What would be your ideal home size (sq. ft. pp)

[The Girls' Mom]

 

This is our final plan.  The area under the stairs is all accessible storage.  The entire attic space over the garage is accessible, as is the attic space above the second floor.  The computer/office space is where I store our school supplies, have my office and art studio area, and there is a small TV area.  

Do you have your layout and floor plan on paper?  I would love to see it.

 

[The Girls' Mom]

If you want to see what it looked like after it was built here are photos:  http://s36.photobucket.com/user/aprylherrell/library/House?sort=3&page=1

 

[maize]

Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a poll on here with such a beautiful bell curve distribution--except for those few outliers who need more than 900 sq/ft per person :)

[Wheres Toto]

We have around 150 per person with no storage and a lousy layout.

 

I voted 500-599 but I agree with some PP that storage space matters a lot.  I think we could be comfortable in slightly more than what we have if we had attic and/or basement and/or garage storage.  As it is we have one small detached (bug and chipmunk home) garage, no attic, no basement and two small closets.

[KungFuPanda]

We have just under 500 per person. We have an extra empty room I use as a dance studio that's not truly necessary. Since I only hold a few classes a week in there. We also have an unfinished basement that doesn't count in the square footage. I think we could easily go down to 400-450 per person. 300 per person would likely be painless with a great layout. 200 would push it because we need wheelchair accessibility. A tiny house would be impossible.

 

To answer the question, I guess what we have is ideal. It's a bit more than we need, but we have wiggle room and accessibility. I do wish it was a single story home.

[MarinesWife]

For some years we were 6..then 7 .. then 8 .. in 1,008 sq ft which is 126 sq ft per person.

 

Currently we are 7 in 2000 sq ft which is 285 sq ft. per person.   It's fine.  It's better than years past!   It's really plenty of room but I do wish we had a bigger living room and/or family room and/or dining room.   Another 500 sq ft total would be great.

 

I voted 500 sq ft per person though because that would most wonderful!!

[Kari C in SC]

Currently we have 2600 for 4 people and it is fine. If I was dreaming though, I would like a larger kitchen, living room, dining room combo mainly for entertaining. There are times we have several families over and it is tight. I guess this is because our square footage is divided in a split level with one living room upstairs and one downstairs. I wouldn't want to give up the separate rooms because I like being able to send many little boys downstairs to play. I would also like a bigger kids bedroom, hall bath, coat closet and entry. So... If I was dreaming... I would like 3000 to 3200 for us, but we don't need it. We lived quite well in our other house that was 1700 sq ft with 5 of us back then.

[Ausmumof3]

I voted 150 but that may change as they grow. We have a bigger space than that and I hate how long it takes to clean. Plus because of poor design a lot of the space is wasted. There are large bedrooms but tiny bathrooms a tiny laundry and odd bits of passage in weird places. There are full wall wardrobes in each room but they are not quite wide enough for clothes to hang comfortably and the clothes get knocked off all the time.

 

I agree with whoever mentioned storage. A tiny house with well layed out storage options is easier to manage than an overgrown one. I don't like the kids to run wild in the house anyway that's what outdoors are for.

 

The only time I love my house is for family get togethers. Then the big kitchen and living areas come into there own. But that's maybe once a year. It's an awful lot of extra cleaning each week for once or twice a year.

[Catwoman]

Definitely more than 900 square feet per person for us in a primary residence. We can get away with less in secondary homes, but not in our main house.

[Guest]

I'm looking at about 1800-2200, for five people, so I am thinking about 400 sq. ft pp.

[Liz CA]

Now with just dh and me and a large dog, 1500-1600 square feet would be fine. It it even better if it's cleverly laid out and utilizes every nook and cranny. I admire it when every little space is used constructively.

[kitten18]

Definitely more than 900 square feet per person for us in a primary residence. We can get away with less in secondary homes, but not in our main house.

My IDEAL (that's what it says at the top of the poll) is definitely 900 square feet per person or more.

 

We are a family of 4.  Right now our house is 2700 (no basements here) and would definitely like another 1 or 2,000 square feet.

[LucyStoner]

1450 sf inclusive of the garage for 3 people was the biggest we have ever lived in and we did 5-6 people in that same home. Right now we are 800ish sf for 4 and that is fine, even when we have 2 extra kids staying.

 

I don't want to heat, clean or furnish all that much more than 300sf per person.

 

I am lazy and cheap. My ideal house would have a functional but compact kitchen, a large but not huge living room and dining room for entertaining and small bedrooms.

 

We've lived 3 to a 400sf studio and honestly that was pretty sweet.