My home is 1300 square feet and it is not enough room. We are a family of almost 6 and 2 dogs. I think we’d be good in around 2000-2300 square feet.

I would never want 10,000 sf, or even 5,000. I feel like I’d lose touch with my kids! We are a family of 4, plus grandparents who visit for months at a time, in a 2100 sf row house. (That includes the basement.) When it’s just the 4 of us, it’s more room than we need.

Anonymous wrote:We've got 5,200. Space-wise, it is plenty, but it could be better used. We have four bedrooms, and three kids, so no guest bedroom. We certainly have enough square footage for a guest bedroom, but no obvious place to put it in our actual floor plan. Long way of saying, I think you need to balance the square footage against how well it is laid out.

But that's the thing. It's never going to happen, unless you're building a custom house.

To get guest bedrooms, bigger common space, more garage(s) etc etc, you have no choice but to move to a much bigger house, even though some of the space will end up being dead space.

We've got 5,200. Space-wise, it is plenty, but it could be better used. We have four bedrooms, and three kids, so no guest bedroom. We certainly have enough square footage for a guest bedroom, but no obvious place to put it in our actual floor plan. Long way of saying, I think you need to balance the square footage against how well it is laid out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everybody saying "We're ok with xxx sqft" is lying. Period.

In the end, it's ALWAYS about money. If you could afford 10,000 sqft (and the accompanying maintenance), you'd do it in a heartbeat.

I've yet to meet an actual person, who said, they don't like their house, because it's too big.

That's the reality check.

Maybe I am the anamoly. Grew up in a 6200 Sq Foot home with a full finished basement. 7 bedrooms/5 bathrooms. Five people. It was a nightmare and too big. I hated it and swore I would never have more space than I needed.

Family of five - 3000 square feet, just a bit roomier than necessary. I love it. I could easily afford 6000 square feet but don't want my kids to disappear in the house like I did growing up. Thrilled with the 3000 square feet.

I'm with you.

We were able to upgrade from 1500 to 2400 when our oldest was born, and it stressed me out (yes, really). I felt like we were rattling around in there, and we're not even in a SFH. I'm now used to it, but I have zero desire for more space since we already have at least one room that we rarely use. I don't want the associated cost, but I also don't want the associated work/cleaning/etc.

I know several people who didn't like their houses because they were too big. One had 4 kids and complained that the new, bigger house took away the sense of family because everyone was so far away from each other and tucked away in their own luxurious spaces. They preferred when the best room in the smaller house was the one where they all congregated together. When they moved again, they got a smaller house.

Its not really a question of square feet, but rooms for the the things you need. 4 bedrooms could be 280 square feet or 800 square feet. But the important part is that there are 4.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everybody saying "We're ok with xxx sqft" is lying. Period.

In the end, it's ALWAYS about money. If you could afford 10,000 sqft (and the accompanying maintenance), you'd do it in a heartbeat.

I've yet to meet an actual person, who said, they don't like their house, because it's too big.

That's the reality check.

Maybe I am the anamoly. Grew up in a 6200 Sq Foot home with a full finished basement. 7 bedrooms/5 bathrooms. Five people. It was a nightmare and too big. I hated it and swore I would never have more space than I needed.

Family of five - 3000 square feet, just a bit roomier than necessary. I love it. I could easily afford 6000 square feet but don't want my kids to disappear in the house like I did growing up. Thrilled with the 3000 square feet.

I'm with you.

We were able to upgrade from 1500 to 2400 when our oldest was born, and it stressed me out (yes, really). I felt like we were rattling around in there, and we're not even in a SFH. I'm now used to it, but I have zero desire for more space since we already have at least one room that we rarely use. I don't want the associated cost, but I also don't want the associated work/cleaning/etc.

Anonymous wrote:Everybody saying "We're ok with xxx sqft" is lying. Period.

In the end, it's ALWAYS about money. If you could afford 10,000 sqft (and the accompanying maintenance), you'd do it in a heartbeat.

I've yet to meet an actual person, who said, they don't like their house, because it's too big.

That's the reality check.

Maybe I am the anamoly. Grew up in a 6200 Sq Foot home with a full finished basement. 7 bedrooms/5 bathrooms. Five people. It was a nightmare and too big. I hated it and swore I would never have more space than I needed.

Family of five - 3000 square feet, just a bit roomier than necessary. I love it. I could easily afford 6000 square feet but don't want my kids to disappear in the house like I did growing up. Thrilled with the 3000 square feet.

Honestly I have a 4k upstairs house with a 2k finished basement and two car garage.

What I am missing is I wish I had a three car garage, master suite with full bath main level, plus an inground pool with pool house.

I saw a house same size as mine I wish I stretched for. Had a separate three car garage with breezeway between it and house and a full apartment/guest suite above garage.

I don’t park in garage as use mainly storage and extra fridge and lack of MBR main level for aging in place sucks. Plus the separate place above garage with WFH and kids coming back school after college would be great.

Also nice inground pool I like.

I have 5

Anonymous wrote:1500 square feet for a family of 5. We have been here since we got married but have hit financial roadblocks that have prevented us from saving for something bigger. It’s only 2 bed and one bath but we do have a basement. I’d love more room, but for now we will have to be content with what we have. Kids are on the smaller size but all potty trained so the one bathroom is killer.

All 3 of your kids share a bedroom? How do they fit? Bunk beds?

We are a family of 5 and have 5 bedrooms/2.5 baths and around 3000 sq feet of finished space and it is plenty.
We are looking and changing the half bath to a full bath but other than that I'm happy with the amount of space.

Anonymous wrote:Everybody saying "We're ok with xxx sqft" is lying. Period.

In the end, it's ALWAYS about money. If you could afford 10,000 sqft (and the accompanying maintenance), you'd do it in a heartbeat.

I've yet to meet an actual person, who said, they don't like their house, because it's too big.

That's the reality check.

LOL thank you for the laugh. You’ve reminded me why we recently left the DC area (still own property in NoVa so still on this board occasionally). Y’all are so insanely spoiled and shallow. We have a HHI of over $400K and plenty of savings and investments, and we just bought a 2,000 square foot house in the medium cost of living area we moved to for $500K for our family of 4. Some people truly don’t want a lot of excess space. We could afford so much more house than this. We don’t want it.

Family of 4. Moved from 2450 to 2950, excluding basement and its a bit big. 2500 ft is probably about right for us with the right layout. In our old house, some rooms where too narrow, while others were too big. Had the room size shifted some it would have been perfect. Neither house has a mud room and that is my biggest issue.

1500 square feet for a family of 5. We have been here since we got married but have hit financial roadblocks that have prevented us from saving for something bigger. It’s only 2 bed and one bath but we do have a basement. I’d love more room, but for now we will have to be content with what we have. Kids are on the smaller size but all potty trained so the one bathroom is killer.

We moved recently from ~2,000 square feet to ~6,000 square feet. Three kids.

Is it more space than we need? Yes. Do we use (nearly) all of the space regularly? Also yes.