How many square feet is in your home? How many people live there?

[Orthodox6]

3654 sq. ft. for 6 people and 1 dog. We include four "special needs" people, which requires space for the family to "spread out" and privacy to "get away" from each other when needed. DH works at home after hours and on weekends, but not for a home business.

 

The house was on sale for way below typical "square footage price" in this neighborhood. As the house continues to collapse (literally) and deteriorate, we understand why that probably was the case.

 

I look forward to a smaller house, far away from urban/commercial ugliness and noise. May be just dreaming, never to be realized.

[Tutor]

My best estimate is that we have about 1200 sq ft. for 6 people. I write from home and do daycare for two preschoolers in my home. My dh is a grad student and often works from home. My only wish is that we could use the basement (not included in my estimate) and that we had a small, detached office (like a small to med. shed with a desk, computer, and a bookshelf).

[LibraryLover]

OK, I'll say it. I wish my house was bigger. I love my house, but it is small. (It's old, and regular folk didn't build them big 100 yrs ago). I would like to add on a family room and master bedroom.

 

I would like at least 2000 sq feet, and well done. I think it's possible for a small home to feel airy and open and offer good flow for parties. Ours is not quite there yet. Well -designed space is the answer.

 

Frankly, I wouldn't feel guilty in 3k feet, as long as it was environmentally sound and didn't displace fuzzy animal friends. lol Oh, I have ideas for our place, but lack of funding so gets in the way. lol

Edited September 11, 2009 by LibraryLover

[jujsky]

Our house is about 1800 SF, but that doesn't include the finished basement (probably another 600-700 SF, I'd guess). Our family consists of 4 humans, 2 large dogs, and 3 indoor cats. We don't have a home business, but DH does work from home some of the time, so he has his own office. We bought it about 9 years ago, and we didn't spend a fortune. It needed TLC, but had a ton of potential. It had an unfinished, walk-out basement, so we saw lots of potential for additional SF, and turned that into a reality over a 5 year period. I can't tell you how much sweat-equity we've put into (and continue to put into) this place, but it's worth it. It's a long way from the ugly, dated home we bought all those years ago!

Edited September 11, 2009 by jujsky

[Meriwether]

The house we are moving to next week has (including the basement) about 2800 sq. ft., I think. At least 1/3 of that is basement which we will use for a school room and toy area. In February, there will be 6 of us. Four bedrooms are important to me. I want a girls' room, boys' room, and a guest room. We live far enough away from family that anyone who comes to visit will spend the night. I consider the new house, which is about the same size as our current one, to be more than we need but a nice size to enjoy.

 

I wouldn't want to downsize at this point, but I live in a fairly low COL area. I would make do with less if it meant struggling to make mortgage payments.

 

My mom says it doesn't matter what size your house is - you always need one more closet.:tongue_smilie:

[Lisa in Jax]

We have 2,600 for four people. With a different layout, we could easily move down to 2,000-2100 w/o missing the space, b/c we rarely use the living room or the "office."

 

Lisa

[Denisemomof4]

honestly, a well planned floor plan is more important than square feet. Our house is only 2800 sf but it "feels" larger than houses bigger than that. Most houses have many chopped up rooms. On our main floor, it's wide open space that makes it feel SO spacious and huge. Many people are shocked when we tell them how many sf our home is.

 

We have 4 bedroom, two oversized, six people living in the house. We also have a full basement. Although we're going to add on a room for an oversized kitchen table (we do a lot of entertaining, and I want large family gatherings at my home!) I definitely don't want more space. I don't want our home too large for dh and I to live in when we're empty nesters. We bought our dream home and want to stay here until the end. I'll just have to have a chairlift or elevator put in so I can get upstairs to my bedroom. ;)

 

If you can afford it, and now is an excellent time, I'd buy with the plan of having more kids and having your mother move in. If nothing else, it's a sound investment and you can downsize later, after the prices have sky rocketed again. :001_smile:

[The Girls' Mom]

We have 3000 sf. and there are 5 of us. We have a home office, a woodshop, and a large classroom in that. I think we could easily go down to 2000-2500 and be comfortable, provided it was a good layout. We have a ranch style home that has the typical layout, 3 bedrooms, kitchen and livingroom. Then when you go to the basement, we have a huge family/class room. And our laundry room is gigantic. (it doubles as a craft room and pantry) Then we also have an attached MIL apartment that has been converted into a woodshop (big) and office for my dh who works from home. We were looking at building and buying and were looking at smaller homes.

[momtotkbb]

We have about 5200 sq ft for now 5 of us --6 when oldest is home from college. I love my space---I actually wish I had a larger utility room and that each dc had their own bath---but I realize that's being petty. It was great when my parents came to visit bec they could have their own room and TV room so they felt they had a place to go away from the hustle of our family for quiet time (they would come and stay for up to 5-6 weeks at a time when daddy was alive). It's big enough that we can have lots of kids over and with the age ranges varying from 6-21 everyone has a spot that feels like theirs. I couldn't dream of downsizing now that we've been here almost 5 year! We moved from a 2700 sq ft house that was 30 years old to brand new.

[amydavis]

We have 3000 sq. ft. on almost 3 acres (there are 6 of us). I'm honestly not sure that this includes the upstairs, which has two bedrooms (ds 9, and dd 5), since that area is not heated/aired. We then have 3 more bedrooms downstairs (ds 16, dd 13, and then the hubby and I). It has a kitchen, dining room, laundry room, den, living room (which functions as a library/school area), and another room that was probably considered a parlor, or something, that we use as a game/tv room to give the kids an area to play video games and store all the dvds and tapes (we don't do cable, so there are quite a few, lol). This is also the room my oldest son with autism uses to do his after school therapy/ABA. It's an old home, built in 1930, so we got a great deal, but we will have to redo electric, and are currently redoing the plumbing and gutting bathrooms. We will also eventually be redoing the kitchen and repairing windows (they are the really old-fashioned kind that use a weighted pulley system in the wall to raise and lower - which I had never seen). The biggest downside is the lack of heating/air upstairs and the fact that the downstairs central unit died shortly after we purchased. We have some really unusual gas heaters that are built in to some of the rooms - not very efficient or attractive. This time of year is wonderful, but we had to get used to relying on fans and keeping a lot of blankets around in the winter (as well as shutting off sections)! We've only been here 2 years, and it's a big improvement space-wise, since our last home was 1200 sq. ft. - and not a very well thought out floor plan. If I can only hang in there until we can fix all of the quirks...:001_huh:

[Orthodox6]

Despite the drawbacks you find, I sure love the sound of your set-up ! The 3 acres is what has me fighting off envy.

 

Our 3654 sq. ft. house sits on a 5000 sq. ft. lot. :thumbdown:

 

We have 3000 sq. ft. on almost 3 acres (there are 6 of us). I'm honestly not sure that this includes the upstairs, which has two bedrooms (ds 9, and dd 5), since that area is not heated/aired. We then have 3 more bedrooms downstairs (ds 16, dd 13, and then the hubby and I). It has a kitchen, dining room, laundry room, den, living room (which functions as a library/school area), and another room that was probably considered a parlor, or something, that we use as a game/tv room to give the kids an area to play video games and store all the dvds and tapes (we don't do cable, so there are quite a few, lol). This is also the room my oldest son with autism uses to do his after school therapy/ABA. It's an old home, built in 1930, so we got a great deal, but we will have to redo electric, and are currently redoing the plumbing and gutting bathrooms. We will also eventually be redoing the kitchen and repairing windows (they are the really old-fashioned kind that use a weighted pulley system in the wall to raise and lower - which I had never seen). The biggest downside is the lack of heating/air upstairs and the fact that the downstairs central unit died shortly after we purchased. We have some really unusual gas heaters that are built in to some of the rooms - not very efficient or attractive. This time of year is wonderful, but we had to get used to relying on fans and keeping a lot of blankets around in the winter (as well as shutting off sections)! We've only been here 2 years, and it's a big improvement space-wise, since our last home was 1200 sq. ft. - and not a very well thought out floor plan. If I can only hang in there until we can fix all of the quirks...:001_huh:

[Mommyof4ks]

We live in 2100 sq ft with a 300sq ft a/c playhouse, and it is perfect for our family of 5. We moved from a 1500 sq ft house with no garage/carport or extra space for toys or homeschool stuff.

[MeaganS]

700 sqft for 3 people. But we are still in college and I don't want to live like this forever!

[Rebecca77]

We have 2750 for the 6 of us.

[KidsHappen]

We have 3000 sq. ft. with six people, one large dog, and four cats plus frequent visitors. I currently have no guest bedroom and since I have visitor s a lot that often leads to jugling of people but that will not be an issue in just a few short years so I would say it is just the right size although it is a pain to clean. We will probably downsize to a one story eventually.

[Paintedlady]

We have 4 people in 1,800 sq. ft. which is a bit small for me. We do have a homeschool/computer room, which is wonderful, but our house is old (built in 1868) so the rooms are small and the layout is awkward. Also, there are no closets, no mudrooms so that makes it hard. People in 1868 didn't have the amount of clothes that we do, nor did they have vacuums. :glare: Maybe we'd be happy in an 1,800 sq. ft. house if we had more closets and a better layout? Ideally, I'd love about 2,500, but we're not willing to go into debt to do it, yk?

[Satori]

We bought our spacious mountain home because it had a warehouse for my business. So this sounds ridiculous.

 

6000 sf for 3 people and 4 cats/dogs. (I want 2 more kids!)

2400 sf heated warehouse also on the property

plus a large garage

all on 6 acres of land

[ma23peas]

4000 sq. feet on 6 acres for 5 of us...have lived in much smaller and larger...this is just about right for us..

 

but I really loved living out west and having 2200 sq. feet...sooo easy to clean!!

[Mabelen]

1300 square feet for 4 people.

I think layout and storage matters as much as size. Our home has the type of layout to maximize space.

 

I agree.

 

We have 1700 for 4 people. The layout is great and we don't feel cramped at all.

 

Also the local climate matters. We are now in Southern California and we use the yard a lot, so indoor space is not as important. We used to live in the Mid Atlantic where you can't use the outdoor as much because the summers are too hot and humid and the winters are too cold, not to mention when it's just raining or windy etc, so having enough space indoors is vital.

[Tressa]

We have 5 people in 1600 sq. ft. It is fine because we have 4 br/2.5 bath. I don't care for the layout much.I have a lot of wasted space. We moved from a 1300 sq. ft 3 br/2 bath and it felt larger. I wouldn't mind a larger home, but I wouldn't want to heat it. :)

[Desert Rat]

1490 sq. ft. for 4 people. It's perfect for us. The bonus of a smaller home is that I declutter often and we don't collect things to fill space. Now, with the prospect of a family member living with you, I'd go for a larger home or one with a granny flat on the property.

[petepie2]

We have 1180 sq ft, 3 bedrooms and 1 & 1/2 bath....there are 5 of us.....if we had anything bigger, I would be like those people mentioned in the other thread who buy houses they can't afford!

[FeFe]

Our house is just over 2800 square feet with roughly 950 additional unfinished square feet in the basement. The kids love to play down there even though it's unfinished. I don't think they'll like it when we start putting up drywall. We're a family of six. We could/have lived in a smaller place. It's nice but I would love a maid. Then again, I would love a maid no matter what size house I had!

Edited September 11, 2009 by FeFe

[AuntieM]

Appx 4100 sq feet, 2 adults, 1 teen, 2 preteens and a 4 yo.

 

4 br 4 ba plus office for DH, who works from home a lot.

 

It is too big. It's two story with full usable basement - so effectively 3 stories - and it's simply inefficient. If it were a ranch with basement, I might think it's not too big, but now I waste a lot of time running stairs.

[kmacnchs]

1600 for 5 people and hopefully more to come. We also have a 900sqft basement that we use as a laundry room, playroom, school room, and office for my hubby's photog. business but it is not finished...if it was, we would have 2500 for 5.

[BigMamaBird]

Our home is 950 sq. ft., we have two adults and two children. It's beginning to get cramped. I don't think it would be so bad if we had a basement or garage, but we just have no storage, so we don't have a lot of "stuff" either.

[DarlaS]

2000 square feet for 6 people (& one dog who thinks she's a person).

 

ETA: We have 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms

[Just Another Jen]

Right now we have 2800 sq ft for 8 people- but on October 1st we downsize into 1300 sq ft- still have 8 people.

 

We're going from 4 bedrooms 2 1/2 baths and a basement to 3 bedrooms 1 bath no basement.

 

We're excited- and having a huge garage sale next weekend!

[Laura Corin]

About 2,200 square feet for four people and one small dog. We are planning on converting the attic to add a play room/den - this might add 700 square feet or so. Right now, we have four bedrooms, with one family bathroom, two ensuites, eat-in kitchen, utility room, entry hall and sitting room. We have three acres, with a detached two-car garage.

 

Laura

Edited September 11, 2009 by Laura Corin

[JenneinCA]

We have about 1800 square feet with 3 bedroom and 1.5 bathrooms. There are five of us, 2 adults, a girl and two boys. I think the size is alright but I would prefer a slightly different layout. The kitchen has a place for a table but not one that would fit five. My one real wish is that the second bath had a shower.

[Ravin]

We're in 1600 sq. ft. with 4 adults and 1 child. It's a 3 bed, 2 bath. Ideally, we'd have a 4th bedroom so that DW#2's sons would have somewhere other than the hideabed in the living room to sleep when they visit. It has two living areas, one dominated by the TV, the other by school stuff.

 

However, I do have one idea for you. Could you insulate and air-condition your garage? I know a man who did this to convert his into a workshop; it's quite nice in there. If he absolutely needs to (such as to move equipment in/out) he can still open the garage door, but doesn't usually.

[Jlynn]

1800sq ft... 4 people and one small dog. Don't mind the square footage, just the layout. We had 950sq ft with 3 of us last year and the layout made all the difference. I can't believe how much space is wasted in bathrooms in newer homes!!

[Mom23Boys]

How many square feet is your home and how many people live in it? Also, do you have any sort of home business that uses any of the space in your home?

 

We've been looking at houses to buy. We have four people in our home (and will probably have another child, possibly two, in the future). Our current home is about 1900 sq ft. It is 3 bedroom, 2 bath. And we do have an eBay business that we run out of our home, so we do store inventory in the garage. Naturally, we've been looking at homes larger than our current one to purchase. We're looking in the 3000 sq ft range. But I often wonder if we should downsize? Are we putting too much worth into a house when we could use it for other things? It's a tough choice to make.

 

My husband would love to be able to move our home business indoors. Right now he works out in the garage and it is really hot out there. And we need a place to homeschool. And we would love a guest area for when people come to visit. In the future my husband's mother may need to come live with us, so a larger house would be better suited for that. I may go nuts if she lived in a smaller house with us.

 

How many people have ever downsized instead of upsized? Did you regret it? I'm afraid I would regret having less space than I do now. But I do think it would be a better steward of our money.

2000 square feet for 5 people. I would love b/t 2500-3000. We don't have a business, but we do school at home.

[haysmommy]

We have 5 people and live in a 2300 sq ft home. We have 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. I think it is just right, as each child has their own space and our kitchen, living room and dining room are all open.

[grace'smom]

We have 2600 for 3 people and we are downsizing as soon as the market improves. Cleaning a house this size is a HUGE undertaking. It takes a day for each floor, and I still don't feel like things are clean enough. But we only have one child, and don't expect any more, so it seems like there are all these bedrooms just sitting there. For a family of three, who do not entertain, this is a glaringly large space.

[HRAAB]

Seven people, 2400 sq. ft. Plenty of room. If arranged well, we could live with less.

 

I hate housework - the smaller the better.

 

Janet

[WishboneDawn]

Okay, we now have almost 3000 sq. feet for four people. Half of that is unfinished basement but that basement has the TV room, play/school room and an spare bedroom/office. So it's probably about 2300 sq. feet that we really use daily.

 

We just moved this spring though and the previous decade we lived in a 760 sq. foot house.

 

I have to admit, having all this space feels absolutely divine. :)

[briansmama]

We have 2800 sq ft for 4 people, and it's too much. Dh and I are considering downsizing so we can move back to the beach :)

 

I really feel that the layout of a home is everything. We used to live in a 1700 sq ft beach house that felt too cramped because it was dark and narrow. However, I've been inside 1400 sq ft single story homes with lots of natural light and wanted to move right in.

[Quiver0f10]

2600 and 12 people.

[ElizabethB]

However, I do have one idea for you. Could you insulate and air-condition your garage? I know a man who did this to convert his into a workshop; it's quite nice in there. If he absolutely needs to (such as to move equipment in/out) he can still open the garage door, but doesn't usually.

:iagree:

 

I know people who have done this. You can get a window A/C unit (it's not that expensive to add a window if the garage currently doesn't have one) and a small heater for the winter.

[angela in ohio]

We have 5 people, and we moved this past year from about 900 sq ft to 2700 sq ft. The space is not so exciting as the fact that we now have two toilets!!

[Kate CA]

1500 sf for seven people. I also work from home. We are pretty packed in here, but it works! :D

[Dirtroad]

2000 sq feet and 4 (soon to be 5 people)... we have 500 additiona space but it is more storage & laundry area. Don't have the money to finish to be more comfortable for regular rooms.

 

Breaks down to 3 bedrooms & 2 baths. New baby will make it very crowded for a while! I wish the bonus room was a bedroom....

[Melissa in FL]

We have 3200 sq ft for five people, no basement, five bedrooms, four baths. It's comfy for us. Sometimes I wish we would downsize, but we use all of our space.

Melissa

[mazakaal]

We're in 1400 square feet for a family of 6, and dh uses one room of it for an office. I'd like a little more bedroom space, but overall I think the house is a pretty good size. When we had 6 of us in a 750 sq ft house, that was too small. But really what's more important than square footage is a good layout.

[musicmommy]

We are in 2400 sq. ft. 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath. We are currently a 5 person family, but will be adding a 4th child hopefully in the next couple of years through adoption. I do teach private lessons out of the home so what should be the living room is dedicated as a music studio.

 

As much as we love our home, it's a bit large for us. We keep looking for about 1900 sq. ft. on about 5 acres. I think having the outside space for the boys is much more important at this point in our lives.

[lauracolumbus]

We have 2500 sq ft for 5 ppl. Our finished basement is an extra 1200 sq ft. Although we do not utilize it properly, I would still like more space. I find it is easier to clean bigger houses because there are more places to put stuff. Of course, if we had less stuff....

 

Also, we rarely use our dining room for its intended purpose, but it does come in handy for other things.

Laura

[Sweetpeach]

At the end of the month, the 5 of us are moving to 2000 sq ft . . . 5 BR's, 2 Bathrooms, Living Room, Den and . . . wait for it . . . a classroom space with fabulous light, lots of room for shelves and built in desks for the 3 Peachlets. I no longer have to do school on the kitchen table. :D

 

Incredible Crazy * (2 Flips + 4 Rentals)= A Forever House!!!! :lol:

 

It's not a McMansion, not a Starter Castle by any stretch of the imagination but we get to live there for as long as we want; that makes me all day very happy.

 

Tricia

[Pip]

2931 for 5 people. 3 baths, 5 bedrooms. One of the bedrooms is a MIL type arrangement. DH uses it for his office. Very nice layout.

 

Layout is important. We had 1800 in CA with 3 bedroom, 2 baths and a den. I loved that house. I'd move back in it in a heartbeat. High ceilings. We just finished putting in the granite counters the day we left to look for our house here. Our real estate agent said it would make the house sell better. I really, really miss that house.

[Sandy in Indy]

6,500 sq ft, 3-story plus full basement BUT we rent out about 1,500 sq ft. We used to rent an additional 400-500 sq ft, but as of tomorrow we're taking over that space. We'll have 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, schoolroom (YEA), DR, LR, Sunroom and Kitchen. (We rent part of the basement, part of the second floor and the entire third floor.) In total, we have 5 full baths and 7-8 bedrooms. In our part of the house, we have 5 people.

 

It IS a lot to clean and I'd never manage without my teens' help! When my older kids move on, we'll probably downsize to 3-4 bedrooms in a single story home. (My knees aren't what they used to be!)