Poll: What's your retirement house size?

[braumeister]

Recently switched from about 3,500 sf in a three-level house to about 3,000 in a two-level condo. We make much more effective use of the space here, and are much happier. Next move will be with a toe tag attached, so this is definitely the retirement home.

 

[kcowan]

We have one at 2000 sq.ft. and another at 1750 sq.ft. and I would say that 1900 sq.ft. would be perfect for each. We also have housekeepers year round in both. This makes it easy for us to transition between them. 6 months down south and 5 months up north and one month in Europe or travelling.

 

[molly312]

We have 3600 sq.ft. When we moved here 2 years ago, we upsized. Prior to that we had 2500 sq ft'. Our children and grandchildren are all here in the same town and they ALL spend a lot of time at our house. I am not regretting the extra room at all.

 

[utrecht]

We will be renting for a long time. What we really want is a house with about 2000 sqft but that has the amenities of a 3500 sqft house. Granite, large moldings, hard wood floors ect. Apparently they dont exist

 

[W2R]

We will be renting for a long time. What we really want is a house with about 2000 sqft but that has the amenities of a 3500 sqft house. Granite, large moldings, hard wood floors ect. Apparently they dont exist

Believe me, I understand. I don't know why that is the case, but often it is.

Sounds like you will need to renovate your next house. Good luck to you in your search.

 

[Live And Learn]

We used to live in a 3,300' place, then downsized to 1,500' and 3 years ago downsized again to 1,250' (2 bed, 2 bath, integral double garage). The spare bedroom is only used for visitors once or twice a year these days but it has a nice walk-in closet that is full of our stuff.

Almost exactly the same for me. Current home is the perfect size for us. I have a high riser bed in the second bedroom but its pri ary purpose is office / hobby room. We use the 2 bathrooms and the two bedroom closets as "his and hers".

Downsizing was a PITA but I am loving my uncluttered life. Housekeeping is a breeze! Gives me more time to enjoy the outdoors.

 

[Dranoel]

We've been living/traveling full-time in an RV, 37' 5th wheel about 320 sf, for almost three years and still having fun.

 

[aja8888]

We will be renting for a long time. What we really want is a house with about 2000 sqft but that has the amenities of a 3500 sqft house. Granite, large moldings, hard wood floors ect. Apparently they dont exist

Sure they do, you may be looking in the wrong places. In our 55+ community, several widows have added those amenities/upgrades to their 2000 square foot houses. They apparently have nothing else to spend their money on.

Our next door widow neighbor just dropped $15K in adding artificial grass to her small back yard to keep her little dog from getting his paws dirty when romping around. Looks nice!

DW is trying to get me to agree to head in the direction of upgrading to hardwood (we have nice carpet), redoing baths, etc, but she is not having much success. We did install granite counter tops and a new sink in the kitchen though (replaced old formica).

This is our last house and it is comfortable and in great shape (new A/C, new roof, etc). I have no desire to try to impress anybody by pouring money into a 2,000 square foot house at our ages.

 

[NW-Bound]

... I have no desire to try to impress anybody by pouring money into a 2,000 square foot house at our ages.

No, not to impress. But I will spend money on our homes if I think it enhances our living. And it's not money but my precious labor that keeps me from doing more.

The bath fixture in the master bath is long overdue for replacement, but I am reluctant to do this because I will have to tear out the drywall in the back of the shower to solder on a new one. I will do this after replacing carpet in the upstairs bedrooms with laminate flooring. I am still not sure how I will do the currently carpeted stairs.

 

[W2R]

No, not to impress. But I will spend money on our homes if I think it enhances our living.

+1

I am an INTJ so I don't entertain or try to impress others with my home. But I still enjoy living in a home that I think is both pretty and functional, because that makes me feel happy.

In the extreme, I don't want to live in a dump. But also, I don't even want my home to be sort of blah. I don't want it to be less than I want and feel I deserve, within the limits of what I can afford.

Luckily, having no spouse to have to compromise with, I can do whatever I want with my home. My dream house really doesn't need anything because it already has the fancy molding and gorgeous hardwood floors and so on. But if I wanted anything different, I would do it for myself, not for others.

 

[Fishingmn]

Current home - 3 br, 3 ba, 2 story with about 2,200 total finished built in 1940 but nicely updated.

 

[Theseus]

Same house as the 15 years before ER ~ 2,000 sf. About 10 years pre-ER I built a 1,700 sf shop/garage for woodworking, vehicle maintenance, storing the tractor, implements, and trailer. On 32 acres with a lot of upkeep, currently keeping myself occupied thinning out & trimming 4,500 we pines planted 20 years ago. We love the privacy and having wildlife in the yard nearly everyday but know that there will be a point where the upkeep is just too much work. Some days I feel like that day is already here, when that feeling becomes stronger than the attraction to the land we will be ready to move on to a condo or low maintenance home.

 

[rodi]

Have you ever considered moving into the guest house and renting the main house? I have a similar situation and I think that's what I'm going to do. I will pay the gas bill and the main house will pay electric and water. I should clear at least $2,000 per month if I do it...

As mentioned previously, we have a 700sf granny flat casita. It was built for my in-laws and has lots of "aging in place" amenities - wheelchair acceptable bathroom and wider doors, beautiful travertine floors... but we also put in more storage and full size (but stacked) laundry. That's because we knew we'd probably live there in the future.

Once the kids are launched - and when we need 1 floor, no stairs, we'll likely move to this and rent out the main house. We've already figured out the mods needed to keep the attached (to the main house) 2 car garage as OUR space... (firewall over the door access is the only thing, by code, that we'd need to do.) We also have a plan for splitting the 2 car garage into 2 one car garages... but that would be more expensive.

We will be renting for a long time. What we really want is a house with about 2000 sqft but that has the amenities of a 3500 sqft house. Granite, large moldings, hard wood floors ect. Apparently they dont exist

But they are pretty easy to obtain. Just hire a contractor and you could get all of those changes in about 2 weeks. I live in a 50 year old neighborhood - and that's what every new buyer is doing before they move in. (Our neighborhood is desirable because of location and schools... but it's older housing stock.)

 

[NW-Bound]

We will be renting for a long time. What we really want is a house with about 2000 sqft but that has the amenities of a 3500 sqft house. Granite, large moldings, hard wood floors ect. Apparently they dont exist

The nice touches can be added on, as earlier posters have noted. The problem that I see is that where I am, nicer and newer neighborhoods all have big houses, many larger than mine.

There's a subdivision nearby that have homes of 1500-2000 sq.ft., but they are townhomes with little yard space. No gardening is a no go for my wife. The driveways are so short you cannot park a car outside, and the HOA says no cars on the streets, so you can only have 2 cars in the garage. These homes are nice, but are not cheap either. I would save nothing downsizing to one of those homes, let alone losing my 41-ft long driveway for my motorhome.

 

[Fedup]

We bought our retire my 3 years ago, it's about 3000 sqft, no plan to down size. It's big enough for 2, but too big for one. But the lot is quite small, almost condo- ish. I can hear my neighbor sometimes.


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[Danmar]

No, not to impress. But I will spend money on our homes if I think it enhances our living.

Agree. For most people (especially those more mature) having a nice house isn't about "impressing others". Not sure why people think that?

 

[Walt34]

Ours is ~1700 sf single-family with attached two car garage. It's a bit larger than what we'd planned on but it had everything we wanted in a layout that works well for us.

Neither of us had ever lived in a house with a garage and that got us spoiled real fast! No more scraping ice and snow, no more heat-soaked car in the summer. Even if the garage temp is 100° the inside of the car is cool by the time we hit the end of the block. We are both surprised at how many people leave their cars parked outside and fill their garages with junk.

 

[W2R]

Neither of us had ever lived in a house with a garage and that got us spoiled real fast! No more scraping ice and snow, no more heat-soaked car in the summer. Even if the garage temp is 100° the inside of the car is cool by the time we hit the end of the block.

I agree completely! Also, no worrying about the car when there's another big hailstorm, with golfball sized hail reported on the TV. I love knowing that it is safely locked in the garage.

We are both surprised at how many people leave their cars parked outside and fill their garages with junk.

I just don't get that either. My ex used to park the boat diagonally in the garage, so we had to park the cars in the driveway. In a way I saw his point, but still we needed covered parking for the cars. They would get *covered* with yellow oak pollen at that time of year because of all the oak trees by the driveway. And of course, I seem to be allergic to yellow oak pollen. I love being able to park my car in the 900 s.f. detached garage at my new-to-me house.

 

[Dawg52]

Ours is ~1700 sf single-family with attached two car garage. It's a bit larger than what we'd planned on but it had everything we wanted in a layout that works well for us.

Neither of us had ever lived in a house with a garage and that got us spoiled real fast! No more scraping ice and snow, no more heat-soaked car in the summer. Even if the garage temp is 100° the inside of the car is cool by the time we hit the end of the block. We are both surprised at how many people leave their cars parked outside and fill their garages with junk.

I see that too in my new neighborhood. My patio home has lots of attic storage space with easy inside access(stairs). Most of these homes are similar so I'm guessing they have the same space. Some people must have tons of junk to have a need to box up more and store in the garage.

My home is also 1700 sq feet and probably more than a single guy needs. But is sure feels comfortable having plenty of room.

 

[palomalou]

We went from 3000 sf to 912. 4 bed 4 bath to 2 bed 2 bath. Plenty enough. All of NYC is our outdoor space. I still do fantasize about adding my favorite granite in the kitchen just because it makes me smile. But may or may not happen.

 

[cyber888]

No, not to impress. But I will spend money on our homes if I think it enhances our living. And it's not money but my precious labor that keeps me from doing more.

+1
I prefer living in a smal space, but good quality comfy space for my DW and my comfort, not to impress anyone. I probably won't invite anyone except family

 

[karen1972]

I find your categories a little strange, there is a huge difference between 1000 and 1800 sq ft. Unless you get a 1 bedroom, its hard to find anything smaller than 1000 sq ft outside downtown. We are in 1050 sq ft.. but would love to find a place with about 1300 .. which there are so few built that small... it seems like every new construction house around here is 6000sq ft + I'm not sure who needs 8 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, but they keep building them, so clearly someone.

 

[folivier]

In our retirement subdivision the 3 bedrooms are all 1700+ and 2 car garages. We would have liked something around 1400sf and could have managed 2 bedrooms but needed a 2 car garage for all of my toys (junk, stuff, etc.)

 

[Persn]

Our retirement home will be just over 2200 sf. When we bought the house it was 1500 3/2 but we are adding another gathering space, an office/guest room and a full bath. We don't need the space for ourselves but we are hoping that family and friends will visit often now that we are in a coastal area.

We did look to see if we could buy a house of this size, location and quality that was move-in ready. Nope - nothing even close, so we are having it built/remodeled to our taste. We sold our previous 1900 sf home of 20+ years this summer to pay for the construction, and are now living in a 750 sf rental house. The size is tolerable for 2 people, but a little difficult to entertain guests here.

The "new" house will be done this spring - we can't wait!

 

[45th Birthday]

Winter place 3,500 sq ft under AC+ 1,200 sq ft covered space and 900 feet open deck. Condo so it's not a pain to keep up. Summer place 4,900 sq ft. More upkeep.

The summer place replaced a previous 2,400 sq ft one and a 4,300 sq ft spring/fall house. We looked at it as downsizing.

We have frequent overnight guests because both places are in popular areas, and out kids visit often (young singles but not forever). We didn't want to be on top of each other when it is just the two of us.