5 ms·

Not sure what I am supposed to do with the extra 3500 square feet there...

matte_black 9y ago
Movie theatre, grand dining room, home gym, steam room, VR room, office, woodworking shop, wine cellar, etc. The possibilities are endless.
- jacobolus 9y ago
  Not to mention living with all of your extended family under one roof, starting a church or homeless shelter or disco club, stockpiling enough food to outlast a zombie uprising, or displaying your collection of luxury cars you never drive.... More seriously, in general single-family houses should be on the order of 1000–2000 square feet. The rest is typically a complete waste (nobody I know who has a 4000+ square foot house actually uses most of the space – people with real on-site wood shops etc. put them in a separate space detached from their home, not in spare bedrooms), and serves to isolate households from each-other, force a car-centric lifestyle, drive up housing costs for everyone and force people working essential menial jobs to live far away and commute long distances, cost much more public infrastructure than denser alternatives, etc. I have a several rich programmer friends (early facebook or whatever) who bought outrageously large houses in Silicon Valley as a status symbol, but work all the time, eat out every meal, and only go home to sleep. What a tremendous demonstration of unthinking excess.
  - matte_black 9y ago
    I don’t know about you, but 1000-2000 sqft for a single family home with an actual family in it is downright cramped. You could turn a garage into a wood shop though if you don’t have a particular need to store your car in a garage. The point of a large home is to turn it into your own personal oasis where you can spend days at a time without ever really needing to leave, and without feeling bored. The thing is, many people just don’t know how to live in a big house, because they spend so much time in cramped quarters until they can afford a home. A big house is all about features. Every room is an opportunity to have a space dedicated for something, if not for sleeping. Mindless excess is dumb, but thoughtful excess is amazing.
    - irrational 9y ago
      Oh, I don't know. We've lived in a 1900 sq ft house for the past 15 years. We have 7 kids (currently ages 4 to 20) and it has worked out just fine so far. We haven't felt cramped yet.
    - lostlogin 9y ago
      And a well designed small house is better still in my view - having everything you describe in a small place without it feeling cramped. My suggested measure is being able to vacuum the whole house from a single power point.
      - dagw 9y ago
        And a well designed small house is better still in my view The design and layout of a house is so much more important than just the sq ft. I wish more people would focus on that. We have a really well planned out 1500 sq ft. house and we have literally more usable rooms and space than many people I know with houses more than twice the size.
    - jacobolus 9y ago
      Um... I grew up living in a maybe 1100 square foot house with 4 people and occasional extended guests. It was a bit tight maybe (e.g. 2 kids in one bedroom, some contention for the one bathroom), but “downright cramped” is an exaggeration. I currently live with 3 people in a 1200 square foot condo and it seems plenty spacious. 2000 square feet should be enough for a family of 8 or something. My godparents’ family lived with a dozen people in a few mud-brick + straw roofed rooms probably totaling 500 square feet, plus some outdoor space between buildings. Now that’s cramped. > The point of a large home is to turn it into your own personal oasis where you can spend days at a time without ever really needing to leave, and without feeling bored. In my opinion that is a depressing vain and wasteful way to live. YMMV.
      - matte_black 9y ago
        A small home is an equally wasteful way to live — a waste of opportunity.
  - woolvalley 9y ago
    Bedrooms, multiple kids, large spacious bathrooms, an office, a gym, a combined living room/kitchen/dining room open space for hosting parties, and most importantly of all, storage space. That can become 3000 sqft fairly quickly, of which you only use 1000 sqft frequently as a family :D
    - matte_black 9y ago
      Do not forget spacious walk-in closets, which are very underrated. Having a boutique-like experience for picking out clothes and a full size mirror to check them out in is a great way to start a day or prepare for a fancy event.
      - prawn 9y ago
        I have a fairly modest house and incorporated a dressing room. Wouldn't be without one in any future house, assuming I could afford/justify it. I would also try for a utility room behind my kitchen for stashing mess as our kitchen gets overrun very quickly when we host people (10+ people reasonably often). Things like home offices, games room, second lounge area, etc quickly take up space.

Movie theatre, grand dining room, home gym, steam room, VR room, office, woodworking shop, wine cellar, etc. The possibilities are endless.

jacobolus 9y ago
Not to mention living with all of your extended family under one roof, starting a church or homeless shelter or disco club, stockpiling enough food to outlast a zombie uprising, or displaying your collection of luxury cars you never drive.... More seriously, in general single-family houses should be on the order of 1000–2000 square feet. The rest is typically a complete waste (nobody I know who has a 4000+ square foot house actually uses most of the space – people with real on-site wood shops etc. put them in a separate space detached from their home, not in spare bedrooms), and serves to isolate households from each-other, force a car-centric lifestyle, drive up housing costs for everyone and force people working essential menial jobs to live far away and commute long distances, cost much more public infrastructure than denser alternatives, etc. I have a several rich programmer friends (early facebook or whatever) who bought outrageously large houses in Silicon Valley as a status symbol, but work all the time, eat out every meal, and only go home to sleep. What a tremendous demonstration of unthinking excess.
- matte_black 9y ago
  I don’t know about you, but 1000-2000 sqft for a single family home with an actual family in it is downright cramped. You could turn a garage into a wood shop though if you don’t have a particular need to store your car in a garage. The point of a large home is to turn it into your own personal oasis where you can spend days at a time without ever really needing to leave, and without feeling bored. The thing is, many people just don’t know how to live in a big house, because they spend so much time in cramped quarters until they can afford a home. A big house is all about features. Every room is an opportunity to have a space dedicated for something, if not for sleeping. Mindless excess is dumb, but thoughtful excess is amazing.
  - irrational 9y ago
    Oh, I don't know. We've lived in a 1900 sq ft house for the past 15 years. We have 7 kids (currently ages 4 to 20) and it has worked out just fine so far. We haven't felt cramped yet.
  - lostlogin 9y ago
    And a well designed small house is better still in my view - having everything you describe in a small place without it feeling cramped. My suggested measure is being able to vacuum the whole house from a single power point.
    - dagw 9y ago
      And a well designed small house is better still in my view The design and layout of a house is so much more important than just the sq ft. I wish more people would focus on that. We have a really well planned out 1500 sq ft. house and we have literally more usable rooms and space than many people I know with houses more than twice the size.
  - jacobolus 9y ago
    Um... I grew up living in a maybe 1100 square foot house with 4 people and occasional extended guests. It was a bit tight maybe (e.g. 2 kids in one bedroom, some contention for the one bathroom), but “downright cramped” is an exaggeration. I currently live with 3 people in a 1200 square foot condo and it seems plenty spacious. 2000 square feet should be enough for a family of 8 or something. My godparents’ family lived with a dozen people in a few mud-brick + straw roofed rooms probably totaling 500 square feet, plus some outdoor space between buildings. Now that’s cramped. > The point of a large home is to turn it into your own personal oasis where you can spend days at a time without ever really needing to leave, and without feeling bored. In my opinion that is a depressing vain and wasteful way to live. YMMV.
    - matte_black 9y ago
      A small home is an equally wasteful way to live — a waste of opportunity.
- woolvalley 9y ago
  Bedrooms, multiple kids, large spacious bathrooms, an office, a gym, a combined living room/kitchen/dining room open space for hosting parties, and most importantly of all, storage space. That can become 3000 sqft fairly quickly, of which you only use 1000 sqft frequently as a family :D
  - matte_black 9y ago
    Do not forget spacious walk-in closets, which are very underrated. Having a boutique-like experience for picking out clothes and a full size mirror to check them out in is a great way to start a day or prepare for a fancy event.
    - prawn 9y ago
      I have a fairly modest house and incorporated a dressing room. Wouldn't be without one in any future house, assuming I could afford/justify it. I would also try for a utility room behind my kitchen for stashing mess as our kitchen gets overrun very quickly when we host people (10+ people reasonably often). Things like home offices, games room, second lounge area, etc quickly take up space.