Buying big house vs a small house

[nakedfrog]

I don't even know what I'd fill a 6-8k square foot house with. I feel like I have too much stuff already.

 

[Imp]

I don't even know what I'd fill a 6-8k square foot house with. I feel like I have too much stuff already.

I'd leave the rooms empty and use it as a playground for a dog or two... What a waste?

 

[Bartman39]

1700 sq ft. with a double carport in the back also a 10'X12' building behind and about 75' away is my 30'X56' shop which is my man cave...:whiste: the lot is about 115'W X 280'D and we have across the road a lot which is 85W X 175D and it has a 10'X12' building and a 14'X28' building (all are portable)...

The home was built in 2012-2013 (we moved in April of 2013) and is paid for in full...:biggrin: So is my shop as well... (other buildings as well)

No kids now so it is about a perfect size and cost (taxes and insurance) for us (me and the wife)...

 

[bruceb]

You got that right, bigger is better. Why be cramped if you can afford it ? As to moving, that is a monumental task. It took 3 moves to get down here from NJ .. Move 1 was Garage, Attic, Workshop... Move 2 was the upstairs bedrooms, office and living room area. .. Move 3 after we sold, was the items in the addition (bedroom, living room, office) and whatever else was left. Still trying to unpack a lot of it.

 

[skyking]

who's cramped?

 

[Jumpem]

I like small houses. Lower cost, lower utilities, less maintenance (in theory). I also don't like the look of huge houses.

 

[Spacehead]

I bought a used mobile home on 15 acres. Figured i could build what i wanted when the time came. I was thinking a larger than i needed home then.
Unsure exactly what i wanted, i bought a new mobile home(single wide, ~900sq tf). Figured my options are still open if i want to build. If i build now it will be small though i don't have a problem with what i have now. Wouldn't mind a basement. Don't need extra room but having all the utilities down there would be nice instead of them being jammed into closets/enclosed spaces.

Everything is paid off.

 

[skyking]

paid off is nice. What are you doing with the acreage?

 

[Pens1566]

Current - 4 br 3ba 4000 sq ft w/finished basement
Building this year - 6br 4ba (one br will be a full time home office, one is exercise room) ~5800 sq ft w/finished basement on 2 acres

Me, wife, son, dog.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm happy single and don't want to get married, but I bought with the idea that I may change my mind at some point. So went with 1,100 sqft, not too big for one person, but big enough for a small family, if it ever got to that. I could probably get away with smaller if I had to. Heck, I'd probably buy a trailler before an apartment as ownership is more important to me than size. Except it's crazy how expensive even those are now. I see them listed in real estate ads at times and they're almost just as expensive as a house. You're basically buying a motorhome with no wheels or engine.

2000+ sqft would be way too big for me though, too expensive to heat, maintain etc for nothing. I mean, sure, it would be nice, but I don't need that big. 1000sqft of house with 1000sqft of garage on the other hand... now that would be awesome.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Wife & I + dog currently live in 2700+ sf 3/2.5 on a golf course. The 4th fairway is our backyard, hence my sig. We bought this place because we like to entertain and it's an awesome house for doing that. Also it's only 5 minutes away from the wife's work. However, priorities have recently changed. We have a new dog and we can't fence in our backyard so we decided to chum the waters to see what we could get. It had a contract in 2 days for full asking price with no closing costs coming out of our pocket.

We had to scramble but luckily found a new place. Downsizing to a 1800 sf, 4/2 with a large backyard for the pup. We'll save quite a bit of money in the process and make a decent chunk of change on the sale. And the pup will soon have a companion.

That's all well and good...but moving sucks major ass. We move out Thursday, close on both places Friday, and move into the new place Saturday.

I'm too old for this shit. Looking forward to Monday.

 

[Exterous]

We have over 3,000 sq ft for two people and a small dog. We weren't looking for something that big but we got the worst* house in the neighborhood for almost 15% below its market value. It was being sold by a re-location property and we are pretty sure they just wanted to get it off the books by the end of the year. It was priced too high and made no moves for months before they just started slashing the price. Great location for our commute as well.

I'm adding more sq ft as well. Home theater is already started and will probably add a bedroom and bathroom since the basement has an egress window and my labor is cheap

*worst only because everything in the 2012 built house was builder basic in a really nice neighborhood. So 5 light chandelier in the entry instead of 9 light type of thing

Cleaning 3,000+ sq ft isn't that much more work than 1800 if you aren't a messy person or have a lot of crap.

In our area the larger, more expensive houses have better quality windows, insulation and have higher rated energy star appliances. I was prepared for our heating and cooling costs to go up but they actually both went down despite the increase in house size and unusually warm summer.

 

[vi edit]

In our area the larger, more expensive houses have better quality windows, insulation and have higher rated energy star appliances. I was prepared for our heating and cooling costs to go up but they actually both went down despite the increase in house size and unusually warm summer.

Yes, modern building practices and attention to efficiency certainly can make a huge difference. I had an incredibly energy efficient home that was almost 4700 conditioned square feet. It's bills were lower than an 800 sq/ft bungalo I was renting that was built in 1940 with zero attention to insulation and had horribly inefficient appliances and mechanicals.

 

[JackBurton]

I don't get the "small" house thing. Sure it's cheaper, but you'll be spending most of your life in it. IMO you need to be comfortable and happy with it. I bought a new 2800 sq ft house (which I think isn't "big"), but I'd love to have a 4500 sq ft house we looked at recently. It's only me and my wife, but we easily use up the space we have. The extra space isn't necessary, but would be nice.

 

[JackBurton]

We have over 3,000 sq ft for two people and a small dog. We weren't looking for something that big but we got the worst* house in the neighborhood for almost 15% below its market value. It was being sold by a re-location property and we are pretty sure they just wanted to get it off the books by the end of the year. It was priced too high and made no moves for months before they just started slashing the price. Great location for our commute as well.

I'm adding more sq ft as well. Home theater is already started and will probably add a bedroom and bathroom since the basement has an egress window and my labor is cheap

*worst only because everything in the 2012 built house was builder basic in a really nice neighborhood. So 5 light chandelier in the entry instead of 9 light type of thing

Cleaning 3,000+ sq ft isn't that much more work than 1800 if you aren't a messy person or have a lot of crap.

In our area the larger, more expensive houses have better quality windows, insulation and have higher rated energy star appliances. I was prepared for our heating and cooling costs to go up but they actually both went down despite the increase in house size and unusually warm summer.

Right. I don't get this. Are people just slobs?

 

[vi edit]

I don't get the "small" house thing. Sure it's cheaper, but you'll be spending most of your life in it. IMO you need to be comfortable and happy with it. I bought a new 2800 sq ft house (which I think isn't "big"), but I'd love to have a 4500 sq ft house we looked at recently. It's only me and my wife, but we easily use up the space we have. The extra space isn't necessary, but would be nice.
*

Depends entirely on personal interests. If I didn't have kids I'd probably spend only a few waking hours a week in my house. The rest would be out and about and active. Don't need that extra space if I'm never home. Some people are less homebodies than others.

 

[PricklyPete]

I don't get the "small" house thing. Sure it's cheaper, but you'll be spending most of your life in it. IMO you need to be comfortable and happy with it. I bought a new 2800 sq ft house (which I think isn't "big"), but I'd love to have a 4500 sq ft house we looked at recently. It's only me and my wife, but we easily use up the space we have. The extra space isn't necessary, but would be nice.

We spend very little bit of our time in our house. Mostly just sleeping or eating. The rest is outside. Changes a bit in winter...but not much.

Our mountain condo is half the size of our house (1000sqft vs 2000sqft), and we are perfectly happy with it size wise minus the storage situation (other than room closets, only has a ski locker outside the condo).

The only time the size if our house (or condo) is an issue is when we have family visiting and we have limited space to house them. My argument there is that financial it isn't all that great to have a couple spare rooms when the visitors can get a hotel room (that you can even pay for) and you will come out ahead.

 

[Tweak155]

I like having the extra space so I can grow into it. Right now we only occupy the first floor really, but I have a 2nd floor with 3 bedrooms, a bonus room and 2 full baths. Will likely never need to move again (at least not because of space).

 

[skyking]

We spend very little bit of our time in our house. Mostly just sleeping or eating. The rest is outside. Changes a bit in winter...but not much.

Our mountain condo is half the size of our house (1000sqft vs 2000sqft), and we are perfectly happy with it size wise minus the storage situation (other than room closets, only has a ski locker outside the condo).

The only time the size if our house (or condo) is an issue is when we have family visiting and we have limited space to house them. My argument there is that financial it isn't all that great to have a couple spare rooms when the visitors can get a hotel room (that you can even pay for) and you will come out ahead.

Agree with you there. My wife has a dedicated sewing room that used to be the guest room. I gave up my office to be the new guest room, largely because it was just an underutilized catchall. I quit with desktops many years ago, and it seemed a waste of a room.
I made a murphy bed wall in there so we can do anything we want with the space, 99.9% of the time. It still houses all the files and things that were in the office.
For guests, I can have the bed made in a couple of minutes with fresh sheets, and the same for the king size bed in our 5th wheel RV. It's a complete apartment if we ever need it.
The ~1800 SF dream home would have the same room count (3/2) plus a large rec room, plus a few more feet in each of the bedrooms that we have. The kitchen/great room in the current house is plenty large, we host 18 at a family Christmas party with ease.

 

[cbrsurfr]

I went from super small to pretty large. 1st house which is now a rental was 830 sq ft + finished basement. Got tired of the commute but wanted 3 car garage so ended up with 2900 sq ft house + 750 sq ft finished basement (don't even use the basement, its storage now).

IL taxes are some of the highest. I unfortunately added up the interest + taxes + insurance on both houses and got $24K/year. I have excellent credit BTW so I'm not paying huge rates. It just sickens me to realize how much is getting thrown away each year. After my renters move out I think I'll sell my 1st house and then work on selling my current house.

Problem with selling my current house is I now have to get a combined 3650 sq ft ready to sell. Paint, carpet, repairs, etc...

 

[TwiceOver]

2400 sqft 4/2 bought as a couple, now a family of 3, we both wish we had a smaller house.

But it's really a personal preference.

 

[JimmiG]

My personal preference is 1 bedroom per person.
So if I live alone, a 1-bedroom condo is all I need.

With spouse, 2 bedrooms - We'd obviously share one bedroom, and I'd use the other one for my computer setup etc. while she'd spend most of her time in the living room.

With spouse + 1 child: 3 bedrooms - one for me+spouse to sleep, one room for the kid, one for my computer stuff

With spouse + 2 children: Please kill me.

 

[mvbighead]

Me, wife, 3 yo boy, 8 month old boy. 3500 sq ft on 14.5 acres.

We're not big on crowds. We've lived in neighborhoods with HOAs and cranky old neighbors, and it simply is not for us. We now live at the end of a rock road. All the neighbors pretty much do their own thing. We might have a get together once in a while, but not often. Just a wave as we drive by.

We weren't exactly looking for a larger house, but the land, views, etc were just so nice. Expenses are of course more, but not unbearable. I could close off vents in the guest room/etc. but I prefer to be able to use whatever space I have comfortably.

When family comes, there is room for them to stay, and there is plenty of room in the basement which is mostly open. Plenty of room for air beds, we have a pull out down there, etc. When we had a baby shower for our first, we had 4-5 adults and 3 or so kids stay with us comfortably.

My brother has a much smaller house, and always seems to have parties with more folks than his house can comfortably accommodate.

If I could do it over, I don't think I would change much of anything. The only thing now is adding an outbuilding to protect lawn equipment, a boat, etc.

 

[dum]

Lived in a ~1500 sq ft home (3 BR/2 BA) with wife and daughter until we had our second child. Decided to move to something bigger because rooms were starting to get overrun with toys and baby items.

We moved last year to a ~2700 sq ft home (5 BR/3 BA). It's a little more space than we need but it gave us things that we really wanted like a true guest room for visitors, an actual office since my wife works from home most of the time and now we have a home large enough to have the families come to us for holidays instead of piling two small children and everything that goes with them into a car and traveling.

 

[rh71]

After moving out of our 1300sf starter cape, we spent an additional $200k to build on top of a ranch (2700sf) since we had growing toddlers. They're 8 and none of us are upstairs at all except for bedtime. However, without bedrooms upstairs, we lose downstairs space to... bedrooms. Now we have an open-concept 1st floor with a lot of space to play. The kids play hockey & soccer in the living room too (yes the tv is not in great condition anymore). Our full basement is mostly storage but if you can work out a full basement, maybe you don't need a 2nd floor at all.

We're going to finish the mortgage on it in less than 8 years and after the kids are off to college, it will be way too much house for us. But at least it's debt-free and we can possibly pass it on.