How many square feet is your home?

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mathwhiz
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How many square feet is your home?

Post by mathwhiz »

My wife and I are trying to decide whether to upgrade from our current home to a larger home. But the cheapskate in me is thinking.......larger maintenance bills, utilities, property taxes goes along with a bigger property. And I'm afraid a bigger house will mean more "stuff" we have to buy. We currently live in a 1200 square foot 3/2. Just the two of us for now and it's perfectly fine. One of the bedrooms is a junk/storage room. One of the bedrooms is my home office. And the other bedroom is our room. I kind of think our setup now is pretty perfect. If we have kids, we can make a nursery out of the junk room. I really don't see a need for a 4 bedroom house unless we decide on 2 kids but that's a long way off, if it ever happens.

How many square feet do you live in? Is it cramped or comfy?
bungalow10
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by bungalow10 »

1900 square feet, three bed, 1 1/2 bathroom.

We have three kids and it seems fine. We also have a bonus room above our garage that is about 400 square feet and finished, plus a full basement for storage. Our living space is almost 50/50 between common areas/bedrooms. The entire downstairs is just kitchen, dining room, and living room (fairly open and a great mix of space for us - we must be on the only family in the world that still uses a dining room) and the upstairs is the three bedrooms and one large bathroom.

The only problem we foresee is with bathrooms... the lack of a second shower.
Last edited by bungalow10 on Wed Oct 16, 2013 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

just expanded to 2200 sq ft from 1850 ft - 3 bd, 3 bath, very small basement, limited attic space. It's bigger, but not nearly as big as some of the 3000 foot+ homes on the other side of town and that is just fine with me.
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czeckers
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by czeckers »

For me personally, 400sq ft per person is quite comfortable. One certainly can get by with less as long as the house is well designed. I think a lot of people end up with much bigger houses than they really need in order to make up for bad/inefficient design. Having a bigger house certainly comes with bigger utility, maintenance, and tax bills.

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YttriumNitrate
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by YttriumNitrate »

2100 with just my wife and I...it's definitely a lot more than we need right now. Of the four bedrooms, one we actually use, one is referred to as "the ferret's room", one is just used for storage, and one is kept nice for when guests visit.

Although the house is rather empty, the garage is packed full of various things (sometimes even a car) and I would totally get a larger three car garage if I had the chance.
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Toons
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Toons »

We downsized to1500 sq.feet for the 2 of us ,couldn't be more pleased with our decision,"Less Is More" :happy
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nordlead
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by nordlead »

2ksqft with a full basement and attached 2 car garage. In a low cost of living area so I didn't spend $600k on it or anything crazy. It is actually bigger than my parents house of 1750sqft (half basement + 2 car garage) and they had 3 boys and it fit just fine. We were just having our first child when we bought the house and now we have 2 with a 3rd on the way.

I actually didn't want a 2ksqft house and was looking for one the same size as my parents, but I pretty much had to choose between <1500 sqft, or >2000 sqft. Also, many of the smaller houses didn't have a 2 car garage which I considered essential since I have a motorcycle I wanted to keep in the garage along with the car through the winter (+110 inches per year of snow).

2ksqft is tons of room for me right now (even with my sister-in-law living with us). I could completely eliminate 3 rooms from my house right now and still have plenty of room (so basically I think I could get by on a 1700sqft house with a full basement and garage which is what I originally wanted). Since we do have a daughter on the way one of those rooms will be used shortly.

So, I'm in the ~350sqft per person realm in terms of how much space I use. Since you don't know if you'll have a 2nd child I see no reason to upgrade right now. Just clean out the crap that you don't need and aren't using. I'm in the slow process of building shelving/storage and cleaning all of the crap that someone got into the basement... I blame gravity.
Bungo
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Bungo »

2000 sf, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. 3 occupants. Spacious enough except temporarily we all share one bathroom while the other is being remodeled. Still, a big improvement over 5 years ago when we shared a 1000 sf apartment with no garage or storage. Potential downside: this house has a garage and a detached workshop, so the opportunity for accumulation of clutter is nearly limitless.
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CABob
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by CABob »

DW and I lived in a 1200 sq. ft. home for over 30 years, raised two children, and found it adequate. Perhaps this is a case that one is satisfied until they find out larger homes are available and have some comfort advantages.
As an aside, when others were downsizing for retirement we upsized to about 1500 feet, but that was mostly due to what was available in the area we wanted when we wanted.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by westcoast »

We are retired and have 2997 square feet, with a three car garage. 3 bed, 2 1/2 bath with a bonus room over the garage. Way to big for the two of use. My wife had her office and business in bonus room when she was working. I am trying to convince her we should down size to around 1500/1800 square feet.
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BrandonBogle
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by BrandonBogle »

Op, first off, I agree with your assessment for your situation.

In my case, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1200 sq ft. each level (two-story) with a full size walk-out basement. So 3600 sq ft total. 2 car garage. So far it is just the two of us in the master. We use one bedroom as an office, one room for the dog, and have a guest bedroom, all on the top floor. We feel quite comfortable and do not feel cramped at all. Even if we had one child, we would be fine. Two children likely would be fine, but we would have to rethink some things.

Budget-wise, this house is amazing. We can easily cover the mortgage, interest, property tax, and insurance on just my paycheck. If we ever wanted to, we could rent out the guest room for enough to cover the mortgage and interest. We are in a A-rated area for school and have easy access to the private schools of the area (walking distance). I have no plans whatsoever to move in the next couple decades. In fact, I would be perfectly fine staying in this house until we need to get one that has a master suite on the main level (due to age/health).
Hikes_With_Dogs
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Hikes_With_Dogs »

Mine is too big and very un-bogleheady.

3500 sq feet. 2 adults, 1 toddler, and 2 sometimes present step-children (ie holidays, weekends, etc). 3 dogs.

The area where we live has mostly 1200-1500 sq foot homes and 3000+ sq foot homes. Very little in between.

We wanted a 4 bedroom ~2200 sq foot home. Couldn't find it. In a market where homes would be pending in 3 days or less.

So we bought "too" big. It's a pain in the ass to clean but other than that, it's ok.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by nisiprius »

About 1200 square feet.
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Rupert
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Rupert »

The design and layout of the house are much more important than the square footage. Built-in storage is key. It eliminates clutter and you don't have to buy as much furniture.
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ryuns
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by ryuns »

Two people in a 1100 sf, 3/1. We use the limited storage space to the max but still have an "office" (much less use since I don't work from home anymore) and a dedicated spare bedroom, which gets used a few times a month (aside from storage). Would love some extra storage space, but otherwise, couldn't see being in something much bigger. If we had a place for an extra bathroom (even a half bath), we'd never move, even if we had a kid or two.
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Quickfoot
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Quickfoot »

We currently live in a 1300 sqft house with 2 adults and 3 kids, it is cramped. We made it work while we paid off debt and paid for custody battles with our exs, we now have a 7% debt to income ratio and are moving to a 2550 sqft house this weekend.

If the house you are in is meeting your needs I'd stay, I can't count the number of people I know that have upgraded their house unnecessarily and wound up house poor or with a foreclosure.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by stoptothink »

I rent a room. Home is ~2500sq. ft and there are 6 of us, 6 bedrooms and 4bt. We're all grown working professionals and really good friends; it's great. I'll be getting married in January, looking at 600-700sq. ft apartments for 3.

My mother's home is 2,900sq. ft for 3. My mom raised 5 of us in a 2dr/1bt ~1100sq. ft., but now almost 3x as much space for half as many people isn't enough.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by livesoft »

We have small house on our block at 3000+ sq ft. It is not cluttered and is very energy efficient. Last week we had 2 house guests at the same time and were able to accommodate them in their own bedrooms and own bathrooms.

We have not bought "stuff" just because we have space to put it. Our living room is really a combined music room, gym, and office because it has a piano, a desk, and a weight bench.
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bengal22
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by bengal22 »

3200. 2 of us retired. not sure I would want too much smaller.
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Bradley
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Bradley »

Have spent 27 years in our 3745 sq ft home with youngest moving out 15 years ago. Have always enjoyed the space and location.
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mbres60
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by mbres60 »

1858 sq ft. 4 bedroom (4th bedroom is tiny)/ 2.5 baths. We finished part of the basement too (not included in the square footage). Raised 2 kids here. Grew up in a house that was probably no more than 1100 sq ft. Much prefer the 1858 sq ft !!!
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midareff
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by midareff »

1395 square foot 2/2 condo with all amenities... just 2 of us, both retired, very comfortable.
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FrugalInvestor
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by FrugalInvestor »

What I've concluded over many years and after having owned a few homes ranging from 1500sf to 4000sf is that no matter how large the house is my wife and I actually live in about 1000sf. Anything beyond that for us is for a want, not a need. That's not to say that wants are not justified (if affordable), just that it's important for us to understand that that's what we're paying extra for both upfront and, as you point out, on an ongoing basis in terms of added taxes, utilities, maintenance, etc.
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Crow Hunter
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Crow Hunter »

1,450 sq ft around 3 bed/2 bath just myself and my wife. It is a good size, in a beautiful location, but it isn't laid out well. The master bedroom and kitchen are too big and the living area too small.

I grew up in a 1,200 sq ft house with my parents and one sibling that was very similar in design, but felt bigger because it didn't waste so much space in the kitchen and master bedroom.

When we build our retirement home it will be similar in size 1,200 -1,800 but with an efficient open floor similar to the house we hand when we first got married just without the extra space/bonus room.

That house was 2,001 sq ft and there were rooms we never used. The dining room was used as an arboretum, the "bonus room" over the garage was occasionally used to play board games on the floor in the winter and the 2 spare bedrooms were used as a guest bedroom (no one ever used it) and a computer/videogame/book storage.
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tyrion
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by tyrion »

mathwhiz wrote:My wife and I are trying to decide whether to upgrade from our current home to a larger home. But the cheapskate in me is thinking.......larger maintenance bills, utilities, property taxes goes along with a bigger property. And I'm afraid a bigger house will mean more "stuff" we have to buy. We currently live in a 1200 square foot 3/2. Just the two of us for now and it's perfectly fine. One of the bedrooms is a junk/storage room. One of the bedrooms is my home office. And the other bedroom is our room. I kind of think our setup now is pretty perfect. If we have kids, we can make a nursery out of the junk room. I really don't see a need for a 4 bedroom house unless we decide on 2 kids but that's a long way off, if it ever happens.

How many square feet do you live in? Is it cramped or comfy?
We have the same size house (3/2 1200 sq ft). So far it's been large enough, with 2 kids and 1-3 cats. Another kid and it would probably feel a little small. We do live in Southern California so we have some good backyard spaces that make it feel a little larger.

As it is we have one open living/dining room. I think as the kids get older it would be nice to have a second 'living' space, both for a little privacy and because not everyone wants to do the same thing (TV, reading, etc). I doubt it's worth moving/upgrading to obtain this additional living space.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by bungalow10 »

mbres60 wrote:1858 sq ft. 4 bedroom (4th bedroom is tiny)/ 2.5 baths. We finished part of the basement too (not included in the square footage). Raised 2 kids here. Grew up in a house that was probably no more than 1100 sq ft. Much prefer the 1858 sq ft !!!
I also grew up in a house about 1100 square feet (being generous with the measuring tape) and my 1900 square foot house with five of us seems really big to me sometimes, despite living here for 10 years.

My parents still live in the 1100 square foot house, I feel bad when we visit because we just seem to fill it up.... there's no place to get away.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by linenfort »

1300 square ft rowhome for 2.
Quite comfy, but I wouldn't mind adding an extra 1/2 bath.
Rupert wrote:The design and layout of the house are much more important than the square footage. Built-in storage is key. It eliminates clutter and you don't have to buy as much furniture.
Totally agree.
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Milano
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Milano »

900 square feet. Married 54 YO.

Paid $ 245,000 in 1998, $100,000 down payment, 4.26% 15 years fixed rate mortgage, nine years left to pay off. I usually pay more than mortgage bill.

Many discussions with wife about expanding, adding square footage, or buying a bigger home, how do we finance this?

Homes in the neighborhood that have doubled in size are worth a good amount. Comparable homes are three time the original price since 1998.

We like where we live, is expanding a good investment? How about expanding and renting out 900 sqft which would be $ 2,000 monthly?

The house has preformed better than the ML investments.
gary11
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by gary11 »

mathwhiz wrote: How many square feet do you live in? Is it cramped or comfy?
We live in 2000 sq ft 2 story, 3 bed, 2 and half bath, house. Plus 600 sq ft finished basement which is mostly an open area for play/home theater. Its a typical burb cookie-cutter house and we love it. Overall living area is more than that of a family of 3 would require; at times it feels comfy and sometimes we see it is bigger than what we would need but I doubt we will be able to comfortably downsize in future. The house was built in 2002 and we are the original owners. When first we moved in it felt huge but slowly we have expanded our presence in all corners to make it just perfect for our needs. :D
reggiesimpson
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by reggiesimpson »

5500 sqr ft on almost 3 acres. Too much house and too much land. Saying bye bye real soon.
bigred77
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by bigred77 »

3250 sqft
3 bed / 3.5 bath
2 car garage

Just my wife and I. Waaaay too big at the moment. Hope to start a family there in the next few years though. Our dream location and we plan to stay for at least 15 yrs or so.
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neurosphere
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by neurosphere »

610 sq foot apartment for my spouse and I, if you measure from the mid-point of the studs in the wall (i.e. 1 inch or so behind the drywall :) ). But we have really high ceilings, so it feels spacious, heh heh.
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kmmm
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by kmmm »

1700 sq. ft on the main two levels, 3 br 2.5 ba. Also a finished basement with about 500 sq ft, which currently serves as a playroom.

It's just me and my son, so a bit more space than we need, but we are very comfortable and happy here. Previously we were in 900 sq. ft which was very tight. I looked for a happy medium, around 1400-1500 sq. ft, but there was always something a little off. We live in an area with mostly older housing stock so there are a lot of tiny bedrooms and closets, awkward layouts, overbearing condo associations, etc.
sls239
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by sls239 »

2000 sq ft. Two adults and a child. It is comfy. Like really comfy.

But there are reasons we wanted that much space, and we really liked the neighborhood too.

We have a guest room, but we use it often. I think we've used it 5 times since we moved in, which was July. I'll be using it again and then some for Thanksgiving if not sooner.

DH has pack rat tendencies, but I like open space.

Both of us have a weakness for books and board games too. We use the dining room a lot for playing board games.

And I'm a SAHM and like to cook so I like a little extra room in the kitchen.

We park two cars in our 2 car garage, so that space must be available.

Our previous house was 1700 sq ft. It was pretty comfy, the layout was just fantastic and even then, there were little issues. The people who we bought the house from had a bigger one built for them. And when we moved, they were interested in buying ours back.

If you have a junk room, you might consider if you could just add a shed to your backyard, assuming you have a backyard. You can stack stuff all the way to the ceiling with Rubbermaid Roughneck tubs. The other thing you can do is add adjustable shelving, like along the sides of the garage if your cars aren't too tall. And you can get furniture that has built in storage, as long as you prefer the more traditional look to the modern look.

But a bigger house doesn't require more stuff than a smaller house. A bigger yard tends to require more stuff though.

Babies don't take up that much room, so I think you have plenty of time to just see how it goes. Also, it might make more sense to put money into making the house work better than to get a bigger one. And our house right now is a split layout, meaning our child's room is on the other side of the house from ours. It's great as kids get older, but not so much when they are little. So remember that what you want could continue to change, even after big decisions are made.
linuxizer
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by linuxizer »

1200 sqft, 3br, 2 bath.

Occupants: 2 adults (sometimes three for a month or so when family visits), 1 toddler, 2 cats.

If I had money to waste, I would spend it rennovating this rather than moving to a bigger place. More built-ins, more shelving, more clever space solutions. There's plenty of room to go around.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by JupiterJones »

FrugalInvestor wrote:no matter how large the house is my wife and I actually live in about 1000sf.
That's a good point. My wife and I live in one of the smallest homes in our neighborhood, at just under 1200 sqft. But we make a point to actually use the rooms we have.

Many of the couples I know with larger houses tend to have rooms they never use... "living" rooms that rarely get lived in, spare bedrooms and bathrooms that are only used for a few days out of the year around the holidays, etc. (With the money we save on having one or two fewer bedrooms, I can easily afford to pay to put my relatives up in a hotel when they visit!)

Back in the '50s, the median home size in the US was under 1000 sqft. People survived just fine. Raised multiple kids and everything. Now the median is around 2,300 sqft.

(The increase correlates with the increase in median weight for Americans over that time period. Maybe we expand to fill our environment? :P )
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by abuss368 »

We are presently looking at homes as well but our kids are older.

Here are a few things we found out:

1) Wait until you have kids to decide your space needs. Kids change everything!

2) We got ird of the excess junk to charity, Craigslist, eBay, etc (and are still doing it). It is amazing how much space one has when they start to live simple life and do not hoard things. Now the trick is to not fill the house up with more junk!

3) We have friends that went the big house route and all the costs you noted above went right up. They have multiple rooms literally empty with no furniture. Unfortunately their investments went down.

I am a smaller house person to begin with. I have no use, need, or interest in larger homes regardless of income and wealth.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by AlohaJoe »

600 square feet. Sometimes it feels like too much space. Never feels cramped, though, even when we had six people over for dinner the other night.
linuxizer
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by linuxizer »

abuss368 wrote:2) We got ird of the excess junk to charity, Craigslist, eBay, etc (and are still doing it). It is amazing how much space one has when they start to live simple life and do not hoard things. Now the trick is to not fill the house up with more junk!
This works both ways. When you have a smaller house, you are forced to do regular junk clean-ups. There's no overwhelming junk accumulation.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by fourwaystreet »

1450 sqft 4 beedrooms 1.5 baths, raised three kids in this 1928 bungalow. The kids have gone on to bigger homes of their own. My wife has what she calls her morning room and I now have my man cave. Purchased for 39k 31 years ago and as far as I am concerned they can take me out of this place feet first.
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serbeer
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by serbeer »

~1,900SF (three bedrooms, 2.5 baths) plus garage and full sized finished basement (used mostly for storage, laundry, and winter kids play room).

Two of us with two small kids.

Before 2nd kid was born, we had one bedroom used as an office upstairs, afterwards we moved the office downstairs into family room--which also doubles as guest room when in-laws come to stay over the weekend once every couple of weeks, though it does not have a door, so we hung the door curtains instead.

As is, we definitely have enough space, though it would we tough if we did not have a basement for laundry, storage of seasonal clothes and household supplies.

We still passively think about upgrading, but only for the sake of gaining some amenities, not because we don't have enough space. But we've been looking on and off for years now, and have not seen anything to jump on, since our house was completely remodeled about 10yo ago when we purchased it, inside and outside and still compares quite favorably to most of the places on the market conditions and floor-plan-wise.
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SpringMan
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by SpringMan »

We live in a 1700 sf ranch, 3 bedrooms, living room, family room, 1st floor laundry room, 1 full bath and a 3/4 bath (stall shower). Raised two children but now are empty nesters. Suits our needs just fine.
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Ice-9
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Ice-9 »

The two of us live in a 1287 sq ft home. Considering walling off the carport as others on our street have done, which according to some sampling on Zillow would bring it up to about 1500 sq ft.
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Ged
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Ged »

Four of us in 2200 sq ft, no basement and the garage is mostly used for a shop + some storage. It's pretty comfortable at this size. Once the kids move out it will probably be too big for us, but we have a lot of good neighbors so it's not clear that we will go to a smaller home.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by yohbee »

2000 square foot with partial basement. Slightly larger than I was initially looking for but everyone seems to enjoy the space. I'm sure the house will seem smaller once the kids grow up.
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abuss368
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by abuss368 »

linuxizer wrote:
abuss368 wrote:2) We got ird of the excess junk to charity, Craigslist, eBay, etc (and are still doing it). It is amazing how much space one has when they start to live simple life and do not hoard things. Now the trick is to not fill the house up with more junk!
This works both ways. When you have a smaller house, you are forced to do regular junk clean-ups. There's no overwhelming junk accumulation.
It is amzing what you can accumulate regardless of the home size.
John C. Bogle: “Simplicity is the master key to financial success."
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Tyrobi
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Tyrobi »

Two of us and a small child live in a 2485 sqft home, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths with a lake on the back yard. It's a big space for us when we bought this foreclosure property (1.6 my current annual income). Don't think we'll ever upgrade or change house unless we've to move due to job relocation.
Three-fund portfolio | "Simplicity is the master key to financial success." John C. Bogle
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by Kulak »

I don't know, and I don't care.

:D
Depriving ourselves to boost our 40-year success probability much beyond 80% is a fool’s errand, since all you are doing is increasing the probability of failure for [non-financial] reasons. --wbern
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by effillus »

750 square feet. Property taxes are $630 per year, summer utility bill $50 per month, winter $90 per month. Less is more.
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Re: How many square feet is your home?

Post by abuss368 »

I am going to move into one of those 100 square foot "homes" that have been propping up on the Yahoo main pages over the last couple of months!
John C. Bogle: “Simplicity is the master key to financial success."
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