8 ms·
Bleh, what a terrible article full of generalizations. My wife and I considered building a large 6,000 sqft dream home on acreage but at the end of the day we
by nickreese 8y ago
Bleh, what a terrible article full of generalizations.
My wife and I considered building a large 6,000 sqft dream home on acreage but at the end of the day we realized that space wasn’t what made a home a “dream home” but instead utility of the space and the ability for it to support our lifestyle and kids.
Having toured many multi-million dollar homes and having interviewed several architects we now view the opulance and oversized rooms as a liability in the “upkeep” column of our family’s time balance sheet.
We decided to stay in our upper-middle class home and renovate it with things that require less upkeep so we can do more living in the house and less maintaining.
- pram 8y agoYeah thats my thought as well, after having a house for 5 years. It's only 1700 sqft but its cost about $100k to replace 1) the siding with hardie board 2) the roof 3) all the bathrooms and kitchen This house was built in 1981 and basically had zero renovations. I can't imagine trying to remodel a 5000 sqft house after this! I think a lot of these giant McMansion neighborhoods will fall into disrepair after a few decades unless they're in a place where the property values and wages are constantly going up.
- chongli 8y agoGreat plan. People spend most of their time in the kitchen these days anyway. Huge homes with giant formal dining rooms and formal living rooms are a waste of money and space. I'll take a home with a comfy, well-equipped kitchen and small family dining space any day.
- yitianjian 8y agoUnless you entertain/throw parties!
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- sarchila 8y agoFolks tend to congregate in the kitchen for those too.
- Nition 8y agoTotally agree. Once you've got enough rooms to cover everyone's needs (kids don't have to share a room etc), pretty much any extra expansion is just more stuff to clean and maintain. Or if you're rich enough, more stuff to waste money on someone else cleaning and maintaining. I probably have more of an epicurean outlook than most, but surplus stuff just feels like more stuff for me to worry about. Plus it takes ages to even get around in really big houses and you're always shouting down the hallway to find where someone is.
- EADGBE 8y agoThe problem is that housing needs change. In fact: > Once you've got enough rooms to cover everyone's needs (kids don't have to share a room etc) This would have been considered opulence 40 years ago.
- vonmoltke 8y agoEven a master bedroom that could fit a king bed without crowding out other furniture as opulence at one point. My wife and I just finished an open house blitz of 30s vintage colonials in New Jersey, and the vast majority could barely fit a queen in the master.
- Nition 8y agoI agree, although what I meant there was that's about the point where making the house bigger stops providing any meaningful improvement. I know it's possible to make do with a lot less.
- jedberg 8y agoWhen someone posts a picture of a nice elaborate home fixture, you can tell which commenters own a home and which do not. The non-owners say "oh so pretty!!" and the homeowners say "that looks like a pain to clean!".
- SCAQTony 8y agoI did not appreciate modern architecture until I bought a home. I get it now. A dream home is a house you can clean with a squeegee; especially the kitchen and the bathroom.
- jedberg 8y agoThe worst invention ever is that shelf that runs around the entire house at 8 feet under a 12 foot ceiling. No one is cleaning that thing.
- lotsofpulp 8y agoThe worst invention is the ceiling higher than 9ft (or 2.7m). What a waste of energy to heat and cool that space. And the very same homeowners feel good about themselves for recycling. Although I know it’s hard to even find newer homes without the stupid 2 story foyer and high ceilings, so can’t put all the blames on homeowners who can’t afford to custom build.
- maxerickson 8y agoA tight envelope with sufficient insulation is a lot more important than the interior volume.
- lotsofpulp 8y agoOf course, but the the mass developers aren’t going to spend for the proper materials and craftsmanship for that. However, they will spend more to build high ceilings because people think it looks more opulent.
- hakfoo 8y agoI've been amazed as to how badly designed new houses can be. Square feet alone, I agree, is a near useless metric. I'd love to see the user personas that went into the development process. I don't see my needs in there. A local builder sells a two story model with ZERO bedrooms on the ground floor. If someone is elderly or disabled, or just breaks their leg and needs to be in a wheelchair for two months, the house is basically unlivable. The number of designs I've seen which devote hundreds of square feet to seperate formal and informal dining areas, and near room-sized alcoves (not isolated enough to make into an office, too big to be a hallway), while still having 10x10 bedrooms, miniscule closets, and claustrophobic bathrooms baffles me.
- vonmoltke 8y ago> A local builder sells a two story model with ZERO bedrooms on the ground floor. If someone is elderly or disabled, or just breaks their leg and needs to be in a wheelchair for two months, the house is basically unlivable. For better or worse, that has been typical of multi-story houses for over a century.
- scarface74 8y agoThis was the one thing we insisted on when my wife and I were looking for a house. We have four bedrooms upstairs, but we also have a guest suite with a full bathroom downstairs. The idea of a separate formal and informal dining room was wasteful. We turned one into an office.
- jkmcf 8y agoI only wish renovating my otherwise great 70s home to have higher ceilings was cheaper!