How much house is "enough"

[diggitydot]

Our laundry room is on the main floor between the kitchen and garage and I LOVE it there. Our last house had it downstairs and it always bugged me down there.

[MrsK]

Right now, we are very comfortable in a 1,000 sq ft 3bdrm/3bath. The boys share the master bedroom and bath. The second bedroom is their playroom. We made a finished basement into a bedroom/sitting room for us and use the basement bedroom as an office. We also have a tiny kitchen, attached 2 car garage (which we rarely use), a den, a tiny bit of unfinished storage space, and a fenced back yard. It works for us now but it would probably be tight if we had mor children or our boys were older. I like having them share a bedroom and I like having adult space in the house that is seperate from the kids' space (really, our basement set-up functions like a seperate apartment). The dream house has wood floors, fireplaces in every room, whirlpool baths and a larger kitchen. That said, before this house, we were renting a much larger house that had almost all of those amenities and we were not using half of it. ... And I really hated cleaning the kitchen. My only complaint about this house is that it is not large enough for a guest room or for entertaining.

[bokelley]

I grew up in a 6800 Sq foot home with a pool house, and only 3 people in it (me and my grandparents) Dh grew up in a 800 sq foot home with 4 people. So it is no wonder we can not agree on a home size. I am guessing around 4000-5000 for us when it is all over with.
I don't really care about too much but I want one of those designer closets!!

[v-girl]

We have a homeschooling family of 5 crammed into 1450sqft. No breakfast area. No pantry. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Rooms are decent sized, but there aren't enough. Kitchen is tiny. School is in the dining room. We eat in the living room. Can't wait to get all the work we need done on the house done so we can move. It's a great location for someone who wants to use public schools though.

[mommax3]

We have ~ 5400 sq ft with unfinished space above our garage and some unfinished storage in the basement. We have 5 bedrooms/4.5 bathrooms, an office, a music room, and an exercise room. No formal dining room and our kitchen/upstairs living/dining area are all open. We also have a full kitchen adjacent to the family area in the basement. The boys' 3 bedrooms and the exercise room are in the basement, and two of them share a bathroom via a jack and jill (or jack and jack in our case) set up. Upstairs is the master and a guest suite, as well as the office and music room. We also have a laundry room on each level, which is *awesome*. It is a lot to clean, but handles large groups (family, teenagers) with ease. I like that it looks like a much smaller house because half of it is under ground!

[ladymoreta]

We are hoping to have three kids, so our dream house would have 5 bedrooms - one for each kid and a guest room. I also want an office and a playroom, and I love the setup in this rental where the two rooms kind of flow together. (It's actually a second living area and a formal dining room.) My dream house also would have a theater room. I am weird an definitely do not want a pool.

I don't have a specific size in mind, but houses are cheap here, so I can see us going bigger than we technically need.

[alison]

We have 1400 square feet. 2 br, a master bath, guest bath, and powder room. We live in the city and gladly give up space for being in the middle of town. We have tons of space for our family--I mean, you should see how they live in Germany or Japan. 1400 square feet is a mansion for a family of 6-7 people.

[v-girl]

Alison - That's like Panama! My relatives come to visit and think we are all rich. My mom built her house in Panama (her dad left her some land when he died) for $12K. Yes, $12,000. She even has an indoor bathroom and a refrigerator! ha!

[spotty_dog]

We have 2900 sf including the finished attic. I was angling for 2000-2500 when we were house shopping, but DH felt that the bigger the better. We technically have 3 bedrooms/2.75 bath, but there is a spare room in the attic. Three bathrooms is my limit for cleaning! We have more living room and more master bedroom than we honestly use. We could probably squeeze another kiddo in by having them share rooms (as it is they sleep in the same room many nights and leave a bedroom unoccupied) though we don't plan on another baby. There's a lot of flexibility in the floor plan to accommodate the way we might use the house as the kids grow. We plan to stay here till the kids move out, then downsize. I wouldn't want a bigger house because it would mean more cleaning and probably a bigger mortgage -- our 15 year fixed is already the biggest fixed expense in our budget and I will be glad to be rid of it.

DH uses the unfinished basement/cellar as his man cave/bike workshop.

[alison]

Yup! Having a bathtub is a luxury in German apartments.

[SoonerTexan]

We have 2000 sq ft for the three of us right now and it is awesome. 2 living areas is awesome.

We want 4-6 kids and I'd like to keep our "dream house" under 4400 sq feet because I feel like it gets into "hard to clean and sell" territory after that. That is also the size of In laws house and it worked for their 6 kids. 3400 worked for my family (5 kids) growing up, but it was cramped sometimes.

No basements in TX so gameroom is a must. Id live to not waste space on a formal dining or living room too. I'd rather have a study and an eating area that is separate from the kitchen but not formal.

[Phoebe]

We are a family of 6 with 5 bedroom, 4.5 bathroom home. The guest bedroom and bath are in the basement.

I often wish for more rooms like a hearth room and a playroom. Our whole first floor is basically one roomies an office. Our kids toys are in the basement partially in the guest bedroom. I would recommend a house with enough bedrooms for each person. I can't keep up with cleaning the size of our current home but wish for more rooms. Our laundry room is also on the 2nd floor and I love it.

[bokelley]

I never thought of a laundry room on the second floor. But it sounds like a great idea!

[Chrisada]

I remember a family putting stackable washer and dryers in each of their teens closets on HGTV. In the Midwest, we tend to have ours all the way in the basement.

[SuzySunshine]

We have about 3600sf, 5 BR - one of which is DH's office, a playroom, the kids share a bath but the other BRs each have their own bath. We have a breakfast nook which is what we eat in, our formal DR is nice and we'll get a table set for it but we could probably do without it. The two things this house does not have that I would like are a media room/workout room and a main floor laundry. I don't need anymore sf but would like those in our next house.