I have a weird house, my basement is the floor with the most square feet. It goes a bit under my attached garage.

Folks say you dont count basement in square feet, my basement has two large bedrooms, a large storage room, full bathroom, fireplace, a big Den and and living room area. All finished is 2,100 square feet. My attached garage is 400 square feet. Although my house is not huge with 2,500 square feet of space in basement and garage I am good.

Anonymous wrote:I would say 1500-2000.

We are a family of 5 in a 1450 she fr home and it is ample space. We have four bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a rec room downstairs, kitchen and living room. The only thing we don't have is a formal dining room but we can seat 8 at the table and I more than that, we do buffet style.

We have a yard, laundry room, tool room, and storage room.

I can see adding another 500 again ft or so but more than that just feels like excess space.

Those must be some tiny rooms. We had a 1700 sqft in CA for family of 4, but it had only two br.

I grew up in a 3 beds 1.34 baths 1,274 sqft, family of six, and I never want to live that way again.

We now have a 3200 sqft with finished basement. We have 4 br but we use the extra room as an office (I wfh). The only room we don't use daily is the formal dining room. I think the size of our house is perfect for us. Almost no wasted space.

We have 1200 sq ft, plus storage in basement, one bathroom and tiny closets.

My oldest is a teen, and I really want an extra bathroom, or at least a bigger bathroom than the tiny one we currently have!

Our family of 4 has done 2,100, 2,600 and 4,400.

4,400 too big. 2,600 about right, but didn't have good guest br/ba.

I think around 3,500 probably the sweet spot, depending on layout.

it's not the square footage but the layout. How many bedrooms? how big is the kitchen? is there a basement? etc

We are a family of 5 in 3200 Sq Ft house (4BR 3.5 BA) with an attached garage. The only thing we really lack is a muck room - that would make our house much more organized (all kids do various travel sports).

I personally prefer less space for bedrooms (as long as you have adequate closets and storage) and more space for the shared rooms in a home. So, the proportions of my ideal space may be different than what you may like. My ideal also includes a mudroom (not the same as the laundry), exercise room, and office (which doubles as guest room) in addition to the usual kitchen, living, dining, etc. YMMV

The range for my ideal is between 2,500 - 3,000 sq ft finished space.

2000 sq ft is plenty for us. I grew up abroad with 5 adults and 3 kids living in a 1000 sq ft apartment so this feels spacious in comparison. A good layout helps make the most of smaller spaces.

When our kids lived with us (we're empty nesters) we had a 2300 sf home in Bethesda where they attended school. It was perfect when they were little, but once they got to twelve or so, and there friendship circles grew, we found ourselves bursting at the seams, even with a renovation to reconfigure space. We recently moved and actually upsized (lots of family visiting with us) and are now in a 5,500 sf house. I've got to say, I love the large rooms and the space, even though we have less stuff now than we ever had ... we often say to each other that we wished we had a house of this size for the kids when they lived here, but they're and our extended family are definitely enjoying it now!

2400 works for our family of 4, including kids in elementary/middle school. 4 bedrooms (master, one for each kid, and one combined office/guest room). 2 1/2 bath (master, full near the kids’ rooms, half near the living area). Formal dining room, living room, family/tv room, storage closets. I wouldn’t mind a slightly larger kitchen, but that’s the only thing I could imagine growing.

I grew up in 4,000 sqft with two siblings and two parents and dogs and cats. It felt normal to me.

Houses under 2500 sqft feel small. 2500-3500 works well. These are all above ground square footages. I don't include basements. Our current house is 3200 and I'm happy with it although I wouldn't mind a slightly bigger house,

People will become used to their square footages and define that as the norm. There's no right or wrong.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4000 if you want to have an au pair, welcome guests, or have another child.

We are four in a 2000 sq ft split level with 5 bedrooms. We have a 5th bedroom and 3rd full bath in the downstairs utility room where we had a live in nanny for a while while still having an extra room upstairs for visiting grandparents. Layout really makes a difference.

Eww

We are a family of 4 in 2200. I think 3000 would be ideal.

ITA. We have 2000 and 2500 would be great but 3000 would be perfect.

Anonymous wrote:4000 if you want to have an au pair, welcome guests, or have another child.

Dont buy a big place just to apppeaae guests, unless its family. 8 times out of 10, you will only have visitors a few times a year. I know someone who bought a huge house thinking that everyone would come over all the time, and now they’re upset because besides the housewarming party, guests don’t bother coming over.

We are planning on doing it with 1800 sq ft and a basement. No garage