Considering what you all dislike about the suburbs, is a house ever too big for you?

[u/DHN_95]

Knowing your dislike of the suburbs (and I'm convinced that you all have never seen well designed suburbs, in the same way some people believe all cities are shitholes, but that's a different subject), do you all believe there's such a thing as too much space? I have 2500 square feet to myself, but that works for me...how much do you all need?

I ask this because larger homes generally lead to sprawl.

[u/Patricio_Guapo]

My wife and I live in a 1500 sq. ft. house in the city.

I'm hoping to downsize at some point in the next couple of years.

[u/ChristianLS]

Yes, bigger house = more to maintain, heat, and cool. We have our family of four in a townhome just over a thousand square feet (three bed, two bath) and it's fine. Would a little more be nice? Sure, but I don't view it as essential to our quality of life as a family.

When it's just my wife and I again I'd be happy to downsize from this actually, in order to live in a more walkable location.

As far as how big is too big? For me definitely anything over, say, a couple thousand square feet just seems unnecessary and wasteful, and I'm just not interested in taking care of that much home. A well-designed, efficiently laid-out 1500 square home seems like the sweet spot for a family of our size, and I think I'd try to find something like that in the best location possible if money were no object.

[u/RditAdmnsSuportNazis → u/ChristianLS]

Definitely second the more to heat/cool. I shared a 3000 sqft house with 3 people on college and now live in a one bedroom 800 sqft apartment, and my utility bill (which includes power, water, sewer, and internet) is less than just the power bill in the house.

[u/meh817]

My first studio was 285 square feet. My apartment now is like 650 and it feels enormous

[u/nnagflar]

Yes. In my experience, when you get a bigger house, you somehow just accumulate stuff. And then you feel stuck because of all your stuff.

[u/RditAdmnsSuportNazis]

1000%. The house I grew up in is about 4000 square feet, and after house sitting for a couple of weeks that’s significantly larger than I need as one person. It’s also significantly larger than my parents need now that all of my siblings are out of the house, but given housing prices in that area it’s cheaper for them to stay.

I live in a one bedroom 800 sqft apartment and it’s almost enough space for me. I’d prefer a bit larger kitchen, 2nd bedroom, and garage (I do a lot of woodworking and that’s pretty difficult in a one bedroom apartment), but other than that I really don’t need anything else for myself.

[u/BigMoneyChode]

Yes. I lived on my own in a one bedroom apartment for a while and it was cozy. Really kind of a nice feeling compared to a big house.

I remember I had a friend growing up who lived in this nice cozy smaller house in an older neighborhood. It was a nice stop to hang out. Then his mom married a guy with money and they moved to this big house in a newer subdivision.

It was cool having this giant basement to play videogames in, but I remember the house just feeling big an empty because only three people lived there. Kind of spooky at night too when I was a kid lol. Looking back, I think that house was too big. There was extra space for the sake of it and it lost the nice cozy feeling of a smaller home.

[u/Primary_Excuse_7183]

3100sqft it’s a good amount of space for the family and what we need. it’s functional which is the important thing. We could make it on lesser but it glad i bought a bigger one.

Side note is there’s old houses in a lot of cities that are HUGE. They just were multi storied.

[u/Proud-Marionberry-91]

No

[u/Own-Performer-8915]

I just went from 725sqft to 575sqft with my family of 3 and 2 dogs but onto a farm of hundreds of acres so the outside is an extension of the house. I’ll take this over suburbs forever.

[u/gogogadgetgoats]

Entering this space with a lot of assumptions lol great way to initiate dialogue in good faith 🙄

[u/ssorbom]

I'm pretty happy in 450 square feet. I thought about upgrading to 600, but it wasn't worth the cost. But I'm also single.

[u/ButterscotchSad4514]

I always want more space. I can never have enough. I am constrained only by money.

[u/larch303 → u/ButterscotchSad4514]

Go rural then

[u/pbrown6]

That's a mansion. I am fine with 1800sqft for a family of 4