How big is your house

[Jerome Stanek]

I have been following the house thread and was wondering how the size of the houses are around the country. I see some have a house over 2000 sq. ft and they say that is to small for a family of 3 and others have a 1500 sq ft house and a family on 5. I have a 1600 sq ft house and only 1 an 1/2 baths with 2 kids. Grew up in a house 1700 sq ft house there were 8 of us and just 1 and 1/2 baths.

[Jason Roehl]

Our last house was about 960 s.f. for a family of 5, but now we're pretty comfortable in about 1900 s.f. (including finished basement in a bi-level), plus a 2-car garage. It's amazing how much and how quickly you can fill up double the space, though. Would I like more space? Sure, but our youngest just turned 13, so, in theory, in about 5 years we'll have a bunch more space...

[Rich Engelhardt]

2000 sq ft - give or take.
Me, my wife and our two medium sized dogs are just a bit cramped for space.

My 2.5 car garage/shop is overflowing with stuff. It's impossible to even walk around in it right now, let alone do any work.

[David Weaver]

1600 SF finished, plus another 800 SF of semi finished (carpet and heat and always dry, but no ceiling) basement, and a semi-heated garage that never gets below about 45 degrees (makes an ideal shop). Four of us. My wife would love to have a house twice as big. I'd love a donation if she wants to go that way.

Grew up in a 3600 SF house with my parents, and they have two additional freestanding garages, 25x40 with two levels and a second that's 30x40, also two floors. They do most of their living in a fraction of their 3600 sf, a third of it maybe, and they have they second garage because they filled the first one with junk, both floors. It's just the two of them now. I don't know why anyone would want to live with all of that junk.

[Brian Elfert]

I'm in the process of buying a house that is 1,300 square feet on the 1st floor and has a 1,300 square foot basement. I live by myself. It is really bigger than I need.

The house has a horrible layout. At least two thirds of the main floor is bedrooms and bathrooms. The master suite is huge. The kitchen is good sized, but there is no separate eating area. The living room isn't a bad size. I'm thinking about removing the walls to the bedroom adjacent to the kitchen to make that the living room and then make the current living room into an eating area.

[Matt Day]

Our house is 2800 sqft for our family of four. 4 bedroom 2.5 bath.
It all depends on how you use the space. One of our bedrooms is an exercise room for instance. We have a mudroom, open living room/kitchen space, dining room, and a TV room. We don't need all that space but it's nice to have and real estate is pretty cheap here.

Anyone seen the show Tiny House?

[Dan Hintz]

Main level is 1,100+ square feet, basement is same with half of that (mostly) finished (working on it). All of it is conditioned, but we can only claim the top 1,100 as livable square footage since the basement is not yet fully finished.

Place we're looking at has 3,700 finished split over two floors, with another 1,800-1,900 in an unfinished basement (but still conditioned). The basement has rough-ins for a bathroom, but other than lighting it's pretty bare... will give me a chance to make my workshop however I want, as well as finish it on my own time.

[Mike Ontko]

Our "pre-retirement" home is a 3 BR with a little over 3000 sq ft in a 1-story with finished basement, situated on a third of an acre. Sometime in the next 5 to 10 years, we'd like to find something a little smaller but with more acreage (for garden and horse)...and shop space!

[Bruce Page]

Our house is 1900 s.f. for LOML, myself and two large dogs. We had planned on selling it after I retired and moving into a smaller home somewhere wet & green. Then we started having grandchildren...

[Malcolm Schweizer]

2300 square feet, and where I live that is a palace. Most homes here, due to the high cost of living, have rental units below and owner's home above. I am fortunate to have been a good wheeler-dealer and got a great price so we have the whole house to ourselves. It is made so if you wanted to you could lease the downstairs, but I use the downstairs kitchen as a sharpening station, the living room as a small hand-workshop, and the rest is master bedroom, baby's room, walk-in closet. We were truly blessed to find this house. By the way, you should have seen the realtor's face when I saw that it had a downstairs kitchen and I said, "Oh boy- this is going to be my sharpening station!" He said, "Sharpening station? That's a first."

Next to my house, adjoining my property, is a vacant old Dutch home built from granite stone. It is built as an open floorplan, so it is perfect for a workshop. That is our future plan- to buy it and make a workshop. Also momma gets a nice garden out of the deal.

[Dennis Heskett]

4600sf. I grew up in about 650 so I guess I over compensated! Selling it now however. I really did not anticipate not wanted to climb stairs to a 2nd floor! Going to try and get all first floor next time. Don't need so much to clean either!

[Brian Elfert]

4600sf. I grew up in about 650 so I guess I over compensated! Selling it now however. I really did not anticipate not wanted to climb stairs to a 2nd floor! Going to try and get all first floor next time. Don't need so much to clean either!

I'm a bit concerned that the ranch style house I am buying has a walkout basement on the driveway side so one needs to climb stairs to get to the main floor. I don't want to end up in a situation where I couldn't get up and down the stairs due to knee pain or whatever. My parents are in their late 60s and still climb stairs all the time at home with no issues so I'll probably want to move on before it becomes an issue.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Our home is about 2,000 square feet including the finished basement. With knee issues, I wish I could have successfully convinced the wife over a decade ago to move and build a home with an unfinished basement and all the utilities on the ground floor. She didn't want to leave the neighborhood. Now all the neighbors are retiring and moving.

[Shawn Pixley]

My grandparents (all four of them) climbed the stairs in their houses into and through their eighties. My parents climb the stairs in their mid seventies. Not trying to demean anyone who doesn't want to or can't climb stairs, but sometimes I think that we make to much of stair climbing as we age.

[Brian Elfert]

My grandparents (all four of them) climbed the stairs in their houses into and through their eighties. My parents climb the stairs in their mid seventies. Not trying to demean anyone who doesn't want to or can't climb stairs, but sometimes I think that we make to much of stair climbing as we age.

I have a co-worker and his wife who are already complaining about the stairs in their house and they are in their 50s in very good health. His mother-in-law in her 80s won't visit the sister-in-law's house because there are three steps to the front door. I think issues with stairs are very real for a lot of people. I've seen seniors who it would take them half an hour to climb a set of stairs.

It seems like plenty of seniors stay in houses with stairs they can barely climb for various reasons. It may be the only house they ever owned and they don't want to leave, or they feel they can't afford to move. Some will only climb the stairs twice a day to get up and go to bed. Others will move the bed to a 1st floor room. My friend's dad uses the front porch as a bedroom to avoid the stairs.