Is it better to live in a big house?

[rosiesunflower]

We've sold our small house and ended up renting a big house. We'll big to us anyway.
I feel so much more relaxed and calm. I have space for the first time. I get all the extra cleaning and things like that but overall the space is outweighing anything else.

We're now looking to buy again and everything has changed about what we thought we wanted in our next home. I feel like I can never go back to a small house again. Has anyone gone from a smaller house to a bigger one and regretted it? I'm talking quite a large house ie 4000 sq ft plus. Our house we sold was 1000sq ft! I suppose it would be very long term purchase. We only have one primary aged dc.

very true. We lived in a small house before we bought our lovely detached large house few years ago. I love the space, I keep it minimal but the bills have doubled and some are even more and cleaning takes me a long time to finish

I grew up in a house that was 4000 sq feet. It wasn’t that big tbh I knew people who had bigger.

I really miss the space and and the high ceilings and being able to sing and argue without the neighbours hearing. And the glorious garden!

The only downsides were heating and cleaning costs. But you could potentially look for a super insulated eco home with log burners… or build your own…

I’ve never really got used to living in small places since, I always feel a bit cramped.

Iris
You do not view 4000sq ft as 'that big?
We live in two different worlds!

Not at the time, now I can only dream of a house that size!

4000 sounds perfect for me. This is based off the 3300sq ft house we are building. There are a couple of extra rooms I would love to have which would probably make it close to 4000 if it was our perfect house.

Op I'm curious about this 4000ft home, how many bedrooms and bathrooms does it have? If I had a house that big and the money to go with it, I'd have a pool in it.

4000ft is huge, a standard modern UK 4 bed detached is about 1600-1700ft.

We are currently renovating our 4 bed 2000sqft home adding a further 1500 sq ft. I'm so excited about it but in actual fact we are only adding a bigger hall, a large kitchen and 2 extra bedrooms.

We are living in my childhood home whilst this is all happening, probably about 1000sqft but laid out better than our old house (pre reno) so actually day to say life is easier.

I've just compared the Sq footage allocated to my own and family homes. They are way out. As in mine is smallest, yet the biggest house is barely 10% larger yet I know that the living room is larger than all of my downstairs and likewise a sibling's house is counted as smaller than mine and again their living area is larger than my downstairs living spaces.
I wouldn't use that as a guide.
I am also aware that a lot of people are disputing the certificates validity.

1629 sq feet is not big for 4beds. Your bedrooms must be tiny, unless you’ve got your square-footage wrong. It’s actually quite small.
My sister’s 4bed, 3bath home is 3700 sq ft and I’ve always thought it really quite spacious.
If your home is spacious, I suspect someone gave you faulty information regarding the measurements.
I’m not doubting you at all - I’m doubting the information you were given.

@IDreamOfTheMoors what country are you in? A standard modern UK 4 bed is about 1600/1700sq ft. A big 4 or 5 bed will be 2000sq ft.

Op have you calculated the square footage yourself? Measure the outside of the building?

Modern '4 beds' though are very small bedrooms. A few friend lives in one and they have a master room with built in wardrobe and en suite then a second bedroom which pretty much just fits a double bed and 2 bedside cabinets and sometimes a chest of drawers then 2 single rooms.

My 4 bed is 4 good sized doubles, the largest is 7mx5m (with 2 meters being restricted head height) and the smallest is 2.9m X 4m. All comfortably fit in double + beds, drawers, dressing table and wardrobes.

My electricity bill on our 5000+ sq ft house is currently running at £10 a day and that will obviously go up in October. I need the cleaner, I need a gardener. It really is expensive to run a large house. Obviously I could do it all myself but then I couldn't work full time and so wouldn't be able to afford the house anyway.

Our house has five bedrooms that all fit a double bed in my room has a walk in wardrobe and en-suite that is basically a family bathroom.

That's another things we're enjoying. Lots of bathrooms. When a guest comes the en-suite to the spare bedroom is just a quick clean as noones used it since.
I do have cleaners and don't work ft so I don't mind topping up the cleaning as it helps me move about rather than sit down all day. We already have a gardener as we're useless in that area. I think we are going to push to buy a bigger house then.

Looking at this thread it's been very helpful because now we know we'll have to have a reasonable amount set aside each year for any repairs that might crop up. Also want a pool now!

We had a large house before, it was great for space-5 bed, office, playroom, 2 living rooms, huge kitchen diner, sunroom, 3 bathrooms but honestly it was a pain to maintain, always something needing fixing and it never felt cosy. We downsized when youngest started uni and I much prefer our smaller house which is still a decent size and less maintenance, bills and cleaning. It also meant we had money left over to buy a rental property and retire early. So it was definitely worth having but only why we needed it. For us it would never have been out forever home but gave us options that we wouldn't otherwise have had.

No idea on square footage but we went from a two bed back to back (the second bedroom was a box room and only just fit my then toddler's bed in it) to a five bed and you do fill the space over time. I do find the cleaning a chore but I still love the space.