To think that some people live in too big houses?

[URSick]

Lots of people live in (in my opinion) already big houses yet they want to move into even bigger ones.
I see so many families where all the children have their own bedrooms, bathrooms, big bedroom for the parents, guest room, study, living room, and yet they never seem to be satisfied and want to move into a bigger house. They all want playroom for the children. What's the point, when they could easily play in their bedrooms or the living room? There are houses where everybody has their own level, plus bathrooms on the landings, more toilets than family members, and yet they want Buckingham palace. It's good to have enough space and not be in each other's pockets but am I the only one who thinks these people are greedy and unreasonable? You don't need to live in a mansion to be a happy family.
Not to mention those houses where entire rooms are never used, lots of space is taken up by massive stairs and there are parts of the house that are just walkways.
What's your take on it?

FWIW OP, we have just sold our 18 room 4,000 sq ft house to be in a 1700 sq ft bungalow.

Got fed up with working for 'the house' so have simplified life & got rid of the problem

There is always people with more and people with less. That's simply life
doff your cap to the wealthy and just accept that we live in a very unequal society where the few are able to accumulate more and more wealth living parasitically from the work done by the many

And what about the people with less than uou peaceout? You are wealthy in their eyes. Do you wish them to doff their cap to you, or do not care about them, just about who has more than you? 🤔

I grew up in an overcrowded house- not nice. This house is bigger than we need but all the rooms are used. Any spare money is best spent on property imo.

I hate the idea of a big house - all that cleaning and more space to mess up. I'd rather have a small cottage and dc share a bedroom. Living the dream doesn't mean fitting in with everyone else's dream.

I don't think YABU. There are a lot of older couples rattling around 4 bed houses. And no, they don't all need to space for when the grandchildren come to visit. A lot of the time they just live there and nobody has ever suggested they move (unless and until they get infirm).

There needs to be more incentives for people to downsize to free up larger accommodation for larger houses.

I will pass this on to all the retired folks on my road who all live in (and own) huge houses, built at least 100 years ago. They have worked all their lives to afford nice houses to bring up their families in but now they are retired they should all just sod off somewhere else with less rooms for the kids to visit with the grandkids then? Or should they be ashamed that their hard earned money has bought them a nice house and garden to relax in in their retirement?

Maybe you should divert your angst towards the various governments who have sold off housing stock and never replaced it with social housing but allowed developers to build on the only land round villages and towns with shoddy expensive new builds which few can afford?

I know people in the building trade who deliver to these developements and they wouldnt touch some of the houses with a barge pole the way they are thrown up.

The thing about older couples in houses that are too big for them is that there are often reasons other than the size of the house for them to stay. For instance my Mum lives by herself in a bungalow that Mum and Dad built 48 years ago. Every so often she thinks about downsizing, when Dad was still alive they both thought about it.

But Mum knows all the neighbours, and they look out for her. When they were snowed in one neighbour got up at 6am three days a week to take Dad to dialysis. When Dad came home to die another neighbour helped to care for him.

When they built the house it was literally in a field and Mum designed and planted the garden, it's fabulous and gets featured in gardening magazines every so often. Mum loves her garden, spends hours working in it and really can't bear to leave it.

I kind of agree with your OP... Our house is just the right size for us. We use every room every day. I didn't want to be cleaning and maintaining rooms and stuff that we barely used, plus we have a nice big garden and love days out and holidays, meaning we are outside a lot. However, if we moved to something bigger we would soon expand to fill it and feel we "needed" all that space - that's human nature. Same with money - you usually spend what you earn.

I am not sure whether our house will still feel big enough with 5 or 6 adults living here - kids are all undee 6 atm - perhaps we'll move at that point. Maybe it would have made more sense to have stretched to the bigger house now, but we prioritised location so DH can walk to work. It's such a personal thing I reckon. I do like that we have a few rungs above us on thehousing ladder as I'm not a proper grown up yet

As an aside, I do read some of the square footage of houses on MN agog. 4000 sq ft?! Ours is about 1100

My granny is 92 and still lives in the house she moved into 50 years ago. It's a 4 bed house in Surrey that my grandfather worked long hours to afford. Why shouldn't she live there until she dies? She can't go out much anymore as she's so unsteady on her feet but she's used to the space and is happy there. She potters around. Why should she be made to feel like she has to move?

And what about the people with less than uou peaceout?
my point was that we should not just shrug and accept that gross inequality is inevitable

Or should they be ashamed that their hard earned money has bought them a nice house and garden to relax in in their retirement?

IMO they should consider themselves extremely fortunate that the house has massively increased in value and this increase in value was something that they played no part in whatsoever.
Their personal wealth has massively increased and they didnt even have to lift a finger
Then I think the best plan may be to liquidise the asset and buy a smaller place which will be much easier to manage as they get older, they can then spend some of the capital released from the sale of the golden goose house.

If they dont the house may well be sold to pay for their nursing home fees should they find themselves unable to function independently in that great big house

Why not let those who can afford the bigger houses buy them as it gets the market moving and those who can afford the smaller homes have more available.

As an aside, I do read some of the square footage of houses on MN agog. 4000 sq ft?! Ours is about 1100 envy

Mine is about 14000 sq feet and was custom built for us but if you knew why I doubt you'd be envious.

Quite right too m0therofdragons .

the whole thing is fucked, the housing stock doesnt meet the needs of the population and the average person can barely afford to meet the cost of keeping a roof over their head.
We have a growing elderly population who need housing that works for them and some incentive for people to downsize at an age when they can cope with it rather than waiting until they are 95

Clearly this is a complex problem with multiple causes.
I wonder if the OP has enough material yet?

I like space. I don't care about clothes or cars or handbags. I do however like space that's my choice. I have other friends with less space and more disposable income that's their choice. Neither one is morally superior to the other.

i agree op, round here people are desperate for normal sized houses yet million pound 5 bedroom mansions are built. Okay they sell but soon the south east is going to be full of massive houses and no-one to clean their bogs.

Firstwoman I am with you on that. My DF keeps saying our house is too big for us, but we like space and we like being able to entertain and put people up in comfort.

Our house is over 4,000 sq feet, with loads of bedrooms, including several spare, lots of en suites, a big garden, off street parking and garages...we love it.

I wouldn't want to move to a bigger house if i could afford to because I would feel dwarfed by it and not homely/cosy. But I do know people who want to keep on getting bigger places - fair play to them.

Gotta say though when the teens get into playstation etc its pretty handy to have another reception room for them to play their games other than the family sitting room so you can still watch TV but not in their bedrooms which I think isnt healthy. Plus it is nice to have a spare room for rellies or friends to stay if you can afford it.

I don't see the point in big houses either and could never imagine having one, but in my opinion at least they're freeing up smaller houses for families who can't afford the big ones. Each to their own.

If I could afford it, I wouldn't mind something like this house and I would not be remotely sorry.

If they're paying for it themselves then it's no-one else's concern OP.

Having had the big house, we came to the conclusion that you could only use/be in one room at a time.

Different strokes for different folks & all that. Been there, done that & got fed up with management of it all.

I've no idea how many sq ft my house is. How do I find out?

I have lived in a tiny one bed house with my son and as the years have passed, hard work has prevailed and I now live in a 9000sq ft property just myself and my husband and deeply resent your comment.
I have worked hard for everything I have, no shame!
I don't make judgements on others for what they do and do not have, stop being an inverted snob!
It's not what you have that makes a person, it's who they are.