Anonymous wrote:To me, the layout is more important than all the square feet.

I think many of the new houses have too many living areas.

We went from 2400 sq. ft to 5600 sq. but our layout is terrible and although it is nice to have all the storage space, we would have been fine with a 3,000 sq. foot house with a better layout.

Agree that too many bathrooms to clean is a PITA plus all the time it takes to change out towels and refill soap and TP etc.

It is nice when you have company.

Ideally, I would like an average sized home with great layout and a lot of land.

I don't understand the people who love to live in crowded subdivisions. Give me open space and acres any day! It is so peaceful to be outside and enjoy nature and quiet.

In this area, to have such a large house, chances are you have cleaners to do this.

Family of 3 + a dog in a 7k square foot house. At first, it felt too big because we spend a LOT of time out of the house doing activities but I've had a change of heart over the years. Especially on snow days and extreme summer heat. The extra space also means we can host guests a lot and enjoy a more active social life as a result.

Anonymous wrote:I'm in 1,500 SF close-in and I don't know what my neighbors are having for dinner. Unless they are BBQ'ing outside, and then I'm sitting on the deck thinking, "well crap, maybe I should BBQ too. That smells delicious."

+1000!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I don't like huge sprawling rooms on an everyday basis. I like to sit in a cozy den sized room in the evening. We have a fairly large house, but find ourselves never using the living room and dining room, three of the bedrooms and two bathrooms. Our son is at college and we are basically living in the kitchen (large), den sized TV room, master bedroom and master bath (and half bath near TV room). We virtually never go in the finished basement.

Sure, it's nice to have the other rooms when people visit (and we use the living room for Christmas once a year. I don't think we'll move quite yet (moving is a hassle and we like our yard). But eventually we will get something smaller.

We're in a similar situation where we never use the dining room and the living room is empty. However, we wanted a certain sized MBR, kitchen and family room and in order to get that size we had to buy a 3,600 sq. foot house.

I thins is a smaller original house with a blowout addition, making the kitchen and family room bigger on the main level and making the master bedroom, MBR bigger on the upper level. Ideally, the previous owners did it and had good taste!

I'm in 1,500 SF close-in and I don't know what my neighbors are having for dinner. Unless they are BBQ'ing outside, and then I'm sitting on the deck thinking, "well crap, maybe I should BBQ too. That smells delicious."

Anonymous wrote:To me, the layout is more important than all the square feet.

I think many of the new houses have too many living areas.

We went from 2400 sq. ft to 5600 sq. but our layout is terrible and although it is nice to have all the storage space, we would have been fine with a 3,000 sq. foot house with a better layout.

Agree that too many bathrooms to clean is a PITA plus all the time it takes to change out towels and refill soap and TP etc.

It is nice when you have company.

Ideally, I would like an average sized home with great layout and a lot of land.

I don't understand the people who love to live in crowded subdivisions. Give me open space and acres any day! It is so peaceful to be outside and enjoy nature and quiet.

+1000

I don't need to know what my neighbors are eating for dinner, nor do they need to know what I am eating for dinner.

To me, the layout is more important than all the square feet.

I think many of the new houses have too many living areas.

We went from 2400 sq. ft to 5600 sq. but our layout is terrible and although it is nice to have all the storage space, we would have been fine with a 3,000 sq. foot house with a better layout.

Agree that too many bathrooms to clean is a PITA plus all the time it takes to change out towels and refill soap and TP etc.

It is nice when you have company.

Ideally, I would like an average sized home with great layout and a lot of land.

I don't understand the people who love to live in crowded subdivisions. Give me open space and acres any day! It is so peaceful to be outside and enjoy nature and quiet.

Anonymous wrote:
I don't like huge sprawling rooms on an everyday basis. I like to sit in a cozy den sized room in the evening. We have a fairly large house, but find ourselves never using the living room and dining room, three of the bedrooms and two bathrooms. Our son is at college and we are basically living in the kitchen (large), den sized TV room, master bedroom and master bath (and half bath near TV room). We virtually never go in the finished basement.

Sure, it's nice to have the other rooms when people visit (and we use the living room for Christmas once a year. I don't think we'll move quite yet (moving is a hassle and we like our yard). But eventually we will get something smaller.

We're in a similar situation where we never use the dining room and the living room is empty. However, we wanted a certain sized MBR, kitchen and family room and in order to get that size we had to buy a 3,600 sq. foot house.

My colleague went crazy after getting married and moving into a 4.5K sq foot house in Anne Arundal county with her new husband. The house was so much work and a money pit. Plus, she was disconnected from all her friends in DC and Arlington.

They ended up getting divorced 16 months after moving in. That damn house was their demise. The spent soooooooo much on a housekeeper, furnishing a 5BR house with 2 large living areas + home theater, building a fence in the backyard, landscaping, dealing with drainage issues (uneven lot), etc. The house was a money suck and even combined income of $200K+ wasn't enough to deal with it all.

We bought a 3000 sf house with a larger yard. Didn't use much of the house and didn't like how far out we were to get that space. Stayed for 2 years, sold and moved closer in into a 1600 sf house which serves us just fine. There are days I wish I had maybe 2200 sf, but not for the tradeoff on location.

We have a 4,000 sq foot house on 6 acres. Once the youngest is off to college we are moving. I can't wait to live in a condo and be able to walk everywhere.

I don't like huge sprawling rooms on an everyday basis. I like to sit in a cozy den sized room in the evening. We have a fairly large house, but find ourselves never using the living room and dining room, three of the bedrooms and two bathrooms. Our son is at college and we are basically living in the kitchen (large), den sized TV room, master bedroom and master bath (and half bath near TV room). We virtually never go in the finished basement.

Sure, it's nice to have the other rooms when people visit (and we use the living room for Christmas once a year. I don't think we'll move quite yet (moving is a hassle and we like our yard). But eventually we will get something smaller.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope...live in a 12K sq ft custom home with elevator and love it...kids in college but love the space. Will need it for the caretakers and grandkids down the road!! Yes.,..utilities are cheaper than our previous 7Ksq ft home....

A car elevator or regular elevator?

Why not have both!

I don't know how we'd get by without our walk-in humidor.

Any house without a wine cellar is sketchy, in my opinion. I don't feel safe there.

Our house is 3700 ft above ground + basement, so smaller than what you describe (though I noticed the trend in Zillow for houses for sale is to include the basement)

Our house is fine. But I live in Potomac, so I know plenty of people with much bigger houses. It's very personal - I think some people to enjoy it. But I've had several people confide in me that they wished their houses were smaller. For one, they ended up having only one child and she complained about all the vacuuming. The other had 3 kids and had a 1 acre lot. She missed having neighbors close by, a real neighborhood for trick or treating, etc.

I think the spacing of the houses in the neighborhood makes a big difference. People here look down on developments with big houses on small lots. The ones near me, though, have sidewalks and a good sense of community - pretty nice.

Yes and no. It's a good amount of space but it's also a lot more upkeep. It takes hours to cleaning.