How big is your house?

[Sandcass]

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.

Sounds great! Let me know when you're ready to move.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

3300 sq ft here. 4 people and 2 dogs. 5 bedroom/3 1/2 bath/3car.

My dh refuses to live in anything under 2500sq ft, with all girls in the house.

 

[mudnuri]

1600 sq feet apartment. technically 4 bedrooms- though the 4th is small. so...

4 bedroom 1 bath, kitchen, dinning room, living room, all on one level.

There are 3 apartments in this house and ours is the largest, because of the stairs and landings everyone else has. Ours is 3rd floor, so we have 2 added rooms that nobody else has. 1 being the smallest of the bedrooms and the other being DD9's bedroom which is 12x12. These rooms on the other floors are landings and storage rooms that are not accessable from inside the apartment.

Brandy

 

[TxDisneyFan]

We just built our house. We are a family of 4 (me, DH, DS10, DD7) and live in a 2700+ sf house on 1 acre. 3 bedrooms, 1 study, 1 living, 2 dining, 2.5 baths, 3 car garage. We were living in an 1800 sf house before. It was too cramped and not enough storage.

This was our dream house and we plan on staying put for 30+ years.

 

[soccerchick]

None of our friends seem to be able to completely FINISH their houses. There always seems to be something that they can't afford to do yet.

So it got me to wonder...How Big are the average houses here on the DIS and How many people live in your house...???

Not sure what you mean by completely FINISH their houses...do you mean basements? landscaping? decorating? I doubt many people move into a house that is exactly the way they want it.

We are in the process of finishing our basement. We are painting now. I'm sitting here waiting for the granite guy to come measure this morning. DH is actually doing most of the work himself, so we will spend just over $20K for a finished basement that would have cost us over $75K if we'd hired it all out or had the builder do it. We have "finished" our home in stages because we like to be able to pay out of pocket for the expenses. We do not want to touch our savings if we don't have to. We also put aside $ from the sale of our previous home to finish the basement. We will only have to tap about $5K of that ~ the rest we were able to pay with our regular monthly budget. I know this isn't an option for everyone. We are lucky that DH likes to do this stuff and is very good at it. For the non-handy person, it would be sooo expensive. The down side of our way is that it takes months of weekends and nights to get this stuff done, but we're now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.


Our house is large, definitely NOT a McMansion, but we plan to stay here until we retire. When the basement is complete, we'll have just over 5500 sq. ft. for 4 of us.

 

[Dan Murphy]

SOOOOO True in our area. Some of the houses in the Barrington area suburbs are just down right embarrassing. The sad thing too is you almost never see people there. On our block there are always kids out playing, bikes in the driveway, parents gathering in the garage to chat. Those neighborhoods of huge mansions look so cold & empty to me.

My son, Vince, is a firefighter/paramed in Barrington.

And yes, that does seem to be a valid observation. Those areas with the HUGE resort-like homes, I never ever see people around when I drive by, they look like ghost towns sort of.

The other thing I think is a sad 'in-thing' to do is the tear-down. Buying a home in an area of small homes, tearing it down and building an eyesore monstrosity that becomes a blight on the neighborhood. Another

 

[Bob Slydell]

Ours (we built in 2003) is around 2,800 square feet (we're in the process of finishing the basement, so that's not included). There's 4 of us.

 

[antmaril]

We've lived in our house almost 29 years. It is 1,400 square feet -- three bedrooms, 1.5 baths, living room, eat-in kitchen and family room for the three of us. We also have a finished basement and an attached garage.

We built this house in 1978 and have been happy here. We've been tempted over the years to move into a house with all the "bells and whistles", but to be honest, we like living within our means. We are able to take very nice trips, save for retirement (hopefully an early retirement in a couple of years), put our son through college and do just about anything we want. Every time I get the urge for a gourmet kitchen or a master suite, I plan a trip to Disney to talk myself out of it

 

[Sandcass]

The other thing I think is a sad 'in-thing' to do is the tear-down. Buying a home in an area of small homes, tearing it down and building an eyesore monstrosity that becomes a blight on the neighborhood. Another

My grandma lived in Burbank/Oak Lawn area. That's what they are doing there. I guess developers buy 2 houses, tear them down and put 3 big ones in their place. So you have a nice big house and if you reach out your window you can shake your neighbors hand!

 

[Meriweather]

2500 for us....DH and me (kids are grown and gone), and 2 cats.
4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths.
Also 1000 sf of usable basement.
We built 20 years ago.
I love my house although we now only use about 1/2 of it.

 

[SC Minnie]

We have 2300 sqft, 4 br, 2.5 baths. Me, DH, DD, and Tinkerbell the cat. We have just over an acre on our lot which is unusual around here with the McMansions on 1/4 and 1/3 acres.

We want to expand the back of the house in a few years and do some upgrades then enlarging the master suite, family room, kitche, and laudry room.

 

[kdibattista]

1320 sq ft - 3 bd, 2 bth rancher. That does not include the unfinished basement (another 1320) or garage. It's DH & myself right now. We will definitely be finishing the basement and probably add a second floor.

ETA: Also have 2 dogs and it sits on about 3/4 acre.

 

[mickeyfan2]

Ours is 4000 sq ft. We have 2500 sq ft of unfinished basement and 2 garages (750 sq ft and 900 sq ft). We don't consider our back porch as living space, but love to sit out there (when DH is "missing" I find him a sleep on the back porch).

 

[TNCarole]

DH, I, 1 dog and 1 cat (used to have 2 cats ) live in our home, which was built in the ‘30s and has 1774 sq. ft. on the main living area (2 bedrooms, 2 baths). We also have a partial basement that is finished which adds 560 sq. ft., so total living area is 2334 sq. ft. It is an odd little house, built in stages, so the lay out is… unique. Our previous three houses were built new, so living in an older home with lots of maintenance/updating needs has been an adjustment. However, I’ve grown to love this place. We have a huge yard – 3.5 acres – which is home to lots of birds, squirrels, rabbits, other assorted small mammals - yet we’re close to our jobs, restaurants, shopping, etc.

We moved here three years ago to be close to my aging parents (Dad is 86, Mom is 77). We’re right around the corner from the house I grew up in. In fact, I used to play touch football in the front yard of this house.

Speaking of updating… we’re having solid surface countertops installed in the kitchen next week! I can’t wait. I’ve wanted them for the longest; have always had Formica type tops. Plus we’re adding a shower to the master bath in the next couple of months.

 

[DaisyD]

Ours is a little over 3200 sf and has 5 people in it. Most of our friends have larger homes then that but luckily they can afford them and aren't house poor.

 

[I Love Tigger]

Our house is tiny compared to most in the US, approx 900 sq ft no wonder its so cluttered! We have a two storey semi detached house with a dining kitchen, lounge, 3 bedrooms and one bathroom for me, my DH, DD, DS & 1 small dog! DD is leaving to go to Uni in September and we are all fighting over her bedroom

We stayed in a villa in 2002 and the master suite was bigger than the whole of our ground!

 

[Kay7979]

We built our house as small as we could comfortably afford to live in, rather than as big as we could afford to build. I think that makes us an abberation in this day and age. There is only two of us and one cat. Our house is about 1600 SF above grade. We have a high walk out basement that will be finished. It has french doors all across the back, so will be bright and comparable to above grade living area when it is done. That will add another 1000 SF, although for assessment purposes, that area should be considered "basement" thereby keeping our assessment more on a par with a 1600 SF home. At least that is how it's supposed to work! We have three bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The lower level will have another half bath.

As another poster said, we decided we would rather build small and nice instead of large and plain, plus we really wanted to keep the utilities and taxes economical. We have a fireplace and 2 woodstoves and heat entirely with wood from our 15 acre property which has 9 acres of woods. We have a barn/garage with a partial basement that is bigger than our house. I said when we built the home that I wanted a smaller house but a big building for storage so the house would be neat and we could use the basement for living area rather than storage. Everything in the house is custom, which we would not have been able to afford if we built a large home. We have hand painted sinks and imported English bath fixtures, beamed celings through part of the house, a 17 foot stone woodburning fireplace, a custom cherry kitchen with lots of glass door cabinets, etc. etc. For us, this was the right choice. We really don't need a vast house. In our last house, which was an 1860s era home, there were whole rooms we never entered that just collected dust!

 

[tworkit]

We have 2200 sq ft on main level with full basement. 1/2 basement is finished so I guess that means 3300 sq ft. I just finished my detached garage so another 600 sq ft is just mine. This is for me, DW, and DD. We payed a whopping $129,000 for this (7 year old home) home 3 years ago. I love low COL areas.

 

[just.me]

We have me, dh, 3 kids, (4 bedroom, library, 4 12 bath, and an in-law for my mil and fil, 1 bedroom, 1 bath)
when our house is completely finished it will have about 8000 square feet (I am including basements that are intended for use as 'playrooms for the kids and adults - and have been built accordingly with 10 foot foundations and no lolley colums)... I also did not include the 2000+ square footage of porches and decks.
we are on 7 1/2 acres on a rural road with a lot of older houses and 50's ranchs - a good mix in the neighborhood. and do not have a mortgage so we are not house rich and cash poor. We just made good choices to get here and we intend to stay here long term
In our area it was cheaper to build this house than to buy the standard "cookie-cutter" colonial in a culda sac.

 

[icebrat001]

The condo we've been renting for the past 3 years is only 500 sqft, its horrible because it's so small and we pay a fortune.

We are purchasing a townhouse, it's 1400 square feet including the enclosed Lanai so we are VERY happy.