When does a small home stop being a small home?

[Dimitri]

I was wondering your personal opinions of what sq. feet or other method how big a small home can have before its just a regular sized home ??  :-?

Dimitri

[peg_688]

 0- 999 srq.= small home , 1000 - 2999' srq. = regular, 3000 + macmanchion.  

[Erin]

Personally, I would think the definition depends upon the needs of the occupants.  
Ie, a growing family of six might find 1000 sq' a bit cramped.  But a retired couple might find 1000 sq' more than they need...

[littlegirlgo]

The average American home is 2600 sq feet. To me thats emormous but as Erin said if you have six kids that might nake a difference.

[Dimitri]

Thanks for the replys.  

For a comfortable batchlor pad just under 200 sq feet is the best I can do. But for a family of 5 (3 kids) it seems I'm stuck at about 850 sq feet.

I've got time alot of it thankfully, so I'll keep working on shinking the home.  

Dimitri

[MountainDon]

It's all relative. I believe many people today don't know the difference between "need" and "want", not just with their housing requirements but with all aspects of their lives. My present home has about 1600 sq. ft. (one floor, no basement) For two adults. Our one and only child, now 25, has not lived here for many years. He lives nearby with 3 friends in a house about the same size.

This home seemed huge when we first moved into it 22 yrs ago. The prior home was 832 sq ft on one floor, plus a basement used mainly for utilities and a workshop. Present home has a 2 car attached garage (not included in sq footage) plus outbuilding/workshop of 500 sq ft. It still seems quite large to me. We have one room that hardly ever gets entered. It would be nice to be able to subtract it from the total. (Actually I'd like to join it to the workshop, but that's another story.)

I thought the previous home was small, and this one average. Apparently it is smaller than average these days.

The current house floor plan has little wasted space, by my measure. Many new homes I see these days have much wasted space... large entrance foyers with no discernible purpose other than to be ostentatious, for example.

I think back to the house I grew up in; Mom, Dad, 2 sisters and myself. One bathroom, three bedrooms, LR, DR, kitchen. I'm not sure of the sq footage but I don't think it was any bigger (tho' one and a half stories) than my present home. We seemed to manage fine.

[Amanda_931]

200 square feet is very likely to have next to no storage--for, say, out-of-season clothes, very little closet space to speak of, no room for a book collector's books, or tools much beyond hammer and crescent wrench.

I want more room!

But then I'm a pack rat.  But I'd think you have to be a serious not-pack-rat to live for years in 200 square feet.

[desdawg]

We live in 1100 square feet (2 people) and we are getting cramped. I don't have any accomodations for overnight guests for instance. And storage becomes an issue after a few years of acquiring valuable assets at the swap meet. Being in the country on 3.3 acres I have outbuildings and that helps. If I had to cram it all onto a city lot, well, never mind I couldn't do it, wouldn't even attempt it.

[glenn-k]

I know what you mean, desdawg. I was unable to participate in the 200sf house contest because I had no concept of how to do it. :-/

[builderboy]

As mentioned above it's all relative and depends on your needs. I'm replacing my 79 Ford camper van with a 10x20 cabin. My wife recently mentioned she "couldn't wait" to move into the "dance hall" (the van was a little tight for the Cha Cha!)

[glenn-k]

You are lucky she wasn't into break dancing.  :-?