to be kind to guests that visit and remember to turn up the heat!

 

[haha]

Use space heaters to heat the room you are in. An electric mattress pad (or blanket) keeps you cozy at night even with the heat turned way down.

If you do this, do you sometimes experience mold problems? I did this when I lived out in the country for several years. In addition to being really uncomfortable, I got some mold on the windows and even on the walls.

Ha

 

[RunningBum]

If you do this, do you sometimes experience mold problems? I did this when I lived out in the country for several years. In addition to being really uncomfortable, I got some mold on the windows and even on the walls.

Ha

I haven't seen a problem with mold except a little bit in the basement.

 

[HFWR]

At a friends house close by- we play there. I can't practice as much as I want to, but I couldn't in my apt anyway becasue of noise. I do practice on conga and doumbek (the North African belly dance drum)

Ha

Ha,

Have you tried any of the midi drum kits?

 

[Martha]

If you do this, do you sometimes experience mold problems? I did this when I lived out in the country for several years. In addition to being really uncomfortable, I got some mold on the windows and even on the walls.

Ha

I think it depends on the part of the country you live in. You live in mold country. Here the air is so dry in the winter there is no way mold is going to form. We used to use a heated mattress pad to heat up the bed before getting into it at night. Pure luxury!

 

[calmloki]

No entertaining at all, no out of town guests. No hobby rooms right now since I have no time for hobbies, but might want more space for something once I am ER'd. I may want a room for a home gym, which I don't have now.

Right now I have a 1558 square foot house and actually I don't use two of the rooms much at all. However, I'm at work all the time. Maybe I would need more space once I am retired. (?) I would be home a whole lot more.

I have been looking at houses online, from 900 to 3500 square feet. I can't imagine what I'd do with the latter.

We have 600' single bedroom apartments - were i you i'd be thinking the sweet spot would be in the 1000' range to give you a bit of extra room - even that will seem like quite a downsize going from 1558'.

 

[old woman]

My plan is to have a home built I design in the country on acrege. I don't think I will have a lawn at all just forest land or meadowland all natural. I was looking at 42 acres that is fenced and cross fenced that would be nice for horse or steers or growing hay. They could eat the extra grass if I got several steers so I would just need to give them water. Steers make good neighbors, not to noisy. If they were too much trouble I could remove the fences and have the local elk herd eat the grass.
As for a house I don't need huge I had 1140 before and only got that big because resale value seemed better on a three bedroom, two bath. I didn't even have furniture for two rooms. This house is a little bigger but there are two of us now and one bedroom is a den one a guest room.
I like 3 bedrooms and 2 baths even for one person so if you remodel a bath you still can use the other or if one is broken.
When I build I will design the kitchen sink wall to share the back of both bathrooms and the the washing machine and hot water tank so I get quick hot water and only have short pipes to protect from freezing. I like a cozy little den for my desk and watching TV, no TV in the living room. I want the kitchen, living, dining and guest room and second bath where company can go and my room and den and bath as private space with a door to shut. I love the big shower that you can go in with a wheel chair. I want my home totally handicapped accessible in case I ever need that.

 

[Meadbh]

you had fun in the 60s, didn't you? hey, you could always put a houseboat on the big muddy.

just came back from taking a peek at a cheoy lee motorsailer, similar to one pictured. $200k and she'll take you around the world a few times. very tempting. if i had a partner my house would be up for sale and i'd be shopping for life jackets today. as a single guy it's gonna take more thought.

hard to judge the square footage. my first guess might be right or maybe just under 400 sf. two little heads with showers. three staterooms. two without full headroom over the bunks but the master is of decent size and not at all claustrophobic. enough windows in the pilothouse that natural light flows down into the galley/main salon. plenty of storage under decks and in bulkheads. even a washer/dryer unit hidden in solid teak cabinetry.

living small is a good exercise in efficiency. first thing i'd want to do in the galley would be install a deeper sink but investigating under the sink shows that a deeper sink would cut off a bunch of valuable storage space running back to the hull. so there's a lot of compromise but the payoffs can be enormous.

even if i don't do a boat soon i'd like to be in something smaller. i think i could be very happy vagabonding in studio apartments. for me, that's 5 extra rooms i won't have to clean.

How about a houseboat (pictured in Salmon Arm, BC)?

 

[heyyou]

Consider a small house with a finished (insulated, drywalled, sealed concrete floor) garage for extra storage. We have a covered carport/patio between the house and garage that works well in our moderately warm climate. Typically, small houses have less storage. Look for the right house then add the garage, if necessary.
As others mentioned, in snow country, get southern exposure and avoid steeply sloping driveway. Pay attention to where storm water runs off for both flooding and erosion.