Small families with big houses

[Anonymous]

Family of 4 in 5500 sq ft, 5 bd 5 ba. We use the extra 2 rooms as a guestroom and exercise room. Guestroom doubles as a sick room if DH or I get a respiratory virus. Also close to the laundry so we fold on the bed. When DS moves out, I will convert his room to a guest suite and turn the current guest room into my office. We already have a downstairs office that DH uses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my searches in Arlington, there is often not that much of a price difference between well maintained, older 3-4 bedroom houses with 2500 sq ft (often around $1.5-$1.7 million) and relatively new McMansions with 5-6 bedrooms with 4000-5000 sq ft (often around $1.8-$2.0 million). So it can make lots of sense to just go for the bigger house, even if you don't really need the extra space.

Older 3-4 bedroom homes are not $1.5-1.7M. I’m sitting in my $1.2M 4 bedroom house in N Arlington in a neighborhood full of 3-4 bedroom homes in the $800-1.3M range. I agree if you are building or renovating, it makes sense to go bigger.

You probably have not checked prices lately. Unfortunately, those houses that are $800K to $1.3 require extensive renovations or have flaws that make them unattractive (sorry, but I am not buying a house with only two miniscule bathrooms and barely any closet space). Here are a couple examples to prove my point:

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/4323-24th-St-N-22207/home/11232394
https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/5729-19th-St-N-22205/home/11238721

[Anonymous]

We are a retired couple living in a 10sq ft home 6b,7bath we custom built 20 years back. No..we obviously don’t need the space but home is so well built and we always have room fir guests or kids returning. The worst part is the annual $22k county taxes. We have been looking to downsize however most homes on the market are junk - poorly constructed and high maintenance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lucky them. We're a family of 4 in a 2500 square foot house and it is not enough room. My teenage daughter won't have her friends over and my college-age kids wants his girlfriend to visit but there's nowhere for her to stay. I wuold love to have 5 or more bedrooms, especially as kids age and have different needs.

We are a family of two adults and two teens in 2200 sf and our kids have friends over all the time AND we have a spare room for guests. Maybe it has more to do with how the space is used?

[Anonymous]

We have a 900 square foot house and I could easily fill bigger. Guest room, office for each of us, plus our kids, music room, work shop. Family room. But, it would be strange as we are used to being close to each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lucky them. We're a family of 4 in a 2500 square foot house and it is not enough room. My teenage daughter won't have her friends over and my college-age kids wants his girlfriend to visit but there's nowhere for her to stay. I wuold love to have 5 or more bedrooms, especially as kids age and have different needs.

why won’t she have friends over? I grew up in England and we all have small houses with no guest rooms, basements etc. I had friends over. We hung out in my room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my searches in Arlington, there is often not that much of a price difference between well maintained, older 3-4 bedroom houses with 2500 sq ft (often around $1.5-$1.7 million) and relatively new McMansions with 5-6 bedrooms with 4000-5000 sq ft (often around $1.8-$2.0 million). So it can make lots of sense to just go for the bigger house, even if you don't really need the extra space.

This is us; 4 kids, 6k sq ft. Used surprisingly large % of the home during the pandemic. Space for 2 offices, guest BR, gym. Would happily have bought a well laid out updated 4K home but nothing like that on the market when we looked.

[Anonymous]

We are a family of 3 in 3300 square feet and planning a 2-bedroom addition. We do use all of the rooms currently; after our addition we will probably have 1 rarely used bedroom. I don't think our house is too small, but the addition will solve a layout issue. We could live happily in about 3k sq ft with a better layout.

Prior to moving here we lived for 10 years in a 2100 sq ft townhouse, a third of which was basement. That was fine for the 2 of us, or 2 and an infant, but not for 2 adults and an active kid. We host family for a week or more at a time, we have hobbies that need space, we both work from home, etc.

Growing up my family of 4 had a 2500 sq ft house that was a 2bd/2ba (so, few but large rooms; no basement) and it felt spacious. In a mild dry climate, we were outside most of the time, including for many meals, and we didn't need seasonal wardrobes or a coat closet. The same house wouldn't work in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: We are a family of 3 in a 6,000 sq ft house. This house doesn’t have any more rooms than our last house that had 3,500 sq ft. It’s just that each room is larger. We use all of the rooms almost daily, except for the two guest bedrooms, and those get used at least quarterly.

Sounds like us, except that all rooms are regularly in use. It's the extra bathrooms that don't get used.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lucky them. We're a family of 4 in a 2500 square foot house and it is not enough room. My teenage daughter won't have her friends over and my college-age kids wants his girlfriend to visit but there's nowhere for her to stay. I wuold love to have 5 or more bedrooms, especially as kids age and have different needs.

We are a family of two adults and two teens in 2200 sf and our kids have friends over all the time AND we have a spare room for guests. Maybe it has more to do with how the space is used?

This is our house. Plenty of room. Layout is so important. Well, unless you simply must have that 1500sf primary suite!

[Anonymous]

We are a family of 3 and we are upgrading to a larger house. We have worked our tails off during this pandemic taking care of patients only to have people turn against us. We need our own retreat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We moved from a 5,300 square foot house to a 9,000 square foot house for more room. It depends on what your hobbies and proclivities are when considering the amount of space needed for one's pleasure.

Very similar here - 4K to 9.5K sq. ft for a couple. We wanted a less crowded garage, separate rooms for individual offices, a large guest suite for visitors, and dedicated rooms for a a gym, golf simulator, music, and other interests.

This is shockingly wasteful. I hope your dreams are haunted by people who can't afford any place to live, much less a massive house for just two people.

If you'd like to house homeless people, feel free to invite them to live with you, but why criticize those who are able to live as they choose? Jealousy?

[Anonymous]

My husband and i moved into a 7800 sqft home with 7 bedrooms and we love it. We have a yoga room, 2 offices, and lots of room for family and guests. Highly recommend it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spend less time worrying about other people’s houses.

+1

[Anonymous]

I don't worry about other people but one of the things I like about having a small family with just one kid is that we fit easily into any house. Right now we live in a 1200 sq feet, 2 bedroom house, and feel like we have plenty of space. When relatives come to visit they act like this must be a horrible hardship for us (we are waiting on a foreign placement so this is temporary housing) but it's really not.

I'm glad we never feel like we are busting at the seems. When our DD was a baby, I think we could happily have lived in a 1 bedroom bedroom apartment even.

Other than the environmental impact of people just generally using more than they need, I don't worry much about how other people live.