What do you do with a big house?

[skipro33]

I gotta ask; how does a larger house get dirtier than a smaller house if it's just the two living there? Vacuuming a large dining room takes only a couple minutes longer than a tiny one. Most of the time is dragging out the vac and putting it back away. Add that the dirt has a larger area to disperse and vacuuming is only a once-a-month deal unless there's company coming. Same with bathrooms; we use one, the one adjoining the master bedroom. The other two don't get used other than by company or if one of us is sick and kicked out of the master to one of the guest bedrooms. Other than a quick wipe-down after a visit, the guest bathrooms never need cleaning. I would guess the showers in those bathrooms are used less than 7 days a year.

 

[tb001]

We actively use most of the space. With two dogs and two kids, dust and hair is everywhere. Yes, the absolute concentration is less in a given area, but it still needs regular cleaning. Most areas are open—we only have one guest room that’s pretty much shut most of the time, and we still use it regularly because it’s the only bathtub in the house for the kids.

 

[triangle]

It does not cost so much to incrementally add a few hundred square feet relative to the price of land, running utilities, etc. Especially if it is a multi-story house which can share the roof and foundation. Modern homes are built with better insulation, more efficient HVAC, longer lasting materials (in some cases), etc which helps to keep the long term costs down.

That said, my current home needs downsizing but no plans to move yet. The extra room is nice to have for guests.

 

[Bamaman]

It seems around 2500 sq/ft is considered "average" now, with some builders wanting 5000 sq/ft or more. Considering the average home size was around 1100 sq/ft in the 50's, or even 1500 sq/ft in the 70's, I'm curious what people DO with bigger houses?


Obviously, if you have a family with five kids, or live-in parent, nanny, housekeeper the extra space might make sense. However, considering most in this forum are retired or getting ready to retire, I'm guessing most are just couples in big houses.

Honest question, if you have a larger home, what do you DO with that extra space? Do you have extra rooms for specific purposes, larger rooms that increase the square footage, lots of storage space, etc.?

We live in an ultra low cost of living area, and the reasons we have a 4,000 square foot home in retirement is (1) used home prices here are inexpensive (well under $100 a square ft), (2) we've always had comparable homes and (3) we are raising a granddaughter and we can all spread out in our own space.

We're very fortunate to live in a low property tax state, and we only have $1,100 in yearly property taxes. Because the wife is disabled, we have no property taxes.

We did move last Fall and downsized from 5200 square feet--5 bedrooms and 5 full baths. And with a 28' x 48' man cave, it was a little ridiculous. We had bought the house as a foreclosure, and we sold it fast for a great price. Neighbor homes were up to 10,500 square feet.

We remain very thankful that we can maintain our lifestyle in retirement including living in spacious surroundings. And it's nice having room for all the children and grandchildren when they visit.

 

[iloveyoga]

2168 square ft here and two more finished rooms in the basement. We use a lot of the space except for our front living room area. That is where I put my Christmas tree and we open presents in there. We use that space at other times too.

I have an office that I still use and we still keep a guest room. We have been using one of the basement rooms to put together puzzles, that has been nice.

But we do a lot of our living in the kitchen and family room, which run across the back of the house and opens to the deck, patio and pool area.

Especially during the pandemic, the extra space has been welcome and it is all paid for.

 

[athena53]

I gotta ask; how does a larger house get dirtier than a smaller house if it's just the two living there? Vacuuming a large dining room takes only a couple minutes longer than a tiny one. Most of the time is dragging out the vac and putting it back away. Add that the dirt has a larger area to disperse and vacuuming is only a once-a-month deal unless there's company coming. Same with bathrooms; we use one, the one adjoining the master bedroom. The other two don't get used other than by company or if one of us is sick and kicked out of the master to one of the guest bedrooms. Other than a quick wipe-down after a visit, the guest bathrooms never need cleaning. I would guess the showers in those bathrooms are used less than 7 days a year.

I clean more often than that- I'm in a beautiful, natural setting on a lake and spiders, insects and mice like to move in. I've found that if you don't pay attention to unused spaces, Nature will take over. I have a pretty easy schedule- each room gets cleaned top to bottom (start with dusting out the corners of the ceilings, end with wiping down the baseboards) every two weeks. Three days a week, less than an hour per segment.

Previous house had living space on 3 levels, 3 full and 2 half baths (I now have 3 full and no half)- it was just too much work to keep it all clean.

 

[Amethyst]

Our next door neighbor's 3-car garage is air conditioned. They use it as a gym and climate-controlled storage, and park their cars outdoors (a lousy idea in an ocean climate).

What amazes me is garages today. Three car garages seem to be the new norm and even then no one seems to actually park inside. My BIL had a house with 3 car stalls upstairs and three below! And he didn't park inside.

 

[ElizabethT]

What amazes me is garages today. Three car garages seem to be the new norm and even then no one seems to actually park inside. My BIL had a house with 3 car stalls upstairs and three below! And he didn't park inside.

Having never owned a home with a three car garage, and envying those who did for years, it was one of our top 'must haves' when we house shopped in 2017. Now that we have one dance, it is utilized fully. I am proud to say it holds all of our fun in the sun sporting equipment PLUS two cars and our Trail Manor folding travel trailer. The trailer is also an up high storage rack for all of our patio cushions, which we keep inside when not in use. And under it lives our kayaks.

We use our travel trailer a lot, and can 'unpack' it in 15 minutes tops. We're a well oiled machine over here!

 

[Gumby]

I didn't pay all that money to build a garage so I could park outside.

 

[mountainsoft]

We're very fortunate to live in a low property tax state, and we only have $1,100 in yearly property taxes. Because the wife is disabled, we have no property taxes.

Sweet! We pay about $5000 yearly in property taxes now for our 1456 sq/ft house on less than two acres. Once I turn 62 (six years from now) we can apply for a senior exemption (assuming our income is low enough) that should cut the taxes in half.

 

[mountainsoft]

I didn't pay all that money to build a garage so I could park outside.

We built a 24'x28' garage but it's mostly used as my woodworking shop. The only time we pull cars in is if we need to work on them.

Cars are made to live outdoors. When you buy a new car it's usually out on a parking lot, not in a garage.

Our garage is detached with manual doors (no openers). If I wanted to park a car in there I would have to unlock the man door, lift open one of the garage doors, pull the car in, close the garage door, and lock the man door again. Too much work.

 

[Ronstar]

I didn't pay all that money to build a garage so I could park outside.

Same here. I have a friend who has never parked in his garage, and he moved in almost 40 years ago.

Our attached garage is 3 car double deep. I’ve had 3 cars and my truck in there at the same time. But my atv, mowers, garden tractor trailer, etc take up the rest of the space. It was a tight fit. Got rid of a car and now have lots of room for 3 vehicles and all our other garage stuff.

 

[target2019]

I didn't pay all that money to build a garage so I could park outside.

One of the great feelings is arriving home and driving into a dry garage. Spouse and I both refer to this periodically.

 

[Gumby]

Same here. I have a friend who has never parked in his garage, and he moved in almost 40 years ago.

Our attached garage is 3 car double deep. I’ve had 3 cars and my truck in there at the same time. But my atv, mowers, garden tractor trailer, etc take up the rest of the space. It was a tight fit. Got rid of a car and now have lots of room for 3 vehicles and all our other garage stuff.

I have separate 8x16 garden shed to hold most of that other stuff.

 

[Ronstar]

I have separate 8x16 garden shed to hold most of that other stuff.

Perfect. I'd like to get everything but cars and bikes out of the garage. I have a 20x22 detached garage that I used to keep all yard stuff in. Now it is mostly my workshop. I keep weedeaters, leaf blower, wheelbarrow, rakes, shovels, etc out there, but my workbenches and woodworking tools take up so much room now that I can't squeeze a lawn mower in there. So I had to move the big yard stuff to the attached garage.

 

[jollystomper]

Honest question, if you have a larger home, what do you DO with that extra space? Do you have extra rooms for specific purposes, larger rooms that increase the square footage, lots of storage space, etc.?

Our house is 3300+ finished space and about another 2000 unfinished (part of basement, attic, carport/garage). The original owners (whom we bought it from) had it custom built and the rooms are larger than average. This is our "dream" house.

Even with an empty nest, we love the size. We are both healthy and mobile so stairs are not an issue. Separate family and living rooms allow us to use the living room for more "formal" entertainment, and lets DW have a piano, organ, and electric/keyboard in it without the room looking cluttered. The family room becomes "informal", with TV/media/video games/books.We have room to set up home offices for each of us, a "man cave", a "she shed", and a workshop. We each have lots of hobbies, and the house can accommodate them.

Having empty bedrooms to offer family/friends/relatives who are visiting (both of us come from large families) is convenient. With a large house guests can have as much privacy as they desire.

With three levels we can choose to be together, or go off on our hobbies and not get in each others way. This was very helpful during the lock down. The original owners built the walls and flooring thick so that the noise from our hobby or entertainment activities rarely travels one level and never travels 2 levels.

 

[bjorn2bwild]

We are 12 years into a special circumstance 3800sf/3car garage rental on 5acres. After three major downsizings, much of the house is uncluttered. So in this case we get most of the upside (no long term maintenance costs) with little of the downside. I like it, especially during unfavorable weather.
The only downsides I can think of off hand are high summer cooling bills ($500-600), winters are mild, and more effort to clean, or fetch something far away. It came with a whole house vac making that chore a little easier.
The upsides - it's quieter.
If the noise is outside, I can move to the opposite side of the house. Inside, there is plenty of space if one of us wants a private phone conversation or media event. And desirable location - all the homes in this area are large.

 

[iloveyoga]

Since the day we had a garage, both DH and I have parked inside, unless we had a project going or painting in the garage. I also love a nice dry clean attached garage.

 

[rk911]

I live where I live because it's safer than living in a smaller home neighborhood. Maybe it's not politically correct, but it's much more likely to have problem neighbors when the home size and associated value, is on the smaller side. Larger homes, on larger lots are in more affluent neighborhoods and less likely to have criminal elements that would affect me.

as Willy Sutton allegedly said when asked why he robbed banks..."because that's where the money is.".

 

[skipro33]

as Willy Sutton allegedly said when asked why he robbed banks..."because that's where the money is.".

But we need to understand why Willy wanted the money in the first place.

He covets. That's his nature. And how do we begin to covet? Do we seek out things to covet? No, we begin by coveting what we see every day.

Hannibal Lecter

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I gotta ask; how does a larger house get dirtier than a smaller house if it's just the two living there? Vacuuming a large dining room takes only a couple minutes longer than a tiny one. Most of the time is dragging out the vac and putting it back away. Add that the dirt has a larger area to disperse and vacuuming is only a once-a-month deal unless there's company coming. Same with bathrooms; we use one, the one adjoining the master bedroom. The other two don't get used other than by company or if one of us is sick and kicked out of the master to one of the guest bedrooms. Other than a quick wipe-down after a visit, the guest bathrooms never need cleaning. I would guess the showers in those bathrooms are used less than 7 days a year.

We use a cordless Shark to "keep up" with the vacuuming. Out biggest impediment to a thoroughly spotless house is three *very* furry dogs. We do keep the back of the house closed off (two bedrooms and a Jack and Jill bath) so that helps. I have found that as long as we run the cordless every 3 days or so, we don't have to break out the "big" Dyson.

I am quite particular about cleanliness, so thankfully the house is easy to keep clean. As long as we "clean as we go", there isn't much of a reason to spend more than about 30 minutes a weekend cleaning. Our neighbor's house is right at 4,000 SF (at least according to the assessor's records) and they have a housekeeper over every week and she's there for at least 3 hours each visit. I am sure they are getting their money's worth...but THREE HOURS?!? How messy is that place?!

My biggest gripe about living in a bigger house (although at a little less then 3,000 SF it's not "large" compared to some of our neighbors) is all the freaking HVAC filters. I am very happy that there are 3 zones, but that means there are 5 (yes, FIVE) filters that I get to change once a month. 3 of them are pretty high, so I get to drag around a 20 foot ladder all around the house to change them. First world problems, right?

Our next door neighbor's 3-car garage is air conditioned. They use it as a gym and climate-controlled storage, and park their cars outdoors (a lousy idea in an ocean climate).

Our current home doesn't have an air conditioned garage. Our last house was part of the basement and accordingly, it stayed about 68 degrees year round and it was fantastic. Right now, it's 87 degrees in our garage and I hate it. I wouldn't pay to have it air conditioned, but if we "fell" into a big pile of cash, I could see me spending it on making it nice and cool in there! But, we have always used our garages for the cars...it does a great job of keeping them "like new."

Cars are made to live outdoors. When you buy a new car it's usually out on a parking lot, not in a garage.

And it's outside for a couple of months at most (usually). I have had cars for years that sat outside and it did a great job of fading paint, cracking interior panels and...well, if you live in a hail prone area a little extra special something for you. Our last few cars have lived inside and have aged very well.

 

[Walt34]

Cars are made to live outdoors. When you buy a new car it's usually out on a parking lot, not in a garage.

That's an interesting perspective. One of the main attractions of the house we're in now was the attached two-car garage. We wouldn't think of keeping the vehicles (one's a pickup truck) outside. In the heat of summer, like now, they don't get heat soaked and the inside is cooled off by the time we've gone two blocks, even at midday. And we certainly have had our fill of scraping ice and snow off in the winter. Just get in and drive. Sheer luxury! And I noticed right away in HS when I worked in a gas/service station that garaged cars looked better, lasted longer, and needed less maintenance. That was my experience anyway, YMMV.

Re the storage of lawn & garden gear, I saw that one coming and when the house was built we had a shed built underneath the screened-in back porch. The HOA here won't allow detached storage sheds and unlike most people I actually read the covenants before signing a contract. This is one of I think three houses in a development of ~350 that has a storage shed. In some areas, like here with no zoning laws, an HOA with enforced covenants is a good thing. It prevents the guy next door from opening a junkyard, gambling den, or strip joint.

Back on the main topic, this place is bigger than we need but the extra space is nice to have, sort of like A/C in a car. I was 33 before I owned a car with A/C but that doesn't mean I'll ever buy another one without it. The workshop is big enough to build a small cabin cruiser in (getting it out would be problematic though) and I love having a workbench that's 12 feet long, and lots of floor space. When we first moved in we did kind of feel like "two BBs bouncing around in a box car" but funny how you get used to it. It's a ranch style house, 1700 sf on the main floor, and we did that because I've had knee surgery once and it's almost certain to happen again and dealing with that is easier if you can live on one floor. It's three bedrooms, one is an office/computer room and the smaller one is a guest room for the rare occasion we have guests. There is a finished off family room and third full bath in the basement. Originally we were going to get a half bath in the basement but a full bath was only $300 more so we figured we'd probably get that back or more on resale.

Sure we could, and did, live well in a smaller space. But we like this one, we can afford it, we don't spend much on other luxuries, so why not?

 

[Ronstar]

Cars are made to live outdoors.

True, but I'd much rather get out of my car or truck without getting pelted by rain, covered by snow, melted to a crisp, or frozen solid. For me, parking in the garage isn't for the car's benefit - it's for mine. And besides - IMO, cars outside makes the property seem unkempt.

 

[HI Bill]

True, but I'd much rather get out of my car or truck without getting pelted by rain, covered by snow, melted to a crisp, or frozen solid. For me, parking in the garage isn't for the car's benefit - it's for mine. And besides - IMO, cars outside makes the property seem unkempt.

While cars are made to survive outside, they are much better preserved and require less waxing and plastic maintenance when stored in a garage. The wipers and tires don't get as much UV degradation. The wax doesn't get washed off as quickly. The roof won't rust where water ponds (happened to the roof rack area of my Xterra). Birds won't be dropping acidic excretions to my paint's finish. My neighbor's A/C won't be dripping on my car. Falling and flying debris won't be hitting the car.....I could go on, but won't!

 

[RunningBum]

I've always kept my car in a garage when one was available to me. Among all the other reasons given by others, it makes it harder for bears to get at them.


(Though this could've been avoided had they locked the car. I've seen video of a bear walking up to a car and opening it with the handle as quickly and easily as a human would.)