How much house is enough?

I live the single life, so I don't need much, I remember talking to my uncle, he lived in a two room flat. I asked him one time, Don't you ever go crazy sitting around here? He said no, he broke it up like this: It takes him a half hour to walk to work and the same to walk back, He spends 8 hours a day at work so that's 9 out of 24.

When your asleep, you can't see the place, so that's another 8 hours off the clock, that's 17 hours out of 24. When he watches television there go more hours. (Your looking at the screen, not the place around you, ) Cooking and having a coffee round out the day, unless he goes for a walk around town, So unless you have kids, (which could learn to grow up in smaller surroundings) are we somehow feeling obligated to live in places bigger then we need?

Pshh I dont know. You see these celebritys all the time, buying mansions, when theyre the only person going to be living in them. And theyre barely home as it is. I do not get it.

Hrm, valid point.

The only reason you would ever need a big house is to raise kids, or to hold all your stuff.

I'm not too keen on having stuff. It takes up space, it gets dirty, you have to take care of it... Wow, stuff is such a burden. I prefer to streamline my things, having only the bare essentials. Having too much stuff is a pain in the toochus I don't need.

Plus you have to worry about your stuff. Get an alarm installed. Make sure it's all in a safe place. Make sure it's not going to get messed up. Not to mention you have to PAY for stuff.

I'd rather save my money and take a long vacation instead. Then i'll get to play with other peoples stuff for 3 weeks, and not have to worry about it once I'm done

We are a family of three and we have a three bedroom/three bath house. One BR is a guest/office and my daughter has the other one. The third bath downstairs has been relegated to the man of the house. There is a living room and kitchen dining room and basement/garage about 1700 sq ft. We could do without the third bedroom and bathroom, but at least we don't kill each other in the mornings! LOL! We were in a two bedroom one bath house with a small living room and eat in kitchen with no A/C. It wasn't comfortable, but I liked it. We just had to learn to put up with sharing so much. I lived in a small two bedroom place when I was single and it was fine for me, but then again, I worked 8-10 hours a day and had an active social life, so it was basically a place to go shower and change and sleep. I just need space for stuff, much of it I could do without if I really had to.

I always wonder why people get such big houses with rooms they never go in or even use. I had an apt that was a small one bedroom and it was perfect for me. I didnt need anything big, well maybe a bigger closet
It's like celebs who have multiple homes that are huge and yet they are never there. They spend money to up keep what I like to call a fancy storage unit. I personally dont get it. When my bf and I decide to get a house it wont be huge or more than what we need that is for sure.

We've gone from a 4 bedroom 2.5bath to a 3bedroom 2 bath to (I hope I hope Ihope I hope)a smaller house, when the elder son leaves, leaving us with one kid, a small office for me and a bedroom a piece.

By the time I retire, my wife wants a 1 room log cabin somewhere in Montana.

00.02

At one time, I had owned a 8000 sq ft home with 6 car garage - the electric gates etc. It was just me and my two dogs.

I was THRILLED to sell it 3 years later to a family of 12.

I am in a 5000 sq ft home now - and I want to GET RID OF EVERYTHING!

I don't need this anymore - I want to completely downsize to a sailboat (decent size one though).

A big house and yard is just lots of work - I don't need it - though I Love my home -

Material things have absolutely no meaning anymore to me! But I think most people are coming to that conclusion now. Because I am not able to sell all my things - people aren't buying collector items stuff etc.

Funny thing though - when I decided to sell my house a couple of months ago - everything that could go wrong did -and my house became unsellable - in just days time. The garage downstairs started flooding - the pool half emptied of water within a week another room downstairs had water coming in and the list goes on and on. I had never had a moments problem with this house before.

So, I guess I got the message - I was planning on buying a sailboat and living on it, here at the lake - did all kinds of research for it. But I am assuming at this moment - where I am, is where I am suppose to be.

Guess I also need to figure out - what is the deal with "water" and me. Why did every issue have water involved?

So, how much house is enough? Only the amount of house that can be taken care of - I guess.

Oh, when I came to the conclusion I will stay here, my pool has miraculously begun holding water again!! Now that is WEIRD!

I believe this is always more of a matter of personal discretion than a general ethic; I know this is a minority opinion. I don't take issue with anyone owning a large space if it is within their means and does not take away from reasonable duties. There can be as much pretension in owning a tiny home as in owning a vast one, and likewise an equal deal of sincerity.

[edit on 18/7/09 by paperplanes]

For years it just made sense to purchase the most you could afford because prices were increasing at a faster percentage than what your interest rate was, and you could deduct the interest from your taxes. If you purchased a $100,000 house and financed $80,000 at 5% but the home increased at 10% per year, it didn't take too long to make some nice money. But still, it was only a fraction of what you made if you purchased the $500,000 home. Unfortunately, speculators and flippers also saw the potential and financed with nothing down, ARMS, and other creative financing and the bottom dropped out. I don't think a lot of people were purchasing these homes because they needed the room, but because they were seeing dollar signs. Also, when the housing market was hot, bigger and more expensive homes were built, and the older smaller home neighborhoods were not acceptable for middle managers and professionals any more. They needed that large place for status. Who wants to go to a doctor who lives in a tiny home and looks poor?

I bought, or rather, am buying, an 1800 sq ft house beginning in 2003. It's more room than my wife and daughter needed, but the price and location was nice. It ended up being a nice choice for us. My daughter left soon after that to embark on her adventure of life. But then, another daughter and her 3 kids, and soon a stepdaughter who visits alot are here moved in. And I have kids that have no blood relationship to my wife and I also spend lots of time here, and they call us Nanny and Papaw. And soon another daughter will arrive to spend time here until she gets back on her feet. 1800 sq ft soon becomes a small space when you have 6, 8 or 10 people living there. Could I?,myself do with much less space? Yes. I don't require much space. But add in what has happened, many more people living here and all their "stuff", it makes sense to what we bought. Somehow we "just knew" this would come in handy later on. Would I buy a mansion, just because I could? No. But I would buy a lot of land if I could, just cuz I could.

600 Sq Feet per person in enough.

I've lived by myself in apartments smaller than that and that's fine. I've even lived with my partner in apartments smaller than that and was fine, for a while at least. Eventually the two of you will grow on each others nerves until you *NEED* space to get away. In our parent's generation the father had the Garage, Shop, or Den while the mother had Sewing Room to get away. Let me tell you, 600 square feet is not enough space to escape another person.

Same goes for having kids. The kids will get on the parents nerves and the kids will get on each others nerves if everyone doesn't have their own space.

Never underestimate the power of quiet and solitude in life!

2400 Sq Feet for a family of 4 seems just about the right size. I couldn't imagine doing with less, even though I have downsized my belonging twice now to the bare necessities. It no longer has nothing to do with needing space to keep my stuff, but it has everything to do with keeping my sanity.

Great question!!!Me and my wife lived in a one room cabin while we were building our house.We loved it but we got on eachothers nerves a few times but not to bad the house we built is only 1480sq
so not to big but i would go back to the cabin or somewhere else that small in a second if i had too.

Agree with early sentiments. Stuff is over-rated. Too much stuff and you need a big house to hold all of it. Sounds a bit like a George Carlin bit.

All I know is that once you own stuff, you become enslaved to it, so the less the better.

How much house is enough?
Thats easy.
How much can you afford when you lose your job?
Figure that out and thats your answer.

Oh, thats right I'm on ATS,
I mean when you "LOOOOSE" your job.

reply to post by questioningall


You aught to just let your garage flood and put a sail boat in it. Best of Both Worlds!

Honestly, I think it really depends on your needs. Big family big home. Lots of stuff, big home, of course it comes with a lot of up keep. Also I think it depends on what kind of work you do. If you work out of your home you might need a few extra rooms. Or if you are a contractor it would be nice to have a nice sized home to show off what kind of work you do, etc.

Everybody is different. Me personally I would like a nice modest house. I like to have a little extra room to move about so something around 2500 sq.ft or something.

I also need a room to practice all my satanic rituals. j/k

i've been living in a bachelor suite. It's about 30 ft by 18 ft witha li'l bathroom and a closet. Mini oven, and even mini fridge. It totally sucked for me, but i think it might have something to do with being not used to a big city. There were no wide open places for me to go, and i think i need that.....back in the country recently. bsmnt suite. life is good.

Great topic.

A house only needs to be as big as your ego demands. I will endulge you with a short explanation.

I know a guy with millions and millions of dollars. He invested well when he was young and retired early. Lovely guy, very down to earth. He lives in a very small modest home in a modest suburb. He drives a modest 4 cylinder car. His neighbours have no idea of his wealth. He has a wife and kids and a couple of grandkids. He is a very happy man.

I know another guy who is busting his ass to keep up the mortgage on his 3 level riverfront mansion with an awesome view and his 2 BMW's. He is not even happy with the current house he is in and either wants to totally renovate it or sell and buy something bigger and better. He has a wife and a 2 year old and lives in a 6 bedroom house. He is NEVER happy. Always wanting more.

The difference between the first guy and the second is EGO. The first guy doesn't care what the world thinks. He's happy living just like everyone else.

The second guy wants admiration, respect and his friends to be just a little bit jealous of him. He will spend his whole life trying to reach an unobtainable standard.

Dobbie

The less the better for me. I'm just happy with one room. I don't even have a TV. Not much stuff, I'm happy. Of course, I'm single, no kids.

reply to post by fraterormus


600 feet sounds about right for me, easier to clean and a lot cheaper to heat. As long as I got about ten acres or so ( I plant a lot of trees.) I'd be happy with it. Might be hard to find a house around here that size though. If I ever unload this thing I'm in now (1640 sq ft) I might just go for a single wide trailer.

Dobbie I couldnt agree more!

I have a very small, 3 bedroom house and I live alone with my dog. All the space is ample enough to support my whole family if SHTF. 40 acres of woods help, too. Girlfriend stays once in a while, but other than that, I don't NEED more room. 2 of my bedrooms hardly ever get touched, except for when my mom comes home to stay. It is a small, old house though, but, I love it and wouldn't have it any other way. Why live in excess? Anything in excess is intolerable.

I have a 55 year old co-worker who is building is 2nd house because the first one wasn't "big" enough. He is married with 1 child (who is now married and out of the house). But, in regards to size, his first was 3600 sq ft. Very nice and big. The one he is currently constructing is 5200sq ft! HUGE! Where we are from, its considered a big mansion. I don't see the point to have that much house. Especially when you are living with the wife and a dog. IMHO this further instills the vanity, self-indulgent, and "mine-is-better-than-yours" attitude in the populus today. Drives a BIG truck, has to have everything BIG, columns on the porch, everything is ridiculous, and way too beyond the means. Again, IMO.

Oh yeah and am I jealous? Heck no. He never has time to do anything but work on that massive "project". No life...just work, sleep, work, sleep. Boring.

Of all things I believe alot of people, as Americans at least, live WAY beyond their means. Why? I haven't the slightest idea, but I'm sure its part of the reason why we can't join together and revolt. Too busy keeping up with the jones'. Outlandish.