How big is your house

[Jerome Stanek]

I have been following the house thread and was wondering how the size of the houses are around the country. I see some have a house over 2000 sq. ft and they say that is to small for a family of 3 and others have a 1500 sq ft house and a family on 5. I have a 1600 sq ft house and only 1 an 1/2 baths with 2 kids. Grew up in a house 1700 sq ft house there were 8 of us and just 1 and 1/2 baths.

[Jason Roehl]

Our last house was about 960 s.f. for a family of 5, but now we're pretty comfortable in about 1900 s.f. (including finished basement in a bi-level), plus a 2-car garage. It's amazing how much and how quickly you can fill up double the space, though. Would I like more space? Sure, but our youngest just turned 13, so, in theory, in about 5 years we'll have a bunch more space...

[Rich Engelhardt]

2000 sq ft - give or take.
Me, my wife and our two medium sized dogs are just a bit cramped for space.

My 2.5 car garage/shop is overflowing with stuff. It's impossible to even walk around in it right now, let alone do any work.

[David Weaver]

1600 SF finished, plus another 800 SF of semi finished (carpet and heat and always dry, but no ceiling) basement, and a semi-heated garage that never gets below about 45 degrees (makes an ideal shop). Four of us. My wife would love to have a house twice as big. I'd love a donation if she wants to go that way.

Grew up in a 3600 SF house with my parents, and they have two additional freestanding garages, 25x40 with two levels and a second that's 30x40, also two floors. They do most of their living in a fraction of their 3600 sf, a third of it maybe, and they have they second garage because they filled the first one with junk, both floors. It's just the two of them now. I don't know why anyone would want to live with all of that junk.

[Brian Elfert]

I'm in the process of buying a house that is 1,300 square feet on the 1st floor and has a 1,300 square foot basement. I live by myself. It is really bigger than I need.

The house has a horrible layout. At least two thirds of the main floor is bedrooms and bathrooms. The master suite is huge. The kitchen is good sized, but there is no separate eating area. The living room isn't a bad size. I'm thinking about removing the walls to the bedroom adjacent to the kitchen to make that the living room and then make the current living room into an eating area.

[Matt Day]

Our house is 2800 sqft for our family of four. 4 bedroom 2.5 bath.
It all depends on how you use the space. One of our bedrooms is an exercise room for instance. We have a mudroom, open living room/kitchen space, dining room, and a TV room. We don't need all that space but it's nice to have and real estate is pretty cheap here.

Anyone seen the show Tiny House?

[Dan Hintz]

Main level is 1,100+ square feet, basement is same with half of that (mostly) finished (working on it). All of it is conditioned, but we can only claim the top 1,100 as livable square footage since the basement is not yet fully finished.

Place we're looking at has 3,700 finished split over two floors, with another 1,800-1,900 in an unfinished basement (but still conditioned). The basement has rough-ins for a bathroom, but other than lighting it's pretty bare... will give me a chance to make my workshop however I want, as well as finish it on my own time.

[Mike Ontko]

Our "pre-retirement" home is a 3 BR with a little over 3000 sq ft in a 1-story with finished basement, situated on a third of an acre. Sometime in the next 5 to 10 years, we'd like to find something a little smaller but with more acreage (for garden and horse)...and shop space!

[Bruce Page]

Our house is 1900 s.f. for LOML, myself and two large dogs. We had planned on selling it after I retired and moving into a smaller home somewhere wet & green. Then we started having grandchildren...

[Malcolm Schweizer]

2300 square feet, and where I live that is a palace. Most homes here, due to the high cost of living, have rental units below and owner's home above. I am fortunate to have been a good wheeler-dealer and got a great price so we have the whole house to ourselves. It is made so if you wanted to you could lease the downstairs, but I use the downstairs kitchen as a sharpening station, the living room as a small hand-workshop, and the rest is master bedroom, baby's room, walk-in closet. We were truly blessed to find this house. By the way, you should have seen the realtor's face when I saw that it had a downstairs kitchen and I said, "Oh boy- this is going to be my sharpening station!" He said, "Sharpening station? That's a first."

Next to my house, adjoining my property, is a vacant old Dutch home built from granite stone. It is built as an open floorplan, so it is perfect for a workshop. That is our future plan- to buy it and make a workshop. Also momma gets a nice garden out of the deal.

[Shawn Pixley]

My houe is embarassingly large at 3 story, 3500 sf with three additional decks. Nominally, it is 4 bedroom/5 bath (master bedroom, son's room, guest bedroom (for my parents if needed), and LOML uses one as her studio. The house is only 25' wide. The garage doubles as shop for woodworking and hot metal work. The loft is my office / music studio.

Over the years we have had others live with us and the house works pretty well for this giving everyone a space of their own to avoid conflict. Our property line is 5' from either side of the house so getting along with your neighbors is important. The soil is all sand so we have little landscaping.

[Dennis Heskett]

4600sf. I grew up in about 650 so I guess I over compensated! Selling it now however. I really did not anticipate not wanted to climb stairs to a 2nd floor! Going to try and get all first floor next time. Don't need so much to clean either!

[Jim Rimmer]

We are currently in 3400 sf two story - just the two of us and a cat and dog. In Houston, TX so no basement. WAAAY too big. We raised 2 kids in a 3 br 2 bath 1650 sq ft and never felt crowded. We want to down size and will when I retire next year.

[Joe Tilson]

Our house is 1150 sq. ft. Raised two girls and sometimes friends of theirs stayed with us. Got along pretty good in this little ole match box. It's paid for, therefore we will stay right here. Besides, I can't leave, my shop is out back!!!!!

[Matt Meiser]

Current...err previous...not mine anymore...house--1850 sqft ranch full basement, largeish 2 car attached garage and 1400sqft outbuilding on 10 acres. House we are buying is 2200, 2000, or 1800 depending on whether you believe the realtor, township, or appraiser. Regardless its similar size but most rooms are slightly larger than our current house and it has a 3-car garage. Since its a 2-story basement is significantly smaller, the "outbuilding" is a 12x12 shed, and it sits on 1/3 acre. There's 3 of us and two dogs. We didn't want a huge house and were more concerned with location and being comfortable with the payment.

[Brett Luna]

It's just The Wife® and I (plus a dog and two cats) in our place: Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, 1957 ft2, with an attached 576 ft2 heated garage and a 320 ft2 deck. Parts of the house feel a bit on the small side because the master suite comprises the entire 660 ft2 upper level...and I carried tile, mud, and grout up there for damn-near every inch of it along with some of the walls, too.

[Brian Elfert]

4600sf. I grew up in about 650 so I guess I over compensated! Selling it now however. I really did not anticipate not wanted to climb stairs to a 2nd floor! Going to try and get all first floor next time. Don't need so much to clean either!

I'm a bit concerned that the ranch style house I am buying has a walkout basement on the driveway side so one needs to climb stairs to get to the main floor. I don't want to end up in a situation where I couldn't get up and down the stairs due to knee pain or whatever. My parents are in their late 60s and still climb stairs all the time at home with no issues so I'll probably want to move on before it becomes an issue.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Our home is about 2,000 square feet including the finished basement. With knee issues, I wish I could have successfully convinced the wife over a decade ago to move and build a home with an unfinished basement and all the utilities on the ground floor. She didn't want to leave the neighborhood. Now all the neighbors are retiring and moving.

[Matt Marsh]

Mine has around 830 sq, ft. of living space upstairs, and another finished 200 sq. ft. in the walkout basement. The house also has an attached 24 X 36 garage. My wife and I bought this place because we fell in love with the 40 acre property more than we did the house. We always wanted to add on, but now since my wife is gone and I'm taking care of all of it alone, I'm glad we didn't.

[Jay Jolliffe]

A little over 2,000sq'...Two bedrooms & two full baths. It's only the two of us. Top floor is my wife's art studio. When we built it we made it so the bottom floor has 3' doors just in case there is a wheel chair in our future..Can't see that we'd move so this will by our last stop alive...After that we'll be blowing in the wind....

[Raymond Fries]

We live in a 1600 sq ft home. Just the two of us with two cats and a parrrot. We each have one of the smaller bedrooms converted into an office/craft/personal space. She has an indoor greenhouse that was built on two years ago. I have half of the attached two car garage full of my woodworking tools & machines. Pretty easy to leave the car out on the driveway if I need to spreadout for projects as all of my machines are on mobile bases. Sometimes I wish we had more space (especially more shop space) but it works it is all paid for.

[Al Launier]

4500 sq. ft. for my wife (retiring at EOY) & myself (retired at 55). Thinking (?) of downsizing & moving south.

[Myk Rian]

1,500 sf tri-level, so it works out to 2,250 approx. We raised 4 kids here, and have no plans on moving.
A friend of ours has a 6,750 sf manse. Gorgeous place on 140 acres with a lake, but she doesn't like to be alone in it. When her hubby goes golfing, she gets out of there. Her hubby was the one wanting that size home. She would have been happy with 2,500 sf.

[Shawn Pixley]

My grandparents (all four of them) climbed the stairs in their houses into and through their eighties. My parents climb the stairs in their mid seventies. Not trying to demean anyone who doesn't want to or can't climb stairs, but sometimes I think that we make to much of stair climbing as we age.

[Howard Garner]

1500 sq ft upstairs on the main level. 1400 in the basement. The basement is all mine. Large model railroad, library room and computer workstation.
detached two car garage. Lots of room for just us two retired folks.
Move here 23 years ago when the kids graduated high school and the job offered a chance to move from the Charleston SC area.
Love being this close to the mountains and haveing my lifetime model railroad.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

We have a 2000 SF, single story house. It's a split design with two very small bedrooms separated from the rest of the house. We moved from a two story so we wouldn't have to worry about health issues affecting our access.

[Brian Elfert]

My grandparents (all four of them) climbed the stairs in their houses into and through their eighties. My parents climb the stairs in their mid seventies. Not trying to demean anyone who doesn't want to or can't climb stairs, but sometimes I think that we make to much of stair climbing as we age.

I have a co-worker and his wife who are already complaining about the stairs in their house and they are in their 50s in very good health. His mother-in-law in her 80s won't visit the sister-in-law's house because there are three steps to the front door. I think issues with stairs are very real for a lot of people. I've seen seniors who it would take them half an hour to climb a set of stairs.

It seems like plenty of seniors stay in houses with stairs they can barely climb for various reasons. It may be the only house they ever owned and they don't want to leave, or they feel they can't afford to move. Some will only climb the stairs twice a day to get up and go to bed. Others will move the bed to a 1st floor room. My friend's dad uses the front porch as a bedroom to avoid the stairs.

[Mike Cutler]

My grandparents (all four of them) climbed the stairs in their houses into and through their eighties. My parents climb the stairs in their mid seventies. Not trying to demean anyone who doesn't want to or can't climb stairs, but sometimes I think that we make to much of stair climbing as we age.

Actually, it's gotten easier for me to do the stairs. I used to race bicycles and there were times I could barely walk, yet alone go up and down the stairs. Used to go down them on my rear end, and I was only 30 at the time.:eek:
However, in fairness, arthritis can set in very quickly as a person gets older, which makes stairs a huge obstacle for them, regardless of how fit they may be. Thankfully, it doesn't run in my family.

For the OP
Our house is 1900 sq/ft split between 4 levels and the basement.

[Jim Becker]

This house was originally about 1900 sq feet when we bought it. The addition we put on in 2008 to accommodate our family needs brought it to about 4250 sq ft. It also gave us a real front door, along with a master suite, 1st floor guest suite, media room, 2nd floor laundry and my office. Most importantly, it added two full bathrooms to bring us to 3.5 baths; necessary with two teen daughters, etc.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Including the extended buildings that aren't really used much 6,200 SqFt over 3 levels with a fourth level that's not used at all of another 1,500 or so. Nice place but a pain in the neck when somebody rings the doorbell and I'm the other end of the place....

It's old though and has lots of character so will outlast me by a long way I would think :)

cheers

Dave

[Mel Fulks]

Most stairs built today are the steepest the codes will allow, even in extremely large houses with elevators! Those stairs were routinely referred to as "cottage stairs " in carpentry books of 1920s and later. Few people today have ever put a foot
on the ideal stairs of the older ideal ,5 and 1/2 x 12. A steep pitch means a fall DOWN the stairs instead of ON the stairs.

[Rich Riddle]

Ours is a ranch model with half of the basement finished and half more like a crawlspace. All together it's in the 1600 - 1700 square foot range all together but there are only two of us. It more-or-less has mother-in-law quarters in the basement with a kitchenette, 3/4 bath, family room with fireplace, bedroom, and laundry room. If worse came to worst then someone could live down there with us.

[Shawn Pixley]

Actually most stairs are shallower today than the average stair in American Victorian and Arts & Crafts houses from 1850 through 1930. I agree the "cottage stair" was shallower, but it was not the common. Gone are the days with the steep winder stair. The low headroom & steep stair to the basement, the coal room, and the octopus furnace. Part of my architectural career was specializing in historic preservation including many National Trust buildings. Stairs today are generally more safe than those in the past. Of course any individual stair may differ.

In studying historic buildings, the stairs with the "best" stairs were public buildings and buildings / houses for entertaining. My 1920's craftsman had steep stairs with narrow treads going to the upstairs and those going down to the basement. The old "four square" farmhouses had steep stairs to keep the opening from interfering with the room layout. None of these can be built that way today.

I agree that most designs today could be made with better stairs by merely adding one more tread and one more riser.

[Greg R Bradley]

Most stairs built today are the steepest the codes will allow, even in extremely large houses with elevators! Those stairs were routinely referred to as "cottage stairs " in carpentry books of 1920s and later. Few people today have ever put a foot
on the ideal stairs of the older ideal ,5 and 1/2 x 12. A steep pitch means a fall DOWN the stairs instead of ON the stairs.
A friend has a house where the main staircase is that specification - built almost 100 years ago. It seems a pain with 23 steps to the second floor. Perhaps it is what we now think as normal that has caused the change in perception. I do agree that the normal staircase seems TOO steep but that one seems not steep enough.

My house has two steps down to the living room and none anywhere else. Those are going in my remodel. Only steps I'll have is in the pool and 8 steps up from my backyard to my back-back yard where I have my fruit grove.

[Lori Kleinberg]

Just under 1900 sf. 4 bedroom, 1.75 baths on 1 level. 3 car garage (small), not like the older homes. We find it just right for the 2 of us with 2 small dogs and a cat. Plenty of room for small dinner parties. If we need more we just use one of the kids homes.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Not trying to demean anyone who doesn't want to or can't climb stairs, but sometimes I think that we make to much of stair climbing as we age.
LOL!
5 years ago I'd have agreed 100%.
Any more those 5 steps up to our second floor bathroom seem like I'm climbing Mt. Hood! ;).

Especially when I doze off watching TV in the living room and nature calls after a few hours of being asleep.

I will say though - I have to take most of the blame for it. If I were 80 or 90 pounds lighter, that climb would be a whole lot easier.

[Moses Yoder]

We bought a small very affordable house in the country with a half acre lot and a nice shop with garage doors about 15 years ago. The house is 1200 square feet, about 650 downstairs and 550 upstairs, no basement (crawl space). We just moved our living room into our small dining room this winter, we never used the dining room anyway. THis has worked out well, very comfortable. Our living room has always had the piano in it and various other furniture I built, now it is kind of an all purpose room. We have a full bath up and 1/2 down. I would like to add a nice bath to the back sometime and possibly a library that would be actually a media room but we will see if that ever happens. We will probably live here all our life (you should see how much stuff we have accumulated). I will do some extensive remodeling upstairs at some point probably so we can add a lift on the stairs, or we could add a bath down and put a murphy bed in the living room.

[Paul McGaha]

Ours is a 3 level, 4 bedroom house built in 1995 by Richmond-American. A little under 3000 square foot if I remember correctly.

PHM

[Chris Damm]

We have about 2200 sq. ft. of finished space but are looking to downsize. It's full this weekend with a bunch of grandkids but we could get by with less room. My garage on the other hand is not big enough. at 2150 sq. ft. I could use more space or maybe less junque!

[Roger Feeley]

For us, the quality of the nearby public school outweighed most house considerations. I like to say that I bought the school and the house was just an accessory. For our family of three, we bought a 2400 square foot house. I would estimate that about 800 square feet were a waste of space (foyer, formal living, formal dining).

Our daughter is married and out of the house and we are looking to downsize. We are thinking in the 1200 sq foot range because we still both work out of the house and want a second bedroom as an office. Also (heh,heh), I want a 1200 sq foot basement all to myself for a shop.

[Gordon Eyre]

We have a single story rambler that is 2900 SF with a three car garage. There are four bedrooms and three baths so we have room to accommodate guests when they visit. Our children are all grown so there is just my wife and I. I love our house.

[Brian Elfert]

Actually most stairs are shallower today than the average stair in American Victorian and Arts & Crafts houses from 1850 through 1930. I agree the "cottage stair" was shallower, but it was not the common. Gone are the days with the steep winder stair. The low headroom & steep stair to the basement, the coal room, and the octopus furnace. Part of my architectural career was specializing in historic preservation including many National Trust buildings. Stairs today are generally more safe than those in the past. Of course any individual stair may differ.


I looked at a house built in 1962. The stairs from the basement were like a ladder. It was one of the worst aspects of the house that couldn't really be changed. The bad part is the house was a walkout with the garage in the basement so you had no choice on using the stairs every day.

[Mel Fulks]

Shawn, the period beginning in 1850 was the beginning of a large number of people being able to afford a house and that
meant modest housing. Smaller houses require steeper stairs and in some cases the stairs were steeper than present code. It is common now for large expensive houses to have to have the inferior bare minimum. I don't think people buy
stair climbers because they like to wear skis in the house! What I have seen in building is that the people who buy the
mc mansion stuff are deciding what to build while it is being built and so the contractors order the inferior stairs so they can say NO I CANT DO THAT ,THE STAIR BY LAW MUST BE AS DRAWN. A post last night mentioned there should be something between the extremes and there is, but I don't see architects drawing them. As for aging, I think many who are
young don't understand that in brings impaired balance as well as loss of strength.

[Shawn Pixley]

The problem with older stairs was they used a formula of 2R + 1T = 24"-27." Even before that there were less prescriptive "rules of thumb." Sorry for the inappropriate / insensitive terminology.

If people kept a reasonable tread size the formula works pretty well. Unfortunately it allowed an 8" tread with 8" risers. A steep stair indeed.

Now, the International building code states a maximum riser of 7" (4" minimum) and 11" minimum tread (sans nosing). This makes for an easier stair to navigate. The new tread also states when a landing is neede to break up a run. Ships ladders and spiral stairs have separate requirements. One of my more complicated efforts was a tightening helical freestanding spiral stair with no center column and a single laminated stringer. I took me forever to design, I pity the guy who had to build it. It was one of the elements that caused my to stay out of residential architecture. The house was commissioned by some very wealthy people for a 10,000+ sf house. They paid well but had no taste and continuously changed their minds.

[Tom M King]

I don't even know what size, in sq. ft., our house is. It started at around 1200 when we first built it in 1980. We've added onto it two times, and third coming up. I'm sure I could figure it up, but don't remember doing it in a while. The additions are larger than the original. The most important size is the size of the mortgage. I like 0 for that. Sort of like payments on a vehicle. I like to make one payment, and see how long it lasts.

[Mel Fulks]

There are several (at least) formulas for stairs. But as In the cases of the French and English examples they give almost
the same result. There is, or at least was ,a big difference between rules used by architects and country tradesmen. Audels Carpentry books in the earlier editions, defined "cottage stair" as one with a tread of only nine inches.
I agree the stairs used by the house help and coal shovelers are better than they once were.

[Mel Fulks]

132,000 square feet, when the economy tanked we bought an old mall and turned it into a duplex. Yes, we live in the small unit. Some of the stores left stock so that has been a money saver. Sorry, we do not allow old people to jog in the halls!

[Dave Sheldrake]

I've always thought about buying a disused missile silo over there.....lots available from $60k upwards just not so sure about having a 150 foot staircase built :)

cheers

Dave

[Mel Fulks]

And they shall beat their swords into plow shares and remodel their missile silos into living space,or grain storage.

[Shawn Pixley]

There was a time when older high schools were being remodeled to become apartments or condos. They turned out quite well. Enjoy your Mall!

[Leigh Betsch]

2600 on the main floor, another 2600'in the full basement, 3 full baths and another 3/4 bath, 2 stall attached garage, 48x90 pole barn /shop/dog kennel, two more 30x60'polebarn out buildings on 55 acres, no nosy neighbors. The wife wants a big deck....
The new lake home is 1200 with a double garage.
just the wife and I at home now. I like the lake home better. I'd like to sell the big house and move to the lake, and build a new million square foot shop.

[paul cottingham]

My wife and I and our daughter live in an 1800 SF house, with 2 (now deceased) huge kitties. We barely use the finished basement, except for my shop and a room for my model trains. The house is more than large enough.

[Jim Matthews]

...originally about 1900 sq feet. The addition ... brought it to about 4250 sq ft.

Wow.

+1 on the number of bathrooms being a valuable addition.

[David Nelson1]

My home is the typical Southern MD Split foyer with 1400 Square foot up stairs and 1000 down. Down stairs is 1/2 semi finished (still working on it) with a walkout via a sliding glass door. It had a small concrete pad outside of the slider that everything with in 2 steps was down hill. A real problem to mow so we installed a 24 X 40 deck.

The living area upstairs has a lot of waste due to the 6 ft foyer and the stairs. 2 baths (one down stairs) and 3 bedrooms. I built a stand alone 16 X 32 shop/garage with a 10 X 10 roll up door. I use this are as my shop now. No windows because its intended purpose was a machine shop after I shut my business down. Lost interest in mechanical work due to hips and arthritis. Its just the 2 of us now and we are trying my best to get the updates we have dreamed about completed. When we do it maybe time to retire and move LOL.

[Jim Matthews]

2500 square feet, including a double garage.

Two adults, two young boys, two dogs.

There are three under-utilized rooms in the house that
are largely empty on any given day.

We could have easily fit into a much smaller house,
but those that were available when we bought
were in rough condition.

The nicely appointed small houses were priced out of our budget.

It's a paradox; there are plenty of poorly designed oversize tract houses
available on postage stamp sized lots for reasonable money around here.

There are few moderately sized, well built smaller homes on larger lots available.

As previous posters intimated, larger houses tend to gather more stuff.

[Brian Elfert]

It's a paradox; there are plenty of poorly designed oversize tract houses
available on postage stamp sized lots for reasonable money around here.


Most lots with newer houses tend to have every inch of the width of the lot filled with house if the lots have city sewer. The larger lots are in areas that require septic systems. I really want a smaller house that isn't so old that I will spending all my time fixing issues and having to worry about asbestos. I want to be able to build a large outbuilding down the road, but many lots don't have room on the side of the house for a driveway to garage out back. The house I am working to purchase was built in 1980 so it is new enough to not have lead paint or asbestos. It is also built with modern building techniques.

[John C Lawson]

The old house in NJ was 2100 sq ft on a half acre, four bedrooms for three of us, plus cats. When we moved to Texas, we got a 4100 sq ft, five bedroom house on postage stamp lot. First floor master because of my wife's knee, daughter's room, guest room, my hobby room, wife's hobby room. Daughter has one more year in school, and is engaged. When I retire we will move to be closer to her, wherever she ends up. We have four full bathrooms. One shower has never been used. Guests get a whole bathroom to themselves.

[Bill McNiel]

My wife, dog and I live and work in a 100 year old barn that is over 5,500 SF on an acre (actually the dog doesn't really work that hard). The Barn is 3 stories with lots of stairs to climb. I have been working on the Barn for 33 years and have never had a mortage on it. I have done all the work myself, 90% by myself, including foundations, framing, siding, electrical, plumbing, GWB (hang, tape & skim coat), painting, tile, marble (salvaged from the Ritz Carlton Kapalua, Hi), landscaping and building all the windows. We completed our third kitchen remodel a couple of years ago. It's still not done, kind of my version of the Whinchester House, I need to keep working on it to stay alive.

We bought a house in town on the creek to retire to but both love the Barn and location so much we have been renting it out.

[Brian Elfert]

There is a converted barn for sale locally that looks very nicely done from the photos. It has a second floor family room that is about the size of a small gymnasium I swear. I would look at buying it if it wasn't so far from work.

[Ryan Mooney]

1400 square feet (23x30 attached garage/shop), 3bdrm, 2 bath. Just the two of us. It would be plenty except it would help of it was a bit more open plan and loml really wants a bigger 600ish square feet apparently). Would also be nice to have a big more guest quarters, right now the "guest room" is full of yarn and wool and looms and spinning wheels and.... I'd also (of coarse) like a bigger shop (and loml would like a place inside to park the car).

[Jim Matthews]

The larger lots are in areas that require septic systems.

Good point. No town water or sewer, here.


I really want a smaller house that isn't so old that I will spending all my time fixing issues...
We're on the same page, our first house was a never ending rehab project. Our next one was fully functional from the start.



The house I am working to purchase was built in 1980 so it is new enough to not have lead paint or asbestos. It is also built with modern building techniques.

Does it seem that in your neck of the woods, people were ignoring houses like this, so builders gave them what they wanted?

There's a brand new development adjacent to our Cul-de-sac with 4000+ square feet of living space on lots no larger than mine.
I can't imagine the heating bills. I suppose septic systems have seen design advances since my house was built, but still....

[Brian Elfert]

Does it seem that in your neck of the woods, people were ignoring houses like this, so builders gave them what they wanted?


Actually, builders are building a fair number of new split level houses here with 1,000 to 1,200 square feet on the upper level and the lower level unfinished. Now, they are building as least as many larger two story houses. These cheap new houses seem to be built okay for the most part, but the quality of finish materials is poor. They look nice to most cosmetically, but anyone who pays any attention will see how cheap everything is. They all use sliding windows which leak air by their nature and tend to get dirty in the tracks and such. Most have three bedrooms and just one bathroom. It is rare to find a separate master bathroom unless someone buys the upgraded model.

A 2009 built split level was for sale a while back. I looked at it, and frankly, it was not all that great a house. They did a decent job on the building, but the bedrooms were tiny and the cabinets were junk. The finish was already worn off the cabinets that got used regularly. One bedroom was so tiny it should have been a closet. The house would have been better as a two bedroom, but everyone wants three bedrooms for the most part.

[Larry Fox]

Where I live in SE PA, far and away the most popular style of house is what is referred to around here is a center-hall-colonial. There seem to be literally millions of them and I have one of these also. It is about ~2600 sq ft not counting a finished basement. It has 2 full and 2 half baths including one in the finished basement. It has a 3 car garage which, except for a small mud room, is completely consumed by my shop. Living in it is myself, my wife, my two sons aged 12 and 9, plus a boxer puppy who thinks he is letting us live in his house. The layout is such that while it sounds like a decent amount of space (and it is), it is not laid out very well. Dining room and living room - we almost never go into. Kitchen - way too small. Bedrooms - too small. I like open space and this house has almost none of it. Highly likely to move / downsize when the kids are grown and gone.

[Craig Matheny]

Our house originally in 1981 was 1200sf in 1982 we added on about 600sf in 1987 we added on about 250sf then in 2003 we went crazy added on about 2700+sf we are now 5200+sf 4000 down stairs includes 1200 sf shop and 1200 sf apartment upstairs (retirement income). We live in So cal right in the heart of Orange County but the beauty is we live in the middle of the city but in an unincorporated section so they aloud the build.

[Bert Kemp]

Mines 1520sf single level on 4.5 acres . 3 bed 2 full baths , open living room dining combo area decent kitchen, small laundry room . Just me and the cat now, turned one bedroom into the laser room office combo. one bedroom in to workout rm LOL it has one of those weight machines. I was using it a lot.But not right now.Might think about rent a room sometime.

[Garth Almgren]

Ours is a 2600 square foot rambler, not including the 2 car garage and the shop/shed/greenhouse. Sits on a 1 acre lot. 4 bedroom, 2 bath, and it's just about perfect for our current needs while providing room in the future for kids. 2 of the bedrooms are being used as bedrooms, one is an office/guest room, and the last one is a craft room for my wife and mother-in-law.

[Dennis Aspö]

137 square meter house, actual internal living area is 121 square meters, which comes to 1302 square feet. House is newly built, infact we haven't moved in yet, in a few weeks though! We're 4 people, two adults and two infants (twins).

There's a free standing two car garage (43m2 or 462 sq.feet) with extra storage. Won't be keeping the car in the garage though, that's my workshop!

[Bill Arnold]

When we decided to move out of Florida to southwest Georgia in 2006 for retirement, my wife and I downsizing to a smaller house wouldn't a bad thing. It's just the two of us and there is no way any kids or grandkids will be allowed to move in with us. That said, we started keeping an eye on real estate listings in Thomasville after fully researching several communities. We think we ended up in a place we can live now until we're dust.

Our property is just over an acre at the end of a cul-de-sac in a nice development. As to downsizing, well this house is 1780sf under A/C with attached two-car garage, slightly larger than our previous home. It's a four bedroom, two bath home, but one bedroom is our home office.

A shop or space to build one were part of our criteria for a retirement place. This property had a shop building that was 16' wide by 24' deep with a matching loft on top in a structure with a gambrel roof. After much effort on a layout, we decided to add 20' to the bottom of the shop building. That gives me about 860sf for shop space with the loft, 380sf, used as combined shop/house storage.

Oh, if you add the lawn equipment storage building I constructed, that's another 240sf for machines and tools that one might normally have in a garage. Then, there's the two-car carport under which I park my vehicle and that also shields my smoker and grill from the elements.

All in all, we have plenty of space for two people! :)

[Michael Liechty]

grew up in a 1200 Sf 3 BR/ 1.5 Bath home with my 4 other siblings and parents

ML

[Jim O'Dell]

Our first house was 1300 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 1 3/4 bath (3/4 in master suite). Just the wife and I, no kids, anywhere from 3 to 5 Irish Setters. Converted on bedroom to a dog room by taking out the 6' wide window and installing a double french door to the back yard. Worked well with the litter of pups in 1995! Living room was Glenna's piano studio and office. Small family room and kitchen. Forward to 2005. Needed to be out of the city limits and the pet laws we were braking on a daily basis. Found new to us home in an unincorporated area just 5 miles west of the old house on .93 acre with a 2520 sq ft living area, ranch style house. 4 bedrooms, LARGE master suite, 2 2/3 bath. One bedroom had the closet wall removed and the door to the hallway to the other bedroom and master suite closed off. 5' wide open walk through to the entry created. Not sure what they used this for...maybe a dining room or formal living room. 2nd largest bedroom is on the opposite side of the entry and is my wife's piano studio. Has the 1/2 bath adjacent to it...perfect for her students and house guests. Large family room, though the doors chop it up too much, and large kitchen combination. Long utility room between kitchen and 2 car garage. The re-purposed bedroom that is open to the entry is 12 X 14 and I just knew it would be my model train room. Alas, Glenna took it over as her music annex. Has a place for students to practice on an electric piano with headphones, computer station for them to do music games, TV, VCR and DVD player for watching instructional videos, a place to put up a table when she has music camp, and sofa for students and their families waiting for their lessor or a sibling to finish. I did get the 20 X 24 out building for my shop. Enclosed the covered porch, see my Coolmeadow Shop Rehab thread in the archives, for my assembly/finishing room. Would love a larger shop, but it is functional.
This is really too much house for 2 people, but it is secluded and very quiet considering we have IH-20 less than a mile south of us, and IH-30 less than a mile north of us!! Something about having 4 100' Pecan trees engulfing the house makes for some great noise and temperature insulation! Jim.

[Alan Bienlein]

Mine is almost 1600 sqft which in my opinion is about 800 sqft too much now that one child has moved out and am trying to get the other to move out also.

[Joe Pelonio]

Ours is 3,000 sf, twice the size of the house we moved from in 1993. With 3 kids and frequent holiday guests it was just right for us. Now that two of them have moved out we don't need as much room but have decided to stay until I retire. I'd like to get a smaller house with more yard space, this lot is only 1/3 acre. We still get holiday guests from of of state, and have a room for our grandson when he comes to visit. He's upstairs now having his nap. In our area the typical new house now is even bigger, 3,200-4,00 sf but on even smaller lots, often 5,000 sf. People seem to like a big house but don't want to maintain a yard.

[Rick Gibson]

We raised our 2 kids in a 950 sq. ft semi. with 1 & 1/2 baths. My hobby at that time was ham radio and didn't need much space so it worked out fine. After I retired I took up woodworking and we decided we didn't really like the stairs any more. Got out of the city and got a ranch bungalow with a 220 by 250 ft lot and the house itself is about 1250 sq. ft. on one level. It does have a full basement with family room, laundry and a 25' x 25' shop for me. the shop does have it's own entrance so I don't have to carry wood etc. through the house. It's a below ground entrance with the stairs running along the outside wall so it's a little work to get a full sheet of plywood in but it can be done.

[Frank Martin]

Ours is 3,500 sqft for the wife, myself and our son, plus a new puppy. It is way bigger than we actually need, but this was the only house available in the school district we wanted so we got it back in the day. I always think we can live comfortable in about 2,000 sqft, by getting rid of the stuff we actually don't need. I have no plans to move though, unless a career move, etc forces it as we renovated couple years ago and love the proximity to the beach and the views.

[Mike Null]

Ours is 2500 sq. ft. plus walk out basement and 2 car garage. It is what's called a story and a half with guest rooms, bath and loft on the second floor and our living quarters etc on the first.

We will be remodeling the master bath to make it "senior" safe. My wife is 71 and I'm 77. We were just talking about how lucky we are to have stairs that we use often during the day and how that helps to keep our legs stronger and in better condition.

I operate my business from my basement so i'm occupying all but about a 100 square feet that is used as a pantry.

[Dave Anderson NH]

We have 2000sft on 2.0 acres. Split entry gambrel with a detached 24' x 26' gambrel garage/barn. We also have a garden shed and a small woodshed. Our lot is heavily wooded with only about half an acre in lawn and some major outcroppings of rock. We bought the house about half built and because we are empty nesters chose to have a half bath with laundry on the first floor and the full bath on the second floor. One of the 3 bedrooms is used as an office/sewing room and the other is a spare for guests and SWMBOs overflow of clothes. My shop is the full basement with 2 double hung windows on each side of the front providing plenty of natural light and access through either the center staircase or a bulkhead in the rear. Occasionally SWMBO talks about a smaller house with more land and fewer neighbors. When we moved here the town was 1800 people and has grown to 5000.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Center hall colonial with north of 3,600 sq. ft. (3 floors), plus basement and detached garage. House is over 100 years old and third floor was originally servant quarters. Just wife and our 14 year old (older two daughters married and off on their own). Over the next few years we will find/build a more energy efficient home, maybe a bit smaller, but with better entertainment room/flow for guests. Also we cover 3 city lots now and we (I) want at least 4 or 5 acres.

[Julie Moriarty]

I've got about 2,800 sg/ft (1st & 2nd floor and a small loft) and another 1,100 sq/ft in a finished basement. I consider the entire basement finished because even the workshop has paneling. :rolleyes: My 3 kids are all grown and moved out and I don't see any more returning to the nest, though two did after their first attempt at independence. It's long past time to move into something smaller. One of those options is a sailboat, but where does the workshop go? ;)

[Shawn Pixley]

I've got about 2,800 sg/ft (1st & 2nd floor and a small loft) and another 1,100 sq/ft in a finished basement. I consider the entire basement finished because even the workshop has paneling. :rolleyes: My 3 kids are all grown and moved out and I don't see any more returning to the nest, though two did after their first attempt at independence. It's long past time to move into something smaller. One of those options is a sailboat, but where does the workshop go? ;)

The owners of the local Woodcraft live on a sailboat. They rent a small space to pursue their hobbies. He has a shop and she has a painting studio. You might get away with building small things as a neander on the boat, but anything else, ...???