How much space do you live in (and how much do you need)?

[lessonsintightropes]

I'm getting a bit addicted to the Houzz newsletters. We're also moving from an 80 sq m 2 bed place with lots of dead space (corridors, stairwells) but also a loft, to a 90 sq m 3 bed place which is a lot better laid out.

American commentators seem to think that this is an impossibly small amount of space to live in, but especially as there's just me and DH (hopefully not for long!) it seems like an adequate amount of space, especially for London.

I'd be really interested to know what your min/max needs for space are and why, because I'm a nosy cah

We're in London (though a cheapish area) and moved from a 68 sq m flat to a 130 sq m house. It is fab to have so much space, and pretty unusual in London! We were going to buy a 90sq m house which would have been fine really.

I just looked it up and converted the measurements - we (me, dh, dc of 10,12,14) are in around about 160 sq m and it seems spacious enough to us!

100 sq m. It is a great layout with separate living room, dining room, eat in kitchen and a conservatory downstairs, and two double and one single bedroom upstairs. Love it. I love the living space, but we dont have enough storage space for sports gear, boots, winter jackets, etc.

Would love to build a 12 sq m "porch" with storage space, washing machine and tumble drier, as well as a small wetroom with toilet and shower, hidden behind mirror sliding doors!

We have about 4500 sq ft. Can't work out meters. Big old wreck we are going up

Netguru what are you planning to do with all the room?

And Quint those ideas sound ace. We've probably room to add on a garden room and extend upstairs to a much bigger 3rd bedroom if we need it, although we'd lose our patio and just use the big (well maintained and lovely) communal garden, although this will probably be a 10 year house.

They are dreams, though. I have just recently learnt that the council for some strange reason own the land just outside our front door.

We are in 2 bed 72 sq.m house (80 sq.m if you count conservatory). There are 4 of us. The space is enough and the layout is not bad (downstairs: hall, living room, kitchen diner, conservatory; upstairs: large double bedroom, small double bedroom, bathroom), but arranging storage and buying furniture is a nightmare because of all the chimneys, alcoves, bay windows and slopy floors.

In my dream world I would remove all chimneys and extend backwards for utility/downstairs room and upwards for a 3rd bedroom.

In reality I am off to find a carpenter for making fitted wardrobes into alcoves.

Does everyone know the area of their house. I certainly don't

Me neither Miranda

It's quite spacious though - 5 bedrooms and all big square rooms - more than enough room for 5 of us.

I grew up one of a family of 6 in a small 3 bed semi, so I know we could manage with a lot less room!

We have a 72sqm 3 bed flat for 2 adults and 2 children.

The bedrooms are all a good size which means that the communal living space is a bit smaller than I'd like (we have a dining table in the living room and it's not that big a room). If the living room or kitchen was about 3 or 4 sqm bigger then it would be great. We've got good storage.

We moved from a 1 bed, 56sqm flat with a much bigger kitchen and slightly bigger living room, but obviously had far too little bedroom space then.

When we were looking for flats we viewed a 2 bed that was 90sqm. Our offer was rejected, and in retrospect I think the extra bedroom we have is a huge plus, but the size overall of that flat would have been perfect.

I am in a terraced so I just measured the front (width of the house) and the depth (or the lenght of end wall of terraces) and made calculations from there.

280 (something) square meters. There will soon be five of us (a dog and two cats). It's alot to keep on top of, but it's defintely adequate.

I'm curious that you say it's an adequate amount of space for London. I appreciate (as an ex-Londoner) that space is at more of a premium, but our requirements were based on need, rather than location. We didn't need less becasue we lived in London, and we don't really need more now that we don't though we enjoy having it

230sq.m. excluding restricted height bits (whole of upstairs is a loft conversion) and garage, according to EA particulars so probably closer to 300 in the house. Four of us, plus dog and cat. It is large, but I work from home a lot so wanted a proper office space, not just the corner of a kitchen table. It also has quite an unusual layout which might not suit a lot of families but is perfect for us and meant that it was undervalued compared to similar size conventionally arranged houses.

I only know the square meterage because we've just moved and so it was on all the surveys!

Layout can make a huge difference. I viewed a 2 bed that seemed much bigger than our old place but was actually only 5sqm bigger. As we'd have paid £40k extra for that 5sqm I was .

78 sq m plus a terrace of another 8. 2 bedroom and open plan kitchen dining living. Ideally we would like 90-120 sqm but can't see it happening. We are in 4

Re: US commentators, I first moved into my old place as a student, and my flatmate at the time had a friend from the American Midwest come to stay for a few days.

Friend took loads of pictures of our flat to show to folks back home as he thought it was so amazing that 2 people could live in such a tiny space. Thing was, originally there'd been 4 of us living there quite happily (and it was back to 4 when we finally moved out 20 years later... ).

I guess it's all about what you're used to. Unless you live in the middle of Manhattan or somewhere like that, I think land is plentiful and cheap in the US, unlike our small, crowded island.

93 square metres, 3 bed house, 2 of us now but was 3 when DS was at home.

Could do with more space but it does keep DH's clutter down. We do have a large garden though and several outbuildings/sheds so a lot of DH's stuff is out there (out of sight out of mind )

The square meterage is on the house survey from when we bought it.

130 sq metres. 3 bed house with lots of downstairs rooms. Plenty big enough for us three (we don't do clutter).

We are in a 4 bed mid-terraced Victorian house that is about 150 sqm. It is about average size for an extended 4 bed in our neighborhood. The rooms are all a decent size. If we ever move, I think it will be due to a lack of storage. We have an open plan eat-in kitchen / family room as well a dining room and lounge. We did a total refurb on it and converted one of the bedrooms into a walk in closet / ensuite but compensated by adding two loft bedrooms. I think our main issue is going to be storage. There is really no place to store bikes, sports equipment, instruments etc as kids get older and have this stuff I think. If we ever leave this place, as much as I love living in a Victorian house, Ill probably get a 1930s house as they are wider with much bigger gardens, off-street parking and garages in our area for a similar price as a pokey mid-terrace.

I think you need to be careful by just stating a figure - AFAIK there is no strict rule on how the floor area is calculated - its usually the distance between the external walls (as if there were no internal walls) so some estate agents will include an integrated garage, if you have a large hallway or lots of corridors you might have a high figure but its not space you'd actually class as living accommodation etc.

Our house is 113sqm and we have 3 children so a family of 5. Its OK, I think you just get used to the space that you have (and also consider what outside space you have). We are generally outdoors if at all possible so it works for us. We do have planning permission for quite a big extension and that will be brilliant.

I've obviously worked it out incorrectly as I've calculated ours at 210 and we live in a very small house!

My house is 1600 square feet (not sure how you do square meters) and it's perfect for DH, 2 teens and me. For me it's more about layout and flow that actual size. We don't have any funny little rooms that are hardly used or rooms of other rooms that drive me potty. The ceilings are high, I only moved last summer and was surprised how high ceilings do give a feeling of space. We also have a double garage and the staircase is wide so people can go up and down at the same time. The garden isn't that big (maybe 50 feet by 35 feet) but the patio is and very usuable as we have very wide kitchen/diner doors that open onto it.

\link{http://www.metric-conversions.org/area/square-feet-to-square-meters.htm\sq ft to sq m converter}

1600 = 148.64