Size House You Grew Up In

[Jerry1]

This is the house I lived in until about 15. 3BR/1Bath probably around 1000sf. My mom lived there with us three boys. She got the house in the divorce. I was too young to recall my dad ever living there. It was plenty of room and like everyone else on the block, we didn’t know any different. The main issue was having a single bathroom. As long as I’m finically able, I’ll never live in a house with just one toilet again. We had 2.5 baths when me and DW raised our two daughters.

DW grew up in a 2BR/1Bath house probably around 800sf. Her mom and dad in one room and the three girls in the other. I’m amazed at how three girls got through living with one bath room and a room with one closet. House was on a crawl space so really very little storage. Probably one reason that she likes her “stuff” now and is hard pressed to get rid of anything.

 

[braumeister]

Almost the same thing here, except the bathroom was on the ground floor. Total around 800 sq. ft.
We didn't get sewers until I was in high school (just a cesspool), and this was in NYC!

I should have added that this was luxurious compared to my lovely wife's childhood home. She didn't get indoor plumbing until she was 12. A farm in Ohio -- her house was built by her great-grandfather about 1830.

 

[aaronc879]

Family of 4, barely 1000 sf

 

[athena53]

The main issue was having a single bathroom. As long as I’m finically able, I’ll never live in a house with just one toilet again. We had 2.5 baths when me and DW raised our two daughters.

When the builder was trying to talk Dad out of a bathroom off the master BR, he told Dad that the average person used the bathroom only 45 minutes a day (or something like that). Dad's reply: "Yeah, and they all want it the same 45 minutes!"

 

[finnski1]

Family of 8. 960sq ft. 3 and 1/4 bedrooms. 1 bathroom, no shower till in my late teens. 3 boys in (1) 10 x 12 bedroom. 2 girls in another with the oldest 3rd sister getting her own tiny closet(bedroom) till moving out.
We all managed to go to college and I think all graduated. Parent had low incomes and we were always scrambling but we were all involved in many school activities. Father would stay in the bathroom and smoke cigarettes and read the entire Boston newspaper. Probably in there for 45 minutes with all of us waiting. Great times.

 

[Koolau]

Family of 5 in the old homestead - bottom floor only until age 15. Mom and dad rented out the upstairs for many years. Maybe 1100SF and one bathroom in our living space. Pretty trashy at the time. DW and I remodeled in the early 80s when we moved in. Then we added 3 BRs for the kids in the 90s.

 

[Ronstar]

1,000 sf for a family of four. 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms. 1 car garage.

 

[Alan]

The thread On House Size got me remembering the old two-story house I grew up in. We had 3 small rooms on main floor, 3 small rooms with 15 steps up to that level. The bathroom upstairs was small and a bathtub no shower. My parents lived in that home till their passing away with not much of a change after I left at 18 years of age. One change was a window air conditioner. WOW!
When I got married, one year later, my wife and I built our dream home together with help from friends and family. It was like I was living like a king in such a huge home (1900sf).
Interesting how generations and money has changed from those Greatest Generation/Depression Era parents most of us had.

The first house I grew up in with my younger brother was a terraced 1 bedroom place with a small kitchen at the back but no running water or toilet inside. It had a walled back yard and the folks above were also a 1 bedroom place with stone steps from their kitchen into the back yard. In the yard was a standpipe for water and a toilet shared by both households.

At age 6 we moved to a 2 bedroom terraced house where the bedrooms were on the upper floor and we had 2 rooms downstairs with a small kitchen. The kitchen had a sink and cold water faucet. The walled backyard had an outside toilet. 2 more children followed shortly after the move making the family up to 6.

We got indoor plumbing and hot water inside along with a bathroom when I was age 14. I left home at age 18. My parents never left that house and when my Dad died he had lived there for 49 years.

 

[Koolau]

Family of 5 in the old homestead - bottom floor only until age 15. Mom and dad rented out the upstairs for many years. Maybe 1100SF and one bathroom in our living space. Pretty trashy at the time. DW and I remodeled in the early 80s when we moved in. Then we added 3 BRs for the kids in the 90s.

This will make my 78th year of living in the old homestead (on and off). Some of my childhood toys are still in the attic.

 

[jollystomper]

The first place l lived in was an apartment, on the third floor of a 6 story apartment building. With with my parents and 6 siblings, it was crowded. The dining area and living room were bedrooms, that made it a 4 bedroom apartment . Definitely small, under 1000 square feet. It was in the inner city, and there was no shortage of rats and roaches crawling about. As much as my parents cleaned, trapped, poisoned and sprayed, it was never a victory, more a temporary truce. You quickly learned to *never* leave any food out on tables, and to always shake out your shoes . Outdoors was - well, I learned about drugs, gambling, prostitution, and crime at a young age, but fortunately we never fell for any of that. The area was so bad, about 30 years after we moved out all the apartment buildings in a 4 block radius were torn down to build local government offices and a community center.

My parents bought a house when I was 11. It was in a relatively nicer area. Compared to the apartment, it was heaven. semi-detached house, 2000 square feet, on 2 levels with a full kitchen on each level. 3 bedrooms upstairs, one downstairs. Much fewer vermin issues. As the older siblings moved out the next ones up was able to move downstairs. No backyard to speak of - but coming from the apartment building, just having a backyard was huge. The backyard *maybe* was 400 square feet, and my dad eventually paved it over with concrete. I lived here until graduating from college, when I immediately started my career in another state.

We had a lot of good memories of that house, but after our parent died, none of my siblings and I felt nostalgic enough to hang onto it, and decided better to let another family buy it and build their own memories. Our timing was fortunate, as our asking price was bid up and we sold it for much more than we expected.

 

[ivinsfan]

We moved around a lot, mostly military homes very comfortable probably about 2000-2500 sqft. But…

…DW grew up with Mom, Dad, DW, 2 brother and 2 sisters in a 1 bathroom 960 sqft ranch home. No big deal to her. Incomprehensible to me!

As the kid of an enlisted man we did military housing as well. Never got a place as big as your number. Actually I don't remember ever living in a detached house. We got a multi-housing building complex or if we were extremely lucky half of a duplex...

 

[disneysteve]

According to Zillow, my childhood home, a row home in Philadelphia, is 1,400 sq ft. Living room, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor. 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on the 2nd floor. Partially finished basement on the lower floor and a toilet only (no sink or shower/tub). One car garage which wasn't really big enough for a car unless you climbed out the window as there wasn't room to open the doors when you pulled in (which we never did - nobody kept a car in their garage).

 

[imjustawarrior]

Family of 5 in a 1500 sq ft townhouse. Moved to a 2300 sq ft house when I was 13.

I had to look up the sizes on realtor.com.

 

[brett]

1050 sq ft. was the home I grew up in. Sister and I.

Spouse... six children, four of them girls, 900 sq ft.

My first married home ownership was 1000 sq. feet. Small home in a good area. Second home 1800 sq. ft spilit. Our favourite.

Last one was 3700 sq feet fully developed in another city. 2 teenagers. Three levels, four full bathrooms, six bedrooms, 2 family rooms, study, formal this and that.

First thing my spouse said to me when we decided to retire early was forget about this mausoleum, the four full bathrooms, the three levels, the indoor hot tub, and the gardening, snow removal business etc. Downsize! We were happy to unload it.

Travel, plus 4 years of renting a 1200 sq. ft. condo overlooking a golf course, rapid transit at the door. Wonderful.

Now in 1450 or so. Just right for us.

We North Americans are, IMHO, incredibly spoiled and in many instances incredibly entitled.

 

[street]

We all have a lot to be thankful for and we all have had it better than our folks.
When my mom and dad got married each had a car. I can't remember what kind of vehicles, but they traded one of the cars for the house I grew up in. Thet said it was an even trade.
At that time there was no running water or sewer but not long after they owned it those two luxuries were added.
Old outhouse was still standing then taken down early in my life.

 

[brett]

At the end of the day what really counts is happiness and security.

Not sq. feet!

 

[disneysteve]

According to Zillow, my childhood home, a row home in Philadelphia, is 1,400 sq ft. Living room, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor. 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on the 2nd floor. Partially finished basement on the lower floor and a toilet only (no sink or shower/tub). One car garage which wasn't really big enough for a car unless you climbed out the window as there wasn't room to open the doors when you pulled in (which we never did - nobody kept a car in their garage).

The house we lived in when we got married was two streets over, older, and smaller at 1,152 sq ft. We rented it from my wife’s aunt. The 2nd floor had ONE electric outlet. Her uncle had run extension cords from that to each bedroom so each room then had one outlet. We had an electrician run a new service line to the master bedroom so we could have a window air conditioner.

 

[street]

At the end of the day what really counts is happiness and security.

Not sq. feet!

Yes!!
We never had much but we had it all. A clean home and always food on the table and lots of love. The home I grew up in is still in use and close to 150-year-old home.

 

[flyoverstate]

Interesting thread. I remember telling some of my younger co-workers how I grew up in an 800 sq. ft. house with only one bathroom and it didn't have a shower, family of five, the bedroom I shared with my brother was 8x10 and didn't even have a closet. There was an unfinished basement but the joists were only 6 feet over the floor, so it was mostly storage. No garage. Zero insulation, single pane windows, in the frigid midwest. Everything except lights ran on gas, including the refrigerator, that is why it was called "the light bill". They were aghast. We were OK, although the bathroom was definitely a problem at times. When I was 15 we moved to a house built in 1872, which when it was built, had no electricity or indoor plumbing. The second floor linen closet had been turned into one long narrow bathroom, and the kitchen pantry had been turned into another, hilariously small bathroom with a tub that was less than four feet long. I have no idea where that came from! It had a boiler that had been converted from coal by simply putting a big gas ring inside of the firebox. The wiring had cloth insulation, and it had an old screw in fuse box. No AC of course, but it had a sleeping porch that was marvelous. These houses were massive upgrades from what my parents had grown up in. Running water! Electricity! Heat from something other than a wood stove! Cooking with gas!

 

[street]

Interesting thread. I remember telling some of my younger co-workers how I grew up in an 800 sq. ft. house with only one bathroom and it didn't have a shower, family of five, the bedroom I shared with my brother was 8x10 and didn't even have a closet. There was an unfinished basement but the joists were only 6 feet over the floor, so it was mostly storage. No garage. Zero insulation, single pane windows, in the frigid midwest. Everything except lights ran on gas, including the refrigerator, that is why it was called "the light bill". They were aghast. We were OK, although the bathroom was definitely a problem at times. When I was 15 we moved to a house built in 1872, which when it was built, had no electricity or indoor plumbing. The second floor linen closet had been turned into one long narrow bathroom, and the kitchen pantry had been turned into another, hilariously small bathroom with a tub that was less than four feet long. I have no idea where that came from! It had a boiler that had been converted from coal by simply putting a big gas ring inside of the firebox. The wiring had cloth insulation, and it had an old screw in fuse box. No AC of course, but it had a sleeping porch that was marvelous. These houses were massive upgrades from what my parents had grown up in. Running water! Electricity! Heat from something other than a wood stove! Cooking with gas!

A humbling start can be a huge motivator. Thanks for your story.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I was raised on a crop/livestock farm in the 1960's. I grew up in the fields, barns and pastures. When I spent time in the house, it was a 2 bed 1 bath farm house.

 

[mountainsoft]

Family of 4, barely 1000 sf

My wife's family home was under 700 sq/ft (2 bed, 1 bath) and they raised 8 kids there. I don't know if all eight kids lived at home at the same time though. The youngest three girls had bunk beds in the tiny bedroom, and the boys slept out on the unheated covered porch.

The kids are all grown and moved away, but my mother-in-law still lives in the same house. She paid $5000 for the house over 60+ years ago.

 

[razztazz]

According to Zillow, my childhood home, a row home in Philadelphia, is 1,400 sq ft. Living room, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor. 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on the 2nd floor. Partially finished basement on the lower floor and a toilet only (no sink or shower/tub). One car garage which wasn't really big enough for a car unless you climbed out the window as there wasn't room to open the doors when you pulled in (which we never did - nobody kept a car in their garage).

Did you grow up on my block? Holy cow your house is exactly like mine. Except my garage could just barely fit a 1957 Studebaker or a 1965 Dodge station wagon if you didn't store anything in it.

 

[disneysteve]

Did you grow up on my block? Holy cow your house is exactly like mine. Except my garage could just barely fit a 1957 Studebaker or a 1965 Dodge station wagon if you didn't store anything in it.

We actually had one of the larger garages because we were in the middle of the block. They got smaller as you went toward either end. Still my dad’s Cadillac was too long for the garage. My 73 Impala probably was too. Doesn’t matter. That garage never saw a car. It was for storage. Heck the same is true now. We’ve never kept a car in the garage. Very few people do around here.

 

[CO-guy]

A 1250sf home on two floors in the burbs. Then 950sf on one floor in the Caribbean: Zinc roof and no A/C. In the summers I would lay a beach towel on the bed at night to soak up the sweat.