How big is your house?

[momrek06]

2200 sq ft. DH & 2 DS (both away at college) just built, just moved in!

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

We have a 1250 sq ft, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, LR, DR, Kitchen, and multi-purpose room over the garage (we call it "the upper room"). It was 750 sq. ft, but DH put an addition on (garage, upper room + bathroom) and almost doubled the size of our house.

Without the upper room, our house is quite small - the bedrooms are so tiny that we can't have both a queen bed AND dressers, so we only have a double bed right now, and even then there's barely enough room to squeeze between the bed and the dressers. We use the upper room for hosting visiting missionaries, people in ministry who need a retreat, people in need of emergency short term housing, and short term international student housing needs. When DH and I got married, his family all thought that he would finally turn the upper room into a master bedroom, but I like using it for hospitality, too. So we mainly live just in the old 750 sq. ft part of the house.

MIL thinks we should move if we have kids, or at least move into the upper room, but we're determined not to. That's why when I got a job as a nanny we decided that I'd take care of the baby at our house - to prove to ourselves and the family that our house is just fine for raising kids, even if it is tiny!

Oh, and the funny (CRAZY) thing is that with the current housing prices in this area, our little house was just appraised at $650,000 - and we live in the second cheapest neighborhood in the city! We found out that the 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath 2 blocks over just sold for $1.2 million. Good grief! We can't afford to move into a bigger house.

 

[ashjohnson80]

We have a 1250 sq ft, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, LR, DR, Kitchen, and multi-purpose room over the garage (we call it "the upper room"). It was 750 sq. ft, but DH put an addition on (garage, upper room + bathroom) and almost doubled the size of our house.

Without the upper room, our house is quite small - the bedrooms are so tiny that we can't have both a queen bed AND dressers, so we only have a double bed right now, and even then there's barely enough room to squeeze between the bed and the dressers. We use the upper room for hosting visiting missionaries, people in ministry who need a retreat, people in need of emergency short term housing, and short term international student housing needs. When DH and I got married, his family all thought that he would finally turn the upper room into a master bedroom, but I like using it for hospitality, too. So we mainly live just in the old 750 sq. ft part of the house.

MIL thinks we should move if we have kids, or at least move into the upper room, but we're determined not to. That's why when I got a job as a nanny we decided that I'd take care of the baby at our house - to prove to ourselves and the family that our house is just fine for raising kids, even if it is tiny!

Oh, and the funny (CRAZY) thing is that with the current housing prices in this area, our little house was just appraised at $650,000 - and we live in the second cheapest neighborhood in the city! We found out that the 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath 2 blocks over just sold for $1.2 million. Good grief! We can't afford to move into a bigger house.

Wow! It still amazes me how much more expensive housing is in other parts of the country. We sold our 1250 sq. ft. house that was only 3 years old for $98,000.

 

[disney50fam]

Its tooo small its around 1300 and its 3 bedrooms its old and we are renting hopefully we will be buying a home some day but this has to do for now

 

[Sandcass]

I was watching a show called "Flip that house" over the weekend. A house in California was going to be sold for about $750,000 and it was 975 sq. feet. 3 bedrooms & 1 bath. That is just insanity.

I thought our area was bad. But I'd say in our area a $750,000 house would be about 4,000 sq feet. Probably 4+ bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3 car garage. in a gated club-house community!

 

[elliemae1192]

Oh, and the funny (CRAZY) thing is that with the current housing prices in this area, our little house was just appraised at $650,000 - and we live in the second cheapest neighborhood in the city! We found out that the 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath 2 blocks over just sold for $1.2 million. Good grief! We can't afford to move into a bigger house.

Holy Heck!!! My 2000sf house in a nice, quiet neighborhood only appraised for $147,000! So glad I live in an affordable part of the country.

 

[JennaTX]

Our house is around 3400 sq ft. It is me, DH, DD, and DS. We just recently moved to a new house here in Houston and decided to go for an older house (this one is about 28 years old) compared to the newer more recently built houses. We wanted more space and a larger lot, and for our price range that meant moving into an older house.

 

[FreshTressa]

My OLD 1640sq feet, built in 1966 house is worth about $450,000.

Not as bad as some parts of the country, but still insane IMHO.

I debate with myself all the time over my greed. I feel like staying here is the "right" thing to do and that 1640 is fine and wanting more is greedy. Heck, lots of ppl with kids live in 1 bedroom apartments!

But, I want to enjoy a big house now while we have young kids. Oh...the struggle~!

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

There is dh, me, dd, ds, a dog and a hamster. Our house is 1677 sq ft. Its 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, an office, great room and formal living/dining room. We are adding a lot of exterior sq footage (not included in total above) by putting in an outdoor kitchen, fireplace, dining area and sitting "room" and that is where we will do the bulk of entertaining.

Our house is definitely small by neighborhood standards and there is definitely the house poor syndrome here. The market shot up so everyone dumped there homes and kept going bigger, bigger, bigger. Dh and I are quite happy to keep the smaller property tax bill, lower utility cost, etc, etc. Its all about choices (for people who don't have unlimited resources). SOme people need space. We looked at our budget and decided we could afford a large home, done bare bones style or a smaller home and really fix it up to our tastes (like adding the outdoor kitchen). With our income we simply couldn't do both (big and nicely done) and still live well (with savings and vacations, lol). So we chose small and nicely done and to make it work the first things we put money into is organization (built in office saves room in small office space, custom closet systems in every room, lots of built in cabinetry and space saving devices, etc). OUr house is so functional now that friends with houses twice the size ask how we store so much stuff. It will be perfect once I can do the kitchen.

 

[barkley]

I was watching a show called "Flip that house" over the weekend. A house in California was going to be sold for about $750,000 and it was 975 sq. feet. 3 bedrooms & 1 bath. That is just insanity.

I thought our area was bad. But I'd say in our area a $750,000 house would be about 4,000 sq feet. Probably 4+ bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3 car garage. in a gated club-house community!

mil lives in "napa proper" (within the city limits vs. the county lines)-houses in her neighborhood (small around 1000 sq ft) sell for a minimum of 600k and then are completly torn down to studs and foundation to rebuild (she has church friends who sold a STUNNING custom job for close to a million, day after it closed it was demolished down to foundation for a rebuild that probably ran close to another million )-insane in my opinion.

ours is 2450 sq ft (3 br/1 office) does not include 3 car garage or any of the porching/patios on 1/4 acre lot. ours goes on the market tomorrow and asking price is 3x what we paid 7 years ago (and we're asking less than some have gone for in the last 6 months). but our area is still so much less expensive than the bay area or silicon valley-so people will buy and commute.

 

[Nancy]

We have 2000 sq ft. 3 bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living and family room, 1 1/2 baths. Kitchen is called eat in, but it is really too small for a full table. We have a full attic and full basement, neither are used for living space. I would like 1 more bedroom and another full bath but refuse to pay another 500.00 per month in a mortgage payment to buy a house that has those 2 rooms. There are 5 of us and 2 cats.

 

[RobInBigKC]

Built in 1999 for me and DW and our 4 DS's (though only 3 DS's when we built but we knew we would try to have another child): 2800 square feet in the main living areas plus another 1150 in the finished basement (all consumed by our game room). 3-car garage, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, huge backyard, great neighborhood with an elementary school built in 2000 right out our back door.

Our DS's current bedrooms are about 80% bigger than the bedroom I grew up in and are the size of the MBR in our last house which we lived in for 10 years (moved in to that house with zero kids and moved out with three!).

The house is totally wired. For one small example, we have 18 cable TV and 18 satellite TV jacks in the house (not ALL are currently hooked up to a TV) so that me and the boys can hook up a TV wherever we want to (though none are in the Master Bath -- how did I let that happen?).

If I had to sell today (and DW says we're living here until we die because she's never moving again!), I'd probably list it at $325K and end up selling it for $317K.

-- Rob

 

[Katy Belle]

The house we are in, renting, is over 4,000 sq. feet, 4 bedrooms, plus maid's bedroom(empty here), 6 bathrooms! Silly huge. Its what is available here. Our last home in Houston was 2,300 sq ft, felt perfect to us!
Katy

 

[nwdisgal]

1200' for 4 of us and it's driving me crazy - I need more room! But hey, it is a block from the beach. Who can complain about that.

 

[disykat]

1825 for four of us. We recently put a room in our crawl space (we live on a hill) that is not attached to the inside of the house. It adds about 350 sq ft of room - an exercise room and storage. Now it feels perfect.

There are times I'd love one extra room inside the house for a guest room, but in general I'm happy that we use every room in our house every day.

 

[debloco]

2106 s.f.~4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, LR, DR, family room, eat-in kitchen. The total does not include the (nicely finished by DH ) basement or the 2 car garage.

It's me, my DH, and DD (16).

Sandcass~ We're not far from Barrington, so I know exactly what you mean about the neighborhoods. But I've got to admit that if I ever had that kind of $$, I wouldn't mind considering one of those mini-McMansions

 

[delilah]

LOL, Sam, I really have no idea. When we bought our house, when we were married, back in '71, people did not talk about square feet of their homes, but usually how many rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. I do think, from what I can gather, ours is something under 2,000 feet, maybe like 1,800 or so. I really have no idea. I do know that today though, people do seem fixated on the footage, how big, how huge. Some of the homes built today look like lodges, resorts, LOL.

I have no idea, either, how many square feet our house is. It actually is pretty big and has a 2 acre wooded lot surrounded on 3 sides by a creek at the bottom of a ravine. The woods are beautiful, and we have all kinds of birds and other wildlife on our property. I know our bedroom is probably as many square feet as our first 1 bedroom apartment that we lived in when first married, and the kitchen plus master bedroom is about as many square feet as the first house we owned while I was in medical school. We have a total of 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a large family room downstairs that is as big as our living room and kitchen combined upstairs.

It was built in the early 70's, and actually was owned by the scientific director at a large pharmaceutical firm. So, it is early 70's custom-built.

 

[golfgal]

We have a little over 3000 sq ft. We have 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. There are 5 of us and our dog. Our yard is a normal size lot in town with huge pine trees. Our house is about 60 years old and very affordable for us. We have furniture in every room and have done all the work we wanted done, except put in a fireplace which was on the schedule to be done this spring but now that we are moving, we won't do that. We have a finished basement, which is common in our area.

Our new house is about 3500 sq ft with 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths. The yard is a big bigger and fenced, nice for the dog. It is more expensive then we would like to spend on a house but given the location, it is reasonable and still affordable. This house also has a finished basement.

 

[makinorlando]

2200 Sq feet for DD and I, plus 3 cats and 2 dogs and a hamster.

We have LR, DR (or music room as we call it don't use it as a DR), office, 3 bedrooms, eat in kitchen and family room, two full baths, and laundry room. Also not inc in sq ft is 2 car garage. Very open floor plan which I love. Also the pool is literally 5 feet outside the back of the house and can be reached from FR, MBR/MBath. The lanai is very usable sq footage as well since I spend so much time out there relaxing and even working... gotta love wirelss computing!

I purchased for $177K three years ago, and now the houses comparable in our area are going for $325K - $350K. I have done some home improvements as well - tile floors throughtout, in all but two bedroom, new roof, new garage door.

 

[kydisneyfans]

just over 2,000 sq ft for 3 of us-4 bedrooms, 3 baths. Built the house 2 years ago for future family expansion at a very low cost. (under 150K)