Does anyone live in a small or average size home?

[scootlandyard]

With their family?

Just wondered as I was looking through past threads regarding home size as we are moving soon and slightly downsizing. I was shocked at the general consensus around house size! Eg posters saying anything less 2000sq ft would be a ‘struggle’ for a family of 4 (I’ve viewed a show home of this size and it was bloody massive), posters saying they are in a detached four-bed with large kitchen/diner,separate lounge, study, playroom but will ‘have to move and upsize’ because it will be ‘too cramped’ when their second child arrives.

I also recall a thread not too along where OP attached a floor-plan of her house and pondered whether it was would be large enough should she have a third child. It was a four bedroom inc en-suite, large living room and decent size kitchen-diner. There were posters insisting it was far too small even for her current family size and she would need to move by the time her kids were teens.

I feel like 90% of mnetters must live in huge houses.

Anyone else in a standard 3/4 bed semi with children/teens and somehow managing to survive? 😅

I have a typical/average 3 bed 1930's semi, for me and 2 DC with the standard 2 double bedrooms and 1 single.

The house is roughly 1,000 square feet/100 square metres, and I'd like to add a loft conversion plus kitchen diner extension which will likely take it to about 1,400/1,500sqf and 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. That would be the perfect size for me and my 2 DC, and gives me the option of supporting elderly parents in future years by converting front living room into a bedroom.

DH and I, two cats and DS used to live in a 500 sq foot 2 bed flat with no garden. We now live in a 4 bed house just under 2000 sq ft with garden, garage, playroom, office each for me and DH. I'm obviously really grateful but I do sometimes find myself quite overwhelmed by the space - cleaning my little flat was significantly easier.

How would you even know the sq footage of a house? I have no idea what mine is.

It usually says it on the Rightmove listing so if you or a neighbour have bought or sold recently you can look it up, or you can work out a rough estimate (add up the length by the width, and multiply by the number of floors).

Do people say that anything less than 2000sq ft would be a struggle for a family of 4? Is that a thing?

surely not?

my house is 1250 4 bed detached 2 adults 2 kids and we’re fine

I’m in a three & half bed terraced house. Original house was two double bedrooms, TINY box room (room for bed and shallow wardrobe at a squeeze), lounge with room for sofa, armchair small TV, dining room, tiny kitchen, small but acceptable bathroom. Between children we knocked kitchen and dining room into one. After second DC we extended into loft so now have three double bedrooms, one en suite and a small office for DH. DD has left home now so we do have a spare double bedroom.

Just googled my house size - it's just over 1100 sqft. Four bedrooms and houses 3 adults and two teenagers. It's plenty big enough. I would love to be able to fit a table in the kitchen, but no issues otherwise. Both teens have desks that they don't use!

Location over size. Just googled size. 732 sq ft. 2 bed flat / maisonette. Feels spacious as we have a sort of square hallway and all the rooms are off that. We have a big, private garden and parking for 2 cars out front. Set very far back from the road.

DDs have always shared a room. One DD went to uni last year, 2nd going in 2 weeks so it'll feel super spacious

2 adults and a teen in a 3 bedroom semi-detached house here. 1 of the bedrooms is an office, and the 2 adults WFH.

Only 1 bathroom too 😭.

It's actually fine.

Oh, I meant to say it's 75m2 I think, if that sounds about right. It really is bijou.

Just googled the house I grew up in: 3,376 sq ft!!!!! 'Twas a very, very run down place but ginormous.

I downsized before I had my second child because I wanted a better location! I prefer it as rather than shoving junk in the garage and keeping unnecessary packaging etc I actually sort and am more declutterred. It works for us. It's still a large house though just a townhouse so now a sprawling detached.

Me and DD(11). Old 1930s semi, 2 large bedrooms. One bathroom upstairs. Rooms are large and walls are solid. Removed downstairs loo as never used it and converted it to a utility. Big garden.

we easily have the smallest space of all her friends, but I went for smaller house and epic holidays and days out. Works perfectly for us.

oh and I want an extension, but only because I want a full size arcade pinball machine and I need room for it. In reality I won't get one! (The extension or the pinball machine).

Ours is pretty average, 3 bed detached, garage, ensuite and downstairs toilet. No separate dining room so it's a lounge diner. Bedrooms are an ok size, the smallest is a decent size for one person, the master bedroom could do with being a touch bigger just so we could fit a king sized bed in comfortably.

There have been a discussion about a single storey extension to give us more living space downstairs. It can feel a bit cramped so just having more of a designated eating area would be nice.

I would love a bigger house, a spare room would be great as would a kitchen diner not to mention a dressing room but we make do with what we can afford. If we could afford somewhere bigger without adjusting our current lifestyle then I would move tomorrow but reality is not like that.

We have friends who have bigger houses, same size and smaller and we all just muddle along with what we have.

I have two bedrooms and two teenagers. I sleep on a single bed in the living room, behind a screen. I have lived most of my 60 years in London flats, so I'm unlikely to ever live in a mansion now. Would like to, though!

The vast majority if those sorts of comments are made by utter fantasists. Take no notice.

I think most people live on average sized houses don't they ?

We have a big house and are deemed very unusual around the area we live in .

We love it and I think because I grew up in a big house too it doesn't feel that big but it's 4000 sq feet which I release is pretty big .

Comparisons are toxic though so I wouldn't spend too much time thinking about it tbh

Most of us if we're lucky enough not to be homeless. The average homes are 2 and 3 bed one bath.

We have a 3 bed bungalow, it’s about 1080sq ft. Only 1 living room, no dining room. We plan on having 2 kids and staying here for years. I think it seems like the ideal size, I can’t imagine having anything bigger.

Me.

I live in a wee, inner city 2 bedroom terrace with DS1(18) and DS2(7).

This thread and especially @SingingSands has given me hope!

Me, DP and the cat have an 80 sq metre, 2 bed terrace. 1 reception room, dining kitchen, 1 small bathroom. No hallway (but a garden and shed). DD1 arrives in October and everyone tells me I’ll want a bigger house.

But we love our house: we chose location over size, and love the affordability of the mortgage and bills. DP can walk to work, we have everything we need in walking distance, plenty of disposable income for trips and fun, and cleaning takes an hour. We don’t even use what will be DD’s room anyway - it was a guest room. We just don’t have any worries.

Most of my friends and family have much bigger houses, but we wouldn’t want to live in the locations they’ve chosen. There are benefits to a bigger house and being able to host etc, but I don’t want to pay for it, or clean it!

Average, 3 of us. One bedroom is a study, shove it all storage

Depends how many pets etc you have. We have a 5 bed end terrace which is 2400 sq feet. It’s me, my husband and 14 pets. You grow to fill your space I think. I lived as a family of 6 in a 2 bed so know we have a fair amount of space now but I wouldn’t want to go back to how it was growing up

I live in a 3 bed new build semi detached (about 1000sqft, 3rd bed is a box) with a DP, toddler, 10month old and two dogs. Its fine, could do with a bit more storage but we don’t have loads of stuff and are just quite smart with storage.

1069 sq ft three bed terrace here. We are moving though as our neighbours are awful and we’ve managed two years with them and fed up. We are looking at slightly upsizing to maybe 1300-1500 sq ft which is plenty big enough for us, one baby and two dogs. And would happily have another baby in a house this size. In my head 1000 sq ft is the minimum sized house I’d want to raise a family in.