Moving to a larger house

[Anonymous]

We have 3700 sf for four people and still have rooms we rarely use.

[Anonymous]

Made a similar move. Pros: we each have a private office which is great because we both work at home. Plenty of room for boomerang child who may want to live with us for a few years. Lots of privacy for getting space from each other.

Cons: it’s a ton of upkeep. A lot to clean. Every project is more $ and more involved: more effort to paint a room, more carpet/flooring, more curtains needed for more windows. More furniture. Heating and cooling are more expensive.

It’s working well for this phase of life but I don’t think we’ll stay here forever.

[Anonymous]

4K is not that huge for this area. You make it sound like it’s a 10K sq.ft. Home. If you have 3 kids and want each of them have a room and and especially personal bathrooms (or same sex bathrooms) and an office/guest room, you will use up all this space quickly. Extra living areas like basement can be quickly occupied by play equipment, or a ping pong/pool table for older kids, plus any exercise equipment. I think you are stressing out more by appearances trying to make your dwelling attractive to the visitors or impressive and always picture ready vs. making a comfy living space for your family. FWIW, we have 3K sq.ft. And don’t have formal living/dining rooms, so everything is used and used up. I do wish we had more space and separate bathrooms for diff sex children.

[Anonymous]

We moved from around 4K sq. ft to around 8500 sq. ft. No children at home.

Downsides: RE taxes went up quite a bit, as did costs for lawn care and housecleaning.

Upsides: No shortage of room in the garages or in the house; in case of another pandemic we won't feel quite as hemmed in while sheltering in place most of the time. Lots of storage space. Features which can facilitate aging in place, like an elevator and large walk-in showers.

[Anonymous]

Stupid reasons PP.

[Anonymous]

7 kids, moved from 2000 to 4000 square ft.

Love the new space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 kids, moved from 2000 to 4000 square ft.

Love the new space.

I am sure you are using every inch of space. And even in a house over 6K square feet that space goes fast with lots of kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4K is not that huge for this area. You make it sound like it’s a 10K sq.ft. Home. If you have 3 kids and want each of them have a room and and especially personal bathrooms (or same sex bathrooms) and an office/guest room, you will use up all this space quickly. Extra living areas like basement can be quickly occupied by play equipment, or a ping pong/pool table for older kids, plus any exercise equipment. I think you are stressing out more by appearances trying to make your dwelling attractive to the visitors or impressive and always picture ready vs. making a comfy living space for your family. FWIW, we have 3K sq.ft. And don’t have formal living/dining rooms, so everything is used and used up. I do wish we had more space and separate bathrooms for diff sex children.

+1. We have a custom 10ksqt home (3levels) for a family of 4. We use all but a couple of rooms. You grow into the space. Prior we were in a 6k sq ft home and the current one feels more comfortable - but not overwhelming. The big costs are outdoor property upkeep such as lawn care, driveway, trees, patios, pool etc. The home is well built so same energy (if not lower) vs the 6k sqft home.

[Anonymous]

Talk about first world problems. Furnish it slowly once you see what you need and how you use the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 kids, moved from 2000 to 4000 square ft.

Love the new space.

Try birth control

[Anonymous]

We moved from a 1900 sq ft rowhouse to a 4500 sq ft new construction house in 2018. The best thing hands down is having a garage and parking our cars in it after 20 yrs of no off-street parking in DC. Next is having plenty of storage - large closets in each bedroom, linen closets in or just outside bathrooms, upstairs laundry and a large laundry room. We also have a large furnished basement with high ceilings and an office that doubles as a guest room. I really appreciate our teens having a space for gaming and playing with their friends that keeps all the clutter out of the main floor of our house. The areas we don't really use are the upstairs den outside the kids' bedrooms...we end up just piling laundry there until we fold it. Plus the upstairs guest room rarely gets used because it requires sharing a bathroom with teen/tween boys. The best thing we did when moving in was setting aside some of the proceeds from our previous house to furnish the new house and hiring a designer to help. We got custom carpets for some oversized rooms and got appropriately sized furniture, lamps, lighting etc for the whole house. We both have decision paralysis so it really helped having someone present us with a few options and making a choice. Overall the cost was reasonable...basically Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel level pricing with less expensive items in the upstairs den and basement. Having someone order it all and coordinate assembly and furniture placement, hang all the curtains/window treatments and art (some our own, some new to us antique, some new) and getting it all done within a month of moving in was amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7 kids, moved from 2000 to 4000 square ft.

Love the new space.

Try birth control

Maybe it’s a blended family or Angelina Jolie. Whatever the case, be kind. It costs you nothing.

[Anonymous]

900 - 1200 sq ft per person is the right size in my mind. Everyone needs a bit of space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find these square footages meaningless. Is it 4,000 sqft above ground or 2500 sqft with a 1500 sqft basement that never gets used. Huge difference.

This X1000. For me, layout and climate make a big difference. We live in CA now. I love the vaulted ceilings, big windows, sky lights, large great rooms connecting to an open kitchen, outdoor living spaces etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4K is not that huge for this area. You make it sound like it’s a 10K sq.ft. Home. If you have 3 kids and want each of them have a room and and especially personal bathrooms (or same sex bathrooms) and an office/guest room, you will use up all this space quickly. Extra living areas like basement can be quickly occupied by play equipment, or a ping pong/pool table for older kids, plus any exercise equipment. I think you are stressing out more by appearances trying to make your dwelling attractive to the visitors or impressive and always picture ready vs. making a comfy living space for your family. FWIW, we have 3K sq.ft. And don’t have formal living/dining rooms, so everything is used and used up. I do wish we had more space and separate bathrooms for diff sex children.

+1. We have a custom 10ksqt home (3levels) for a family of 4. We use all but a couple of rooms. You grow into the space. Prior we were in a 6k sq ft home and the current one feels more comfortable - but not overwhelming. The big costs are outdoor property upkeep such as lawn care, driveway, trees, patios, pool etc. The home is well built so same energy (if not lower) vs the 6k sqft home.

How much do you spend on outdoor maintenance upkeep, just curious