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You can live in a 1200 square foot home as long as you have access to outdoor spaces and a third place down the block. I live in an 1100 square foot post-war ho

You can live in a 1200 square foot home as long as you have access to outdoor spaces and a third place down the block. I live in an 1100 square foot post-war home with my fiance and it's plenty of space for what we want to do with our lives. Other homes in the neighborhood are much larger but don't have a back yard or trees on the lot. So we're basically in this beautiful thoughtfully-built 40's era home surrounded by cedar trees, while our neighbors are these huge ugly 2-story houses rammed right up to the back edge of their lots with no yard. You do have to get creative with second bedrooms by installing Murphy beds or otherwise reducing furniture size and floor space. Modern furniture is way too big to fit in the rooms of a post-war house. A stacking washer/dryer is very useful. Basically anything that substitutes vertical space for horizontal space will help immensely. Ikea has stuff that's size-appropriate but very cheap. The reason most houses are 2500 square feet nowadays is because you have to maintain a space for all the things you want to do inside your house. Whereas if you share space with your community for those things that many people do then you don't have to maintain a separate space for it.

rconti 6y ago
We live in an 1140sqft house, just 2 of us. With just 1 (small) bathroom it is less than ideal, particularly when we have guests, but it works -- just. It is basically a box of a house with 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a place to eat. There is no "extra" space aside from the rooms -- no wide hallways, no sitting areas, no extra horizontal surfaces to put junk. Of course, we have more space than we "need" -- 2 additional bedrooms. But, again, they're just large enough for what they do. 1 has a guest bed (and not any room for anything else, really) and the other is an "office" which is handy during covid-19 for sure. If we had kids, there would be room for them to sleep, but no playroom, for example. Our laundry is in the garage, as is our "workout room". That space is not counted in the official size of the house, because the garage is converted.
- Judgmentality 6y ago
  That sounds like a pretty cushy setup to me. What exactly is it you're lacking?
  - rconti 6y ago
    It is pretty "comfortable", but that's to say, "just enough". Each room is 12x12, there's no "free" space. There's no "extra" space in the house in general; for example the kitchen table is where all of the projects happen (wife was making some jewelry the other day, I've soldered and built computers and so on there). The additional things we'd want are all luxuries. * Indoor room where we can work out (treadmill, bike, elliptical are all in the garage) * Master bathroom with an actual walk in shower, space where we don't have to squeeze past each other getting ready, etc. * Closet space * Garage that can be used for parking cars and bikes, working on things, etc. (I've had a bike on a stand in the backyard for a month now, as I work on building it, and parts strewn all over a patio table) All totally unnecessary, of course. But given that we have a decently-sized lot for silicon valley (6000sqft) it would be nice to have more indoor space. Especially since I spent all my waking hours in here now :)
seanmcdirmid 6y ago
1200 SQF is fine if you have some kind of storage to rely on, don't need two home offices for two people WFHing, have only one kid, and don't need space for a musical instrument of some kind. Otherwise...it isn't workable. Maybe if we didn't have a kid? Or if I could convince my wife to give up some things? We were just in the housing market and had to pass on these smaller houses very quickly. Not only that, but bigger houses were only 10-20% greater in cost than smaller ones...it was a no brainer to go with 2000 SQF.
- neutronicus 6y ago
  Most of your objections essentially agree with parent comment's coda: > The reason most houses are 2500 square feet nowadays is because you have to maintain a space for all the things you want to do inside your house. Whereas if you share space with your community for those things that many people do then you don't have to maintain a separate space for it. If you go to an office and keep your instrument in a locker someplace with practice rooms and your kids spend a lot of time elsewhere (outside, neighbors' houses, etc) then it probably is? But yeah, for my wife and I (who only have one kid, but may want more) it was still the same thought process as you. We've been living in 1200 square feet with an 8 month old and we make it work but we're both working / studying / networking from the living room and going a little batty in the process, not to mention that our kitchen is tiny and probably not ventilated well enough given that the stove and oven are gas. So we went for 2500 rather than enter the market and incur closing costs again if we want another kid or both wind up permanently remote post-COVID.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

rconti 6y ago

We live in an 1140sqft house, just 2 of us. With just 1 (small) bathroom it is less than ideal, particularly when we have guests, but it works -- just. It is basically a box of a house with 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a place to eat. There is no "extra" space aside from the rooms -- no wide hallways, no sitting areas, no extra horizontal surfaces to put junk. Of course, we have more space than we "need" -- 2 additional bedrooms. But, again, they're just large enough for what they do. 1 has a guest bed (and not any room for anything else, really) and the other is an "office" which is handy during covid-19 for sure. If we had kids, there would be room for them to sleep, but no playroom, for example. Our laundry is in the garage, as is our "workout room". That space is not counted in the official size of the house, because the garage is converted.

Judgmentality 6y ago
That sounds like a pretty cushy setup to me. What exactly is it you're lacking?
- rconti 6y ago
  It is pretty "comfortable", but that's to say, "just enough". Each room is 12x12, there's no "free" space. There's no "extra" space in the house in general; for example the kitchen table is where all of the projects happen (wife was making some jewelry the other day, I've soldered and built computers and so on there). The additional things we'd want are all luxuries. * Indoor room where we can work out (treadmill, bike, elliptical are all in the garage) * Master bathroom with an actual walk in shower, space where we don't have to squeeze past each other getting ready, etc. * Closet space * Garage that can be used for parking cars and bikes, working on things, etc. (I've had a bike on a stand in the backyard for a month now, as I work on building it, and parts strewn all over a patio table) All totally unnecessary, of course. But given that we have a decently-sized lot for silicon valley (6000sqft) it would be nice to have more indoor space. Especially since I spent all my waking hours in here now :)

seanmcdirmid 6y ago

1200 SQF is fine if you have some kind of storage to rely on, don't need two home offices for two people WFHing, have only one kid, and don't need space for a musical instrument of some kind. Otherwise...it isn't workable. Maybe if we didn't have a kid? Or if I could convince my wife to give up some things? We were just in the housing market and had to pass on these smaller houses very quickly. Not only that, but bigger houses were only 10-20% greater in cost than smaller ones...it was a no brainer to go with 2000 SQF.

neutronicus 6y ago
Most of your objections essentially agree with parent comment's coda: > The reason most houses are 2500 square feet nowadays is because you have to maintain a space for all the things you want to do inside your house. Whereas if you share space with your community for those things that many people do then you don't have to maintain a separate space for it. If you go to an office and keep your instrument in a locker someplace with practice rooms and your kids spend a lot of time elsewhere (outside, neighbors' houses, etc) then it probably is? But yeah, for my wife and I (who only have one kid, but may want more) it was still the same thought process as you. We've been living in 1200 square feet with an 8 month old and we make it work but we're both working / studying / networking from the living room and going a little batty in the process, not to mention that our kitchen is tiny and probably not ventilated well enough given that the stove and oven are gas. So we went for 2500 rather than enter the market and incur closing costs again if we want another kid or both wind up permanently remote post-COVID.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]