Does the size of a house really matter?

Okay all-
We live in a house that is about 3200 sq feet. I have 4 kids- college, high school, and boy and girl in elementary. We have 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths an extra office, kitchen, formal living room, formal dining room, den, kitchen, mud room, pantry and butlers pantry, big front porch and back screen porch.
With all that I'd say we maybe use less than half.
We didn't use the two biggest rooms the formal living room and dining room each about 13x20 each. So, took one over to be a craft space but the dining room is still only used about 5 times a year.
We use the den which is about 13x13. We use the eat in kitchen most.
The high school boy lives in his room and the two youngest sleep in theirs but otherwise hate to be in them alone so play downstairs. They are about 14x14 each.

Today I looked at a smaller house about 1500 feet. It was an cottage from 1878 that has been used as an antique store and is for sale.

It has 2 little bedrooms about 10x10 each with no closets. It has a master bedroom with an attached bath area( they tore it out but all the plumbing is still there just capped) this was an addition to the house. It has two big areas for either that are open to each other except for the huge center fireplace and it has a nice size kitchen that needs a major overhaul. The owners of the house before it was a store added on a sun room with a brick floor and with all antique stain glass windows- it is to die for and adjoins the kitchen.

I think we could manage that well with hubby, myself and the two younger ones. (We can't move from out county till high school graduates in 2.5years)

Each kid would get a room of their own and it is small so fine since they don't play in it. One big room could be a den, library- office kinda room and the one that opens to the kitchen could be the family room with TV and such. The sun room could be where we eat and we are good.
I told hubby about it and he is going to look at it on Saturday - he said it sounds small and he said - I thought you should always buy the same size or bigger who goes smaller?
I told him we'd live in every inch of this house - no wasted space and we'd live more of a family not all in our own corners of the house.

What are your thoughts?
I''m going to take some pictures of it on Saturday to share with you all...

26 comments:

  1. I think many people are downsizing in this economy. We are all realizing the value of a dollar and looking to live a more frugal lifestyle. I say go for it.

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  2. I think it sounds lovely!
    We raised our 3 boys in a small 3 bedroom/1 bath home, until they were in High School, then built a much larger home. More than 4 times bigger. They are gone now & I wish often for the smaller home back... less work , less up keep... but the thing with the larger home, when they do all come home there is plenty of room... BUT really how often is that???
    I hope that your hubby likes it... looking forward to the pics.

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  3. I live in a house that is about 2500 sq ft. We are a family of 3 and live in every square inch of our house and I wish I had more room. I would like an exercise room and a craft room. So I don't know. That house sure sounds cute though.

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  4. My ex-husband and I lived in a 4000 sq. foot house for 5 years. I have 3 boys and, even tho they had the entire top floor to themselves complete with huge playroom, their own bedrooms and a bathroom...they were still constantly under foot! They wanted to be in the kitchen/family room area so all the toys got dragged downstairs. After my divorce my boys and I moved into a 2 bedroom apt. and lived there for 6 1/2 years. We loved it! I always knew where they were and what they were up to. It was very cozy:)

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  5. We moved from a bigger house to the one we are in currently. We lost a master bath and a larger family room. We gained a lot of character and a sunroom though. The brick floors sound quaint. We spend a lot more family time together in this house. I think it all depends on houw you use the space.

    Will be fun to see pictures.

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  6. Well my dear at this exact moment we just put in an offer on a house that is 1700 sq.ft and we are moving from a 3000sq. foot home...IT CAN BE DONE!! I was afraid but my house payment and bills for the month will be just what are current mortgage is...I consider this a GOOD THING!! Enjoy the rest of your week,

    smiles,
    sheila

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  7. Our family is about to find out. We built our current home of 3600 (plus movie room and office in the basement) with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 baths. We could have done without the formal dining room and formal living room (which currently has our air hockey table in it) We are now looking to sell our home and move into a 4 bedroom 2 bath home with no basement or formal rooms. We love our current home but have come to realize that living house large really doesn't give us much extra to live truly large. I guess we'll know how it works out soon. It does feel great to not have our identity tied so much to our possessions though. Best wishes as you explore the options.

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  8. I absolutely fell in love with the sunroom the first time I went in that house. Personally I would just live in there. :) I am all for smaller- I would go smaller in a heartbeat- less area to clean! :)

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  9. Wow. I cant wait to see the pictures. One thing about you, you seem to have a gift for takin a space and findin its full potential. Either with shelves, cubbies, shelves in cubbies :), you will always make it work, no matter what the size.

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  10. When we moved to Red Gate Farm we went from a 2300 sq ft house to our current 1350 sq ft... with only ONE bathroom for 4 people... two of which were still in high school at the time... we haven't regretted it for one minute.

    ~Chris

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  11. Please post pics! Sounds perfect! :)

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  12. We are a family of 6 and our home is 2,000 sq ft. Perfect size and not a bit of wasted space. Our 16 year old son put it best, "Living in a small house means we are together more as a family"- gotta love that : o )

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  13. What a great question. I have raised 4 children in a house that has 1850 sq. ft. There are times when we are running into each other and storage can be a problem because we are collectors, not hoarders, collectors ;) But next door we have had 5 families move in and out, younger than us of course, because as soon as they have one baby they need a bigger house! One thing to consider is that your kids will leave and then a smaller house might be perfect for you but then when they come with their families it could be too small. I think you could downsize but maybe not quite that much. And lastly, the layout in a house is huge! Good luck!

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  14. Hi Tammy, We too have 4 children and live in a smaller home...and honestly I LOVE it!!! There were times when the kids were younger when we felt like we were on top of one another...but as they've gotten older it's gotten easier (less toys)...and it has allowed us to spend more time as a family!! Good luck in whatever you choose to do!!

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  15. When we bought this fixer upper we are in a few years back, it was with the intent to fix it up and then resell and get a larger home for our family. Now that we are almost complete in renovations, we are looking around and realizing that we love this house, small as it may be, because we use every inch of it. We may be on top of each other at times, but isn't that part of being a family? We love it!We are a family of 5 in about 1500 square feet and we are realizing that is great!:)

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  16. I'm sure you'll be happy anywhere. After all, it's about the people who live in the house, not the house itself. Can't wait to see the pics...it sounds so charming!

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  17. I think...
    A. I wouldn't want to clean your square footage. :)
    B. We are about to downsize into about half the space we have, our current home is 2300 sq. ft. and I am excited!!! My children don't share rooms now, other than the boys, and while my daughter has her own room, she always makes a pallet in the boys' room. All that to say, you can make do with what space you have.
    C. It may make you closer as a family, being strewn to the four corners of the earth. Not that I am saying y'all aren't close, just in general...
    D. I think people think they "need" so much more space than they actually do, and while its nice to have the space for a craft room, you might be more organized since you will have so much less space. Preaching to the choir here!!
    Can't wait to see pics of the house!!
    Elise

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  18. I like your thought process and it sounds so cozy!!

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  19. It's not where you live, but how you live. My grandma used to say that a lot.

    We raised 5 kids in a 1600 sq. ft. house. It was a little cramped and we added one large family room 4 years ago. That brought it up to about 2300 sq ft. It's enough.

    I think the house sounds great! I can't wait to see the pictures.

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  20. I'v seen that house and it is great! Go for it.

    Mom

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  21. I live in a small home, always have and probably always will. Our sum total of dining space is 7 1/2 feet by 7 1/2 feet. We have three bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen (laundry appliances in the kitchen), a living room, a porch turned entry, and that is it. We do have a large deck and a garden cottage for outdoor entertaining. We live in every square inch of this home. Believe it or not we have had some really large groups here for entertaining and tons of happy memories here. At times I have wished for a bit more space and a real laundry room. We love our little cottage and raised two children here. My philosophy is that love grows best in little houses and it forces you to be creatively organized and to really think about what you use to make every available inch count.

    The home you looked at sounds like it has loads of charm! I too think you should go for it!

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  22. Coming from someone who lives in the Taj Mah-small ..... I am always wanting more space but I would trade the square footage for good old family time any day. You have such a vision and Kirk so handy, there is nothing he cant do together to make it yours. Our layout makes the 1000 sq feet all usable space. If I get bored with it I just move stuff around. Even with the kids home and their friends and other family here we feel comfortable and not crowded and the 2 living areas really come in handy, even though they are smallish when all is home it just works. Tell Kirk, I vote for the "new" house. Liz

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  23. As someone else mentioned, it all depends on the floor plan/layout. Some large houses have so much wasted space. I can't wait to downsize; too much space to clean and we now use only about half of our 2400 sq. feet.

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  24. As you know, I downsized from 3200 sq ft to 1700 over 2 yrs ago, and I love my little house! Granted, we only have 2 kids and Alex is at ASU, but I love that I can clean the whole place in a couple of hours! The third bedroom has no closet, which gave me an excuse to buy a lovely Edwardian armoire...and yes, we use every bit of the space. I'm looking for a sofabed to handle extra guests, but that doesn't happen too often. Saw the pics - can't wait for the ones of the sunroom!

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  25. I looked at the pictures of the house, it looks really cute Tammy! My new house is about 1,800 and its perfect! I never understood why some homes need to be SO big, but I know not everyone feels that way!

    Tania

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  26. We live in a pretty big house. Used to be 8 of us, now just 4. I don't know how I would downsize.....I'm so used to all of the room. There would have to be LOTS of good reasons for me to want to move into a smaller house. I *might* do it for a porch!!

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