Perfect size house for a family of 5?

[Anonymous]

What do you think a perfect size house would be for a family of 5? We have 3 kids with the oldest and youngest being 5 years apart. That means we will have 3 tweens/teens in the house at the same time. Right now we have a 4 bedroom house (2600sqft) but the two oldest girls share a room and the youngest has a super tiny room (nursery right now) and we use the 3rd room for a office with a pull out couch for guests. I am worried it’s going to get super tight upstairs with 3 teens and 2 adults later on, although we do have 2 full bathrooms upstairs.

What would a perfect size house be in your mind for this size family?

[Anonymous]

That is a good size. Give the kids each a bedroom.

[Anonymous]

Unless you think you will have a lot of need for a guest room you are fine.

[Anonymous]

We are 5 with 3,800 sqft, but we rent our basement so we really have 2,800 sqft. I cannot imagine needing more space... we also have 2 older girls and one boy and for now older girls are sharing a room. We also have a spare room and one of the girls can take that room if and when they don’t want to share the room anymore... also, our Baby’s room is good size

[Anonymous]

We also have 2600 sq ft and I think it’s perfect for 3 kids

[Anonymous]

Each kid can have their own room? 2600 sounds about right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Each kid can have their own room? 2600 sounds about right.

Op here - unfortunately not. We need the 4th room for a dedicated office/guest room. DH works from home now (Covid) and so do I and that probably won’t change any time soon. The office is used daily so it can’t be turned into a kids room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each kid can have their own room? 2600 sounds about right.

Op here - unfortunately not. We need the 4th room for a dedicated office/guest room. DH works from home now (Covid) and so do I and that probably won’t change any time soon. The office is used daily so it can’t be turned into a kids room.

Way I see it as you have three options. Stay as is, build an addition or move to a house that has four bedrooms and a den or five bedrooms. My personal choice would be options two or three, and I would do whichever one was more cost-effective.

[Anonymous]

Perfect for me? 3000-3500.

We have 3 kids (17,15,11).

Right now we have a huge house at 4,800sf (5BR/5BA) and it's way too big. We are moving in the next year and are looking at 3000-3500sf. Each kid gets their own bedroom, an office/den area and a space for the kids to hang out that's not their bedroom (trust me you want this with teens).

[Anonymous]

I would get a 5 BR and at least 3.5bath. At least 3200-4000+ square feet. I assume you want a SFH. Also at least 5000 ft lot as a family with 3 kids can be noisy and you don’t want to have to deal with neighbors complaining about noise. If you can’t make a noticeable upgrade, I would not bother and would make the current home work.

[Anonymous]

I take it there’s no basement, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would get a 5 BR and at least 3.5bath. At least 3200-4000+ square feet. I assume you want a SFH. Also at least 5000 ft lot as a family with 3 kids can be noisy and you don’t want to have to deal with neighbors complaining about noise. If you can’t make a noticeable upgrade, I would not bother and would make the current home work.

Op here - where are you finding such big houses? And at what price? Our current house is about 10 miles from downtown and that’s the farthest we want to be. We bought 6 years ago and it was $700,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I take it there’s no basement, OP?

Op here - yes there is a basement but not finished. We are planning on finishing it within the next year or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would get a 5 BR and at least 3.5bath. At least 3200-4000+ square feet. I assume you want a SFH. Also at least 5000 ft lot as a family with 3 kids can be noisy and you don’t want to have to deal with neighbors complaining about noise. If you can’t make a noticeable upgrade, I would not bother and would make the current home work.

Op here - where are you finding such big houses? And at what price? Our current house is about 10 miles from downtown and that’s the farthest we want to be. We bought 6 years ago and it was $700,000.

I’m assuming you’re in the DC area. You can find big houses close in but they start in the $1.2-$1.3 M range.

I’m the PP with 4,800. We’re in Arlington. We have a very small yard which is the trade off with Arlington. We’ve been here 15 years.

[Anonymous]

1800 sqf.

That's what we had with 3 kids and it was perfect.

When we had our 4th we moved into a house that's about 2380. It's a little bigger than I'd like but at the time/location we were looking there wasn't anything smaller in a single family home.