House size - family of 5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everybody saying "We're ok with xxx sqft" is lying. Period.

In the end, it's ALWAYS about money. If you could afford 10,000 sqft (and the accompanying maintenance), you'd do it in a heartbeat.

I've yet to meet an actual person, who said, they don't like their house, because it's too big.

That's the reality check.

Maybe I am the anamoly. Grew up in a 6200 Sq Foot home with a full finished basement. 7 bedrooms/5 bathrooms. Five people. It was a nightmare and too big. I hated it and swore I would never have more space than I needed.

Family of five - 3000 square feet, just a bit roomier than necessary. I love it. I could easily afford 6000 square feet but don't want my kids to disappear in the house like I did growing up. Thrilled with the 3000 square feet.

I'm with you.

We were able to upgrade from 1500 to 2400 when our oldest was born, and it stressed me out (yes, really). I felt like we were rattling around in there, and we're not even in a SFH. I'm now used to it, but I have zero desire for more space since we already have at least one room that we rarely use. I don't want the associated cost, but I also don't want the associated work/cleaning/etc.

I know several people who didn't like their houses because they were too big. One had 4 kids and complained that the new, bigger house took away the sense of family because everyone was so far away from each other and tucked away in their own luxurious spaces. They preferred when the best room in the smaller house was the one where they all congregated together. When they moved again, they got a smaller house.

[Anonymous]

We've got 5,200. Space-wise, it is plenty, but it could be better used. We have four bedrooms, and three kids, so no guest bedroom. We certainly have enough square footage for a guest bedroom, but no obvious place to put it in our actual floor plan. Long way of saying, I think you need to balance the square footage against how well it is laid out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've got 5,200. Space-wise, it is plenty, but it could be better used. We have four bedrooms, and three kids, so no guest bedroom. We certainly have enough square footage for a guest bedroom, but no obvious place to put it in our actual floor plan. Long way of saying, I think you need to balance the square footage against how well it is laid out.

But that's the thing. It's never going to happen, unless you're building a custom house.

To get guest bedrooms, bigger common space, more garage(s) etc etc, you have no choice but to move to a much bigger house, even though some of the space will end up being dead space.

[Anonymous]

I would never want 10,000 sf, or even 5,000. I feel like I’d lose touch with my kids! We are a family of 4, plus grandparents who visit for months at a time, in a 2100 sf row house. (That includes the basement.) When it’s just the 4 of us, it’s more room than we need.

[Anonymous]

My home is 1300 square feet and it is not enough room. We are a family of almost 6 and 2 dogs. I think we’d be good in around 2000-2300 square feet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 2300 sq feet - 3 boys, 2 parents - 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I wish we had one more bathroom. That's about it. We use all our house, and I'm so glad there isn't wasted space to furnish and clean.

What are do you use as office? How about exercise room? And guest room?

Why do you need an exercise room?
Dedicated guest rooms that sit empty except for a few weeks a year are a waste of space.

So, where do your guests sleep?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would never want 10,000 sf, or even 5,000. I feel like I’d lose touch with my kids! We are a family of 4, plus grandparents who visit for months at a time, in a 2100 sf row house. (That includes the basement.) When it’s just the 4 of us, it’s more room than we need.

Eh, we’re in a 5,000+ home and we don’t lose touch with our kids. The biggest thing is we don’t allow electronic devices in bedrooms. Even HW is done in the open upstairs loft. We have one common TV in the family room and a basement home theater that’s used for movie night with family or friends. Most of the time we’re congregating in the family room and kitchen

[Anonymous]

We're currently in ~2300SF, including our basement, and more space would be nice. We looked at a house that was about 4,000SF and that's as big as I'd want to go. More important, as others have pointed out, are the layout: bedrooms for each kid, offices for me and DH (one could double as a guest room), an exercise room, etc. I don't want cavernous shared spaces or massive bedrooms, which seems to be the norm in most new builds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 5. About 1,100 square feet. Its definitely adequate. The three bedrooms are small but we only sleep in there so I don't really see the need for bigger bed rooms. We don't really have room for guests, but it is more cost effective to pay for our guests to stay in a hotel or airbnb than to buy a bigger house to house them.

an 1,100 sq ft home that has 3 bedrooms... how is that even possible? The one bedroom plus den I rented after college was 1,100 sq ft. That's crazy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 2300 sq feet - 3 boys, 2 parents - 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I wish we had one more bathroom. That's about it. We use all our house, and I'm so glad there isn't wasted space to furnish and clean.

What are do you use as office? How about exercise room? And guest room?

Why do you need an exercise room?
Dedicated guest rooms that sit empty except for a few weeks a year are a waste of space.

So, where do your guests sleep?

Basement
Pull out sofa
Air mattress
A hotel


My guest room would need to do double duty for something. I don't like hardly used rooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My home is 1300 square feet and it is not enough room. We are a family of almost 6 and 2 dogs. I think we’d be good in around 2000-2300 square feet.

Now that sounds awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 4. 4 bed rooms. 4000 sqft with 1000 sq finished basement. I honestly feel it’s too big. We almost never use the basement space.

Same. Except we use the basement SO much. We also made an extra bedroom in the basement.
I must say, the extra space was nice when all 4 of us were working or doing school from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My home is 1300 square feet and it is not enough room. We are a family of almost 6 and 2 dogs. I think we’d be good in around 2000-2300 square feet.

Now that sounds awful.

We are a family of 5 in a 3500 sq ft house in McLean - a little more space would be nice, maybe up to 5000 sq ft would be nice, but anything over that feels unnecessary even if housekeeping were included.

However comments like this and everyone lying about not wanting 10000 sq ft sums up why some folks on DCUM can't fathom why the orange one won - what we enjoy here, our values, are not normal for a lot of other people. Yes 1300 for 6 and pets is small and "sounds awful" by 2021 DCUM standards, but remember that was par for the course growing up in the 70s and 80s. More siblings for GenX, shared bedrooms in ramblers, tiny cape cods, or apartments, but a lot of us were happy because we didn't know what we didn't have. Full disclosure I vowed I'd never share a bedroom after college, and fortunate I was able to keep that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 2300 sq feet - 3 boys, 2 parents - 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I wish we had one more bathroom. That's about it. We use all our house, and I'm so glad there isn't wasted space to furnish and clean.

What are do you use as office? How about exercise room? And guest room?

Why do you need an exercise room?
Dedicated guest rooms that sit empty except for a few weeks a year are a waste of space.

So, where do your guests sleep?

That’s why the good lord created hotels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 2300 sq feet - 3 boys, 2 parents - 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I wish we had one more bathroom. That's about it. We use all our house, and I'm so glad there isn't wasted space to furnish and clean.

What are do you use as office? How about exercise room? And guest room?

Why do you need an exercise room?
Dedicated guest rooms that sit empty except for a few weeks a year are a waste of space.

So, where do your guests sleep?

We have 1000 square feet. They either sleep in my kids room or in the basement on air matteresses if I don’t like them.