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 get fascinated watching mansion tours on YouTube! One thing I see again and again is that it is difficult to design a large house where everything feels comfortable and like it all has a purpose.

A lot of huge houses have a “family room” which seems to be where people spend almost all their time when they’re not in the kitchen. You see home cinema rooms that sound great but in reality almost never get used (because it just feels too much of a faff to get everyone to go and sit in a special room to watch a film, so they use the tv in the family room).

You also see “formal” living rooms, which are designed to look impressive but again rarely get used as they just aren’t that comfy to be in. Sometimes there are other random seating areas where you think, why would anyone ever choose to sit there rather than the nicer spot somewhere else - it just feels like they needed to fill the space so they thought “let’s put another sofa here”!

You get a strong sense with a lot of these places that maybe 80% of life is taking place in 30 or 40% of the total square footage at most. The rest is largely for show - which I guess is fine if you are happy to pay for it, and to heat it, clean it, furnish it, maintain it…

No, I just meant that everyone assumes the big house was bought years ago, and bought for tuppence ha’penny. And aren’t all these old people alright Jack, rattling round a big house that they bought for buttons? The implication is amongst many that those people don’t deserve to live in a big house and they should be forced to downsize.

In reality, some will have lived in their house for years, some will have bought recently and paid a fortune for it. Some will have mortgages, some will have paid them off, some will have bought them for cash. And it goes without saying that within a given area, someone in a 10 bed house will be paying a lot more CT than someone in a 2 bed.

@phantomofthepopera I think you need to reread my post as you clearly didn’t understand it & have inferred things I haven’t said….

I was thinking abt the mansion tax, and how weird it is that some 2 bed flats will get caught by it. Maybe another option would be to tax large houses - say over 3000sq ft, which most people would see as pretty mansion-ish?! I saw a house advertised that is 17,000sq ft - NOBODY needs that sort of space!!

Even if I had loads of staff I’d hate it as I’d get creeped out there on my own

I think it might be rather mansion-y. That’s very very big. It’s about 4-5 times larger than the average 4 bed detached house in the uk.

It is well worth noting that while 5,600 sf is never small, it is shocking how wasteful some new builds, especially in North America, are in terms of space. Really horrendous layouts that look good but are not efficient.

I will say that I do know people who use both living spaces, but the more practical one seems to be the main family room and then somewhere else for the kids to go off to. In my area that would often be the basement. Formal living rooms do seem to get less use and are not built much today (my home is post-war when the living room / family room layout was the norm).

"one spare room for guests, a utility room, a home office"

All of this and I'd need a home office /library for myself too Dh would have the other one and I'd like space for a home gym and an art studio space perhaps outside in an outbuilding. A garage and a basement would be good also. A large kitchen diner with a walk in pantry, or separate dining room and plenty of storage space. Even that all ends up being quite a big house I think.

I think that is mansiony. Small mansion but still mansion.

I'm with the pp saying above 3-4000sq ft is mansion level.

Hope you are looking after yourself and your mental well being @FullLondonEye

We have 7 bedrooms but it’s a pain keeping everything clean - and the house is never really ‘all’ warm- there’s pockets of cold everywhere!

What’s interesting if you ever go to stately homes or see ‘massive’ houses, the dimensions of their sofa/tv/fireplace configuration always equate to the same as a normal house. Because we still want to be a human distance from the tv, warmth and our family.

So yes, there must be an optimum size and it’s not Windsor Castle. It’s probably an executive 4 bed detached with a drive and a decent size kitchen and garden. Anything bigger is pointless and just showing off.

I like to do a bit of house shopping imagining I’ve won the lottery. The really monstrous houses would require live in staff and I really couldn’t bare that! I think I’d struggle with a “daily” but I hate housework even more 🤣

I can't imagine the heating and electric bill for a large house haha

My DH estate manages including a substantially updated 11 bed main house. The upkeep is massive and despite wealth they both keep working (hedge fund type thing) to keep things improving estate wide.
Despite having four sitting rooms and a large office each they spend much of their time on a sofa in the kitchen.
As an aside, they’re completely without airs - he picks his own dog poo up and she tidies before the housekeeper arrives. Money doesn’t make you different, it just gives you more choices.

Although there are three of us we have a four bedroom house because we don't live near enough family for day visits, so they need somewhere to stay. One of the bedrooms is a hybrid bedroom/office though.

I also like to have a bedroom to decamp to when DH keeps me awake at night.

We budget about £650 pcm year round for electricity and oil. We spend more in the winter but save the same each month regardless. We have made a lot of updates to improve energy efficiency, and are careful with electricity. We also run the house quite cold (thermostat set to 14) or we'd burn a lot more. Thankfully, we have a fair amount of woodland and so we always have wood - we tend to use our woodburners and open fires to heat the rooms we're in to a decent temperature - and we're always wearing lots of layers (right now, I have a jumper, a hoodie, and a dressing gown on!).

What might surprise you more is how much home insurance is. Ours nearly doubled this year, and is now around £1100 pcm. Our broker said it was due to a market adjustment across the board for providers that service properties like ours, and as there are not that many that take on these types of homes, you just grin and bear it because there's no alternative.

Sometimes the bills can feel a little daunting, but you get used to it - and for us, it's entirely worth it for the lifestyle we gain - quiet, privacy, space, plenty of room to host our friends and family, a plan for our parents' old age, the ability to have two real offices at home where we don't bother each other, etc.

A relative of dh with a huge place in France wanted huge rooms to hang all his huge art in.

I used to have a job involving going into proper mansions, and in the centre of London (Chelsea, Belgravia, Mayfair) so these were sometimes worth £20m+ and that was a decade or so ago

Fascinating. Heated garages for car collections, prep kitchens behind the real kitchens yes, tiny windowless maid's rooms sometimes, once a hidden underground swimming pool in the middle of Chelsea, once a whole subbasement for security staff (a royal family). Endless guest suites, hand painted wallpaper etc. Incredible art and occasionally a paint by numbers type thing mixed in by someone with a hobby.

And some relatively normal period homes, just quite fancy and very well located. Very little outside space of course, mostly small roof terraces.

However, money most definitely does not buy you taste (unless you hire a designer, which lots did). Also, some were a complete mess.

Bear in mind all the owners would have had other homes too - the more expensive the house the more likely it's the 3rd residence!

On size, 5,000 sq ft is massive for an urban house. 30,000 sq ft is a large embassy or office, but the old ones did used to be houses when first built. Watch Bridgerton or similar for a sense of the scale.

Only 2 of us. We don’t need lots of bedrooms, but downstairs entertainment space as we host friends together and separately. I don’t need lots of bedrooms, but entertaining space. I would love a kitchen with space for a table that sits 8 comfortably and a snug with sofa and tv for entertaining. Then a separate lounge. Utility room with a ceiling draining rack. Also a hall with cupboards to hide shoes and jackets. An office to wfh

upstairs a large master with en-suite and dressing room and a share bedroom and family bathroom. To get the downstairs space we are only looking at 4 bedrooms and one will turn into an office.

currently in a small 3 bedroom with spare box room being a time share of office and snug. Living room leads to kitchen so one of us is relegated to the box room if girls night or lads night. With DPs horrible bar shoved into the corners of the lounge. In fact all I want a room to isolate the bar from my sight.

My dream home is 3,500sq ft. One spare bedroom. An en-suite and dressing room for the master bedroom. A family bathroom, a downstairs loo. 2 WFH offices, a gym, a kitchen diner with a walk in pantry, a laundry room, a vestibule or boot room area to store lots of coats and shoes that don’t clutter the hallway, and 2 living rooms so the kids can watch their crap stuff on TV and me and DH can watch something different in a more grown up room with a fire burning. Lots of storage. Ahhhh.

I fess up to living in a large house. My husband was keener than me to buy it and now admits that we may have been a bit too ambitious! It’s Edwardian and still laid out along those lines with three ‘family’ bedrooms on one side of the house which DH and my younger two sleep In and three ‘servants’ rooms in the attic where our 15 year old sleeps and where we have a guest room and a large playroom in what would have been the old nursery. Also coming off the backstairs on the first floor level are two entirely random rooms which are now mine and DH’s studies.

downstairs we have three reception rooms, kitchen, utility and something called a ‘sunroom’ which has no modern function I can see. Ideally I could sit in there and drink a cup of morning coffee but I reckon this house requires three times the maintaince of normal houses so I don’t have time!

@Pinkandpurple225533 yes in my dream house world I’d like the same please. Really my wish for (and I’ll never get it ) a big house is to have an entertaining space AND a little lounge so I can give my kids somewhere to be with friends. Sadly I have a small semi but I realise o am blessed to have a roof over my head in a nice area. I can still enjoy rightmove though

That isn’t a realistic floor plan for 3,500 sq ft. Hence the fact people have large houses :)

@pumpkinscakeI totally get where you’re coming from and I love to dander by the monstrously big houses near me and wonder why do they need so much space and more importantly, bloody hell how much does thon cost to heat?! There is a house being built near me that is (apparently) 5 bedrooms; a master bedroom for the parents and then a bedroom for each of their 4 kids…who are all under 7. Before we knew it was a private house we all assumed it was a small boutique hotel, that’s how big it is. It wouldn’t be my cup of tea but fair play to them.
A house along the same road was gutted and basically rebuilt, essentially doubling its size. A year after completion it was on the market and stayed there for quite a while. An acquaintance was the estate agent and apparently most potential buyers that it was too big.
So, yes, I do think some houses are monstrous in size!