What do you do with a big house?

[mountainsoft]

There have been a couple of threads lately about home building, and one of the things that surprises me is the size of most homes. I'm only counting living space, not garages, workshops, storage sheds, porches, or patios. 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?

https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/04/05/the-size-of-a-home-the-year-you-were-born-5/7/

Our home is 1456 sq/ft and is the largest home we've ever owned. It's twice the size of our previous two homes, and at over 700 sq/ft per person, I don't know what we would do with more space. We have three bedrooms, two full baths, a nice living room, dining room, kitchen, and laundry room. Adding more space would just add more clutter and areas to clean.

We used to tour larger homes in our area and was surprised to see much of the space was wasted with hallways, stairs, or little nooks that didn't really serve any function. Or rooms were extra large with furniture placed around the perimeter and a big unused empty space in the middle of the room.

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.?

 

[Sunset]

Our home is small 1,000 sq ft.
It is fine for us, but compared to some relatives, it's very small.

When we have 10 folks over for dinner, it's cramped to say the least. Our relatives can have over 20 guests and still not jammed in together.

It's our best reason to say: " Have the party at your place"

 

[RunningBum]

I have a much larger house than I need, and probably larger than I want, honestly, though I really do love my house. One reason it's so large is that it was designed back when the the dotcom bubble was going strong, so I basically made no compromises in what I wanted.

So, I have some special purpose rooms like a large lower level room for a pool table and train layout, another for home theater (added a couple extra TVs for football watching fun) and an extra bedroom that's a workout room.

Extra bedrooms for guests, and to future-proof it if there are grandchildren.

Large main floor great room open to the kitchen for entertaining.

And so on. I limited hall ways and instead have a loft between the upstairs bedrooms, which I really like. No nooks, but one thing I miss is a cozy place to read.

If I could do it all over again, it'd be smaller and cozier, but I still really love the house and don't see a reason to move from it, for now. Regarding the cleaning and clutter, yes, I do have too much stuff, but the house gives me places to store the clutter out of the public areas. As far as the cleaning goes, once I have the vacuum out, running it in a couple extra rooms is nothing. A one level house certainly would be easier though.

 

[Which Roger]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that what's driving the construction of bigger houses is that the land in the most desirable markets (where most of the new construction is happening) is very valuable. If a vacant lot is worth say, $300k, it makes sense to build a more expensive house. People want to live in desirable areas, and they have a much wider selection of big houses than small ones. And of course the older small houses are getting torn down to build bigger houses.

 

[RetireAge50]

Our house is 2,800 square feet. The main floor is 1,400 which is is perfect sleeping, lounging, cooking, and eating.

The basement is also 1,400 used for ping pong, large tables for projects, a guest room, another lounging area, and storing everything.

 

[athena53]

My house has an 1800-square foot "footprint"- the lower level is half basement/storage/utility type area and the other half has 2 bedrooms, a living area, a kitchen and a door out to a porch facing a lake. Previous owners told me the wife's parents lived on that level for 13 years.

I feel a bit guilty occupying this beautiful space all my myself now that DH is gone, but when my son and DIL who live 3 hours away come with the grandchildren, the lower level is perfect. DH and I knew when we were looking that we wanted a place that would hold DS and his family on their occasional visits.

And, what the heck- keeping it clean and tending to the yard and gardens are good exercise!

 

[Midpack]

Here’s what an expert found, she notes there’s been a recent trend toward smaller.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/09/american-houses-big/597811/

A concoction of economics, culture, history, technology, and politics produces bigger houses, but IMO for a couple generations keeping up with the Joneses/ego (same with cars) and “you borrow as much as you possibly can, you buy the biggest possible house you can, and then you can make more money on the upside if you think house prices are going to go up” - have been primary. The latter worked, we’ll see how well it works for generations to come.

 

[Gumby]

Our house is 2505 sqft, not counting the attached garage and storage room above it. Upstairs, we have a master bedroom, a large guest bedroom, a second small guest bedroom that we mostly use as a closet/dressing room (and hope to actually turn into a large walk in closet this fall) and a full bath. Downstairs, we have a 500 sqft eat-in kitchen with a pantry and laundry closet, a formal dining room, an entry foyer and a long living room that was once two adjoining parlors when the house was built. We also have a 200 sqft office, a 150 sqft sewing room (which has custom built-in cabinetry and counters like a kitchen, only adjusted to sewing needs), another full bath and a powder room.

The main body of our house was built in 1857 and comprises about 1800 sqft. There were two additions - one in the 1960s and another in 2005 - which contain half of the kitchen (other half is in the main body of the house), the office, sewing room and downstairs bathroom. An attached two-car garage with upstairs storage room was also added in 2005. Interestingly, the kitchen was originally in the cellar, where there is still a very large cooking fireplace with a beehive oven. Another oddity is a second, servant's staircase in the back that goes up from the old cellar kitchen to the current first floor kitchen and then up again to the bedroom area on the the second floor. It is very narrow and steep, so I only use it to go up. To go down, I use the main, public stairway that leads from the entry foyer.

We use every room in the house daily, with the exception of the large guest bedroom. We eat dinner every night in the dining room (lunch and breakfast in the kitchen) and that is the only thing we do in the dining room. The young wife watches TV in the living room after dinner and we both read there. I post to this forum from the office and the young wife is almost always working on a project in her sewing room.

 

[Ronstar]

Ours is way too big for 2 people - 3800 sf. 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, living room, dining room, kitchen, breakfast nook, family room, office, exercise room, hobby room, and bar/ cocktail nook.

2 bedrooms, 1 bath, dining room, living room and bar are very seldom used. We could easily downsize to under 2000 sf.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

We have a fairly large house as well (shy of 2900 sf of finished space, 1,000 sf garage, and 300 sf unfinished space above the garage) but it was sort of by accident. When we moved to flyover country, we were initially going to build. While we were sorting that out, we looked at some houses as they came on the market. It became apparent very quickly that building a house would be quite a bit more expensive than buying a pre-existing home. Eventually, we found a house that checked all the boxes for aging and was significantly cheaper than what we had budgeted for a build. But, it came with a lot more...including more square footage.

What do we do with this space? We have an office that I use, the formal dining room is my DWs office and the two "other" bedrooms is used as a guest room and the other is our home gym. There is plenty of storage space and thankfully, we haven't filled those spaces up. The space above the garage is great for Xmas decorations and such since there are traditional stairs instead of the ladder set-up. Also, all the living space is on the first floor and it's all wheel chair accessible. Thankfully, the HVAC is zoned so our utility costs are pretty reasonable.

 

[W2R]

Great thread and how people use huge houses is a mystery to me, too. I should know but I don't! I grew up in a 10,000+ sf home, but my parents just closed off the third floor and didn't use it (although it was set up as guest bedrooms, but who has that many guests? LOL). We had a lot of books so quite a few rooms on the lower floors had built in bookcases, which take up space and gave that part of the house a library look and feel. I really liked that, but these days I think most people use a Kindle instead. They loved to travel so most of the time we weren't living in the house anyway. When we were home they did a lot of entertaining for work related reasons, with fancy parties with 200-300 people several times a month and that requires a lot of space. As an INTJ I would hate that and I love my solitude, but they were not me and their idea of a good life does not appeal to me.

My own house, on the other hand is 1500 sf, which is twice as big as I need. The house was built in 1965, and at that time it was considered to be a substantial size for a family home. What I do with the extra space, is just ignore two of the five rooms. I live in the kitchen, den, and master bedroom.

Honestly I can't understand why (given the choice) anybody would build a 4000+ sf home. Maybe it's for resale? Surely they can't all be doing this just to build their self esteem so I don't think that could be it.

 

[candrew]

We have a 1600 sq. foot, single story ranch home - no basement. 3 B.R. 2 bath. It has served us well for the past 26 years while raising both of our sons through their teen years and into young adulthood.

For the past 16 years it's been just the two of us. Our home is more than enough space for DW & I. For the most part, we live in half the space. We're glad to have resisted the temptation to trade up to something bigger.

It is surprising how much space in homes is dedicated to storage. About 6 years ago, we embarked on a serious de-cluttering campaign ahead of our retirements. The amount of "stuff" we had tucked out of sight in closets and cabinets made for sizable donations to various charitable organizations.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Honestly I can't understand why (given the choice) anybody would build a 4000+ sf home. Maybe it's for resale? Surely they can't all be doing this just to build their self esteem so I don't think that could be it.

Perhaps because people are different and some feel the need to have a lot of square footage? I guess the reasons are as varied as those that want to live in 1,000 SF (or less) spaces. Personally, I am all about large houses...that means more tax revenue for local areas and schools. I don't think it's ironic that some of the best school districts live in some of the most affluent (e.g. biggest houses) areas.

 

[Sojourner]

Here’s what an expert found, she notes there’s been a recent trend toward smaller.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/09/american-houses-big/597811/

A concoction of economics, culture, history, technology, and politics produces bigger houses, but IMO keeping up with the Joneses/ego (same with cars) and this has been a big factor for a couple generations “You borrow as much as you possibly can, you buy the biggest possible house you can, and then you can make more money on the upside if you think house prices are going to go up.” It worked, we’ll see how well it works for generations to come.

Good article. I really like The Atlantic; one of the very best online magazines. In fact, I think I may just subscribe to get unlimited access and show my support.

At about 2,500 sq ft, my house is not exactly huge, but it has some extra bedrooms which I've found useful. One of the spare bedrooms has become a dedicated media/game room, and the smallest spare bedroom is a workout/exercise room. If I had a full basement or another 1,000 sq ft, I'd probably use it for storage or maybe build out a nice walk-in wine cellar. And if I had even more space, maybe a small home theater. Lots of ways to use extra sq footage, but I don't feel deprived or really "cramped" by the size of this house. When I buy (or build) my next house, though, I'd probably go a little larger just to get that walk-in wine cellar.

 

[REWahoo]

Our home is a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath single story, just under 2,700 SF. We rarely use the 2 bedrooms and one bath that compromise 700 SF, and only occasionally use the 300 SF game room. Of course that 1,000 SF we could do without will be essential when it comes time to sell.

 

[mountainsoft]

When we have 10 folks over for dinner, it's cramped to say the least. Our relatives can have over 20 guests and still not jammed in together.

We don't entertain and rarely have an overnight guest. Still, our living, dining, and kitchen area are mostly a large connected area over 500 sq/ft so it's not too bad if we do have visitors. As long as they spread out in the space.

We have three bedrooms, but only sleep in one. I use the second for my home office, where we also have a recliner for reading/relaxing and my wife's digital piano. My wife uses the third bedroom as her home office and craft room. In a pinch we can turn her craft table into a nice full size guest bed.

Our living room is mostly used for watching TV, and is setup with a nice surround sound system.

I guess our small space serves everything we need it to so I don't know why we would need any more space. That said, we do have lots of storage in the garage attic (about 450 sq/ft), with a nice workshop in the garage, and outdoor equipment in a separate storage shed.

We live in a rural area, at least 8 miles from the nearest store. We definitely have one of the smaller homes in the area. Most neighboring properties have McMansions of 3000-5000 sq/ft. We like to joke we live in the servants quarters.

 

[aja8888]

BIL nearby has a 5,000 sq.ft. house and is retired. The whole upstairs is not used and they live in the bottom 2,500 sq. ft.

Our single level brick home is 2,000 sqft. and is just right, or maybe a tad too big for the two of us.

 

[Dawg52]

My home is just under 1700 sq feet. Kitchen, living and dining all open which makes it feel roomy. I like the size of the house but I could easily live in less. My vacation condo is 850 sq feet with 2b/2b. With open blinds to the patio off the living room, it feels spacious. I could easily live in it full time.

 

[FIREd]

My old house was 2,500 sq. ft. on two levels:

1st floor: large eat-in kitchen with adjoining pantry and laundry room, large family room, formal living room (never used), formal dining room (used only once or twice a year), 1/2 bath.
2nd floor: large master bedroom with full bath and walking closet, home office #1, home office #2 (rarely used), guest bedroom (used once a year), and full hallway bathroom (hardly ever used).

I came to the conclusion that we (2 people + 2 cats) could live well with 1/2 the space.

As a single guy, 1/2 the space would still be too big. I own 2 condos in the same building, one which is 1,300 sq.ft. and one which is 540 sq. ft. I live in the latter as it's just the right amount of space for me.

 

[ckelly78z]

If I had outside activities to do, and a better year round climate, I would be perfectly comfortable living in our 32' camper with 1 big slideout. This would only be about 300 sf with the slideout extended.

Many folks are either choosing, or being forced to live in a van which might push the limits of my sanity.

We stayed in a VRBO 8 bedroom cabin in the Smokey mountains last year, that was close to 8000 sf. It was very open concept, but huge waste of usable space, and I can only imagine the heating/cleaning bills.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

We are still searching for our perfect retirement house, and I'd say a major problem is that houses that meet our standards for "fit and finish" are universally far too big. We can find smaller houses but they just don't "do it" for us. When we find a house with architectural details, nice kitchens, etc., they tend to be at least 3500 sf, or even 5000 sf. I just don't want to heat, cool, clean, maintain and pay taxes on all that extra space that two people simply don't need.

 

[finnski1]

I am not a fan of big houses either but don't begrudge people that have them. If they can truly afford them and maintain them, more power to them. Just doesn't make sense for the 2 of us.


As it is I think I got carried away a little when I built our house.
The main house is 1675 sq ft and I then added a mudroom and 4 season sun room bringing it to 1947 sq ft.
There is only the 2 of us and we built it 22 years ago. it is a 2 story New England cape and has 2/3 bedrooms and 2 baths.
To some on here it sounds small but being all open concept it "lives " larger than it sounds because of being so open.
Only a few (non visible)neighbors over 200 yards away thru the woods, 24 acres across the road in permanent conservation and thus no new houses can be built,
8.5 acres with mountain views on a dead end road with no traffic.
We are extremely happy here and only hope to leave here feet first horizontally on a gurney.

Built 90% of it myself including 80% of the plumbing and electric, all flooring, walls, siding, roofing, windows, doors, trim, wainscoting, drywall, paint, finished stairs, tiling, full bath builds, kitchen cabinets, countertops, appliances, chimney, woodstove install, lighting, landscaping, porches and whatever else I forgot.
7 years after moving in I added a 30' x 30' 2 story barn/garage with 12 x 12 workshop off the side and enclosed wood shed. Completely self built except for the concrete slab.


We built the entire house (minus the land and site work,well, driveway etc) for only $110,000 or $56.50/ sq ft.
The barn was another approx $27,000. (approx $21 / sq ft,

I did most of the work myself because:
A) I'm frugal (don't call me cheap)
B) subcontractors are notoriously unreliable and don't care about many details as I do.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Here’s what an expert found, she notes there’s been a recent trend toward smaller.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/09/american-houses-big/597811/

A concoction of economics, culture, history, technology, and politics produces bigger houses, but IMO for a couple generations keeping up with the Joneses/ego (same with cars) and “you borrow as much as you possibly can, you buy the biggest possible house you can, and then you can make more money on the upside if you think house prices are going to go up” - have been primary. The latter worked, we’ll see how well it works for generations to come.

Good article, and I like how they mentioned the Levittown developments post WWII. My wonderful parents lived in one of these houses after the war and enjoyed them. My Dad was flying for Eastern Airlines at the time and it was a convenient place to live and the commute to La Guardia (or as he called it La Garbage) was easy.

In later years, they moved to North Carolina and lived in a Lustron House which was right at 1,000 SF. (And that house is still around).

They eventually moved to the NW 'burbs of Atlanta in 1973 and built a 2200 SF custom home. After they passed away, I sold the house (and the 3/4 acre lot it sat on) for around $300K. That was a bit cheaper than most houses in the area but the house was in decent shape. Well, low and behold...the fella who bought it tore it down and built an incredibly ugly McMansion in its place. To this day, I cannot believe that he spent that much money for *just* the land. Things are different today than they were 50+ years ago.

 

[RobbieB]

My home history;

From birth to age 10 we lived in 900 sq-ft in Detroit.
Parents bought 2500 sq-ft tri-level in Livonia, what a palace!
First place in CA was 900 sq-ft townhouse.
Now in 1400 sq-ft.

I'd be seriously dangerous in 5000 sq-ft. All that room for new toys!

 

[projectmaximus]

I cannot answer for myself as I have two young kids and live in 1800 sq ft which feels neither small nor large, but my parents live in 3400 sq ft and have been empty nesters since I moved out ten years ago. They retired 5 years ago and considered downsizing to a small condo at the time, but I think they ultimately found the idea of leaving their decades-long home and getting rid of most of their belongings too daunting. They are not exactly hoarders, but they are closer to that than minimalists so it's not an easy task for them. I think they just want to stay in their home until they are forced, someday, to live with us.

So anyway, yeah they don't use all of their big house at all, I'd say probably just 50% of the home on a daily basis, but it's just easier for them to stay than to move. (Not exactly what the OP was asking but also they live in a vigilant HOA community and have to do quite a bit of landscaping, gardening, washing to stay compliant which they no longer enjoy. Yet they'd rather stay and deal with it...just another example of momentum being easier than change)