[american_mommy]

I am very clueless on the square footage thing. Dh says he wants to get a house that is around 2000 sq ft. But we want to have that plus a finished basement.
We plan on having one more child, so that would be 4 and hope I will feel done at 4, but dh says if I want 5 then he will
We have stumbled on the whether our girls should share a room. THey have for almost 3 yrs now so I think they would be lost, but then when they are teenagers I know they'd like privacy. We figured that's where part of the basement would come in too.
SO what size wouldyou consider a reasonable house? Just wondering!

[mom2emnkate]

Tammy, I think you're going to find that it's going to vary hugely from person to person, and the type of climate they live in. Someone who live in the North might just need a few hundred square feet extra, because we spend so much time inside!

Right now, our house is about 1500 square feet and we're suffocating. Glenn and I have hobbies that take up HUGE amounts of space. We are looking for a three bedroom house (or more would be okay!)--the girls enjoy their own space, so they'll have their own rooms-- with about 2000 square feet. A dry, usable basement too. It doesn't have to be finished becusae we could do that ourselves. ANd a barn for Glenn's workworking shop.
Really our current house, in terms of *room-size* is not that small for us, it's just that, being a Victorian, we have almost NO closets, which is killing us.

I believe that basements are not counted in the square footage of the house unless they are finished and have an exit to the outside.

HTH

K

PS Kerry, I don't know how you do it in a house that small!!

This post has been edited by mom2emnkate: 31 March 2006 - 06:00 AM

[Cindy]

I am thinking you will find varied responses depending on the person - we just built a 2200 sq ft house and i think the size is perfect - I have 2 kids nad will probably not have any more but I do have 3 dogs (2 of which are 90+lbs) and 2 cats - at some point we will add the garage onto our house with a bonus room above and that will add about another 300sqft.

Good luck deciding

Cindy

[Julie]

I think square feet can be misleading. I guess some general guidelines are that 1000 is tiny and 2000 is a bit larger than average. It all depends on how the space is laid out if you'll find what is right for you. We live in a house that is 1600 square feet. We fit pretty well it in. A family of five and an indoor cat. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. But it feels too small sometimes because we don't have a basement. I think it'd feel huge if we had a basement. We'd be able to spread out a bit more. kwim?
I love learning all this new house stuff. I've picked up quite a bit just from reading this board!
~Julie

[meg_amommy]

Oh wow. I guess I'm the only "space hog", then. Our house is 2600 square feet and there are only 3 of us (and one dog, but she's outside most of the time). I STILL feel like we're tripping over each other (and toys) most of the time.

Wow. Guess I'll stop complaining next time I think we need a bigger house.

[camry1029]

OK, I definately have the smallest house here. Mine is only about 1100 square feet, and that is a stretch. We have three bedrooms and ONE bathroom, all on one floor. Let's not forget I have three kids, a cat plus a teenage stepdaughter that stays for the summer! Is it too small? Oh yeah! I especially hate the one bathroom and my small bedroom. The bedroom drives me crazy! I never realized that importance of a large master bedroom until now!

We have a full basement that we will eventually finsh. It is the only way we can grow into this house without completely going broke. We could take the roof off and build up, but that's just not in the budget right now. In the meantime, we just trip over ourselves, lol!

I'd suggest finding a house with more than four bedrooms, or very large bedrooms. Bt just bear in mind that the more bedrooms, usally the house is more expensive! Perhaps find a house that is large but needs a little TLC? That would keep the price down plus getting the space that you need.

[american_mommy]

Pretty much anything is better than where we are now! We have 3 VERY small bedrooms, a nice sized kitchen and living room, a small bathroom and closet of a laundry room. I have no idea how big it is.
The one thing with fixing up a house is dh is never home and I don't see him turning into a handyman that will want to do that stuff on his 2 days home a week!
His brothers have both said if we build a house they will help us and my mom and her dh have said they will come stay during the summer and do the inside. THat would be nice, maybe for next summer. I don't think it would save us much but it would be a little!

[Kelly]

american_mommy, on Mar 30 2006, 08:59 PM, said:

I am very clueless on the square footage thing. Dh says he wants to get a house that is around 2000 sq ft. But we want to have that plus a finished basement.
We plan on having one more child, so that would be 4 and hope I will feel done at 4, but dh says if I want 5 then he will
We have stumbled on the whether our girls should share a room. THey have for almost 3 yrs now so I think they would be lost, but then when they are teenagers I know they'd like privacy. We figured that's where part of the basement would come in too.
SO what size wouldyou consider a reasonable house? Just wondering!

well we have 1872 sq ft right now. I think this house is small for us because we don't have a finished basement and we have more rooms but they are smaller. I like an open floorplan better. We used to have a finished basement and the spacewas great for toys.
I feel cramped here. The house we are building is 2800 sq ft & we will have a walkout basement that we can finish for an added 800 sq ft. I hope that is enough space for us! lol

[ababydivine]

Julie, on Mar 31 2006, 12:17 PM, said:

I think square feet can be misleading. I guess some general guidelines are that 1000 is tiny and 2000 is a bit larger than average. It all depends on how the space is laid out if you'll find what is right for you. We live in a house that is 1600 square feet. We fit pretty well it in. A family of five and an indoor cat. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. But it feels too small sometimes because we don't have a basement. I think it'd feel huge if we had a basement. We'd be able to spread out a bit more. kwim?
I love learning all this new house stuff. I've picked up quite a bit just from reading this board!
~Julie

I agree! Our last house was 1700 square feet but it was laid out horribly and we ended up really "living" in about 800 of that. It was just awful with 2 kids, a large dog and 2 cats. Our house now is 1900 square feet which isn't much bigger, but it lives like it is twice as big! Plus we have a 900 sq ft unfinished basement that we will finish off if we stay here long enough. Our goal in the next 2-3 years is to get a house that is 2600+ sq ft.....we'll see though, houses here are expensive.

[camry1029]

Julie, on Mar 31 2006, 02:17 PM, said:

I think square feet can be misleading. I guess some general guidelines are that 1000 is tiny and 2000 is a bit larger than average. It all depends on how the space is laid out if you'll find what is right for you. We live in a house that is 1600 square feet. We fit pretty well it in. A family of five and an indoor cat. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. But it feels too small sometimes because we don't have a basement. I think it'd feel huge if we had a basement. We'd be able to spread out a bit more. kwim?
I love learning all this new house stuff. I've picked up quite a bit just from reading this board!
~Julie

Agreed! When I lived in NC, we had 1600 square feet...two large bedrooms with huge closets, a large dining/;iving area, a "Florida" room, a den and kitchenette. But we never really found a good use for that Florida room and the living area was wasted space. Our current house is much smaller but we make much better use of the space. Layout is very important!

[Cindy]

DId anyone see the MSNBC story on size of homes???

"The average American home swelled from 983 square feet in 1950 to 2,349 square feet in 2004 -- a 140% increase in size. "

The article talked about putting a stop to McMansions - house over 4000sq ft!!

ANyone have any thought son this?

[Julie]

I've just never understood how anyone could afford a McMansion. Everything would be more expensive. Your mortgage, heating, cooling, taxes. Not to mention cleaning it all!
I've really been working on my own mindset lately. You know, your 'having what you want and wanting what you have' line of thinking. We've been trying to simplify while we're cleaning & purging too. But it's not always easy to change your habits. Those impulses are still there. Baby steps..... lol
~Julie

[camry1029]

Cindy, on Apr 6 2006, 11:24 AM, said:

DId anyone see the MSNBC story on size of homes???

"The average American home swelled from 983 square feet in 1950 to 2,349 square feet in 2004 -- a 140% increase in size. "

The article talked about putting a stop to McMansions - house over 4000sq ft!!

ANyone have any thought son this?

My friend's parents (load of $$) just built an 11,000 square foot house...for just the two of them! The house is huge, and a complete watse of space. They basically just live in their bedroom, the kitchen and the den. Why does anyone need that much space??

[Kelly]

camry1029, on Apr 6 2006, 02:58 PM, said:

My friend's parents (load of $$) just built an 11,000 square foot house...for just the two of them! The house is huge, and a complete watse of space. They basically just live in their bedroom, the kitchen and the den. Why does anyone need that much space??

My aunt & uncle(he's a builder) just moved into a 4000+ sqft house. They have 3 kids 2 out of HS & 1 still in HS. I have no idea why they need so much space.

[american_mommy]

I always dream of houses that big, but in reality what would I do with it? I'd have to have a maid, geez I hate cleaning this tiny place!
Our requirements are 4 bedrooms, open livingroom, kitchen and a finished basement. I don't need a "diningroom". I like having a big kitchen where we eat. I'd love a basement for a playroom and maybe future bedroom, and for the computer.
The problem around her is if the houses have lots of bedrooms they are so tiny! Or there are only 3 bedrooms.

[Sara]

I think it's very true that the way the space is laid out makes a HUGE difference. We only have 1500 sq. feet, plus 375 sq. feet finished basement room (plus the basement storage/washer/dryer area). But it's all very well laid out so the space is not wasted. With two kids, we have plenty of room. I love it that our kids' bedrooms are big. We were told that usually kids' rooms are smaller for the price we paid. I love having our own master bath too. Overall, I love everything about my house except the yard layout (which honestly, there is plenty of room for the kids...they and DH are happy!), and some of the neighbors have attitudes. The price was so perfect I don't know if we will end up moving someday or not.

[Kim]

I definitely agree with the layout aspect. A smaller home that is well-laid out can be just fine and feel very spacious.

I do have a partially finished basement or lower level, otherwise I think I'd have the smallest house here! LOL! But we really don't use the downstairs all that much other than to go down to laundry (which isn't counted in the FSF). My house is only 912 sq. ft on one level.

I think our home here is adequate. My stepson is moving out which makes a big difference in space for us. Basically, his room has become a spare guest room and a playroom for the girls, when they DO go downstairs.

That being said, we are looking at building a house that is around 1800 square feet finished, and then we will have an additional 900 sq ft basement to finish at some point. I may go smaller than that though. Since moving out of my parents I've lived in four homes and none have been over 2,000 square feet. I really haven't found it necessary. I grew up in a great place in a home my parents built, that was about 1250 sq ft on one floor. They didn't finish the basement until 8-9 years after we moved in which added maybe another 700 square feet.

When I was a LOT younger, I always thought I'd want a big house, but when I was in my mid 20's, I happened to read an article written by some architects about a movement towards smaller, more usable homes, instead of larger ones with wasted space and rooms that people don't use regularly. They spotlighted families who had done just that, selling their 3,000+ square ft homes and showing pics of the smaller, usable, more quality built homes they moved into. It really made a ton of sense to me and since then, I totally changed my way of thinking. I'm totally into simplicity too.

Have I showed you the base plan of the house we're thinking of building? It's a stock plan on the internet, but then our builder takes it and redraws it and makes any changes to it that we want. I'm pretty certain it's the plan we'll choose, but we actually may make it smaller.

Anyway, like everyone else said, it's going to vary a lot between people and what they think they need and what they want.

Great topic!

Kim

[Sara]

Kim, on Jun 29 2006, 08:59 AM, said:

I definitely agree with the layout aspect. A smaller home that is well-laid out can be just fine and feel very spacious.
Kim

OT: Kim, what precious, cute girls you have! I clicked on your website/blog, and what an amazing, miracle story they have! Thanks for sharing it.

[american_mommy]

I'd love to see the plan you are looking at! We have a plan in mind, it's actually 2 plans put together. I think it was like 2300 sq ft though. I really liked it but it was all one floor and dh says that would be more expensive. His brother is looking over it to tell us an idea of the cost. We would be able to make it 2 story but if we have to go with a 2 story I'd probably pick another plan. We want to have at least 4 bedrooms, since we have 3 kids and are planning 1 more. The girls right now share a room and will probably then too but I'd like Justin to have his own. I can't wait till we get ready to move out of here!

Kim, on Jun 29 2006, 09:59 AM, said:

I definitely agree with the layout aspect. A smaller home that is well-laid out can be just fine and feel very spacious.

I do have a partially finished basement or lower level, otherwise I think I'd have the smallest house here! LOL! But we really don't use the downstairs all that much other than to go down to laundry (which isn't counted in the FSF). My house is only 912 sq. ft on one level.

I think our home here is adequate. My stepson is moving out which makes a big difference in space for us. Basically, his room has become a spare guest room and a playroom for the girls, when they DO go downstairs.

That being said, we are looking at building a house that is around 1800 square feet finished, and then we will have an additional 900 sq ft basement to finish at some point. I may go smaller than that though. Since moving out of my parents I've lived in four homes and none have been over 2,000 square feet. I really haven't found it necessary. I grew up in a great place in a home my parents built, that was about 1250 sq ft on one floor. They didn't finish the basement until 8-9 years after we moved in which added maybe another 700 square feet.

When I was a LOT younger, I always thought I'd want a big house, but when I was in my mid 20's, I happened to read an article written by some architects about a movement towards smaller, more usable homes, instead of larger ones with wasted space and rooms that people don't use regularly. They spotlighted families who had done just that, selling their 3,000+ square ft homes and showing pics of the smaller, usable, more quality built homes they moved into. It really made a ton of sense to me and since then, I totally changed my way of thinking. I'm totally into simplicity too.

Have I showed you the base plan of the house we're thinking of building? It's a stock plan on the internet, but then our builder takes it and redraws it and makes any changes to it that we want. I'm pretty certain it's the plan we'll choose, but we actually may make it smaller.

Anyway, like everyone else said, it's going to vary a lot between people and what they think they need and what they want.

Great topic!

Kim