OP, we bought more house than we need, to grow into. What I found when house hunting was that beyond a comfortable size, the additional square footage does not impact the cost of the house that greatly. Not always true, but in our case yes. We pay more for utilities (heating), otherwise it is not a huge extravagance to have too much house.

OP here. The debate here sounds a lot like the one going on in my current home. DH grew up in big suburban new build house out West and I grew up in small house on East Coast. We are further along in the search than I probably indicated and the debate is heating up. I think 2000 + unfinished basement for toys, small yard and attic would be fine. He thinks 3000 would give us room to grow into.

No clear answers tonight.

Family of 4 with 2200 sq ft plus 500 sq ft rec room in basement. 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. It feels spacious to us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think 2500 sq. ft. is plenty of space for 5.

Me too. 500 sq. ft. per person sounds right.

Ha! I live with my wife and daughter in a 700 sq ft apartment and we have plenty of space. I wish our bathroom was a little bigger, but it's just fine. Y'all are crazy.

How old is your daughter?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think 2500 sq. ft. is plenty of space for 5.

Me too. 500 sq. ft. per person sounds right.

Ha! I live with my wife and daughter in a 700 sq ft apartment and we have plenty of space. I wish our bathroom was a little bigger, but it's just fine. Y'all are crazy.

Anonymous wrote:I think 2500 sq. ft. is plenty of space for 5.

Me too. 500 sq. ft. per person sounds right.

I think 2500 sq. ft. is plenty of space for 5.

3 in 2500 sq ft with storage in the basement. Spend a ton of time maintaining, picking up, moving stuff around the house. Plenty of space, could easily do well with less. As others have said, its about how you use the space and how its arranged.

Family of 3 in an 1,800 sq.ft. home. We purge constantly and are organized - helps we have a walk up attic for storage. We're eventually going to add another floor and extend the kitchen.

My mom believes a larger house bigger than 3500 square feet is better for the marriage

We are a family of five in 4500 square feet and we have enough space to live comfortably (but not over-the-top). I would, however, have laid out the house differently if I were to build from scratch. We lived in a 2000 square foot townhouse before we moved to our current house and it was horrible. We were all going out of our mind trying to make that place work (no yard, space chopped up on four different levels, three active boys with nowhere to run around). Having more space dramatically improved our quality of life in some dramatic ways. We now enjoy being at home and hosting visitors. It has been everything we dreamed of and more. We don't "need" all this space, but we certainly love having it.

Our family of five does fine in 2300 sq feet/3BR, not including yard. It all depends on how close you are and how much space you need.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what the hell does one do with that much space - seriously? I can't even fathom needing that.

you have been in dc too long

We are currently building our home and it will end up being between 5500-6000sf including the basement. I will tell you exactly what we are doing with that space. The most important thing to me is a home that all the space is used and used well. We are in an 8,000sf home now and it's entirely too big. So here we go:

UPSTAIRS: Master bedroom with a nice size bedroom, his and hers walk in closet and master bath.
Kids bedrooms, nice sized bedrooms with 8 foot long closets (not walk in) and each with private bath
Guest room with closet and private bath.

MAIN FLOOR: Foyer
My office
Husbands office
Laundry room
Huge Mud Room with lockers for each of us and a wall of storage closets for cleaning supplies, sports equipment, vacuum, extra coats and shoes
Powder Room
Dining Room
Kitchen and breakfast area
Family room

BASEMENT: Very large recreation room that will be divided into the T.V. lounge area and kids play area.
Large storage room and part will eventually become a work out space.
Craft room/extra bedroom if we have more than a couple guests. I am an artist that works from home and will finally have all my stuff in one space.

All of these rooms are spaces that will be utilized on a daily basis. The rooms will just be bigger so it does not feel so cramped and it's more airy. I love open space with lots of light. So while I can get the same house in less square footage, I would not be able to get the open feel I want. I know that what I like in a house is not for everyone. However, it's what we as a family like and isn't that what's most important?

Depends. Older kids need less space because they don't have toys or gear. They do need a separate family room or basement IMHO.

My two cents: rather than square footage, focus on how you live, and how you use space. For me, I like having a proper pantry and mud room or extra storage closet. Honestly, you could get rid of my formal living and dining rooms and I wouldn't miss them. I'm much more attached to my kitchen cabinets and laundry room adjacent to the master bedroom.

Anonymous wrote:
300 sq ft per person...1500. that's more than enough.

you heifers need to move down south. your 4000 sq ft houses for your 4000 sq ft asses.

what do families of 5 do in Geneva, HK, Zurich, nice districts in paris.



We are not in those places.

I agree that Americans, particularly suburban Americans have bizarre notions of how much personal space one needs. I always grew up in 2,000+ square foot houses and it's nice, I guess, but far from necessary. Plenty of families make do just fine with much smaller spaces, particularly in Europe, New York, and San Francisco where space is at a premium. My mom was a military brat and moved around a lot and spent a lot of time in small rental apartments and is far from scarred from sharing close quarters with her parents and brother. And my husband grew up with a family of 5 in an 800 square foot trailer because my in-laws were not very well off when he was a child. My parents own a beautiful 3,000 square foot old home built around the turn of the century, and while the house is gorgeous, my mom spends a huge amount of her time keeping the house maintained and I just can't imagine that kind of hassle--keeping it cleaned, repairing/remodeling parts that are falling apart because they are so old. She loves doing work on the house, but it's definitely not my thing.