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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What did you like/dislike about your larger home?

We are moving from a 2500 sq ft house to a 4000 sq ft house. While we loved our old house it was tight with 3 kids. New house gives everyone decent size bedrooms, own bathrooms, offices for both DH and myself and a very large primary suite.

I am a little overwhelmed with trying to furnish the house and just the general upkeep of a larger house.

What size square footage would you prefer if you could choose and price was no option?

How old are your kids. Once they leave for college, 4000 is too much for two

Op - kids are 10 and under so we still have at least 13+ years with full time kids at home.

We have 10k sqf and we hire *everything* out.

1200 sq ft

We’d lived in 1-2 bedroom apartments (before kids, and then 2100 sq foot townhouse, after kids. Moved up to a 5000sq foot home when our kids were in kindergarten and 2nd grade - so we get the use of more space when we need it most. Not every corner of the house gets used daily. But we've enjoyed having it. The basement is currently a home gym, but I could see it turning into a teen hangout in a few years - we get use out of it daily now, even if just for 20 minutes. We also do hosting of extended family, have friends over every few months or so. There are 2 guest bedrooms and they get heavy use over the winter holidays and only sporadically the rest of the time. Still, it makes things way less stressful and more pleasant when we do have overnight visitors. I was surprised that our utilities were maybe 10-15% higher than our townhouse built in 2002. Goes to show how much energy efficient technology has improved.

Anonymous wrote:What did you like/dislike about your larger home?

We are moving from a 2500 sq ft house to a 4000 sq ft house. While we loved our old house it was tight with 3 kids. New house gives everyone decent size bedrooms, own bathrooms, offices for both DH and myself and a very large primary suite.

I am a little overwhelmed with trying to furnish the house and just the general upkeep of a larger house.

What size square footage would you prefer if you could choose and price was no option?

How old are your kids. Once they leave for college, 4000 is too much for two

We have 4500 sq ft for our family of 3. It seemed a bit overwhelming in the beginning but we use the space fully now. We often have my parents staying with long-term so it’s nice to have a room permanently set up for them as well as a dedicated guest room for other family who visit frequently. We have space for separate home offices and everyone has their own bathroom. The basement has a kitchenette and is mostly used by our kid and his friends who often come over so it’s very convenient. Thanksgiving is usually hosted at our home and it’s easy to accommodate dozens of people.
Both my spouse and I grew up in small apartments so this is a very different experience for us. We did look at even bigger homes but some of those were frankly over the top. I have weekly cleaners.

We did an addition that brought us to 3500 sq ft. I love the space and could actually use more. It's easier to keep tidy when there are dedicated spaces for activities that don't require shuffling stuff around. We had a cleaner once in a smaller house but don't need one anymore.

However, when we moved in we did our own yard care and we don't anymore. A big yard is a lot of work in this climate.

The property taxes and insurance have become significant, higher than I expected. That's the main thing I don't like.

Don't rush to fill the house with furniture - see how yiu use the spaces, first.

We lived in a 2700 sqft house before moving into 6000+ as our family grew. At first we thought it was was too much but we use most of it now and we have family that visit often for vacation. I like having a gym, being able to escape to part off the house for alone time, having an office each of us, and not sharing a bathroom with kids, which is the BIGGEST plus. On the other hand I wouldn't mind a bigger garage. Just take your time buying stuff. Check FB marketplace estate sales etc for great deals on furniture. I could see maybe around 5000ish being OK if designed/spaced out well, but even then we'd be packed if a big family group comes to stay. We will definitely downsize once kids leave the nest.

I find the 2000-2500 sqft house to be the perfect size - unless it is terribly designed.

Ours is about 3200 square ft for 4 of us, except now there are 2 of us (twins have one more year of college). During covid it was great to have so much room. With 2 of us, the kids rooms/bathroom and the teen space in the basement isn't used at all for months at a time. Spouse wants to downsize, and I never want to leave!

I hated it and we downsized from 4000 to 2500. We had whole rooms that were never used as well as a massive basement that we used one part of. Felt like we rattled around in there . It was more expensive to furnish, upkeep, maintain. I disliked it strongly.

We have 5200 for six and it’s plenty spacious but took awhile to furnish. I think more is about how the space is organized - we have a big open floor plan and actually feel like we have less storage than our previous place that was 1900 sq ft.

Just hire someone to clean regularly, and hire a decorator.

What did you like/dislike about your larger home?

We are moving from a 2500 sq ft house to a 4000 sq ft house. While we loved our old house it was tight with 3 kids. New house gives everyone decent size bedrooms, own bathrooms, offices for both DH and myself and a very large primary suite.

I am a little overwhelmed with trying to furnish the house and just the general upkeep of a larger house.

What size square footage would you prefer if you could choose and price was no option?