Space or lack thereof

A note on heating bills:

Our heating bill went from around $200 on a cold month in Boston to $750 on a cold month in Ohio.

Wow.

[houseelf]

We have 1350 square feet, but it isn't set up in a family friendly format. We have two bedrooms up and a small closet-sized bedroom down. We really don't use the 400 square foot downstairs except for guests and storage. I have to say that with all of our family and friends being so far away, a "guest bedroom" is pretty important to us. Also, in these climes, a two car attached garage gets headline billing too.

Our kids are too small to use our downstairs space for a prolonged period of time on their own. :| This sucks, because we had hoped to keep this as a play space, but it is cold and dark and cut off from the rest of the house. I have to admit that our space feels cramped , but I know that there is a three generational immigrant family of 8 living in a unit just like ours!

Our master bedroom is HUGE but the rest of the upstairs/family space is cramped with an efficiency kitchen, dining nook, and an 8x10 bedroom that two kids share. I have been pleased with the room sharing option. It really enhances the kids' relationship. We often hear them giggling at night after lights out.

The bonus to feeling cramped: You have to stay on top of your stuff and be selective about what comes in and vigilant about taking crap out. Seriously, how can anyone be motivated to clean out closets in one of those huge mansions?

Kelly

Angie, all I can say is HOLY CRAP! $750?!

We have quite a bit of space in our house, but the only room we really use is the great room/kitchen combo. We live in that room. We have a formal living room and formal dining room that we never use. Whenever we have company over, everyone sort of just congregates around the island in the kitchen. We also have a bonus room upstairs that is completely empty. The only time we ever step foot in that room is when we are using it as a guest room when we have company stay with us. I guess we'll probably use it more when Andrew is older. We hope to build a house several years down the road and the one thing that I have to have in that house is a huge great room & kitchen.

One thing I could never have enough of is closets! We have quite a few closets and they are all filled to the brim...and we've only lived here for 1 1/2 years. My dream is to have one of those closet organizer companies come out and organize all of our closets. I think jloreine did this....so envious!

One of dh's partners is building a 5800 sq ft house for his family of 4 (that doesn't include the 4 car garage!) It would take me 25 years to furnish a house that size!

The bonus to feeling cramped: You have to stay on top of your stuff and be selective about what comes in and vigilant about taking crap out. Seriously, how can anyone be motivated to clean out closets in one of those huge mansions?

Kelly

We *try* to stick to a something in, something out type of policy. It does cut down on the clutter. We had a garage sale before we moved, then got rid of more stuff, and just recently went through a few rooms of the house and gave away or consigned more. You'd think our house would be empty after all that, but no....

I love formal dining rooms. I like being able to pretend there isn'a mess to clean up in the kitchen, so we use our dining room. Its a nice place for homework too, quiet with no distractions.

I like there being two living room type areas as well. One as sort of an adult retreat, the other child friendly.

I would rather have just enough room for the beds and a dresser in the bedrooms than not enough space in the living parts of the house.

Also don't understand the closets you could park a mini van in or the bathroooms with enough room for a large sofa.

[Rapunzel]

Also don't understand the closets you could park a mini van in or the bathroooms with enough room for a large sofa.

I echo that. Have you seen the size of some of the master bathrooms in these new houses?! They're like 500 sq ft by themselves! Why do I need a bathroom floor large enough to hold a dance party? And, why do I need 8 feet of counter space around my sinks? And, OK, I understand the need to have a shower that can hold two people but, do we also need two seperate toilets (and, maybe a bidet, too)?

[DCJenn]

Now I'm sitting in my parent's new house, which is 4500 sq. feet for the two of them. Now, in their defense, they made sure that each family had their own room and bathroom- so Rick and I have the front room with the water view and John and Barb have the back room with the ginormous bathroom.

My parents room is utter decadence, but they've worked so hard that I think it's great. You walk into their room (water view) and it has a 2sided gas fireplace, one side you can see from their room, the other side you sit in the jacuzzi tub and see the fireplace. Then there's a shower stall with 5 shower heads. Behind that is the walk-in closet and tuck into the back furthest corner is the toilet (the door shuts)

The central area is the dining room, living room and kitchen. The builders designed the kitchen so its not exactly laid out aas conveniently as mom (Brenda Stewart) would have liked. Upstairs, also with a water view is dad's office and the first floor has a family room, another full bath and a back room that they plan on putting bunk beds for the grandsons.

Yeah, I like hanging out here, sipping an iced tea (or beer) and looking at the Chester River and the Chesapeake Bay. But I'm glad I don't have to clean it!

Jenn

[Rapunzel]

Well, I'd like to have a huge house someday to house all of my kids and I don't want to sell it when they get older. Why? Because I want to have all of my children and their families over as much as possible. I want to have grandchildren come and stay with me for weeks at a time. I think if you're putting to use a house of that size then it makes sense.

I just really do find myself stunned at the size of some of these bathrooms. Holy cow!

I like there being two living room type areas as well. One as sort of an adult retreat, the other child friendly.

This is one the things I really like about the Not So Big House books -- there is usually space carved out for an adult retreat. It's not usually in a public area of the house, though, so if you want it for entertaining, it wouldn't work.

[Vishenka69]

Two living rooms, bathroom counter, multiple shower heads, dinning room... so these are not just thing I only see on TV?

Well at least we don't have to pay for heat (although considering what our rent is, it's probably included). But we already have a cleaning woman who comes weekly to our small 2 bedroom (probably around 600sq ft), if we ever move to a house, we'd need a live-in housekeeper. As for closet space, I'm horribly jealous of our friends, who have a very similar apt 10 floors down but with a real walk in closet. I would love not to stumble on the piles of shoes every day.

I just really do find myself stunned at the size of some of these bathrooms. Holy cow!

Agreed. Our new house is around 2500 sq feet, not counting the finished basement, so I'd go up to around 3000-ish. We've got a lot of stuff - 'conspicuious consumption' should be stamped across our foreheads. But as for the bathrooms -- they just annoy me. Our master bathroom is just stupid, wasted space. Two sinks w/counter between & on either side, huge honkin' tub w/o jacuzzi jets and a shower stall. Plus the floor space is enough for another tub or two. I would much rather have that space added to my closet - which is big, but could never be big enough.

[Sheherezade]

We have one of those ridiculous bathrooms as well. We've been planning to use the space for 2 bathrooms (one kids and one master) when we remodel. Our other extra bathroom would be dissolved and added to the master bedroom to make the space work better there. The two new baths would be about 6 x 13 and 8 x 14. Those are decent sizes, right? I get a little worried that we are taking out an "asset" that we don't properly appreciate. The current bathroom is 14 x 17. That's crazy, right? Totally wacky? We just don't get it.

[Rapunzel]

Angie, your bathroom is bigger than any single room in my current home!

[DCJenn]

My bathroom is exactly as it was built 45 years ago, but w/ two new (1980?)plastique sinks. Blue mini tiles and larger blue tiles on the walls.

We did it in SpongeBob when we got Nikolai, figuring we might as well make bathtime fun for someone.

Jenn