How big is your ideal house for 4?

[HouseCart]

In square feet, for family of 4. Both parents WFH. What would be your minimum and ideal? Im thinking 1500 & 2500? I know layout and garage, drive, garden adds to requirements.

We're 4 in 2100, a godsend during lockdown. 5 bedrooms (smallest is a home office as both WFH.) Recently widowed FIL comes to stay often so spare room gets used. Also have a separate snug for the tv in addition to main living room plus senate large open plan kitchen/diner.

In an ideal world I'd love a separate large utility/boot room with shower room - we're a sporty family and all the damn equipment is a pain!

In fantasy world a Lego room too

We have about 1550 in London for a family of 4, which includes 4 double bedrooms. Kids are still young so will be interesting to see how it feels as they get older, but at the moment it feels great.

I never quite understand the need for really big rooms, especially bedrooms. I see some enormous ones when I’m idly browsing expensive houses online, but sometimes furniture just looks a bit lost. Somehow walking several paces to get anywhere is supposed to feel luxurious but it just seems wasted (and more space to heat!). Bigger would only be useful to us if it meant a guest loo or a utility room, rather than more space in the rooms we already have.

I often find I like the look of luxurious little mews houses you find tucked away in the city, with really cleverly thought out interiors - they always seem cosy and inviting.

Ours is approx 2200sqft, and we rent out 700 sqft as holiday accommodation half the year. So we mainly live in 1500 sqft.

It’s plenty for 3 of us, but I wouldn’t want to go smaller. With the layout this gives us 2 bedrooms, small office, two downstairs living rooms and small kitchen/diner.
The holiday space we use when family visit.

Our cellar will be converted soon from damp spider pit with heating stuff, to actual semi usual rooms for proper storage, utility area and workshop which will really help, especially in winter. This should give use about 300 extra

I've honestly never even looked at the sq feet of a house we were viewing. I actually just had to look it up for the one we are buying! It's 3076 sq feet, which is a big house.

It's much more about layout and usable spaces. Big wide interior hallways are important to me, as was storage space (we have a storage room and a utility room). It's 5 bedrooms (3 for us, one as an office as I largely wfh and dh is self-employed so does admin work from home, and a guest room). We could obviously live in something much smaller though and we're very lucky to be able to have a house that size. But room for an office and a guest room are ideal if you have the money and space.

I always look at sq ft when buying a house. We are a family of five. Our current house is about 1600sq ft. We have 4 bed rooms, a small bathroom, a small shower, small utility, an office, a playroom & Large kitchen/diner/living room ( 40sqm). It feels spacious enough.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

This is the floor plan.

I'm guessing that's around 1200 SF

@3WildOnes

I always look at sq ft when buying a house. We are a family of five. Our current house is about 1600sq ft. We have 4 bed rooms, a small bathroom, a small shower, small utility, an office, a playroom & Large kitchen/diner/living room ( 40sqm). It feels spacious enough.

That's actually very nicely laid out within 1600 SF! Similar to a 2500 detatched

@Nesbo

We have about 1550 in London for a family of 4, which includes 4 double bedrooms. Kids are still young so will be interesting to see how it feels as they get older, but at the moment it feels great.

I never quite understand the need for really big rooms, especially bedrooms. I see some enormous ones when I’m idly browsing expensive houses online, but sometimes furniture just looks a bit lost. Somehow walking several paces to get anywhere is supposed to feel luxurious but it just seems wasted (and more space to heat!). Bigger would only be useful to us if it meant a guest loo or a utility room, rather than more space in the rooms we already have.

I often find I like the look of luxurious little mews houses you find tucked away in the city, with really cleverly thought out interiors - they always seem cosy and inviting.

I agree though it may be a style preference

Sweeping generalisation but men seem to like huge empty rooms (bigger better that sort of thing) and women the cosy functional well designed ones.

@PissedOffNeighbour22

Our new house is 2400 square feet and it's not big enough! There's only me, my. DP and our toddler but there's another baby coming soon. It's all about the layout and useable space. We have large rooms and that doesn't suit our lifestyle at all. We need smaller rooms so we can put all our furniture somewhere other than the middle of the room! The layout of the bedrooms will not work for us once both kids are old enough to want their own space.

Congrats! Could you put partitions (e.g. shelves no need for a stud wall) to define spaces within larger rooms?

@DelilahDingleberry

Just looked up the square feet for my house and it’s about 1200, and we’re a family of six. No wonder we feel cramped!

How do you look it up?

Need and want are very different things. The vast majority of family homes are not much more than 1000sqft and people cope fine. If you can afford to buy bigger then great. Much will depend on location for what you will get and if you need to compromise whether it is space or location that comes first. I'm looking at the moment in an expensive area and could afford a much bigger house if I moved away slightly, but I want the kids to be able to walk to school.

@delilahdingleberry wow 6 people! Do you all fight about the shower? Have tea alone? Only 4 here but I sometimes hide in the utility area, sitting by washing machine, to have ice cream alone

We have 1100sq ft for 2 adults, 2 cats and 2 kids,

It's fine now while they're only 5 and 1 but I do think as they get bigger we will need more. Already intending on converting the garage and extending the dining area out.

@HouseCart no it's not suitable for partitioning off as would then make the rooms too small. It's an old Georgian house with a largish extension. The extension has been badly designed which became apparent when we moved in. Probably part of the reason they sold up and moved on (plus the bodge jobs they did).

@whatsthecomingoverthehill

Need and want are very different things. The vast majority of family homes are not much more than 1000sqft and people cope fine. If you can afford to buy bigger then great. Much will depend on location for what you will get and if you need to compromise whether it is space or location that comes first. I'm looking at the moment in an expensive area and could afford a much bigger house if I moved away slightly, but I want the kids to be able to walk to school.

I get what you mean, that's where the minimum and ideal comes in, so you'd go for 1000 min and 3000+ ideal if that makes sense.

In that range there will be other compromises such as location, price, local housing stock

It does feel (I'm not going to enter the numbers on a spreadsheet to calculate mean and median) the typical minimum for 4 is around 1500 and ideal between 2000-3000, past the young children age.

We have 3250sq ft for four in London but although we use our house, it is total pain to clean and is consequently rather filthy. There are never dirty cups and glasses around or dirty laundry, it's just bit of grass, cat fur, toys, hair and dust. Tbf I think 2500 would be ideal.

@TheWashingMachine woweee!

I get what you mean about maintenance though it's still a dream! Is it inner or outer London

I think mine is about 900 square foot. Two adults and three teens, though two of the older teens are now away at university /working. DH and I now both work from home. It’s a two-up, two-down Victorian terrace with one bathroom. It has two bedrooms and two reception rooms. We don’t have a garage, a utility room or off-street parking. It’s been tight but doable.

2000 sqft is a pretty big house for anywhere in the UK. It I could afford it I'd love it, but well beyond most people's means.

No we don’t - we have 4 bedrooms, 2 showers and a bath,

To me, 2000sqft is a big detached house. I can’t see how that’s average for a family of 4. If you can afford that, you’re doing well. Look at the rows and rows of 2 up 2 down terraces. I live in a middle class kind of area and often feel like we need to upside but we could live somewhere smaller if we needed to. Surely the average for family of 4 is a 3 bed house? Do lots of people have a spare room?

@GreenLunchBox I looked at the sales listing for my next door neighbour.

I would say it's more down to layout than it is the square footage. The layout has to fit your lifestyle.

We currently have 2,000 sq. ft. but moved from a place that was also 2,000 sq. ft. but very badly laid out for how we live. My must haves were:

• open kitchen & lounge with garden access from the kitchen. Previous house was a townhome with a large garden, but the kitchen was on the first floor -- I couldn't just sit and watch the DC play outside.
• separate area for the DC to play or watch TV now that they're older. Previous house had larger bedrooms but no separate space for recreation.

There are some things I dislike about this house but we've not got a lifetime left on the mortgage and by that point, we'll be ready to retire anyway!

I just checked a house I dream of buying (a David Wilson Homes Henley) - it’s 2000sqft. It has a big lounge, a dining room, and then a big kitchen with dining area and sofa area, wc and utility, four double bedrooms (2 en-suite) and a single bedroom and a bathroom.

How does a family of four need that much space? What do you put in it?

The house I'm buying is approximately 1,200sq ft, ideally I'd want 2,000-2,200sq ff to add in an extra double bedroom (it's 3 bedrooms now), plus an extra bathroom, utility room, study and kitchen/diner. My plan for 2 years time is to create the larger space with an extension. There's just 3 of us, me and 2 DC under 6, but I'd like their bedrooms to be more evenly sized, then the smaller bedroom left over can be used for guests.