Single people, how big is your house?

[PandoraRocks]

Not being nosey just genuinely wondering if you are happy living in a house that convention dictates is too big for you.

This question was prompted by my DP who claims that my house is too big for me, I will lose money renovating it and I won't be able to afford to heat it. Apparently, a 2 bed bungalow would suit me better . What a cheek!

The house in question is inherited from my late parents and I've been living here for 3 years. Only heat a couple of rooms at present as it's electric heating. It has 3 bedrooms, a tiny box room, a lounge, kitchen, bathroom and garage. It is detached on a large plot of land. I may live here long term, I may sell it but surely that is up to ME. My parents weren't wealthy but worked damn hard all their lives and I know my mum wanted me to enjoy this place.
I don't have kids and don't cohabit.
This is my last chance to have a lovely house. Please don't tell me I should be unselfishly living in a flat so I can free up my house for a Millennial.
I also suspect my DP has his own motives for his ideas (backstory referred to elsewhere on Mnet).

For what it's worth, I'm self employed and need space. I also hope to entertain and have friends over once lockdown ends.
Do you think there is a societal expectation that single people should be happy with less?

It’s me, my 10 yr old DD and our small dog. We have a 3 bed, 2 reception room cottage in a Welsh village. Definitely not too big for us!

I guess I’m one of the selfish ones. I live in a 4 bed HA place. Both my adult DC moved out at various stages but both are now back home. DD left an abusive relationship, DS was working abroad and lost his job due to covid. If I had immediately downsized when they left we’d have been struggling. Yes there are people stuck in b&bs with kids, but I have my own family to think about. They will always be my priority and I doubt anyone else would think differently. It’s easy to take the moral stance on things that don’t affect you personally. I’m not on any benefits so the taxpayer isn’t paying for me. Homes are also not subsidised in the way people think, but that’s a complex thing which I won’t go in to here.

To answer the OP’s question, I find that the less bedrooms you have the smaller the living room and/or kitchen. Often it isn’t the extra bedrooms that are particularly necessary but the overall space is better/larger. Likewise with the outside space. It’s also nothing to do with your DP what house you choose to live in!

Ok, just read your other thread OP and that he wanted you to sell your house so you can buy one together. His own house sounds like a lot less value.

Glad you're not going down this route.

Live alone
2 bed, 2 bath apartment. Open plan living room and kitchen, private garden

@PPNC

Single but parent here, answer is large 4 bed with stables and pool, 4 reception rooms. But only because I moved somewhere no one wants to live and a family member had built it, I bought it for the same price as I sold my squished 3 (tiny) bed box in a major city!

A millennial would be bored shitless here.

Sod him and his judgement!

@PPNC where on earth do you live that a 30-40 year old would be 'bored shitless' with a huge amount of space and a pool .

I have flat of 178 sq. m. and a house in France.

I’m a millennial in my 30s and would love a stables and pool! So would my 19 year old Millennial nephew and teenage Gen Z nieces and their friends!

I live alone in a tiny ground floor flat, as it was all I could afford post divorce
Although I wish it was larger at times, due to lack of storage it works for me as I have Cerebral Palsy and very close to amenities
Your DP sounds envious and simply not very nice

My Dad lives on his own in a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, and I don't understand why he doesn't downsize. Two of the bedrooms are empty (no furniture or beds), the garden is completely overgrown with brambles and he's always complaining about how bad the area is. I've mentioned that he should downsize (he can afford to move) but he won't hear of it.

When I was single I bought a three-bed terrace (third bedroom in attic space). A bedroom for me, a bedroom for a craft room and a guest bedroom.

I worked hard all through school and university and took crap jobs I didn’t like in order to built up a career. If anyone thinks I should give up my nice house and live in a one bedroom flat they’ll have another think coming. If you want what I’ve got, do what I’ve done.

Two-bed semi, 1930s built, so spacious by modern standards. Total floor area is 250 square feet.

Rear garden is 65' x 25', front garden about 20'.

My house is one of very few in the road that hasn't been extended. Most people have done a full length side extension, some have also extended at the back and several have converted their lofts as well, so now have 5-bed houses on the same sized plot.

Of course, this means that the street of semis now looks like terraced housing, and you no longer get lovely views in the gaps between the houses.

I’m a millennial in my 30s and would love a stables and pool!

And when I was in my 30s I'd have loved that, too. I'm 30 years older than you, and my first house was a one-bedroom terrace with no heating or hot water (you lit an old boiler for a shower). Bought when I was 35, and interest rates were around 15%

My neighbour lives all by herself, in a rather large house. Am glad because it means it's quiet, I don't hear anything. If it was a family am sure I would hear a lot of noise from the garden

2 beds and a box room, mid terrace Victorian house. I actually had larger rooms in a flat I lived in before but I was sick of the noise and cooking smells from downstairs neighbours coming in and wanted my own front door.

I would prefer an open plan living space and a bigger kitchen in my next house, the layout here is not great at all.

@TinySongstress your comment made me laugh. Single people are indeed like gases, expanding to fill the space. I love space and I think lockdown has shown us how valuable it is. I feel truly sorry for anyone stuck in a tower block with 3 kids but the housing situation is due to a whole load of other factors beyond my control.

@Ratonastick your friend sounds like she has my idea of the perfect life!

I have no private pension and don't intend to live on merely the state pension if I can help it. I'm self employed and when I decide to retire, I'm planning on other income streams such as online selling, Airbnb etc.

The DP would have liked me to sell this place when my mum was barely cold in her grave. He would love me to sell it so he would have the equity to put towards a new place. His own is a tiny shit pit on a busy road and needing so much money spending to make it vaguely habitable. He's been on at me for years about moving to the coast, or living in Spain, or moving to The South East, he hates it here (Wales). I just ignore it all. I laughed at the suggestion of a 2 bed bungalow - I've nothing against bungalows but I suspect that's his dream not mine.

Besides, I've been catless for the last 5 years and fully intend getting another rescue moggy. He/she will obviously need their own room .

My friend lives alone in the 70s built four bed semi she inherited from her parents. 4 beds sounds like a big house but it isn’t, the bedrooms are small and the lounge/dining room are basically one room separated by folding doors. My three bed 1930s semi actually feels more spacious.

3 bedroom cottage, converted attic room used for hobby, lounge, large kitchen/diner and large garden with workshop. Just me and my dawg!

I have a two-bedroomed flat but it's a very spacious Victorian conversion.

The spare room doubled as guest bedroom and study when I was working.

If there were more spacious bungalows elderly people would be more likely to downsize. Many want fewer rooms, not necessarily tiny rooms.

Nice flats with a lift cost almost as much as the large Victorian terraced houses around here.

I've just downsized to a three bedroom house, two doubles and a single 2 bathroom, 2 reception house.
I have a lot of guests staying and my son and his wife.
I've gone for a courtyard garden this time though because my previous 200 foot garden got too big for me to comfortably manage.

You can live wherever your budget allows you to. If it's a 3 bed house then that's up to you.

The only reason he'd be justified in saying this is not f you bitched about how much cleaning you had or how much house maintenance cost.

I have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, dining room, big kitchen/morning room and a huge garden all to myself since my husband died last year. The problem seems to be that smaller houses are just too small, not just a matter of rooms but a lot are pokey and I'm afraid I like the space even if I am going to have to look out for a gardener! Do I feel guily? No, not on your life.

I bet the Queen just rattles around in that big house of hers.

Your partner wants you to sell so he can access your cash.

Keep the fab house, ditch Mr Cocklodger.

I have a small 2 bed terraced house. It was the best I could afford at the time I bought it. If I could have afforded a larger house I would have. DP lives here now and there never seems to be enough room.

I live in a 3 bed but I lived here with my ex before he moved out and I bought him out