Why do people want monstrously big houses?

[pumpkinscake]

Well, some people. I'm watching the beast in me on Netflix, and wondering why anyone would want such large houses? I don't see the point. No matter how much money I had. Now, I don't want a studio apartment either, but surely, one spare room for guests, a utility room, a home office. After that what's the point? I see large houses on the market, most people have small families, just seems such a pointless waste of space.

I have five bedrooms, three living areas, separate dining area, separate ulilities and three bathrooms. I'd love to downsize but some of these kids just won't leave home ...

My house has two bedrooms, two offices (well mine is a craft room 😁, which also has a sofa bed) and two full guest rooms. Two living rooms, four bathrooms, open plan kitchen/dining/living room (noise travel is awful).
Tidy and spotless it ain’t….

Ah okay, them being ensuites makes more sense. Now that my children are mostly adults I'd be all for that, and they can clean their own. I wouldn't have wanted it when they were young children though, and wouldn't have used the ensuites to avoid having to clean them.

Oh I should day despite my dream house in UK being small.....I then have secret envy of just about every house I see on Selling Sunset.
Why are our houses so bland....weather I suppose has a lot to do with it.

I think this about some Grand design projects where it's so oversized they're left struggling with the finances and must also spend more on furnishings when a standard sofa looks lost in the space.

Watching period dramas i'd always dream of living in those stately homes but since I've known someone with one the reality doesn't look much fun or comfortable and I'd prefer one of the workers cottages instead, I like it cosy and I'd not want too many spare rooms & bathrooms to keep on top of.

Isn’t OP talking about houses that only Elton John could afford? Not just “normal” large houses?

Yes, the houses in the Netflix programme @pumpkinscake is referring to are like 5,000 sq ft with one occupant or 60,000 ft with a family. I’m assuming people replying on this thread don’t have similar.

.For me a house is too big if you can’t hear people breaking in & moving about in another part of it!

i watch some of these property shows. I can’t believe it when you see a couple or a single person looking at huge houses and then saying they aren’t big enough. Madness! All that space!

My entire land area is 9600 sq ft. So 5000 sq ft wouldn't be that huge for a one level house.

We lived in a big Victorian house because we had 5 DCs that couldn’t really share bedrooms as they got older (not really fair to make a 13 year old share with a five year old). So we bought an 8 bed house, converted one to a bathroom (it only had one bathroom previously) and had one as an office. Every bedroom was used and we didn’t have a spare room.

It was in a crappy area as it was all we could afford for a house that size. We renovated it internally and it was beautiful, but we didn’t touch outside until we wanted to sell it when the DCs started moving out, because we were scared that if we made it look ‘attractive’ we’d be a target for burglars. We certainly weren’t showing off.

There are many reasons people live in big houses.
People just value different things.

Property is also a good investment.

I think people tell themselves that but rarely actually use the rooms for that purpose.

I think it’s unethical to have many more bedrooms than you need.

We have a five bed, four bathroom house. It was great when our children were young, loads of sleepovers, lots of guests and my parents regularly staying overnight. Now the children are adults and my parents are long gone I regularly question the need to stay here and find myself looking at Rightmove and considering downsizing. I do all the calculations and work out that our costs to move would be over 50k without things like our furniture not fitting.

My Facebook feed is full of tiny houses and house boats and they all look lovely… I have no desire to rattle around in a large house. I downsized a few years ago which cost a fortune but weirdly I now feel I have more space as I have a big garden and 3 outside terraces.

The houses that the OP is referring to are huge Victorian / Queen Anne style mansions in the US. They are beautiful - and the ones in the tv show are enormous. But houses in the US are often much bigger than the equivalent here.

i grew up in a big house - a big old farmhouse. It was cold, inconveniently laid out, but it was fascinating to have whole rooms that we hardly ever went into from one year to the next. I’ve lived in a mixture over my life: currently we are 4 in an 80sqm apartment which is a bit of a squeeze. I’ve lived in one bed apartments, architect-designed lakeside house, a country cottage, a standard ‘neighbours’ type house in Oz. Importantly, I’ve been happy living in all of them: it’s not about external things.

i find it harder these days to look beyond the sheer excess of resources required to build, furnish, maintain, clean big houses. It’s not sustainable but as long as ‘can you afford it?’ is the only criteria, people are unlikely to actively choose small homes. My sister and her partner (no kids) just bought a 4/5 bed house which they are gutting and turning into their ideal living space, with a study each, extra bathrooms, huge double kitchen (they’ve got the main kitchen at one end, and a separate bar / baking kitchen at the other 😂), library / reading room, separate laundry / ironing room. Completely OTT (by her own admission) but they can afford it so 🤷‍♀️.

Because it’s a signifier of wealth and some wealthy people like to display their wealth as they feel doing so validates them. Like driving a brand new Range Rover, Porsche or Bentley. Isn’t that obvious?

I would love a study an art/craft room at least 3 spare en suite bedrooms (total of 7/8 ensuites), large utility room, large boot room/dog room, snug, library, granny annexe with 2 bedrooms, shower room, bathroom and decent size living and kitchen/diner.

I would have my parents and possibly in laws too, so maybe 2 of the granny annexes.

I’d definitely like a bigger house than I’ve got (small ish 4 bedroom) as we have adult dc with partners who often visit all at the same time.

I’m not sure what you mean by monstrously big though. I quite like the idea of a large entertaining space but with hidden sliding doors to close off a cosy room in winter. I’d also want a regular cleaner (I’d assume people who can afford such houses also have cleaners)

Having space around you to live is a nice feeling. Everything has a place, nothing feels like it has to be squished in with anything else.

Life just easier when your home is bigger. Sometimes I go back to the house I grew up in and it felt fine at the time, now it feels difficult. It’s difficult because it’s hard to move around in without being in someone’s way, space is a premium, sleeping rooms are a compromise.

Its not just about bedrooms, although having plenty of space for guests is lovely.

It’s nice to have dedicated places in your home, to exercise, to wash clothes. It allows you to set your world up to succeed when the space you are in enables you to only focus on that job, or jobs around it.

When your exercise bike is squished down the side of your sofa or whatever, it doesn’t make that job appealing.

My friend has a massive house, 12 bedrooms and a flat. It’s just her and her DH, her DC don’t visit. Her entire life is spent organising and maintaining it and the massive garden. I’ve known her 12 years and in that time she’s only ever had one big event where most of the rooms were used for one night. I simply don’t understand the thinking, it seems lonely, wasteful and utterly pointless. I’ve lost a lot of respect for her to be honest.

I do know what you mean, DH and I have often said if we won big on the lottery we wouldn’t want a huge mansion, you know the ones you see on tv that look like hotels. I’d want the kind of large home you see when escape to the country has a particularly nice budget of around £1 million, you know the kind that’s still a 5 bed detached but just very well proportioned! And land around it. And then probably some holiday homes abroad, I’m less morally obliged to second homes when I’m a millionaire

I don’t even play the lottery!

I mean it would be pretty large. I live in a terraced house and have about 700 sq ft. It is a small house, but nextdoor fit 3 people in it.

If I had 7x the amount of space for one person, that would definitely be pretty enormous!

I think that depends how many people and rooms there are. I wanted all my kids to have their own room, so that means minimum of 6 bedrooms in the house. If that's on one level, it suddenly becomes not so big.

God knows. 4 bedrooms would be my max tbh, I like cosy. Plus I don’t want to be cleaning and heating all that space! 😂

How big is monstrously big? Our house is 5 bed on paper. We are a family of 4 and have a bedroom each. The kids/pets have their own sitting room and we have a small utility. DH and I have an office each. Sometimes I’d like more space even now for extra visitors and hobbies. But the maintenance and house work (no spare cash for cleaners and gardeners here) is constant.

I think because it’s America everything is big , but yes I did wonder why a single woman would want a house that size , even with the wife and son living there it would have been vast .