So, How Big IS Your House?

[SteveR]

Inspired by another thread. How many square feet is your primary apt, condo, house, etc.? So folks seem to be able to live well in a small amount of space and others need more "elbow room" to be happy.

We have rather large home. That is like saying an elephant is a rather large mamal. The previous house was abut 3500 sq. ft. but had an unfinished basement which was about 2000 sq. ft. Every foot of it was stacked with "stuff". My late wife collected anything and everything and kept it. She had family photos, old faded home movies, dishes and pots and pans from distant aunts and grandmothers. She loved to shop and did a lot of it. The result was more stuff than we needed yet she was not about to get rid of it.

We moved in 2002 and had to find a house large enough to hold all the "stuff" as well as being a primary residence with at least 4 bedrooms for kids still in school and the occasional family member visit. When we looked at houses it was the dead of winter and just before Christmas. There were just not that many houses on the market that came close and we were on a short time-line to get out of our current home so finding a suitable new one was a race.

The result was a McMansion in a McMansion area of town. We have an "average" home here and feel like the trailer trash of the subdivision. We don't have much in common with our fellow McMansion owners other than sheer size of house.

Ok. Here is my stats:
House: 6450 finished sq. ft. on three floors. 7 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 powder rooms and two additonal vanities with sinks. 3 car oversized side entry garage, 0.65 acres with a very steep hill behind the house with a built in waterfall (man made). Two decks, 3 patios, a gazebo and a potting shed are in the back yard. Two family rooms, living room, laundry room, all closets are walk-in. 4 of the bedrooms are in the basement. One is an office, one is an exercise room, one is a kids playroom and the other is just storage. There is also a full kitchen in the basement and a large cold storge room 20X20 (Utah requirement).
Two AC units, two furnaces, two hot water heaters, central vac. and whole house water softner and storage rounds out the utility room.

Every closet was full. Every drawer in every room was full. We believe we are down to a 3500-4000 sq. ft house if we keep the kids room as such. We may have to rent a storage bay for a while before we get a change to Ebay off some of the other stuff that won't fit.

Anybody want 300 Benie Babies?

[unclemick]

1970 - suburban aka 3 bedroom, 1 bath, garage has been enclosed and made into a room off the kitchen at some point in the past - 1100 sq ft. Two people, two dogs, one cat. Unfinished basement - furnace and laundry, and lots of empty space. 2005.

Pre Katrina - fish camp over Lake Ponchartrain 1345 sq ft.

Left with Jimmy Buffett shirts, two file cabinets of DRIP plans - had to buy from silverware dishes on up to clothes and furniture.

Sept 2005 - to now stuff multiplies cause I do not remember buying all the junk I now own!

heh heh heh - I suspect constraining sq footage is the only discipline that works!

[clifp]

No offense but you couldn't give me a house that big. Mostly because I fear all that stuff that would accumulate in such a monsterous place. How many total people live their.. imagine having to play hide and seek in such a house.

My just over 2000' place seems big to me.

[chinaco]

Large Ranch. 3400 finished sq ft Brick house on 1.5 acres in metro area partially wooded.

• Main floor 2200 Sq Ft
  • 3 bedrooms
  • Huge living room with fireplace(open floor plan cathedral ceiling)
  • 2 full baths Main Floor
  • Very large Kitchen with counters and breakfast nook with table chairs.
  • Dining room.
  • Nice walkout deck.
• Very large walk out (Daylight) basement (full windows). I really like fully exposed walkout basements! about 1200 sq foot finished
  • Full bath
  • Large TV media Room (could be used as a bedroom -- huge)
  • Very large (700 sq foot) entertainment room with a Bar, pool table, other game tables plus another TV for baseball and football games, one half included a fire place, with a couch, love seat, chairs, ect.
  • Large workshop and storage area
  • Several large closets for storage

We will downsize in the next few years. We are going to target a ranch (new or nearly new) about 1500 - 1800 sq ft with a small yard.

There are not many houses around us with large yards and green space. I figure we will be able to sell it fairly easily to someone who desires that type of setting. Our house is nice. But equivalents that are near by (the few that are available on 1+ acres) sell for about $100k - $150k more.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveR House: 6450 finished sq. ft. on three floors. 7 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 powder rooms and two additonal vanities with sinks. 3 car oversized side entry garage, 0.65 acres with a very steep hill behind the house with a built in waterfall (man made). Two decks, 3 patios, a gazebo and a potting shed are in the back yard. Two family rooms, living room, laundry room, all closets are walk-in. 4 of the bedrooms are in the basement. One is an office, one is an exercise room, one is a kids playroom and the other is just storage. There is also a full kitchen in the basement and a large cold storge room 20X20 (Utah requirement). Two AC units, two furnaces, two hot water heaters, central vac. and whole house water softner and storage rounds out the utility room.

Good grief...

And after reading all the LWaaaayBYM tiny Sq Ft house posts, here I was feeling guilty about 2,750 Sq Ft for the two of us. 400 of that is a screened in porch we converted into a play room a couple of years after building the house. It has its own heating/cooling that we don't turn on unless the grandkids are here - which is why we had it built in the first place. Seems when we designed the house we had 0 grandkids, and 9 years later we have 5.

Stuff happens...

[OAG]

About 3,600 SF but we do not use the 700 or so upstairs (Guest Bed, Bath and Loft Area) or the finished part of the basement 700 or so. We "live" on the first floor (MBR, BA, 1/2 BA, LR, DR, KITCHEN. We use the unfinished part of the basement the most (700 SF) for Computer, Exercise area with TV, full bath. So although we have about 3,600 SF we only "use" about 2,200. Ranch Style Condo, end unit. 2.5 Car Garage. May downsize in a few years but we just "downsized" from 2,500 Home (4 BR 3 BA) in Florida to this Condo in central Ohio.

[amy5708]

The house we just sold was almost 4000 sq ft. We dumped and decluttered and moved down to a 2400 sq ft house.

After 6 more months of decluttering and selling, we now do not use 3 of the rooms of this house. I gave the girls the formal living/ dining rooms for a media room (put a futon in there), and use one of the bedrooms for storage!

I will never have a house that big again; I want a smaller house and a bigger RV!

[dumpster56]

2675 new place here in NC. Probably 500 too big but hey its real nice. Oh we threw out just about everything from the NJ house during the move and Purge!

Fungshuiy is good now. Heck even the attic is empty.

Less is better.

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

3200 SF and looking to downsize when the market settles down.

[Texarkandy]

I note on the "poll" there is not an option to select "3000 to 3500 sq ft"

[chinaco]

Kinda funny. Somehow we are in a how big is yours discussion.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveR We have an "average" home here and feel like the trailer trash of the subdivision. We don't have much in common with our fellow McMansion owners other than sheer size of house. Ok. Here is my stats: House: 6450 finished sq. ft.

In a house like that, you shouldn't have to feel like trailer trash!

When the market allows, I'd suggest selling and looking for a more established neighborhood where the neighbors are nicer and where you don't feel like that. Either that, or working on just not noticing/caring what the neighbors think.

[Moemg]

My house is total 3600 square feet but 1000 of it is garage . We could do with a smaller house but with all the grandchildren I would like to stay around 2200 square feet . Hopefully when the real estate market picks up I'll be able to sell and downsize .

[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.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg My house is total 3600 square feet but 1000 of it is garage .

Interesting. Most sq ft measurements I've seen don't include un-airconditioned/heated spaces such as garages and porches. If I included those areas, my sf would increase from 2,750 to 3,800. And if you add in the size of my lot, I'm over 215,000 square feet.

Ha!

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Interesting. Most sq ft measurements I've seen don't include un-airconditioned/heated spaces such as garages and porches. If I included those areas, my sf would increase from 2,750 to 3,800. And if you add in the size of my lot, I'm over 215,000 square feet. Ha!

We don't include garages, porches, or un-airconditioned/heated spaces in square footage computations here in Louisiana, either. That leads a lot of people to turn their garages into rec rooms and park on the street (no comment!).

I am thinking maybe they compute square footage differently in Florida. It could be a regional difference.

I love your lot size!

[Zathras]

3500 sq ft. Just moved in about a year ago. This is our dream home and we plan to live here until we are unable to
We love entertaining so we have lots of room to do just that. We do keep a close eye on 'stuff creep', although that hasn't been a problem so far.
We have bigger houses in the neighborhood, right next door actually, which we view as protection from burglars 8o)

[Walt34]

Those are small houses? What do you need all that room for?

Ours is ~1700 sf first floor, full basement about half finished off. I sometimes still feel like we're rattling around like a couple of bb's in a box car. Not used to that much room.
3 bedrooms, 3 full bath (one downstairs)
2 car garage
Large screened-in back porch off the kitchen with small deck for the grill. Storage shed built in underneath the porch.
Brick front at DW insistence (Why, I don't comprehend. It doesn't keep the rain out any better than vinyl siding.)
Walk-out basement with sliding glass door.
A workshop area big enough to build a 20' boat in. (Which I might actually do, having subscribed to Wooden Boat magazine.)

We just went through a major "stuff purge" throwing out or selling almost everything that hadn't been used for the last year. This the result of helping a relative who just moved for the first time since 1964, and who insisted on taking stuff that had been in storage for 10 years.

Coming from the house we had (might have been 1,000 sf) before retirement this seems like a mansion.

[bbbamI]

Lovely patio area UncleHoney.

I'm beginning to feel like I live in a hobbit hole.

[Moemg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo I'm over 215,000 square feet. Ha!

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