7 ms·

I was thinking the same as someone living in London. What do people do with all this space?

sotojuan 10y ago
The US is a big, big place. Between the coasts there's plenty of cheap space that to this day remains unused. People have become used to being able to buy larger and larger houses for decades. It's just American culture. I can't answer what people "do" with all the space... but friends of mine lived in houses like these and it's not like there was an unused room or ignore backyard. Everything was used.
alistairSH 10y ago
Not much, in my experience. Or, it might be more accurate to say the space is used for the detritus of middle-class living. I own a moderate 4 bedroom home, 3 of which are "vacant". 1 was my son's, but he's an adult and moved out. 1 is the guest room and used sporadically. The other is overflow for the now-too-small master closet. The dining room is used a few times each year for holidays and parties; we could easily do without. The 2-car garage is filled with too many bicycles, kayaks, utility trailer, large toolbox, etc. We're actively purging with the goal of moving to a more "urban" area sometime before retirement. I put urban in quite because we might find a nice small town instead of a major city, but the goal is a small rowhome or flat in a walkable area. With about 70% less stuff.
bagacrap 10y ago
Have lots of kids and hobbies. An entertainment room, a room for the kids, 5bd/5br, a massive garage for bikes, water skis, snow skis, jet skis... These things take up space. When I was buying a house I was advised that I'd never regret having too much space. That wound up being false but I did find that I had no problem filling up said space with junk. (Largely explaining the overwhelming success of Amazon.)
omegaham 10y ago
I live in a 1200 square-foot house - man, I would love to have a couple more rooms. Especially once we start having kids.
Broken_Hippo 10y ago
I both understand your sentiment - as I think there is a spot of "This house is too big for my spouse and I" (we live in a fairly small attic apartment even by Norwegian standards), but I also understand what we'd do with space. We would have an extra room: We might have seperate sleeping quarters because my snoring wakes him. We (well, more he) would have a room for music - We have a couple of electric guitars, a bass, and an electric cello. We (me!) would have an art space. A guest room would be wonderful if family flies from overseas. We'd have a library. That's 5 bedrooms, or alternate uses of a basement or attic in a smaller 2-3 bedroom house. I think a lot of folks simply have unused space in these, however. My parents lived in a 3600 sq ft, 6 bedroom, multiple bathroom house (build in the 1860's and renovated later on to include a garage and basement finishing) - and if it wasn't for opening their house to family or friends down on luck, it would have gone mostly unused.
pjc50 10y ago
Oh, I'd certainly have no problem finding something to do with the space, it's just the million pounds required to have that much space that's the problem. (Or the distance! https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/7-private-islands-that-cost-less-than-a-flat-in-london https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/7-private-islands-that-co... )
nommm-nommm 10y ago
Store their stuff.
ashark 10y ago
> What do people do with all this space? Media/theater rooms, library/study/office, formal dining room (probably a complete waste of space 90+% of the time, admittedly—I turned ours into the library/study), dedicated play room so the kids' shit doesn't take over the rest of the house (in smaller houses this may just be a second, less-public den/living-room area, probably mixed with the media room concept). Separate bedroom for each kid plus a spare bedroom if you can manage it—spare room, if present, may double as an office if space doesn't allow a dedicated room for that. Big bathrooms and closets that allow one's morning routine to be conducted entirely outside the bedroom proper (handy if partners don't wake up at the same time, plus makes tidying easier) and feature things like large tubs and big two-person showers. Entertaining spaces/bars, usually separated from the bedrooms as much as possible, probably mixed in with the media room/theater concept if space doesn't allow them to be separate. Exercise rooms. Those last two are often in a finished basement. Workshops. "In-law" suites (basically a 1-bedroom apartment), often in the basement. Usually several, but not all, of these things are present in a (by today's standards) mid-size or larger suburban house. Bigger houses may have all or almost all of them. I've seen wine cellars (climate controlled, not legit caves) and steam/sauna rooms in houses that were large but not zomgwtf large, so those might be present in the middle-upper range of McMansions depending on the preferences of the owners. Real monster houses that go beyond those may have mansionesque crap like ballrooms, elevators, indoor pools, et c., but then you're approaching or exceeding 7 figures even if the house is in the middle of no-where, so that's actually rich people with poor taste (or maybe they really do have large dance parties on the regular? Who knows. And indoor pool—I mean, if I could easily afford that, yeah, of course I'd like it) not middle-class people trying to imitate the rich. Plus, remember, these giant houses usually have 3+ car attached garages (you'll have trouble selling a newly-constructed house with fewer than 2 garage bays in the US 'burbs these days—older houses sometimes have only one, or none, though) and maybe another bay around back if the basement is walk-out. Those make them look bigger than they are, as far as living space goes. Not advocating/defending any of this, just providing an answer to the question :-)
hippich 10y ago
i spend way more time at home than at 'communal properties' (bar/coworking space/office/etc) I got my gym, office, simple but good enough patio, smoker and grill, workshop - all under one roof. This saves tremendous amount of time to commute and deal with people, waiting for gym equipment to become available. And all of that stems from the fact - I can afford all of that to own vs rent.. I am also kind of person who in general prefer to own vs rent. I.e. i opt for dedicated server vs aws (if i could justify collocating server in datacenter nearby - i would,) owning cheap car vs paying lease for fancy new one, owning simple house vs paying rent for condo, etc. And I bet I am not alone in wanting to "own" vs "rent".

The US is a big, big place. Between the coasts there's plenty of cheap space that to this day remains unused. People have become used to being able to buy larger and larger houses for decades. It's just American culture. I can't answer what people "do" with all the space... but friends of mine lived in houses like these and it's not like there was an unused room or ignore backyard. Everything was used.

alistairSH 10y ago

Not much, in my experience. Or, it might be more accurate to say the space is used for the detritus of middle-class living. I own a moderate 4 bedroom home, 3 of which are "vacant". 1 was my son's, but he's an adult and moved out. 1 is the guest room and used sporadically. The other is overflow for the now-too-small master closet. The dining room is used a few times each year for holidays and parties; we could easily do without. The 2-car garage is filled with too many bicycles, kayaks, utility trailer, large toolbox, etc. We're actively purging with the goal of moving to a more "urban" area sometime before retirement. I put urban in quite because we might find a nice small town instead of a major city, but the goal is a small rowhome or flat in a walkable area. With about 70% less stuff.

bagacrap 10y ago

Have lots of kids and hobbies. An entertainment room, a room for the kids, 5bd/5br, a massive garage for bikes, water skis, snow skis, jet skis... These things take up space. When I was buying a house I was advised that I'd never regret having too much space. That wound up being false but I did find that I had no problem filling up said space with junk. (Largely explaining the overwhelming success of Amazon.)

omegaham 10y ago

I live in a 1200 square-foot house - man, I would love to have a couple more rooms. Especially once we start having kids.

Broken_Hippo 10y ago

I both understand your sentiment - as I think there is a spot of "This house is too big for my spouse and I" (we live in a fairly small attic apartment even by Norwegian standards), but I also understand what we'd do with space. We would have an extra room: We might have seperate sleeping quarters because my snoring wakes him. We (well, more he) would have a room for music - We have a couple of electric guitars, a bass, and an electric cello. We (me!) would have an art space. A guest room would be wonderful if family flies from overseas. We'd have a library. That's 5 bedrooms, or alternate uses of a basement or attic in a smaller 2-3 bedroom house. I think a lot of folks simply have unused space in these, however. My parents lived in a 3600 sq ft, 6 bedroom, multiple bathroom house (build in the 1860's and renovated later on to include a garage and basement finishing) - and if it wasn't for opening their house to family or friends down on luck, it would have gone mostly unused.

pjc50 10y ago

Oh, I'd certainly have no problem finding something to do with the space, it's just the million pounds required to have that much space that's the problem. (Or the distance! https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/7-private-islands-that-cost-less-than-a-flat-in-london https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/7-private-islands-that-co... )

nommm-nommm 10y ago

Store their stuff.

ashark 10y ago

> What do people do with all this space? Media/theater rooms, library/study/office, formal dining room (probably a complete waste of space 90+% of the time, admittedly—I turned ours into the library/study), dedicated play room so the kids' shit doesn't take over the rest of the house (in smaller houses this may just be a second, less-public den/living-room area, probably mixed with the media room concept). Separate bedroom for each kid plus a spare bedroom if you can manage it—spare room, if present, may double as an office if space doesn't allow a dedicated room for that. Big bathrooms and closets that allow one's morning routine to be conducted entirely outside the bedroom proper (handy if partners don't wake up at the same time, plus makes tidying easier) and feature things like large tubs and big two-person showers. Entertaining spaces/bars, usually separated from the bedrooms as much as possible, probably mixed in with the media room/theater concept if space doesn't allow them to be separate. Exercise rooms. Those last two are often in a finished basement. Workshops. "In-law" suites (basically a 1-bedroom apartment), often in the basement. Usually several, but not all, of these things are present in a (by today's standards) mid-size or larger suburban house. Bigger houses may have all or almost all of them. I've seen wine cellars (climate controlled, not legit caves) and steam/sauna rooms in houses that were large but not zomgwtf large, so those might be present in the middle-upper range of McMansions depending on the preferences of the owners. Real monster houses that go beyond those may have mansionesque crap like ballrooms, elevators, indoor pools, et c., but then you're approaching or exceeding 7 figures even if the house is in the middle of no-where, so that's actually rich people with poor taste (or maybe they really do have large dance parties on the regular? Who knows. And indoor pool—I mean, if I could easily afford that, yeah, of course I'd like it) not middle-class people trying to imitate the rich. Plus, remember, these giant houses usually have 3+ car attached garages (you'll have trouble selling a newly-constructed house with fewer than 2 garage bays in the US 'burbs these days—older houses sometimes have only one, or none, though) and maybe another bay around back if the basement is walk-out. Those make them look bigger than they are, as far as living space goes. Not advocating/defending any of this, just providing an answer to the question :-)

hippich 10y ago

i spend way more time at home than at 'communal properties' (bar/coworking space/office/etc) I got my gym, office, simple but good enough patio, smoker and grill, workshop - all under one roof. This saves tremendous amount of time to commute and deal with people, waiting for gym equipment to become available. And all of that stems from the fact - I can afford all of that to own vs rent.. I am also kind of person who in general prefer to own vs rent. I.e. i opt for dedicated server vs aws (if i could justify collocating server in datacenter nearby - i would,) owning cheap car vs paying lease for fancy new one, owning simple house vs paying rent for condo, etc. And I bet I am not alone in wanting to "own" vs "rent".