Large house

[lnofeisone]

Here we are clocking in with 1400 sq ft for a family of soon to be 4 + dog. Smallish backyard, smallish front yard. Things are a bit tight. We went with a balance of location/affordability/reduction in maintenance. So far it's worked well. We do have 700 sq ft in the basement that are being remade into an apartment. We can "grow into" the apartment at some point but for right now the plan is to rent it out. We might also just go ahead and get another house. The rent for upstairs + downstairs can get us 2x our mortgage payment. 

[Eng12345]

I bought this past summer finally with just my wife and I. Ended up buying a house I think I can stay in forever if the careers allow for it. I have no desire to move or sell and a new job would have to be very lucrative to do so. 

 

That said - I bought much bigger than I needed or have ever had. It's 2700 sq ft with another ~1500 sq ft of unfinished basement. The home is only 3 years old and has everything I could ever need or want - sits on a culdesac in a decent but not exquisite subdivision, 400 Amp service, backs up to the woods with a wonderful deck, has a two car garage that fits all my tools and work stuff as well as her car. 

 

I bought off a friend who was retiring from work with no realtor - we split the savings. Sure it's a lot more house than we need - 4 bedrooms for two of us. We have 2 guest beds, a bedroom overlooking the trees is our office. We don't even use the front dining room or sitting room. 

 

But you know what? We love it. We don't need to "upgrade" ever if kids come. We entertain friends and family more than we ever have before - we love having people over, because we surely hate going out unless it's to a beach or a mountain. I installed speakers in the ceilings in the living room and kitchen and we love playing some music, turning the gas fire place on and reading in the living room looking the trees. 

 

The kitchen is phenomenal - I never realized how much of a difference it makes. A great island and some music while hanging out on the deck makes for the centerpiece of the house. 

 

Do I hate the $3500 mortgage? Yes. Is it worth it? Hell yes. Is the American dream still alive and well in the midwest? That's a resounding yes. 

 

Will I go more exquisite? Probably not.

 

 

Edited January 16 by Eng12345

[rkbabang]

My houses have been: 

1) 1100 sqft on 2 acres bought when I was 24

2) 2600 sqft on 1.5 acres

3) 4000 sqft on 3.5 acres (Some woods but almost all grass) with a 5000 sqft barn and 3 other outbuildings, built in 1768 plus an addition and barn in the 1850s and needed a lot of work, only owned it 4 years.

4) 3100 sqft on 1.8 acres (mostly woods/small yard) (my current house)

5) 1300 sqft (current 2nd home/lakehouse) on 3 acres (mostly woods with small yard) with a 1600sqft detached garage.

 

I thought my first 2 houses were too small, but my 3rd house was bigger than we needed and around 3 acres of grass to cut it was too much work.   I think ~3000 sqft is the sweet spot.  1300 sqft isn't bad for a vacation home, because you are only there for a week or 2 at a time and you don't need everything you own there.  You don't need as much closet space and there are a ton of things you can do without for a week (The small kitchen doesn't have an espresso machine or a KitchenAid mixer, etc...).

 

[ICUMD]

Everyone has their own cup of tea.

 

Was recently reconnecting with an old colleague telling him how I escaped Toronto for more space in the country with 2700 sq ft, lots of garage space and waterfront.

 

He then tells me after 10 min of my bragging how he lives in a 15,000 sq ft home in North Toronto with an indoor swimming pool.

[rkbabang]

4 minutes ago, ICUMD said:

Everyone has their own cup of tea.

 

Was recently reconnecting with an old colleague telling him how I escaped Toronto for more space in the country with 2700 sq ft, lots of garage space and waterfront.

 

He then tells me after 10 min of my bragging how he lives in a 15,000 sq ft home in North Toronto with an indoor swimming pool.

 

My first reaction to that is "wow, awesome" then I remember how I thought my 4000sqft home was more than I needed.  There were rooms we didn't even use.  I don't know what I'd do with that big a house.   I would like an indoor swimming pool though.

[ICUMD]

16 minutes ago, rkbabang said:

 

My first reaction to that is "wow, awesome" then I remember how I thought my 4000sqft home was more than I needed.  There were rooms we didn't even use.  I don't know what I'd do with that big a house.   I would like an indoor swimming pool though.

I think all excesses, follow the rule of diminishing returns and escalating costs.  Personally, I can't be bothered with that size of home.  I have enough keeping up with mine.

 

I think his goal was to flip it and bank a few million in tax free capital gains (Canada) which would make sense.  Assuming markets cooperate and your cash flow can support your intent.

 

My home home has without fail had at least 10k of repairs or refreshes done per year. Adding in taxes, insurance and utilities that's another 12-15k.  

 

I'm sure that 15,000 sq ft home would be in the neighborhood of 100-150k per yr carrying costs, excluding mortgage.

[gfp]

When I was growing up, a wealthy older guy explained to me that is wasn't the ratcheting up to the bigger house, per se, that killed you - it was the fact that none of your furniture or stuff "worked" in the larger house.  So it's not just the house.  It's all new furniture, rugs, window treatments, art, design fees, on and on.  You might love your couch in the 1500 sq. ft. place but as soon as you stick that thing in the living room of your new 4000 sq. foot house it just isn't scaled appropriately.  On and on like that.  One of the main reasons furniture sales plummet when mortgage rates keep everyone in their same house.

 

[cubsfan]

4 minutes ago, gfp said:

When I was growing up, a wealthy older guy explained to me that is wasn't the ratcheting up to the bigger house, per se, that killed you - it was the fact that none of your furniture or stuff "worked" in the larger house.  So it's not just the house.  It's all new furniture, rugs, window treatments, art, design fees, on and on.  You might love your couch in the 1500 sq. ft. place but as soon as you stick that thing in the living room of your new 4000 sq. foot house it just isn't scaled appropriately.  On and on like that.  One of the main reasons furniture sales plummet when mortgage rates keep everyone in their same house.

 

 

So true. Once the wife gets involved, everything needs a theme, needs to match, and every room needs to be "set up". That's when the real fun and expenses begin. Who says men & women are the same!

[rkbabang]

 

2 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

8 minutes ago, gfp said:

When I was growing up, a wealthy older guy explained to me that is wasn't the ratcheting up to the bigger house, per se, that killed you - it was the fact that none of your furniture or stuff "worked" in the larger house.  So it's not just the house.  It's all new furniture, rugs, window treatments, art, design fees, on and on.  You might love your couch in the 1500 sq. ft. place but as soon as you stick that thing in the living room of your new 4000 sq. foot house it just isn't scaled appropriately.  On and on like that.  One of the main reasons furniture sales plummet when mortgage rates keep everyone in their same house.

 

 

So true. Once the wife gets involved, everything needs a theme, needs to match, and every room needs to be "set up". That's when the real fun and expenses begin. Who says men & women are the same!

 

 

Absolutely.  The best purchase I made was my lakehouse because we bought it completely furnished.  We bought the house with everything in it (furniture, decorations, dishes, pans, silverware, cups/glasses/ cookware, ... everything).    Of course we eventually replaced a lot of it, but all the bedroom furniture is still the same and a few pieces in the rest of the house we kept too.  The great part was not having to buy everything all at once.  We were able to use the house as is and replace/upgrade things a little at a time over a number of years.  There was no need to make a ton of large purchases right after buying it, no uhauls or moving in.  It was great.

 

[Blake Hampton]

1 hour ago, gfp said:

When I was growing up, a wealthy older guy explained to me that is wasn't the ratcheting up to the bigger house, per se, that killed you - it was the fact that none of your furniture or stuff "worked" in the larger house.  So it's not just the house.  It's all new furniture, rugs, window treatments, art, design fees, on and on.  You might love your couch in the 1500 sq. ft. place but as soon as you stick that thing in the living room of your new 4000 sq. foot house it just isn't scaled appropriately.  On and on like that.  One of the main reasons furniture sales plummet when mortgage rates keep everyone in their same house.

 

Never thought about it that way.

 

When I first read "worked," I thought you were gonna explain how money is invested in the couch.

[Ross812]

1700 SF with another 600 finished out in the basement here (3 br/3 ba); its a 100+ year old home so the space is chopped up. We entertain a lot and I do wish we had a large gathering space with a wet bar and some seating off the kitchen. We live in the city on a lot that is less than 1/10 acre so we will not be adding on. $/SF in the city is 3x what it costs 15 to 20 miles out and I can't afford the entertainment space in our current location but I would never move further out for more room.

 

We have a 1400 SF (3/3) vacation home on a lake. We solved our entertainment space by adding on a 500 SF covered deck and a hot tub, shower and bar area under the large deck. We now do the bulk of our entertaining at the lake and have talked about upgrading to a larger lake house at some point as we would actually use 4+ bedrooms often.    

[Errold]

Do any of you work from home?

 

My house use to feel gigantic and really empty, 5b/4b around 3k sq ft, but no real yard when I was single.

 

But now with 2 kids and mostly WFH, it is just about right.  

 

1 bedroom per kid, one bedroom/office for me, and one bedroom/office for the wife and one spare downstairs for guests.

[james22]

I'd long planned to build a large house out by the lake when I retired.

 

Turns out I'm happy enough in my 1-bedroom downtown condo. 

[rkbabang]

1 hour ago, Errold said:

Do any of you work from home?

 

My house use to feel gigantic and really empty, 5b/4b around 3k sq ft, but no real yard when I was single.

 

But now with 2 kids and mostly WFH, it is just about right.  

 

1 bedroom per kid, one bedroom/office for me, and one bedroom/office for the wife and one spare downstairs for guests.

 

 

I work from home most of the time (3-4 days per week) and my house feels just about right at a little over 3K sqft/4bd/3.5bath  I had 2 kids (both in their 20s now, but they were teens when we moved here) and it was perfect.  Now with only 1 of my adult kids still living at home it is still a good size for 3 adults. We use my daughters old room as a home gym and the 4th bedroom as guest room. We have 2 living rooms, an office, dining room, kitchen.  Basement is unfinished if we needed more space, but we don't.

 

 

[dealraker]

I had my North Carolina General Contractors License before I finished grad school and built my house here on the waterfront in 1980.  I have added to it a couple of times since and it is plenty big at 2600 sq ft and a full basement.  We own 30 acres across the street and with my nephew (who will inherit this house) we own half of another almost 250 acres.  The big tract across the street has an old house and trails on it with about 1/3 mile of waterfront.  The house we live in is very much a reflection of the chill-out life we've chosen, it is white cedar with no stain or paint, with high end windows and doors (so we don't have to mess with them over time), wood decks, outdoor (under a roof) pool table, and "tree house" deck right next to the water about 25 feet above the water where I am most of the time in the April to November good weather.  It faces south so we are warm in the winter and get the terrific southwest wind in the summer.

 

Everything in the house is original, bathrooms and all else very dated but functional.  They'll likely never change although we've discussed a walk in shower which for some reason we didn't do.  3 bedrooms and 3 baths, a sort of terrific kitchen and den areas.  I broke the building code and restrictions building the house (my cousins developed this property so it was kind of the fun discussion they often embarrassed me with) by being 45 feet from the water (code is 75 feet) but I left all the trees so you can barely see the house from the water.

 

An Air Nautique wakeboard boat with a boat ramp and Marshall 22 Catboat sits year round at the dock.  Angela and I use the boats a bunch, we both wakeboard and generally motor (Kubota 3 cylinder) the Catboat out to dinner and such.  Great neighbors mostly our age or about.

 

Life...NC style.  Had a beach sound front home for years and the happiest day of my life was when the deed was no longer in my name!

[Gamecock-YT]

We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like

[james22]

What's funny is retiring with some wealth only to realize most of the toys you thought you'd be interested in are more work than fun.

 

A second car and boat is hassle enough. A second home/ranch, plane, or RV would be too much. 

 

Not to mention there's only so much time (even if you'd the energy). One toy takes time away from others.

[Parsad]

4 hours ago, james22 said:

What's funny is retiring with some wealth only to realize most of the toys you thought you'd be interested in are more work than fun.

 

A second car and boat is hassle enough. A second home/ranch, plane, or RV would be too much. 

 

Not to mention there's only so much time (even if you'd the energy). One toy takes time away from others.

 

+1!  I've always wanted a Porsche 911.  It's only been in the last few years where I felt comfortable enough where I could spend for one if I wanted.  

 

But I downsized to a 2 bedroom and den condo a few years ago.  The great thing about my underground parking is that I just drive in one side and drive out the other.  Now if I have two cars down there, they'll be touching if the door is open...I'll have to drive very carefully into the spots...and I would probably only drive the Porsche 3-6 months out of the year.  

 

I decided the comfort of just driving into the middle of both spots in my X3 outweighed the pain and hassle of buying a 2nd car...even if it's a 911!  The older I get the more I'm simplifying my life...less possessions, less clutter, less of everything pretty much.

 

Cheers!

[james22]

1 hour ago, Parsad said:

I've always wanted a Porsche 911.

 

If it makes you feel any better, you might not like the 911 as much as you think.

 

I've a Cayenne and Boxster and am really looking forward to downsizing to one car.

 

But it'll be a Macan (GTS) rather than a 911 because after a lifetime of sports cars, I'm shocked to realize how much I prefer the better visibility and ease of entry/exit of a higher seating position.

 

Go test drive one - it may make you realize you're not missing anything.

 

(Then swap the X3 for an X3 M.)

 

 

[Sweet]

4 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

+1!  I've always wanted a Porsche 911.  It's only been in the last few years where I felt comfortable enough where I could spend for one if I wanted.  

 

But I downsized to a 2 bedroom and den condo a few years ago.  The great thing about my underground parking is that I just drive in one side and drive out the other.  Now if I have two cars down there, they'll be touching if the door is open...I'll have to drive very carefully into the spots...and I would probably only drive the Porsche 3-6 months out of the year.  

 

I decided the comfort of just driving into the middle of both spots in my X3 outweighed the pain and hassle of buying a 2nd car...even if it's a 911!  The older I get the more I'm simplifying my life...less possessions, less clutter, less of everything pretty much.

 

Cheers!

Just use the 911 as your daily drive lol.  Problem solved!

[Parsad]

22 hours ago, james22 said:

 

If it makes you feel any better, you might not like the 911 as much as you think.

 

I've a Cayenne and Boxster and am really looking forward to downsizing to one car.

 

But it'll be a Macan (GTS) rather than a 911 because after a lifetime of sports cars, I'm shocked to realize how much I prefer the better visibility and ease of entry/exit of a higher seating position.

 

Go test drive one - it may make you realize you're not missing anything.

 

(Then swap the X3 for an X3 M.)

 

 

 

I test drove a Macan, but it was a bit tight in the back seat for family...so I went with the X3.  Plenty of power and comfort with the normally aspirated X3 for daily use, so I didn't need the M.  Cayenne and X7 were too big for my liking...X5 had a really high rear window for some reason and the rear seats weren't any more comfortable/spacious than the X3 and then you pay $20-40K more for it.

 

I've always liked the low seat position since I bought my first car (CRX) and then my Mini...so that's why I wanted a 911 or more practically a Cayman afterwards.  But as I've gotten older, my daily driver is an SUV and I don't think I would drive the Porsche more than a few months out of the year...certainly not daily as my back would never forgive me.

 

Thus the pragmatic decision not to buy one.  I always look though...and whenever I drive by a Porsche dealership, I test drive something.  Kind of like a Rolex...can easily afford one now, but can't justify buying one.  It would just sit in the closet in my watch box.  But every time I'm near a Rolex dealership, I try one one!

 

Maybe testing them out gets it out of my system, so that practicality regains control of my senses!  Cheers!

[Parsad]

21 hours ago, Sweet said:

Just use the 911 as your daily drive lol.  Problem solved!

 

Oh my God!  My back would ache all week.

 

Funny enough, on today's news, they showed a Porsche Taycan sliding all over the place in the snow we got last night.

 

First, who would drive that in the salt and snow, and two, why would anyone think that is a good idea after 25 cm of snow on the roads!

 

Cheers!

[james22]

5 hours ago, Parsad said:

my first car (CRX)

 

Mine as well. Loved that car.

 

5 hours ago, Parsad said:

Kind of like a Rolex...can easily afford one now, but can't justify buying one.  It would just sit in the closet in my watch box.  But every time I'm near a Rolex dealership, I try one one!

 

I'm an Omega fan boy, but if you can buy a Rolex at MSRP, you should. You make money walking out the door.

[Castanza]

House layout > house size 

[Castanza]

13 minutes ago, james22 said:

 

Mine as well. Loved that car.

 

 

I'm an Omega fan boy, but if you can buy a Rolex at MSRP, you should. You make money walking out the door.

 

I wear a Nomos Ahoi ... very nice watch imo. Bought used at maybe 3/5 the price of new. Can't justify a Rolex but would consider a Tudor Black Bay 54 if I was in the market for another used watch...Definitely not a watch collector, but enjoy having one nice watch.