How big of a house do you need?

[cercis]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

How would that even work? Separate houses for each child?

We live in an ever-shrinking world. I'll say it. It's flat irresponsible and selfish to have that much space and use that many resources for a single person. I feel I'm skating on the edge of conspicuous consumption in 1800sqft for a family of four (okay, I've fallen over the edge, I'm into full scale selfish mode with my house).

[PrincessPerky]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

I think as a teen I wanted that much space to myself, I would have settled for much less so long as it was all mine!!!!

[Snoopy2645]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

I would love to have a bigger house but not only would that be more cleaning but also more heating & air conditioning we live in IA its 20below in the winter & 110 in the summer so heating costs would go up if we moved I cant imagine that because its around 200 a month now also our house payment is 500 a month & like imasaver that kills me to pay that much a month. But I would love at least a little bigger home it does seem very crowed when everyone is home.

[debtfreeme]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

IMA; I would love to rent your studio, if it was located in Sacramento!

[Ima saver]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

As I said before, we have 3200 sq ft for 2 people, plus a bathroom and bonus room with kitchen above the outside garage. I like my house so much that I would build it again, but I would make it bigger. I would like a bigger foyer and living area and probably a larger dining room. I like to give parties, but don't do it much anymore.

[pyotr]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

I'm totally with Imasaver. Cercis, since you feel guilty, why don't you move into a smaller dwelling and donate your 1800square feet to my family so we can have more space. 1800 sq feet per person is starting to sound nice. I have no problems with guilt, especially if I get to take Cercis' share of space.

[Ima saver]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

One thing about my bedroom that makes it looks so big, my husband built all of the dressers inside the closet. The fireplace, tv, vcr, etc. are all built in. We have a bed, bedside tables, with two chairs and a table in between. Lots of space!

[abowers]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

I was wrong - our apartment is about 640 square feet. 1 BR, 1 Bath, a decent kitchen, small "dining" area that opens up to a nice sized living room, and plenty of closet space. That has been fine for the two of us (since July). I had my doubts at first, but we haven't had any problems with getting in each other's space. Of course, I wouldn't complain with a bigger apartment, but this is fine for now.

[cercis]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

Pyotr, we looked very hard for a smaller space. Unfortunately in our area, those were all taken (or needed waaaay too much work).

But you really don't see that it is selfish to have that much space for one person (and BTW, there are 4 of us in 1800sqft)? You really seriously think someone needs 1,000sqft all to themselves? In a dwelling? I mean, I can see with outside space, etc (to a certain extent).

I measured our bedroom the other night and without closets and this funny little hall way thing, it's 12x15 - so not even 200sqft and it is HUGE. King size bed and full bedroom suite of furniture big. I always said 200sqft/person PLUS some common area space and now I realize that that was VERY generous.

[tomkat]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

Pyotr, we looked very hard for a smaller space. Unfortunately in our area, those were all taken (or needed waaaay too much work).

But you really don't see that it is selfish to have that much space for one person (and BTW, there are 4 of us in 1800sqft)? You really seriously think someone needs 1,000sqft all to themselves? In a dwelling? I mean, I can see with outside space, etc (to a certain extent).

I measured our bedroom the other night and without closets and this funny little hall way thing, it's 12x15 - so not even 200sqft and it is HUGE. King size bed and full bedroom suite of furniture big. I always said 200sqft/person PLUS some common area space and now I realize that that was VERY generous.

That's the size of our master bedroom -- 12 X 15 (width X length). Originally it was 11 X 15, but I felt that was too tight for furniture placement, so I had the builder to add an extra foot. I wouldn't want a master bedroom to be any smaller than 12 X 15. In our next house, I would like a larger master suite, perhaps with an attached office or a sitting area, and a larger closet.

What can I say...I like space! I grew up in a large house, and I can't imagine living in anything smaller than what I'm in now.

[cercis]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

I think we've lost sight of the original question which is "how much do you need?". Not, "How much would you like?".

Yes, I'll admit I think it's selfish to have a lot of extra space, but it isn't one of my hot button issues. Just kind of one of those things that pops up every so often.

But, how much do you need? At what point do you feel soooo cramped that you want to go homicidal (or whatever). I'll admit, this is larger than I wanted. It's more to clean, more to furnish, more to heat and cool, more to echo, echo, echo (I have 2 extremely loud boys). But, our yard is as small as I want to go. I cannot imagine having less yard (well, maybe if I lived somewhere where we had access to a large amount of green space). So, I have my issues too.

[joesbaby]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

we live in a 3 bedroom 2 bath trailer that is aprox 1120 sq feet. however, that isnt the only room we have, we also have 8 acers of land for my 3 horses, a huge barn, an out building, and we have my parents house too. my folks have a 2000 sq foot 3bedroom house. thats where my office and computer is. we live 100 feet or so apart. we share the same well and do alot of things togther. so i guess we have enough space for how we live, if we didnt live this close to my folks, id want more room. but right now its enough.

ericka

[pyotr]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

Ok, I'm done trying to get cercis to go postal on me (I was hoping for more violence). My wife and I and my two kids basically spend our entire time in each other's presence. We currently sleep in the same bed and we literally don't leave each other's sight except to go to the bathroom. We were always so, starting with when my wife and I lived in a 500sq ft apartment. So I'd say my family could get by in a 500 sq ft room and be happy. If you ever get a chance to stop by the library, I recommend taking a look at this book look here

When we go camping, we enjoy ourselves immensely in an approximately 40square foot tent reading, telling stories, singing, etc. If you want to go to "how big of a house do you WANT" - I'd say about 30,000 square feet, but mainly so I could sell it for cash or so I could show off to people like Donald Trump. There's a study I believe mentioned in one of those hippy books by Juliet Schor, or Elizabeth Warren or I forget who that showed that once you exceed about 3500 sq ft of house, you begin to need "help" to keep the house clean - gardeners, house cleaners, etc. But you could also keep much of the house and furniture covered up like Nicole Kidman did in the movie The Others - I think I could get used to living in a 30,000 sq ft house though. I'd pretend there were ghosts in the house and stay horrified all the time. My family would still probably live out of 1 room though. Born middle-class, you stays middle class.

[cercis]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

Okay, I was wondering. The Raskiloff comment caught me completely off guard and made me much more defensive than I should have been.

Have you seen the dove calming night lotion commercial? It shows a family bed and looks pretty familiar to me. But my kids are finally in their own bed. Of course, they share the same bed, but it's all a transition, right?

[tgavin71]

Re: How big of a house do you need?

We live in a 1090 sq foot home. It has 3 bedrooms, formal lounge which doubles as a guest bedroom. Family room. Bathroom. Laundry. Two toilets. And so much storage space that we have cupboards that are empty.