Quote:
Originally Posted by 10023
How old are you?
I ask because once you get a little older, you'll appreciate having a place that's at least comfortable to hang out in. You and your wife won't always want to be right on top of each other (so to speak). I like to cook, and the tiny kitchen in my Manhattan apartment just doesn't cut it. You'll want to host friends more often, not that you won't go out as well. And with kids... well there better be somewhere for them to be and not be underfoot.
I don't actually think 2,000 square feet or so is more than I'd want with a couple of kids. But if the average is ~2,500 square feet, then there must be a lot of houses quite a bit larger than that. Remember that there are quite a lot of city lofts that are 2k+ square feet.
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I am 31 years old and when my father was my exact age he was living in this exact same house with both of his parents. Honestly four to five people could live in my house quite comfortably, the only negative thing would be only one bathroom which if you had enough money you could just built a second one in the semi-finished basement. My house was built in 1963 and was what the average family expected at the time. The main living floor is 1,053 square feet and includes three bedrooms each with closets (the master has a small walk in closet), a bathroom, a living room, a kitchen and a small dining area. Old houses were built with rather efficient space usage, much of how comfortable you feel in a space actually depends on how a space is designed and not square footage alone.
I think they build inefficient designs on purpose to get people to buy more space, that is why we have things like 900 square foot one bedrooms spaces with barely a kitchen, also it is in large part because people want huge kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms that there just isn't room for more rooms. Also people expect every room to be chambers of isolation with entertainment centers when in olden days a bedroom was for sleeping, a bathroom was for taking a shit and bathing, not a jacussi party. The idea of efficient design isn't just some elitist yuppy ideal, just look at houses built 50 years ago and it was the norm.
Also this has nothing to do with envy, if I visit someone with a 3,000 square foot highrise penthouse or gold coast townhouse I am impressed and would buy it if I could. I however not impressed when Joe Blow shows me his 3,000 square foot place in Naperville, I am actually more impressed by modest bungalows like mine in the city. The point is that I will not sacrifice location for extra space and many middle class people who want space in the suburbs are just mindless conformists following trends, not people with independent thought processes making an individualistic preference for themselves, many of these people have not emotionally matured much beyond middle and high school and still do things based on peer pressure and group think. Theoretically someone can prefer suburban lifestyle and space of their own volition and I am sure there are some but considering society pushes the super size lifestyle so much it is much easier to be individualistic and choose smaller spaces.