So, How Big IS Your House?

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg Wow ! You really need to consider downsizing . Now is the RV added in those measurements ?

No, I missed it! Thanks for pointing out my oversight.

Add another 380 SF...

[UncleHoney]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbbamI Lovely patio area UncleHoney. I'm beginning to feel like I live in a hobbit hole.

Thanks. Something to enjoy in retirement. Now if it will just warm up so we can enjoy it.

[theHundt]

2096, 3 bedroom, 2.25 bath (full, half and 3/4) 2 Car garage with bonus above it, which is now our master bedroom, 3 other bedrooms which are a sewing/craft room, home office (I work from home), and a guest room (closet full of extra stuff). We also have a dining room that I use as my home gym. I could definitely see needing more space with 2+ kids and would love to have a basement/man cave someday :-)

[Dawg52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleHoney We're just about 1600 sqft plus a full finished basement. Three bedrooms, 1-1/2 bath built in 1930. First floor, living room, formal dining room, sunroom, 1/2 bath, eat-in kitchen. Second floor, three bedrooms, 1 bath. Basement, computer room, finished laundry with walk-in closet, family room and storage room. Gas heat and central air. Four car garage/workshop. A view of the old shack from the patio.

Very nice. Not large compared to others here, but I bet it is worth a nice chunk of change. My house is just a little over 1100 sq feet. All I need for now . Not in the best neighborhood but close to my 90 year old mom and 96 year old aunt. Need to stay close by.

By the descriptions of some of these houses and neighborhoods, I should banned from this site.

[Meadbh]

Utah seems to have many McMansions, sometimes justified by LARGE families. SteveR, how many people live in your McMansion? I'm thinking maybe we should all come visit (at the same time)!

1240 sq ft here. Size about right.

[Zipper]

We have a 5 level brick backsplit situated on a cul-de-sac. The lot is 1/3 of an acre backing onto a wooded greenspace with boardwalked trails.

We moved in new in 1983 and I have extensively landscaped over the years adding a large pond about 9 years ago. I use my own compost to enrich our flower beds and mature trees (sugar maple 80'., red oak 80', mulberry, white pine 90', gingko 60', Japanese red maple 30' Colorado Spruce 80' and a humungous Trumpet Vine). You should see my "big deck"!

The yard is fully wood fenced and the single garage is oversized.

3 levels are finished @ ~ 1900 sq. ft. and the 2 lower levels are semi-finished.

The house would market @ $275 000 and the property taxes are $3000. We will probably stay here another 25 years.

They say multi-level houses add 10 years to your life.

[travelover]

If I include my barn, should I account for the loft separately ?

[ziggy29]

We live in an older (1944) rock home that's about 1150 sf. We downsized when we moved, down from a 2270 sf 4/2.5 ranch style house we owned in Houston.

The property tax and utility bills are so much nicer now. And whenever I see a nice, big and expensive house on HGTV and other home shows like that, my first thought is no longer how much I'd love to have the house, but rather how much I'd hate to pay the property taxes and the cooling/heating bills!

[tightasadrum]

I mentioned in another post about how I got roped into ended up with this place, way more space than we now, or ever did, need. But it's a very nice location: quiet 8-1/2 acres, 9-12 acre lake, wildlife everywhere, did I mention quiet?

3000 sf plus full daylight basement already half full of stuff...what IS this stuff? Master BR, Living Room, Kitchen & den overlooking the lake with a covered 10'x50' porch on the back, where I spend 8-months of the year, two car garage, and a covered front porch with two porch swings and two large old wicker rockers and a view of the old water oak and magnolia trees. Upstairs has two bedrooms and two baths and lots of places to store MORE stuff. Total of 3-1/2 bathrooms. But that doesn't seem to be enough.

I plan to build a guys room/bar and home theater in the basement, not because I need it, but because I need MY place to go when it's too hot or cold for the back porch. Do you married guys have this problem: no matter how small a place I carve out to do my stuff (pay bills, plan AA, plan projects), it is unacceptable to DW who wants to gather it all up and pile it in the corner of the closet or something. You would think 3000 minus 100 sf, ie 2900sf, would be plenty for any woman. Nope, get your trash outta here. So I'm driven to the basement to lay out my stuff where I can leave it stacked any way I want to, so I can find it, work on it as I please. Go figure.

[Zathras]

When we built we specifically built a man cave for me. My wonderful wife has a craft room and we share the exercise room downstairs. But the man cave is all mine (bwahahahahahahahaha). Of course, I am always happy to listen to 'suggestions'

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover If I include my barn, should I account for the loft separately ?

Yes.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dawg52 By the descriptions of some of these houses and neighborhoods, I should banned from this site.

Not to worry. I live in a 500+ foot one bedroom apartment, and I am glad of it. Every evening I walk down the street I am glad that I don't live in a doorway. (As an aside, these homeless people get very sharp and figuring out the warmest driest places to hole up for the night.)

I am having trouble reconciling these mansions with the budget and spending discussions we have.

You guys only buy wholesale?

Ha

[Nords]

Ye gods you people are livin' large. Here the lot sizes are measured in square feet and people build their ohana homes out right to the lot line. New construction is usually 1600 sq ft, two stories on a slab in a 4000 sq ft lot. We buy 'em beat up in their midlife crisis so we tend to get larger places for less money.

We have a 2400 sq ft 4BR 2.5BA on 15,688 sq ft of cul-de-sac-- next to a sewage booster pumping station. (REW, we also have a 400 sq ft garage and a couple 225 sq ft lanai.) Most of the neighborhood lots are 7000 sq ft but the developer couldn't figure out how to squeeze one more into our large steeply-sloped back yard below the sewage plant. The previous owner also built a 16x12 "storage shed" on the back slope. Locally this is a white elephant trophy home but realistically it's a cleaning & maintenance hassle with an orchard. A local family just started up a charity distributing harvest fruit to elderly shut-ins and we're about to become their best buddies.

I thought we were over the top when we upgraded our rental's 4BR 2BA 1873 sq ft by screening in the 400 sq ft lanai. That's on a 5402 sq ft lot (no idea who's in charge of determining the lot size's fourth & fifth significant digits).

A typical day is spent with spouse in the livingroom and me in the familyroom, meeting in the kitchen or at the home-improvement project site. Our kid has filled every horizontal surface with her crap (spouse isn't far behind) but when we become empty-nesters we'll have two extra bedrooms and a study mainly used for storage.

Our "dream house" was a 1400 sq ft two-story condo/townhouse with two master suites, a back deck, and a 6'x6' front yard. We hardly spent any time there unless we were sleeping or hosting the party. I'd go back to that in a heartbeat if we could do it in a quiet neighborhood-- with adequate longboard storage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveR a large cold storge room 20X20 (Utah requirement).

Do I really want to know what Utah requires you to store in a large cold room?

[calmloki]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tightasadrum ...I plan to build a guys room/bar and home theater in the basement, not because I need it, but because I need MY place to go when it's too hot or cold for the back porch. Do you married guys have this problem: no matter how small a place I carve out to do my stuff (pay bills, plan AA, plan projects), it is unacceptable to DW who wants to gather it all up and pile it in the corner of the closet or something. You would think 3000 minus 100 sf, ie 2900sf, would be plenty for any woman. Nope, get your trash outta here. So I'm driven to the basement to lay out my stuff where I can leave it stacked any way I want to, so I can find it, work on it as I please. Go figure.

Isn't it strange? I do chronological vertical filing on my desk and can find most of the important stuff quickly. Been advised that my filing system is unhygenic and visually unacceptable, so every now and again i come home to find the desk looking much better and stuff neatly filed away in an attractive logical (to her) manner. Takes me weeks to find the stuff i need. She (rarely) does the same thing to the garage, and it does look better. Just not handy. For some reason the baskets overflowing with her shoes are ok.... In the main though, the cats and i have decided it's much more comfortable with her around, so we put up with her clean/de-clutter quirks. We agree that it's pretty big of us.

[HFWR]

1650sf, 3-2-2

I own a brick... house...

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Seems when we designed the house we had 0 grandkids, and 9 years later we have 5. Stuff happens...

You didnt childproof well enough. We did a pretty good job but one got in despite our efforts.

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny You didnt childproof well enough. We did a pretty good job but one got in despite our efforts.

Just poking fun at her, but she took you seriously?

[bots2019]

1100 finished SF, although 400 of that is in the 1/2 story upstairs. We consider it a 'guest room' and luxury walk-in closet (read: junk storage), so we pretty much live in the other 700 SF. Seemed to work out pretty well until we had a baby last year, now I think the lack of space is endangering our sanity. In the market for an upgrade the next year or two, not sure but will probably aim for something around 3000-3500 SF.

Oh, and my lot's 6000 SF (a pretty quick mowing job)!

[TromboneAl]

I wish I could figure out a way to decrease the size of our 2000 sq ft house, now that we're empty nesters.

You might think that you could just close off the unused rooms, and not have to heat or clean them, but they get stuffy and dusty. I usually close them off every other day.
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[KB]

1670 sf 3 bed/2 bath one story, no basement. I have a 2 car garage also.

This is my downsized house; I only have 1 kid left at home and he'll be out within a year or so. Then I'll have a craft/hobby/sewing room and a guest bedroom. Can't wait.

I think my lot is 6000 sf...wish it was larger but it is what it is. My house is almost 4 years old and unless I could find another year old home that I like on a larger lot, I'm here for awhile. And while the value has dropped, it's still a $400K home, give or take a little. So, if I downsize again, I'll have some cash to add to my portfolio.