I don't think so. I'm currently in a 2800 square foot home full of stupid shit like a formal living and dining room that get hardly used. But it's trendy, "ev

I don't think so. I'm currently in a 2800 square foot home full of stupid shit like a formal living and dining room that get hardly used. But it's trendy, "everybody wants it" and so that's all you get unless you are willing to be your own general contractor and oversee building a completely custom home. The only people benefiting from two story houses or formal living room/dining rooms are the builders and realtors that get more for money because of the padded extra square footage. I'm getting ready to relocate - and I will more than likely be targeting an older, more reasonably sized home this time. Ideally I'd love to find something with good bones that just needs updating - drywall may get cheap again someday - if it does rip it off, run all the networking and other cables I want, upgrade the insulation then re-drywall. Get a better than "new" house the way the vast majority of them are half-assed constructed to minimum code :p