What's the right size house?

[hoops902]

Seems like we have lots of "house" threads here, buying, renovating, etc. Also lots of discussion about how big is necessary compared to the past.

So what's the "right size" house? Not necessarily bare minimum, but what's "right" balancing need for space, amount of cleaning required, planning for the future, etc.

Let's use the following assumptions (some included because they apply to me, some not, if you change the assumptions for your number please let us know): 2 adults, 2 small kids, 1 medium dog, 1 adult who works from home.  Let's also assume they have a need for some type of guest space several times per month (how you find that space is up to you, shove the kids onto the floor, whatever you think the "right" answer is).

I've been giving this some thought lately as we're starting to look for houses.  So I'll go first:

1800 SF ranch (which coincidentally is what I have at the moment), 4 bedrooms total plus an office space (office space meaning some space somewhere that a desk can be set, not necessarily a separate room for an office).  Basement finished, maybe 1200 feet or so.  So 3000 sq ft total finish.

[Cookies Galore]

We have a 4/1, 1480 sq ft living space on a 2200 st ft lot. Two adults, two cats. I think it's a good balance of not too much to clean and not too small to want to kill. Small enough backyard that we only need a reel mower, but we can grill and entertain friends.
We have our bedroom, guest room, second tv room (the cats like that room), and extra storage because we don't know what else to do with it room/carpeted attic.
Our basement is unfinished.

We looked at 1200 sq ft homes that would have been just fine as well. So I'll say 1100-1500 is good for me.

I work from home one day a week and I mainly plop myself on the couch. Sometimes I sit at the kitchen island or dining room table. On really nice days I work on the front porch. On rare days hubs and I have worked from home together then I'm couch and he's dining room.

[giramomma]

We're a family of 5, right now, 6 within the next year if all goes well. I will have kids aged 0-13.

I also work at home from my day job minimally one day a week and I run a separate business out of my house. My dayjob I do on the couch. When I teach, it's in the smallest bedroom, which is currently our office.

We have 1800 sq feet. 4 bed, 2.something bathrooms. Unfinished basement.

The family room has a futon with a very good mattress, the big tv, gaming system, and a bathroom and kitchen within 3 feet. Though we don't have a need for guest space, that family room would double as our guest space.

The house is perfect for us. We're in the thick of kid activities. Tuesdays now mean being at 4-5 different places in a span of two hours.

We don't have the money to hire a cleaner. And we don't have a ton of time to clean, nor money to update a large space.

It's also "small" enough for us to manage until we can't do stairs anymore..So, maybe through our 70s?

[trippypea]

My house is 1650 sq ft for two adults/two teens. We have a couple rooms that are really just pass throughs, like the dining room, which we never use, and the loft, which is the kids tv/play room. They no longer "play" and they don't watch much tv, so they just pass through on their way to bed. I think enough room is where you aren't cleaning rooms you don't go into, lol...

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

We have 2700 sq ft, 4 BR 2.5 BA house.  In reality, it is too large for us as we do 95% of our living in the upstairs (which I guess is about 1500 sq ft).  Optimally, we could get rid of about half of the downstairs, keeping the guest bedroom/bath and exercise room and we'd be good, keeping about 2000 sq ft.

[hoops902]

May 11, 2017 12:01:52 GMT -5 giramomma said:

We're a family of 5, right now, 6 within the next year if all goes well. I will have kids aged 0-13.

I also work at home from my day job minimally one day a week and I run a separate business out of my house. My dayjob I do on the couch. When I teach, it's in the smallest bedroom, which is currently our office.

We have 1800 sq feet. 4 bed, 2.something bathrooms. Unfinished basement.

The family room has a futon with a very good mattress, the big tv, gaming system, and a bathroom and kitchen within 3 feet. Though we don't have a need for guest space, that family room would double as our guest space.

The house is perfect for us. We're in the thick of kid activities. Tuesdays now mean being at 4-5 different places in a span of two hours.

We don't have the money to hire a cleaner. And we don't have a ton of time to clean, nor money to update a large space.

It's also "small" enough for us to manage until we can't do stairs anymore..So, maybe through our 70s?

So I'm making some assumptions on the 5, hopefully 6 (assuming 2 adults, and 4 kids).  I'm also assuming when you say unfinished basement that means not space being used in anything you mentioned (specifically that the family room is not an unfinished basement room).  How will you arrange 4 kids into those remaining 3 bedrooms?  Will you keep the small one for the office (meaning 4 kids into 2 bedrooms)?  Will you move the space you do your side job in?  Just curious how you're arranging things.  1 story?  2 stories?

[hoops902]

May 11, 2017 12:11:19 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

2 adults,  2-3 cats, and 1/2 a dog. 

1500 sqft ranch 3/2,  with a currently unfinished finished basement.   Perfect. 1 bedroom used as a bedroom,  the other 2 as a den and craft/office room respectively.  Formal living room used daily in the winter,  screened porch used as the living room in the summer. 

We have plans to redo the basement.   It's not used at all right now due to the state it's in.  (we pulled the carpet and the ceiling tile and need to redo the walls) It's not been a priority which leads me to believe that we don't need it.  


I'd say what you have now seems like it's a good fit.   1 bedroom for each kid + the master = 3 bedrooms then the 4th can be an office/guest space as needed,  with a backup plan for the office space when a guest is in residence. 

I wasn't super clear, we have 1800 sq ft now...I think 4 bedrooms is right...but we actually have 3 right now.  The piece of "we have now" was just the square footage aspect.  The rest is what I think is "right", but not necessarily what I've got currently.

[billisonboard]

May 11, 2017 11:42:31 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

...
Let's use the following assumptions (some included because they apply to me, some not, if you change the assumptions for your number please let us know): 2 adults, 2 small kids, 1 medium dog, 1 adult who works from home.  Let's also assume they have a need for some type of guest space several times per month (how you find that space is up to you, shove the kids onto the floor, whatever you think the "right" answer is). ..

How well do the residents like each other?

[alabamagal]

In mid 80s, before kids, we bought a 3br/2ba ranch house, 1700 sf, no basement.  Had 3 kids and when they were 6-10 years we added on a new master suite on other side of house so went up to 4 br/3 ba 2300 sf.  This was a great house for when we had 3 teens.  Once they started college, the house was too big - it was like we had a half of the house that was not used except when they were home on breaks.  Then I got a new job and we moved.

Now we are back to 3br/2ba 1900 sf with 2 adults.  But youngest was home from college for 2 summers so he used the "guest room."  DD moved back in temporarily a few months ago and will be with us for 4 more months until her DH finishes basic and advanced training in the Army.  And then we still have another guest/office bedroom.

And we now have 3 medium size dogs but they are mostly outside.  One belongs to DD so we will soon be down to 2.

I know a lot of people think having a dedicated guest room is a must have, but when you have kids at home this can really drive you up to a larger house.  We managed most of our lives without one.  We put a queen size bed in DD room and used that for guests a few times.  It also helped that my parents visited frequently in their motor home, so they had a guest bedroom on wheels.

[Bonny]

May 11, 2017 12:05:09 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

We have 2700 sq ft, 4 BR 2.5 BA house.  In reality, it is too large for us as we do 95% of our living in the upstairs (which I guess is about 1500 sq ft).  Optimally, we could get rid of about half of the downstairs, keeping the guest bedroom/bath and exercise room and we'd be good, keeping about 2000 sq ft.

We're pretty close to your situation only our "4th bedroom" is actually about 500 sq.ft. of what other parts of the country call a "walk-out basement". We're working with an architect to turn that area into more of a media room for DH's boomy movies that I won't have to listen to when I'm reading upstairs. But at the end of the remodel I still want to call it a 4th bedroom and we're expanding the existing 1/2 bath to include a shower and a slightly bigger laundry room. A future buyer is most likely going to be a family and I don't want the area so specialized that it will cost thousands to "undo" our improvements.

We definitely could be more efficient. As I'm selling my mom's condo to some neighbors I was reflecting that 1800 sq.ft. on a single level is very nice space, especially given the unit's layout. But it's really big for just one person.

[alabamagal]

One other thing that is driving up size of houses is that a lot of people "must have" one kid per bedroom.  I grew up in a suburb of 3br 1200 sf houses.  Anyone who had same sex siblings had to share a room.  There were a lot of families with 3+ kids, so there was a lot of sharing of bedrooms.

One of my kids once told me that they didn't know any other kids who shared rooms.  I was shocked.  Of course I had a 4br house, so no sharing of bedrooms.  Most of their friends had 1 or 2 kid per family and some lived in very large houses (it was a private school  ).  Then a family with 10 kids moved to their school, so that was the only ones we knew with shared bedrooms.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

May 11, 2017 12:23:34 GMT -5 Bonny said:

May 11, 2017 12:05:09 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

We have 2700 sq ft, 4 BR 2.5 BA house.  In reality, it is too large for us as we do 95% of our living in the upstairs (which I guess is about 1500 sq ft).  Optimally, we could get rid of about half of the downstairs, keeping the guest bedroom/bath and exercise room and we'd be good, keeping about 2000 sq ft.

We're pretty close to your situation only our "4th bedroom" is actually about 500 sq.ft. of what other parts of the country call a "walk-out basement". We're working with an architect to turn that area into more of a media room for DH's boomy movies that I won't have to listen to when I'm reading upstairs. But at the end of the remodel I still want to call it a 4th bedroom and we're expanding the existing 1/2 bath to include a shower and a slightly bigger laundry room. A future buyer is most likely going to be a family and I don't want the area so specialized that it will cost thousands to "undo" our improvements.

We definitely could be more efficient. As I'm selling my mom's condo to some neighbors I was reflecting that 1800 sq.ft. on a single level is very nice space, especially given the unit's layout. But it's really big for just one person.

Our exercise room is what used to be the previous owner's office, which has a deck and outside stairs leading to the parking pad on the side of the house (he was a contractor.  The one advantage of this room is that it has a concrete wall and the room tends to be cooler (so we keep the wine racks down there too).

The house is built into a hillside, and we have an additional little den and second guest bedroom down there too.  If we really wanted to, what we could do is make our current exercise room into a kitchen/DR (the piping from the bathroom should be easily accessible for this) combo and turn the downstairs into a 2 BR/1BA apartment.  In this city, that would rent out at about $1500-2000/mo.

[hoops902]

May 11, 2017 12:25:36 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

One other thing that is driving up size of houses is that a lot of people "must have" one kid per bedroom.  I grew up in a suburb of 3br 1200 sf houses.  Anyone who had same sex siblings had to share a room.  There were a lot of families with 3+ kids, so there was a lot of sharing of bedrooms.

One of my kids once told me that they didn't know any other kids who shared rooms.  I was shocked.  Of course I had a 4br house, so no sharing of bedrooms.  Most of their friends had 1 or 2 kid per family and some lived in very large houses (it was a private school  ).  Then a family with 10 kids moved to their school, so that was the only ones we knew with shared bedrooms.

Seems like "home office" seems to be having the same impact. I don't think I could work 3-4 days per week at the kitchen table though. Nobody had a home office when I was growing up...nobody worked from home then. The home office was a desk against a wall that kids did homework on and parents piled mail on. Now I have a laptop, 2 more monitors, my personal laptop, printer, etc.

[alabamagal]

May 11, 2017 12:31:42 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

May 11, 2017 12:25:36 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

One other thing that is driving up size of houses is that a lot of people "must have" one kid per bedroom.  I grew up in a suburb of 3br 1200 sf houses.  Anyone who had same sex siblings had to share a room.  There were a lot of families with 3+ kids, so there was a lot of sharing of bedrooms.

One of my kids once told me that they didn't know any other kids who shared rooms.  I was shocked.  Of course I had a 4br house, so no sharing of bedrooms.  Most of their friends had 1 or 2 kid per family and some lived in very large houses (it was a private school  ).  Then a family with 10 kids moved to their school, so that was the only ones we knew with shared bedrooms.

Seems like "home office" seems to be having the same impact. I don't think I could work 3-4 days per week at the kitchen table though. Nobody had a home office when I was growing up...nobody worked from home then. The home office was a desk against a wall that kids did homework on and parents piled mail on. Now I have a laptop, 2 more monitors, my personal laptop, printer, etc.

I wonder how many people actually work from home?  On every HGTV show, everyone always wants a home office.

[NastyWoman]

2/2 condo with tiny office. Total 1300sft. Perfect for me alone

ETA: grew up in a home of ~1500sft  3BRMs→ 9 people. Us 5 girls had the MBR, my parents the second largest and my brothers a very tiny one that just hels a bunkbed and had a little nook next to the chimney for a desk.

Now when kids are home DS2 with his family get the MBR (they have a kid), I take the guest room and DS1 has an air mattress in the office. If DS1 marries and ever has kids I will move to the office for the holidays. I might put a sleeper sofa in there at that time though. So 2BRMs plus office cover all situations

[Bonny]

May 11, 2017 12:30:17 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

May 11, 2017 12:23:34 GMT -5 Bonny said:

We're pretty close to your situation only our "4th bedroom" is actually about 500 sq.ft. of what other parts of the country call a "walk-out basement". We're working with an architect to turn that area into more of a media room for DH's boomy movies that I won't have to listen to when I'm reading upstairs. But at the end of the remodel I still want to call it a 4th bedroom and we're expanding the existing 1/2 bath to include a shower and a slightly bigger laundry room. A future buyer is most likely going to be a family and I don't want the area so specialized that it will cost thousands to "undo" our improvements.

We definitely could be more efficient. As I'm selling my mom's condo to some neighbors I was reflecting that 1800 sq.ft. on a single level is very nice space, especially given the unit's layout. But it's really big for just one person.

Our exercise room is what used to be the previous owner's office, which has a deck and outside stairs leading to the parking pad on the side of the house (he was a contractor.  The one advantage of this room is that it has a concrete wall and the room tends to be cooler (so we keep the wine racks down there too).

The house is built into a hillside, and we have an additional little den and second guest bedroom down there too.  If we really wanted to, what we could do is make our current exercise room into a kitchen/DR (the piping from the bathroom should be easily accessible for this) combo and turn the downstairs into a 2 BR/1BA apartment.  In this city, that would rent out at about $1500-2000/mo.

And that was another thought was the "in-law" unit. Laundry room would have to be shared but the one bedroom with a sitting room with a fireplace could rent for that same $1500-$2000. That's a nice stream of income if it was just one of us. Our next door neighbor does it.

[emma1420]

I have 2050 sq ft (if you count the finished basement, it's about 1450 sq ft without it) 3 bedroom/2.5 bath house for just me and my dog.  Although it's a split level, so I think a better layout would mean I'd want less space.

It's probably a little on the large size. I don't need two living spaces, although I have to admit it's nice to both when I have people over and they bring their kids.  I have a dedicated home office and a dedicated guest room.  

However, if I had a partner and/or kids, I'd combine the guest room/home office unless the guest room was constantly full.  

[emma1420]

May 11, 2017 12:34:01 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

May 11, 2017 12:31:42 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

Seems like "home office" seems to be having the same impact. I don't think I could work 3-4 days per week at the kitchen table though. Nobody had a home office when I was growing up...nobody worked from home then. The home office was a desk against a wall that kids did homework on and parents piled mail on. Now I have a laptop, 2 more monitors, my personal laptop, printer, etc.

I wonder how many people actually work from home?  On every HGTV show, everyone always wants a home office.

I know that several colleague organizations that allow their employees to work from home more than one day a week, require a dedicated space to be used when working.  It doesn't necessarily need to be a room used exclusively for a home office, but a dining room table also wouldn't be acceptable.

[Peace77]

It should have at least 2 bathrooms and some outdoor space such as patio, deck, balcony, etc.

[Deleted]

Well, I think layout is more important than square footage. 

[Blonde Granny]

1762 sf. 1 person, no pets. 2 Bd. 2 Ba, small designated office space, sunroom/sewing room, 2 car garage, postage size front yard back & side yard all rock. great room, kitchen and dining area all one room. No carpet, house is all 18" off-set tile floor.

on edit: House was built on slab, no basement.

[Ryan]

I'd say 2800 SF ranch, 4 bed/3 bath is probably ideal...at least for us.  We have 3 kids and right now we have a 2300 SF ranch, 3 bed/3 bath.  I could think of a lot more "nice to haves", like an office, a playroom, a guest bedroom, a bigger entryway, etc, but that would easily push up the size of the house to where it's way too big once the kids get out.  

2800 SF plus basement is big enough to give everyone space while all the kids are young, but also you could easily repurpose a lot of space down the line as they move out.  A bedroom could become the office, another one the guest room, etc.  

[daisy]

Oooh - I'll play!

Right now, 3 1/2/2 1880's farmhouse on 15 acres, cellar for basement and no attic. 2 adults, no kids at home but family does stay over so we will always have to have that extra bedroom or two.  My office/work space is in a converted 2 car garage with insulation/heat/AC/tile floor etc and it's NOT big enough.  The biz is growing by leaps and bounds daily and I can't manage with that amount of space so with our next house I will have to have a full basement or pole barn sized building to work in.

DH uses the 1/2 bedroom as an office (it's an odd little room across the stairway from the master) probably should be remodeled as a bathroom but no funds to do that at this time. He would like more space too.

We are looking to retire out of the crazy cold winters of WI - TN is top of our list.  DH would like to build a 60' x 100' pole barn with storage for his fire truck and collection of crap on one end and the house on the other, so that's the tentative plan.  It will be at least 2k square foot of house with 3/2 and a big kitchen.  I grew up in a 4k sq ft house (2 adults, 3 kids) and that was a good size, but now that it's just my mom...it's like this massive anchor around her neck.  Needs some fixing so she has to take care of that before selling - I have no interest in being in that position at her age.  Our next house will be the forever home and they can carry us out feet first. 

[kittensaver]

I agree that layout and function are waaaaaaaay more important than actual square footage. That said, we have a +/- 1,989 sq ft 'urban cottage' style SFH with a private back yard and detached garage in the beach cities of La La Land - 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 human adults and 4 adult cats (plus assorted rescue kitten litters a few times a year). Bedroom #2 is permanently set up for guests (which we have regularly); bedroom #3 is my office/hobby room/kitten nursery (and a trundle bed for *very* occasional use). Bedroom #4 is DH's office.

This works really well for us, but I wouldn't want to have anything much bigger. We pretty much "live" in the master bedroom, kitchen/dining area, den/TV room and the back patio. We have a formal living room in the front of the house but the vast majority of the time we just pass through it on the way to the private areas of the house. The only thing we don't have that I'd like is a "real" laundry room - our machines sit behind bi-fold doors in a hallway. But bigger just means more to maintain, more to clean, more to decorate, more taxes, more to heat and cool, etc etc etc. I want to live comfortably in my house, but I don't want to be a slave to it.

Edited to add: when we got this house, we had kiddos with us. It felt less spacious then than it does now, but it was certainly enough room for everyone.

[dannylion]

I live by myself in a 4-bedroom, 3.5-bath house, a little over 2500 sf, not counting unfinished basement.   It's the smallest house in the neighborhood.  Sure, I probably don't "need" that much space, but smaller homes in this area are in less desirable neighborhoods or townhomes with the attendant irritations of noisy neighbors and parking issues, or (shudder) condos.  I deserve to live in a nice neighborhood just as much as anyone else and I can afford it, so this is where I live. I'm very happy here.

I had a peripheral relation who used to berate me for being selfish.  She firmly believed that my choice to live in this house "deprived a family of a home."  She also believed that my having a good career job "deprived a man of the ability to support his family."  She was an idiot.  I just stopped interacting with her. 

I like living in this neighborhood.  There are people here my age whose kids have grown up and moved away, a couple of other single people like me, families with teenagers, families with young children, and families with brand new babies.  I have been very fortunate in my immediate neighbors; they're all nice (and not crazy), they do not have feral children, and their dogs all like me.  Moving to something more "suitable" for me would mean leaving my pleasant environment and nice neighbors and furry friends for a bunch of strangers who could very well all turn out to be cranky old people who hate dogs.  So yeah, the house is bigger than I "need," but I like my house and my neighbors, so here I stay. 

[Bonny]

May 11, 2017 14:35:43 GMT -5 dannylion said:

I had a peripheral relation who used to berate me for being selfish.  She firmly believed that my choice to live in this house "deprived a family of a home."  She also believed that my having a good career job "deprived a man of the ability to support his family."  She was an idiot.  I just stopped interacting with her. 

Lol, tell me that she's now a bitter, divorced woman living in a crappy apartment.

I just love when karma bites people in the butt!

[dannylion]

May 11, 2017 14:48:36 GMT -5 Bonny said:

May 11, 2017 14:35:43 GMT -5 dannylion said:

I had a peripheral relation who used to berate me for being selfish.  She firmly believed that my choice to live in this house "deprived a family of a home."  She also believed that my having a good career job "deprived a man of the ability to support his family."  She was an idiot.  I just stopped interacting with her. 

Lol, tell me that she's now a bitter, divorced woman living in a crappy apartment.

I just love when karma bites people in the butt!

She's dead, actually, but she was always bitter and angry and most of her family avoided her. I wasn't her only target.

[Deleted]

May 11, 2017 12:25:36 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

One other thing that is driving up size of houses is that a lot of people "must have" one kid per bedroom.  I grew up in a suburb of 3br 1200 sf houses.  Anyone who had same sex siblings had to share a room.  There were a lot of families with 3+ kids, so there was a lot of sharing of bedrooms.

Yep- that was my family.  Five kids, 3 bedrooms, one bathroom.  I was the oldest and when I was 12 we finally moved to a 4-BR house but since there were 3 boys it was my brother who got a room to himself.

DH and I had a McMansion when we married in 2003- not sure of the square footage but it had 5 bedrooms (2 used as offices), 3 full baths (although one had a shower and no tub), 2 half-baths, on 3 levels.  It was way too much to maintain. Thank heaven we moved 2 years ago.  It's now still more space than one person needs- 1,800 sf footprint on 2 levels, but probably 2,500 excluding the downstairs back porch and the unfinished part of the basement.  It's a reasonable size for me to keep clean, though, and the lower level is perfect for DS and his family when they visit.  One wonderful feature I just noticed is that, since it's built into the side of a hill, I can leave windows open in the back of the house (including the porch overlooking the lake and my BR) without worrying about burglars- they're so high up they'd need a gigantic ladder.  We rarely had the windows open when DH was alive- he couldn't tolerate temperatures outside of a pretty narrow range.

My definition of the right size is one where I can keep it clean and maintain the lawn and gardens without hired help.
 

[giramomma]

May 11, 2017 12:14:06 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

So I'm making some assumptions on the 5, hopefully 6 (assuming 2 adults, and 4 kids).  I'm also assuming when you say unfinished basement that means not space being used in anything you mentioned (specifically that the family room is not an unfinished basement room).  How will you arrange 4 kids into those remaining 3 bedrooms?  Will you keep the small one for the office (meaning 4 kids into 2 bedrooms)?  Will you move the space you do your side job in?  Just curious how you're arranging things.  1 story?  2 stories?

Yes, 2 adults, 4 kids.  Two stories. Typical 70's house.

Unfinished basement meaning concrete floors, washer and dryer, storage/shop area suitable for DD1 to have a place to learn how to ride her bike in the winter.

I have no clue about how we are going to arrange the kids or where I'll do my side job. The baby will probably stay in our room the first year or so. We won't know the gender until Late August/early September. We've got to get through confirming viability, first.

We don't have to worry about this for another 18 months or so.

We also are going as pared down as we can. My second child literally had a car seat, a pack and play to sleep in (in the living room)  and a couple of drawers to call her own because we didn't have enough room in our first place for two kids and run my side gig. Our first place was 850 sq feet two bedroom.

This one probably won't get much more. Mostly because I don't want to waste the resources. We have to get a new car seat, new crib, etc, as that stuff was too od/worn out/given/thrown away.

The other thing is that in 18 months, DS will be halfway done with freshman year. So, we may do something temporary, and then wait to do a bigger rearragement when he leaves for college. Unless he stays at home and goes to school. What space we give DS, also may depend on how active he is in high school.

I dunno. I think going forward, we're just going to have to be flexible and not worry so much about these sorts of things. Paint is cheap. We have enough furniture that we can mix/match make due.

I'm sure if we were "home" people, I'd feel differently. I still have walls that are bare. We don't entertain adults all that much. I look at a bigger house as more money to maintain, heat, cool, upgrade and fix. And you have to buy more to fill it up (most people don't have empty rooms) that you are eventually going to have to get rid of, anyway.

(I actually didn't even buy my 3rd child any toys for her birthday this year. Because I don't want to buy stuff that will be played with for 6 months to a year and then sold at a garage sale or donated.)

We're also going to be considered part of sandwich generation sooner than later as well. Which is another reason for us to keep our house small. Plus grad school for me. (Just started this week.)

We can't manage everything, and for us, a house is a place we can cut back.

[pooks]

I think 3000 sq. ft. is about perfect.  This is counting all sq. ft., including a basement.  A 4 bedroom house (master, 2  kids bedrooms, and guest room), 3.5 baths, plus an office, a play/media room (with some type of extra sleeping), a flex room (craft, workout room, ect..), and a great room set up for the kitchen/dining/family room.  

Our house is 2800 sq. ft.  From the list above, it is missing 1 full bathroom and a flex room.  Since we only have 1 child at home, we use a bedroom as a flex room and may add a bathroom.  The lack of an extra bathroom becomes a problem when all the kids come home at once with wives, girlfriends, and babies.  On a day to day basis it is fine though.