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I really need to get rich.
Yeah im pretty sure we'd love to be able to complain our house is too big
Man alive, imagine living in a house. Wild. I simply dare not fantasize of such an indulgence.
A house? You were lucky to have a house! We used to sleep in one room, 26 of us. And half the floor was missing. We were all huddled in one corner, for fear of falling.
Room?! You were lucky to have a room!
We used to live in the corridor!
A corridor?!? We used to lie awake at night in our tent DREAMING of how grand life would be living in a corridor!
A tent?!? We would huddle in our cardboard box thinking only of nylon, mesh screens, and aluminum poles.
A cardboard box?!!?
I used to sleep in a black hole completely devoid of matter and gravity. I literally had nothing to sleep in and would have killed for a cardboard box.
A cardboard box? Life of luxury over here. My family of 7 used to share 1 unfolded newspaper as both a blanket and a roof
This sounds like a teenager imagining taking over there parents house.
And yes they are rich or at least upper middle class as fuck
It’s terrible being rich. Take it from me, communicating with your servants is a full time job. /s
When it's a big house it's so hard to find your servants. They might not even be in the same wing as you!
Jesus that sounds awful, im so sorry
Or move somewhere that sucks and houses are cheap 🤷
I think a lot of what people envy isn't necessarily the exact size of the house itself, but the financial position that typically accompanies it. Obviously that varies based off family size/# of people living there, location/cost of living, etc.
Many people's envy is also probably more about having purchased the house in question during times when the housing market wasn't completely out of control and other similar reasons, too.
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25d
My dad has 15 brothers and sisters, fortunately my grandfather worked for a company that would raise his position every year until he was the VP and living just outside a major east coast city.
When he bought his final house, they were no longer moving around, it had 7 bedrooms, everyone still had to share (except the 4 kids that were in college/married).
I work in the town my grandfathers house is - it was sold almost 20 yrs ago - and it’s now one of the smaller houses in the neighborhood. Which is crazy to me because my parents house could fit inside it and theirs wasn’t small by any means.
Damn your dad is lucky. Not nearly as much but my dad had to grow up in a three bedroom home with 7 people and one bathroom lmao
I mean, I guess in a way he was lucky, but he also didn’t grow up in these like giant mansions or anything, and he had to up and move his life like every 3 to 5 years years so he never really settled anywhere till after he met my mother and they got married. He never got to live in the final house, he was married by then.
If you can afford a mansion you can also afford all the furniture you would need like it's nothing and also people to clean it. I understand what you're saying though, I also have ADHD and can barely keep up the cleaning in my two bed two bath duplex.
Agree, but it is the McMansions that kill people.
The types of house that are pretty big and still reachable for upper middle class in some parts of the country. You see them from the outside and when new they look awesome but it’s a lot of house cheaply built at a payment they stretch to afford. They soon find out they can’t really afford to furnish all of that space or pay others to take care of it, and eventually the maintenance is crazy because of how they were built.
McMansions are terrible. My ex mother-in-law lived in one, and I lived in it with her for a while. She could afford a cleaning lady about twice a week, but did most of the cleaning herself. The problem was exactly what you said though, the house was built so cheaply that there were always problems. Something was always breaking or malfunctioning in that house. It was just a giant piece of shit, but so was my ex-mother-in-law LOL so the house was fitting for her.
Houses also need to be maintained and people in general do a shit job of maintaining houses. People can barely mow their lawn consistently.
Haha yeah it is often pieces of shit that live in these, for some reason.
Anyway yeah they are cheaply built with WAY more failure points simply due to the size.
After living with her and being around her and her friends a bunch, upper middle class older women give me the ick, they have nothing better to do than cause drama and talk shit. I think it's because they have enough money to feel superior to others, but not enough to be chill about it.
My aunt "married well". Many years ago my aunt wanted a mansion in a posh neighborhood. She and her husband took all of their money bought one. It took them years to be able to afford to furnish it all. They actually had rooms with nothing in them. Their credit cards were maxed out. They only furnished the "public" rooms
They had saved up and gotten another cc to finally furnish four or five rooms. Then Elvis Presley died.(As I said this was years ago) She spent all their saved money and spent the limit on their cc to fly to Memphis and stay in a posh hotel for weeks ...and considered it well worth it.
Anyway, some "rich" people can't afford what they've got but feel the need to keep up appearances.
Youre the peak of white Americans lol
We got ours right before prices started going bonkers. Our house has "doubled" in value in just a few short years. But it's not really value, unfortunately, because it isn't like we can afford a house elsewhere, the same markup on our home would be marked up on another one.
I am always grateful we bought when we did, but we're also kind of stuck now.
That's very true, and generally if you can afford a bigger house you can afford to pay people to do a lot of that shit for you. My parents bought a 4700 sq ft for the two of them. They have a cleaning company and lawn service so they dont have to do any of that. If somthing breaks it's annoying while it's broken but they can just hire someone to fix it without worrying. They don't understand why I'm out scrounging market place for appliances when mine break or trying to diy repairs I don't know anything about.
Dusting becomes a daily workout in those big ass houses.
usually they can afford weekly cleaners
Many can, but I think you’re underestimating how many people are “house poor”. Meaning they have reasonably high income and/or net worth but have a major cash flow problem because they overspent on their home.
Also, overspent/house poor are relative. My parents bought a pretty nice house for their income which does mean they don't have the money to hire a bunch of help out. However, my parents are ridiculously hard workers. Always have been. And as empty nesters and now retirees, they have plenty of time to do soooooo much work on their own. They do all the cleaning, all the yard work, and most of the home/car repairs. But that's how they've lived their whole lives. They NEVER had money to hire a bunch of help, and they're used to being really self reliant.
They do have enough that they can hire out the jobs they really hate and that they can get the help they need when they get older. But if you looked at them and said "house poor," you would be wrong. They prioritized what was important to them--nice house--and were happy to spend less in other areas--hiring help. (Also, now their house is paid off so they really aren't house poor: they're just cheap.)
My parents-in-law kept their larger house probably because they wanted to host kids and grandkids, especially during the holidays. It was their B&B for the family. Plus my father-in-law enjoyed keeping up the garden and yard. It was a nice place to visit and fun to see the in-laws.
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25d
You could always try to buy a larger lot and build a small house on it.
A big yard is way more maintenance and trouble than a big house. You have upside down thinking
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25d
Yards are WORK. You think houses are work? Yards are worse? I have a beautiful big yard. I adore it. But holy crap: the maintenance about puts me in the ground.
My mom's parents had a really nice 4200 sq ft house. Three floors, 6 bed, 4 bath, two huge living rooms, an office, a tuck-under garage underneath the main two car garage, a huge wrap around deck. They paid $80k for it in the 1980's 😅
It was an awesome place and was basically a hotel for the extended family at holidays (we had all of our gatherings there), but was a ton of upkeep. We'd all usually spend the last day of every holiday cleaning and doing general maintenance.
After Grandpa died it was just Grandma living alone in that house for a few years.
A big family with a bunch of kids lives there now. They put a big play set in the back yard and got a trampoline. Lots of space for kids and pets to play.
That said, I don't want a house that big. Ours is 1700 sq ft, and I could maybe see going a hair bigger, but 2500 sq ft tops.
It would be nice to have room for things, a hobby room, a mud room, a basement, i have a 1300 sq foot house, it is basically a living room, a kitchen and 3 bedrooms.
I always forget a mud room is an actual thing: the room between your front door and your living spaces. My brain immediately went to a mud wrestling room lmao, can you tell I've lived in nothing but apartments?
It's normally at the back door or the garage door if you have an attached garage.
The amount of times I’ve asked DoorDash to leave things in my mud room and they have no clue what I’m talking about is amazing
how bad is your floorplan then? i grew up in a house slightly smaller that had all of that (though the hobby room was in the basement)
1300 sq ft with 3 bedrooms is pretty dang tight.
My house is a 1500 3/2.5 and plenty spacious, but cutting out my dining room and laundry room would make it feel quite cramped
it didn't feel tight though, because it was well planned. there was no space wasted. for austria, that's average for houses and way bigger than most apartments. americans just use a crazy amount of space and i think a lot of it is because space is often wasted.
my parents actually moved out of that house once my sister and i had moved out for good because it was too large for just them. why would they need a house with four bedrooms if it's just them?
It would be nice to be able to afford a house after working 40+ hours a week for a decade. But that's crazy thinking nowadays.
I’ll trade you my apartment for your 2500 sqft house and I’ll make use of every nook and cranny.
Exactly. OP want to do a straight swap with someone with a smaller house in their area?
No? They can shut up and/or sell up then. Preferably both.
I grew up in a 6000 sq foot house. Now as an adult I live in only 1600 sq feet. I would love at least 3 or 4000. I love having extra space to move around. More to clean and maintain? Sure, but it’s a fair trade off.
I live in an RV as of recently and the general reaction I get is "oh you poor thing can't afford a house?" Or "I could never live like that" It's really bizarre imo.
I really don't understand why people obsess over having so much space I mean my home has everything a regular house has with the benefit of I actually own it and I can "move" anywhere I want without actually moving.
I love the tiny home life. Minimal cleaning, way less waste, and to me the smaller rooms are so cozy and comforting. If I could afford a mansion I would probably still choose to just get a nicer rv.
I know a couple who have been living in a camper (parked behind a friends house) for a couple of years. They felt the exact same way as you. Until they had a baby. They're moving into their brand new single family house next month, lol. What works for some, doesn't work for all. Do what makes you happy.
If it wasn't for the cost of having to 'rent the land' I wouldn't mind living in a mobile home. I'd love a smaller home for just myself like 700-900 sq feet.
If you take a really stinky dump, do you have to go outside to avoid smelling it? Are the rooms sound proof?
The toilet never smells and neither do the sinks. There are tabs you buy to break up the shit or the grease and deodorize them. It's like a clean porta potty if you've ever used one that just got serviced.
Well the plumbing below is like a porta potty but in the bathroom is more like a regular toilet. Theres two pedals to flush, one to fill the bowl with water and one to flush it down the drain. The drain seals open and closed. Actually it's more like an airplane toilet.
It's not sound proof at all and bf and I had to cope with hearing each other shit unfortunately lmao. It's not THAT bad if you close all the doors and run the fan but nowhere near soundproof like a house
Nope. I love a 4-5,000 sq ft house. I can wander all over the place and I have multiple comfy places to sit or nap. We can have different zones set to different temps so everyone is comfortable in their own space. I don’t have to hear the TV on or smell cooking if I don’t want to. I can go a whole day and see no one else if I don’t want to.
4500 sq/ft checking in without including a 600 sq/ft basement. I couldn't disagree more. I have a pool table room and sunroom with projector. Spare bedrooms and bathrooms for guests it's great.
1800 square feet ranch home here, it's the best, never have to walk up stairs with loads of laundry or kids toys, still have 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Also have a 1800 square foot basement
That sounds like hell to clean.
Also 4500. My first house was a 2400 single level and I hated that my ex could yell at me for something she wanted and I had no plausible deniability that I couldn't hear her demand
My first "starter" home was only 1300 but had an unfinished basement. 1 bathroom right next to the 3 small bedrooms everyone heard and smelled what happened in there. Need to work from home? Good luck to you.
That, my friend, is why God invented headphones. You don't.even have to wear them...just say you were :)
Disagree.
My wife and I own a large home. It enabled us to move my aging 82 year old mother in with us. She has dementia and lived in poverty. So, we have the space to care for her and she can live comfortably.
We host pool and lake parties at our house. It's wonderful.
We also host family and friends for extended stays. My wife's parents and her little sister just stayed three nights. We all had space, bedrooms, our own bathrooms. Recently, for the eclipse - my family of five hosted EIGHT guests. We all had such a fun time hanging out, playing, etc. The kids have their own game room and space to be kids.
A big house can be very healthy. My wife and I look forward to when our kids have families of their own and converge on our home for holidays, weddings, etc.
My home is 4100 sf on two acres.
My in-laws home is 6500sf on 3 acres. So many great memories of large family gatherings there and we are about to go there for their 50th wedding anniversary with open bar, live band -- not feasible in a small home.
Kind of agree. Many large homes do not accommodate the elderly well due to stairs. If it is a rack or something with main level living, it can definitely work, but neither my house nor my parents' house can accommodate someone with mobility issues unless they want to sleep on the couch and take sink baths.
Don’t forget about the increase in heating cooling and other bills
OP is fucking rich, 900sq Ft homes near me are going for $300,000+
Housing pricing are very regional. As are housing trends and styles.
900sq ft would be like $120k by me
in 2017 i had a 2500 sqft 2 car garage with a 2 acre yard home i was renting.
4 bedrooms 3bath.
i only used 2 bedrooms, the living room was huge and i absolutely loved it, i got to watch my baby learn to crawl because he wanted to come to me across the room..then he walked soon after.
im in a much smaller place now and its depressing, the smallest amount of childrens toys feels extremely cluttered
Yea. You forgot the yard that has to be dealt with. I think a mid sized house with enough bathrooms and space is better than a really big house unless it's a lot of people living there to help out.
In my area, newer houses are on tiny lots, leading even tinier yards. I have 45 year old, 1600 sqft on nearly a quarter acre. New developments are often 3000 sqft on an eighth of an acre. My yard is massive compared to a lot of new places.
2500 is a large house. That’s probably why you feel like youve got enough room.
I’m at 1600 and I wish some of the space was used better, but it’s a good size for 3 people. I wouldn’t want to clean a bigger house.
I have 6,000 sqft with 18 foot ceilings. It is a bitch to heat and cool, and changing a light bulb are not something I enjoy doing. That being said, you opinion is in fact not popular, as the best indication of house preference is price and there is in fact a direct relationship between house size and cost/popularity.
Stairs/multi levels are overrated too!
I wish I had your problems
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My husband and I have a house that is really too big for just us and the cat. We got a great deal on it in a nice country setting. We completely redid the whole house. Every single room. We love it here. Is it too much house for us? Yes, but we each have our own bathroom which is really nice! We have talked about it and if we sold, we would have to buy less house for way more than we paid for this one and the interest rates are way higher. So we are pretty much stuck here, even if we wanted to leave.
same here. my house is about 2350 sf and 2 story. i am SO OVER the stairs! 😫. and its just me after my teenagers moved to college - i seriously want to downsize lol
I look at houses and all I can think is how much it cost to heat them. How much oil heat would be, electric, gas it doesn’t matter. I need to know how much the heating will cost. We can go from there.
Also more spaces for ghosts to hide. I would find myself running for my life constantly.
This! I never understand why people feel the need to have giant homes. Yes, they may look nice but who wants to clean that?
~1300sqft / 120m2 is considered pretty decent in the Netherlands. Probably a bit on the bigger side for an average lint house.
We've lived on 450 / 40m2 with 2 people and it was torture on the relationship. Our current 1300sqft feels like a mansion and is actually way too big for 2 people.
The only thing I miss (but which is rare / extremely expensive here) would be a basement or garage for storage / hobby / car.
I live in a big house (much bigger than any house I have ever lived in) because my FIL died and my MIL needed to move in with us for both financial and emotional reasons. we ended up buying a house with an apartment to her liking attached to it. It's huge 7000 Sq feet. This was right before covid. I liked the house but I was quite concerned over how big it was as my husband works insane hours and of course, I'm going to be the one cleaning it! What i didn't anticipate is people think I'm rich when I'm not. We only live in this house because we sold our old house and my MIL sold her kinda large single family home, we did a large down payment combined and our mortgage is not bad at all. also refused to move in unless we hired a cleaner for once a month just to help keep the cleaning manageable. I still clean frequently but I'm not going insane with it at least. Anyway I agree it's overrated.
I don’t really disagree with you, there are only two of us in my 3600 sq ft house. Problem is, it’s paid off and I really don’t want to move.
You don't need to fill the rooms. I would love to have more open space. I essentially live in a long and wide trailer... it sucks.
2500+ doesn't really equal a mansion. Our house is 2900. It's 4 bedrooms 2.5 baths and a bonus room. If I lose something I don't really have to look in every room because our house is organized and for example, if I lose something that belongs in the kitchen it probably didn't make its way up to our son's bedroom or the guest room. If you keep it organized and tidy and have a robot vacuum cleaning it really isn't that hard. The way our floor plan is arranged, You can call someone from one corner of the house and have them hear you in the other. We definitely have some extra room but it should be the perfect fit once we have another baby.
Yeah, that really is just an average American family home. Yeah, it's big compared to most other countries, but it's very much middle class here.
Never noticed this myself. For me, it was the total lack of privacy.
There was a literal army of workers there all the time. Want to go swimming? There's 5 gardeners there watching you. Got the day off and want to have a netflix day? Enjoy 10 cleaning ladies walking around and a leaf blower going all day. There was always someone there fixing or sevicing something, mowing or pruning or blowing something, or cleaning something. Always.
If you own a big house you ain’t cleaning shit… you pay people to do that for you
Totally agree. Never owned a big house and never will
This hits home. I have a 3800sq/ft home. It’s awesome for hosting parties and all that, but boy is it a bitch when it comes to maintaining it. Something is always broken or needing to be fixed.
For real. If you want a big house, unless you are a lot more industrious than most of us, you also need to be able to hire help.
I lived with my parents in their 4,000 square foot house for 8 years with my husband and kids. Then we moved into a house that is about the same size, but we bought it with my sister, and the delineations between her space and ours are more firm. At my parents' house, my kids used all 4 bathrooms, so I felt obligated to clean all 4 bathrooms. Here, we only have 2 bathrooms upstairs, and my sister's bathroom is her problem, so I only clean 2. It is SO much better. Once or twice a month, there are 10 minutes where it would be convenient to have an extra bathroom, but that is not nearly bad enough for me to have to CLEAN another bathroom.
It's very nice to have ample space, but there is definitely a line where ample becomes "there is so much extra space it's too easy to fill with junk." And I'm with you: that line is somewhere around 2500 square feet.
Lol you guys are crazy...
2500 sq ft isn't outrageous
Majority of new construction houses are like 1850-2750
Upvoting you because you’re wrong.
Depends on how many people live there.
I lived in a ~3,000ft2 house, with 5 other people. The six of us all pitched in to keep it clean, so it wasn’t bad at all.
I’d much rather have too much room than too little. I’ve also lived in a cramped house where we had to convert the dining area into a bedroom and fit two of my brothers in there. You couldn’t move in that house without bumping into someone.
If you have enough money to buy a house that big, you have enough people to clean for you, plenty of money to furnish the entire thing, stock up toilet paper daily, keep track of things and put them in proper places, fetch things you need, fetch the cats for you...
The housing market has driven housing to ever larger portions of people's budgets. They might not have funds for that stuff.
FirstWorldProblems
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25d
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25d
I guess being from TX, 99% of people I know live in the suburbs.
??? That's just what they build here. Any housing development in any city in the continental US is going to look very very similar. Wtf are people supposed to say, "here's a perfectly good house, in my price range, where I want to live, but naw, it's too glutinous. You are making it sound like middle class people are having multiple vacation homes they visit once a year.
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25d
100% agree. My place is about the same size, which is an average family home in the US, but it's huge for one person. Furnishing isn't an issue, cleaning is. That is a lot of house to maintain assuming you like your place to stay neat.
I have an AirTag on my indoor cat for this exact reason haha. I find it motivates me to actually stay on top of cleaning. I call my husband with my phone if I need something. I find I don’t lose a lot of stuff but I notice that I do things more room dependent where I’ll keep certain things in specific rooms so I deliberately won’t have to go looking for them. I also grew up in a fairly average but quite small house in a HCOL and found it suffocating
Can you hear it? I swear that the sounds that AirTags make is so freakishly difficult to triangulate in a large space.
I use the find nearby where it tells me the distance and what direction to go as well and if I’m getting closer. Not the sound option
Shit for me anything over 1,200 sqft would be completely unnecessary.
I actually have a problem in that most houses are way too big for me in places that I'm looking. I could afford these bigger houses but they're not practical.
Womp womp
What an amazing problem to have
Lol cry me a river. At least you have a house
Yeah…I really feel for you…🙄
Such a horrible set of problems to have lol
Yeah we own a 2323sq ft house (2 story) and it is a lot! Thankful for the rock solid insulation though cause our electric is only about 108$ and we're in san antonio.
It makes more sense if you either have a large family or like to entertain lots of guests
When I bought, the choice was between 3k+ sf in a typical HOA tract development or 1500 sf in an older neighborhood by the beach.
I was single at the time so went with the latter but now married and want kids, kinda wish I’d bought more square footage.
Permitting an addition is a fucking nightmare,
Eh. I like bigger than smaller so to me it’s not too big at all. Plus i grew up in a house that had more than 3000 square feet and it didn’t feel anywhere near too large. We had room to spread out, which i prefer. And when you have family come into town you’re not on top of each other the more space you have to work with. I prefer that.
I don't need a big house, I just want something simple and quiet. Over 100k income a year and it'll still never happen
You're just showing off.
Man, I just want a 900 square foot house built in the 1950s but even those are going for 350k minimum where I live.
I use a Amazon echo’s as a intercom
I have a 4000sq/ft house and it’s awesome. It’s only has 3 bedrooms too. The rooms are all huge and spacious, I have an arcade and a game room. Big houses are awesome. My maid never complains about it being too big to clean.
I agree. I own my own home and it’s just me and my daughter and a cat and a dog. It’s a 3bed 2 bath that’s 1800 sf. It’s too big! I’d be happier in an RV in a few acres.
I agree only cause my house isn’t big and it’s still so much for me to clean.
I just bought a place twice the size of my old one and I'm feeling this.
We don't have enough furniture to fill the place so it looks empty until we can.
It feels like it takes forever to clean the whole house compared to my old place as well.
I used to want a hone that had 3-4 bedrooms and a nice living room and kitchen. I'm a single dad, and I bought my condo that's a little over 1,200sqf and honestly I think this is perfect. It's a 2 bedroom and the living room is spacious and kitchen isn't big but it's an open concept so it doesn't feel like a tiny box. Like I can have 3 people standing there comfortably cooking if needed.
I agree, the cleaning part is where I get annoyed the most with. I'm clean in general so it isn't like I have to do deep cleaning all the time. But when it comes to sweeping/mopping/vacuuming every 2 or 3 weeks Jesus I hate doing it
I have a 3000 square foot house. Only thing keeping me there is the kids. As soon as they move out I am so downsizing, like a lot.
That extra space is just more to maintain - clean, heat/cool, etc
the good thing is most of us millennials can’t afford a down payment, the monthly payment, the insurance, PMI, or the property tax to own at home at all so I think we’re okay over here drowning in our studio apartments.
Which is why if I were to buy another house (which I won't because I don't have enough money), I'd buy a condo: no backyard and much smaller so I don't have to clean so much.
My house is 1250sqft and I agree. I want to eventually build an extension to turn the two upstairs rooms into 3 - but I only want 1600sqft. That’s more than enough.
I live in a condo that’s 750 sf and have a galley kitchen- it’s fucking tiny.
For two adults I think it’s (mostly) fine. I would like some separation with bedrooms and living room, a slightly bigger kitchen (no room for a dishwasher presently), and it would be great to have storage for big items like a kayak or two.
I grew up in a house that was about 1,000 sf and that was plenty (at least when you have a basement and/or backyard.
My parents in their late 70s are really regretting their 1200 sqft 3 bedroom house right now. But who knew my 50 yo brother would lose his job and his family of 7 would have to move in with them! I live in a 4 bedroom 2200 sqft house with my 2 kids and it’s about right for us. We actually can’t get anything smaller since our rent is cheaper than smaller house in my area.
I have this fear of big houses. So I'm actually going to agree with this one OP.
Only Americans mention the square footage of their houses as a flex. Most countries its the exception rather than the norm
I lived in a house that was a 4 bed, 2 bath, 2000 square feet in the early 90s when I was in middle school. My friends at the time were shocked at how big it was. Now I see these giant houses twice that size with the same number of bedrooms and am shocked at the size.
We ended up with a much larger house than I ever expected to live in. My mom always said, "the bigger the house, the more there is to clean."
I was pleasantly surprised that more space gets dirtier much slower than a smaller space. I have to clean the kitchen, living room, and other high-traffic areas frequently but overall the amount of time/energy I spend cleaning isn't different from when we lived in a two-bedroom apartment.
My house is over 3200 square feet, we’ve owned it for 2 and a half years and an entire floor is unfurnished. Not a mansion by any means but coming from a one bedroom apartment it’s taking a long time to furnish. Keeping it clean is also a pain.
My wife and I are both able to have our own offices in the house though which is pretty sweet, and we had a kid while we moved here so the room is appreciated but definitely still excessive at times
I’d caveat is that it depends on if 1 or more people remote work. When a home turns into your office, things change.
Agreed. A 1500-2000 square foot house would be all I need. When I see giant houses or celebrity mansions, I get anxiety thinking about how much there is to maintain! And I would go crazy with the furnishing and decorating!
Correction: owning a big house sucks if you’re poor and can’t afford house keepers and don’t have a big family. In that case, yeah. What were you expecting.
I do miss our starter home which was around 1500 sq feet. It was perfect for my wife and I...MBR was on the small size, and we had another smaller room that ended up being our nursery when the kids were born and a 3rd guest room that was ultimately ended up being my oldest room once my youngest was born and moved into the nursery.
It started getting pretty cramped though and the house was older and very compartmentalized so felt even smaller than it was. We ended up moving to a 3K sq ft house on an acre with a pool and love it. Plenty of room for my boys who are now 14 and 12...we had a weird room that was a theater room for the previous owners and we converted it into the boys den basically...that's where they can play their video games or ping pong or whatever...but we also have two twin murphy beds in there for guests...mostly my wife's parents. I also have a dedicated hobby area and a nook in our MBR serves as a shared home office between my wife and I. We could have made the 1500 sq ft house work, but we have the financial means and moving wasn't a financial burden. Between my wife and I and two boys, it really doesn't take that long to clean.
Not sure what we'll do when the kids move out...I guess it'll depend on the market, but ultimately we would most likely want to downsize if it's just the two of us. Market will be a big factor though as we bought in 2017 before the insanity.
We have 3,800 or so but also have 4 kids. I think my boys would be at each other’s throats with much less but maybe it’d be fine. I do hate cleaning bathrooms but I feel as if with 4 boys, bathrooms are always a nightmare.
Although, I’m also 1 of 4 and grew up in less than 2,000. And my mom is 1 of 8 and probably had 1,000 (and none of them mutilated another) so I’m probably overestimating how much a benefit the “space” is.
But I do love the additional basement kitchen so I can exile myself to cook
Yes it does. That’s why I’m selling mine. I’m getting an apartment in the city and living worry free for a while. The maintenance my house requires is overwhelming and consumed my life.
yeah i live alone in a very large 3br house with a complete full finished basement too. I actually had to hire a cleaning lady cuz it was too much work. Like I didn't mind it, and Im super clean, but it was just the time. Like i have 2 days off a week, but usually work 1 of those days 2/3 times a month. So I don't wanna spend half of my one day off cleaning my house
I 100% agree. Give me a small cottage on some land and we’re golden.
Man I wouldnt trade down my 4000 sqft house. I need the air, the light, the breathing room. When you have a large house you dont need to have so much stuff on the floor and counters because you have storage space, so its cleaner and the vacuum robot doesnt get stuck everywhere
Also, a walk-in pantry is so very awesome, and so is having an "owner's retreat" so that I can go from my bedroom to the bathroom naked.
Also who yells anymore? Anyone old enough to bring you TP has a cell phone.
Laughs in apartment living
you got first fuckin world problems and suffering from success.
Whenever I see a very big house, with tall ceilings and big windows all I can think of is the pain of cleaning it all.
Who’s envying people with mansions? Lol
I’ve never really cared for house size personally. I wouldn’t be unhappy if it was big? But a normal sized home is cool with me. I just like having a decent sized yard.
I’d live in a tiny home if i could have a pool. People tried to convince me all my life pools are more hassle than they’re worth, but I can confidently say they were wrong now I have one. I’m sure it isn’t worth it for many, but I can spend all day in there and love having people come for a swim
Shit, my house is 896 square feet and it sucks. It's just me and my dog and it's nowhere near enough room really. 1500 square should be the minimum house size. But you're right, 2500 is plenty of house.
My house is 730 sq feet. I'd love to have a little bit more room (maybe 1000-1200), but I literally can't imagine taking care of a house over 2000 sq ft..
I have a 3 bedroom house and a garage and a detached garage that is huge. It gets dirty...I have two labs that love to shed...but I have roombas and vacuums and I don't have ADD or OCD. I'm single too. Is the house to big? Meh. Maybe. But I'll suffer :)
Not really tbh I live in a 5k sq foot house and everything is roomy and nice
I look at those types of scenarios as excuses to walk. We all need excuses to walk.
For a house, for me, bigger is always better.
I don’t need a big house, but I love having a big yard. If I ever move again it will be for a few acres.
It’s different for everyone, but I live in a 650 square foot condo and don’t like dealing with larger spaces (the cleaning, the huge energy bills, furnishing). It’s too much stress and I have terrible allergies besides, so I cannot handle any sort of outdoor maintenance.
All depends on the layout. Ours is supposedly 2600 but is horrible layout and we can't fit anything
I am careful not to whine about it too much but I mostly agree. All the work and maintenance multiplies exponentially. The mortgage seems so small compared to the rest of the expenses and effort. I like to project all the expenses out and it’s depressing. This house isn’t quite double the size of our last one but it seems like most the costs easily tripled if not more.
At the moment, my wife and I primarily work from home and kids are still in the house so we utilize it. If I were gone 5 days a week I would be looking to sell as soon as possible.
I dunno. I love our house. We have an almost 4,000 sq ft home single story, for me, my husband, our soon to be baby, and an in law suite for my parents. I love designing and shopping for furniture so I love that I have to furnish more. I hate yelling or raising my voice for anything (so does my husband), so we either text or we use an intercom system we installed. We also have cats, and all it takes is a shake of treats in a jar to have them come running. Having a big house is not mutually exclusive with it being high quality and nice. Our home is our sanctuary, so we prioritized getting everything just right.
Honestly kind of agreed. We have 4 rooms downstairs and 4 upstairs and pet hair gets fuckin everywhere.
3850 here, and you make some decent points, it doesn’t make me wish it were smaller.
Plus I’m going to be building an ADU, and the ordinance limits the size to a percentage of the size of the home/lot. So every sq ft counts.
I would have to agree. My house is just under 2000, 60 years old, and on 1/3 acre. It's too much house/yard for just me, my wife, and 2 pets. We do work and maintenance ourselves. Even with a home office and guest bed we have a spare bedroom and bonus room we don't ever go in. The next one will be more up to date and smaller.
I got right under 2500 sqft and it's an old one room school house from 1911 with additions. It's a complete pain in the butt, especially when the people who owned it before you didn't do up keep on the house. It definitely can feel like a double edge sword.
It’s nice for everyone to have their own space
If I was ever able to build a bigger house it would have a smaller central living area for the 2 of us and then extra bedrooms for guests and special purpose rooms - theater-type tv room (not too over the top, but with extra seating), workshop, etc.
Totes. 3,200 sq ft for a family of three here. It's a lovely house and we have a gorgeous view but we got swept away by those things and failed to realize all the points that you make above. It's really not as awesome as we thought it would be.
I mean... you said you were lazy and have ADHD. It's like saying I'm partially blind and have ADHD, doing puzzles sucks. I still agree with you though lol
I agree. Solo, 450 square feet was great. Husband and two kids in 700 not right, 1350 better. Four kids in 1350 not right, 2500 better. When two left home, back to 1500. Little crowded until the third left home. Okay with one child at home. Absolutely perfect for aging in place as a couple.
If you don't want it, I'll gladly take it off your hands for you.
If you own a big house, then you have the money to take care of it and maintain it. This includes hiring help. So this is a non issue.
People who can afford mansions can also afford butlers
The part that sucks the most is dealing with subhumans
(That’s how I spell “contractors” anyway)
Life hack: hire a cleaning service
I always wanted a big house until i bought a smaller house with three stories. Now i want a small house with only two levels. There’s so much to clean and i don’t even use the basement.
The people owning these massive homes have maids or cleaners.
Not a single rich person who owns a house like that ever actually cleans its it's all the maids/cleaners
and for everyone that says people with big houses can afford cleaning services, nope. Not all of us. We had to buy a new HVAC system for our house unexpectedly within the first 2 months of owning it (three years ago) and that was $30k. It's tantamount to making another car payment and we will finish paying it off in a little over a year. Owning a house is an amazing feat, I get it. We are so lucky to have gotten on the ladder at the bottom of the crash and we lucked out big time when it came time to sell our first (1,100 sq ft) home. That said, we are what is often termed "house poor". Which basically boils down to living in a mansion and eating ramen for dinner a lot. It didn't seem like we were going to be living beyond our means but I broke my ankle, lost my job, etc etc. Shit happens, nobody's life is visible from the surface. People come in our house and get a very incorrect idea about us.
Bloody hell this is controversial
When you have a large house and yard, you pay other people to maintain them.
1000 sqft was way too little for a family of four. Thankfully the basement was tall enough that I could finish it and double our livable space. Now my wife has a bedroom she uses for her sewing workshop and I built a small 10x10 cabin for wfh. The only thing more than that is we do need to use an outbuilding for storage. This is enough to clean as is
My wife and I have purposefully chosen 1300sq ft homes for the past few we have lived in. Plenty of room for us two and the energy bills are low.
My buddy has a 3000 square foot house and just spent $30,000 on carpet
Wanna swap then u can have my small home ill take ur mansion
A co-worker called it a
"cellphone house!"
When I asked what he meant, he said.
"House so big, mom no call kids to come downstairs for dinner. Use phone. Kids no hear."
Most houses are indeed too big, and have a tremendous amount of wasted space, ie the grand entranceway and the cathedral ceilings. That wasted space has to be heated in winter and cooled in summer.
Who yells anymore about the toilet paper when you most likely have a phone in there and can text a parent or roomate?
Your post from unpopularopinion was removed because of: 'Rule 2: Do not post low effort/satirical posts'.
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Filter evasion is a bannable offense
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