Houses - how big would you go?

Houses - how big would you go?

Author
Discussion

FlossyThePig

4,052 posts

230 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
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XB70 said:
I don't like lots of rooms but rather a few rooms of huge proportions (think double and triple height ceilings; internal skywalks and a LOT of glass.

Almost to the extent that the style is knocking on commercial design rather than residential, or would have to be extremely modern.

Euromillions win...it would be a very very big house as (relatively young with toddlers) we would like to live there for many years.

The only issue is that while I appreciate classic style and "olde worlde" houses, I much prefer ultramodern whereas my wife HATES it.

To give an idea, something like this but maybe fifteen to twenty times the internal space:

http://www.85swainslane.co.uk/venue-details.php
It's interesting how "modern" style from the 1920s and 1930s is becoming more mainstream these days.

GT03ROB

12,243 posts

208 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
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The layout & arrangement has a huge bearing on this. Until 18 months back ihad a 2000 sqft 4 bed house split 50:50 upstairs / downstairs. As a single guy 1000sqft living area was about right. I didn't need the full 1000sqft upstairs. In a couple it would also have been fine. Family of 4 it would have been cramped.

I now have 3000sqft, gf has moved in. I could honestly do with more space in order to have a dedicated utility room & to extend the kitchen to allow it to be a kitchen/diner commensurate in size with the rest of the house. This would give us 3500sqft, kitchen/diner, utility, 4 beds, study, lounge/diner, 2 bathrooms, 1 shower room, sauna room, changing area, lobby.


h0b0

6,708 posts

183 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
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I may be opening myself up to the PH taste police here but this is my house........









I have finished the basement so that there is a shower a large room that spans most of the level and a decent sized office. The office is the last 2 windows and the other windows are all one room. The only room that feels too big is the master bedroom. The rest seem reasonable.

Streetrod

6,468 posts

193 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
That has to be in the USA

XB70

2,477 posts

183 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
Streetrod said:
That has to be in the USA
Not enough baths!

Very nice though, althought I would prefer a smaller master bathroom (that is HUGE!) and use the space for a study nook or something.

I notice that in a lot of the huge places advertised on Hamilton Terrace, Avenue Road, Bishops Avenue (when dreaming of Euromillions) - huge to gargantuan master bedrooms then the six other bedrooms are quite small.

There was one place that had 8 bedrooms - the master took up an entire level and the cells..sorry...remaining 7 were on the floor above any tiny! Very odd.

Kneetrembler

2,069 posts

189 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
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Amonst the houses that I have owned,the largest house that I have owned and lived in for 5 yrs was a Water Mill which was 1000sqmtrs (10764sqft) with 23 hectares, which was just too big, then down to 300sqmtrs which was too small, now back up to a decent size again with just on 1 acre of garden which is fine.

Edited by Kneetrembler on Thursday 2nd August 22:43

h0b0

6,708 posts

183 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
Streetrod said:
That has to be in the USA
Sure is. We have to be within easy commute of NYC for my wife. It is about 20 miles from the empire state building on the NJ side of the river. You can probably see there is more house than land but we are in the middle of a nature reserve with deer and bears so I'm hoping I will not need a bigger garden. I'm also hoping the bears stay out of my garden.

The master bedroom is excessive and may make my queen sized bed look very small.

My office is in the basement looking out on the garden down to the stream.

renmure

3,956 posts

211 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
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Think myself and Mrs R are at about 5500-6000 sq/ft with 5 acres of garden in a big farmhouse. We are lucky in as much as the rooms naturally divide up into frequently used, infrequently used and rarely used rooms. Also fortunately there is a natural split between "winter" rooms with big open fires and "summer" rooms / conservatory that lead out into the garden. Fortunately again, despite its size, the garden is fairly low maintenance, mainly just needing the grass cut.

Suppose my point is that there is more to it than just the floor space. A different layout would probably make our house a bit too unwieldy for 2 working adults to be practical rather than being fairly comfortable.

Edited by renmure on Wednesday 1st August 22:30

BigBen

11,245 posts

217 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
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Our place is about 1500sqft and is technically too big for two of us but was the best route to a double garage when we moved. Ideally a bit more land with space for outbuildings and garages would be better but square footage wise perfect.

Buffalo

5,396 posts

241 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
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How are you measuring? Straight plot area, or are you multiplying by no. of floors? Everything I've read suggests the average UK house size is less that 1000sq.ft confused

AdamTheTrader

242 posts

132 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
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Our old family 7000sq.ft place seemed needlessly big, even with 4 of us and 3 huge dogs. 4000sq. ft with nice high ceilings will do me just nicely ta smile

GT03ROB

12,243 posts

208 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
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Buffalo said:
How are you measuring? Straight plot area, or are you multiplying by no. of floors? Everything I've read suggests the average UK house size is less that 1000sq.ft confused
I'm sure it is, but remember this is PH's........ Everyone earns 6 figures, are 6ft plus company directors!

In my case I was quoting actual floor area not plot are.

GetCarter

28,741 posts

266 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
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It's obviously a lot to do with what one intends to do in any given space. I had a blank piece of paper and designed a 3300 sq ft log house (It's in a forest so planning regs meant it had to be of log construction). There are only two of us, but we both work from home (and I use a shed load of techie crap), so two of the five bedrooms are allocated to our work space - the rest is largely open plan. To be honest I wouldn't want it any smaller, but have never felt I needed more space. Correction, I had one external garage. I now have two.

FYI






Asterix

24,438 posts

215 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
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We bought a 5 bed family house in the UK a few years back, mostly as an investment, but I can't see us living in it when we come back.

I'd much rather be in a 3 bed with some land but that has lovely proportions and decent reception rooms, good size rooms and lots of light - so I'd most likely look at a well planned barn conversion on top of a hill!

shirt

21,458 posts

188 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
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XB70 said:
I don't like lots of rooms but rather a few rooms of huge proportions
me too, although i prefer either classical [huge georgian] or industrial [factory/ loft] style to cutting edge modernity.

i like space. my 4 bed 1500sqft house in the uk felt silly laid out as such, especially as i lived there alone. i used it as a 2 bed with box room as a walk in wardrobe and the back bed as a library/study. it felt just perfect for 1 or 2 people.

current rental flat in dubai is 3000sqft, 4 bed 5 bath but again used as a 2 bed. kinda gotten used to the scale and the airy, light nature of the rooms. have been in a few 10,000sqft places here and whilst the design wasn't to my liking the sense of space and scale really appealed.

so, i think my own formula would be 1500sqft per person + superflous rooms [gym, cinema, pool etc.]. plus of course a huuuge garage.

Edited by shirt on Thursday 2nd August 06:40

Asterix

24,438 posts

215 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
quotequote all
GetCarter said:
It's obviously a lot to do with what one intends to do in any given space. I had a blank piece of paper and designed a 3300 sq ft log house (It's in a forest so planning regs meant it had to be of log construction). There are only two of us, but we both work from home (and I use a shed load of techie crap), so two of the five bedrooms are allocated to our work space - the rest is largely open plan. To be honest I wouldn't want it any smaller, but have never felt I needed more space. Correction, I had one external garage. I now have two.

FYI





Have you still got your site up for the build? That was cracking - a beautiful place and something along the lines I'm thinking of.

GetCarter

28,741 posts

266 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
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Asterix said:
Have you still got your site up for the build? That was cracking - a beautiful place and something along the lines I'm thinking of.
Still there: http://www.stevecarter.com/build/build.htm

ETA Having a large open plan space gives a lot of flexibility - our's even doubles as a gig venue!



(I can fit about 40 people in, seated round tables). Also as I have the recording studio next door, I can record live performances:

http://www.stevecarter.com/ronanandjonny.wmv


Edited by GetCarter on Thursday 2nd August 09:03

tonker

62,771 posts

235 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
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I've gone from a flat for 1 (2 bedder) of 1,000sqft - which was perfect for me (riverside flat with balcony and not overlooked in a mansion flat in Fulham, to a plastic cheesy house of 3,000sqft - which is, again, plenty for two - it gives you enough space not to need to be on top of each other or to have to tidy and move stuff every time you want to do anything

We now have a third member of the family, who despite still being 2 foot odd (so not that much shorter than me smile ), seems to have more stuff than the Eighth Army. So, we're making the house up to 4,500sqft, giving us a more modern living style (450ft kitchen), getting him his own playroom that can just be his and meaning that we can have both sets of inlaws down to stay and we'll probably assume the mantle of the house where people go for Christmas and 'family dos'...... - plot is 0.4 acres, so it's not rambling, but isn't a shoebox either... I'd prefer another half an acre or so, but it's just not going to happen if we stay where we are....

98elise

24,020 posts

148 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
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Buffalo said:
How are you measuring? Straight plot area, or are you multiplying by no. of floors? Everything I've read suggests the average UK house size is less that 1000sq.ft confused
Total floor area is the norm, not footprint.

Houses in the UK start at around 5-600sq ft for very small victorian terrace's. These come with negligable land/gardens. Even by UK standards these are small.

Property is at a premium in the UK, even with the downturn. My current house is worth about £300k, and is 1200 sq ft. Its a good size by UK standards.

An average size family home will be closer to 1000sq ft, however with building land still rare and costly, the average property size has probably been shrinking for the past 10 years. Also the housing density on new builds is getting stupid.


Edit....just recalculated, and my house is about actually 1500sq ft, including halls and stairs etc.


Edited by 98elise on Thursday 2nd August 20:19

0000

13,807 posts

178 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
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InfoRetrieval said:
Following in the wake of the excellent "Whats it really like to live in a mansion??" and the property porn threads I was wondering that, in the event of the hypothetical Euromillions jackpot win, is there a limit to the size of the house you'd want to live in?
Erm, let me think about that for a minute...

...are you mad, no?! My greed knows no bounds!