Is 1500 square feet too small for family of four? (Atlanta: credit card, home)

[JPD]

99+% of all the people who have ever lived were raised in houses smaller than 1500 sq. ft.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Yeah, let's see how much that tune changes after you actually HAVE kids.

You mean like my 22 month old daughter?

[ATLTJL]

Well, it was just a question asking for advice....obviously, people have different opinions on it.

No reason to argue about it. I really don't care what the OP does. If he buys an 1100 square foot place and has 3 more kids, it doesn't make a hill of beans of difference to me.

So yes, 1500 square feet is fine for a family of 4, no problem. Buy that house.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Well, it was just a question asking for advice....obviously, people have different opinions on it.

No reason to argue about it. I really don't care what the OP does. If he buys an 1100 square foot place and has 3 more kids, it doesn't make a hill of beans of difference to me.

So yes, 1500 square feet is fine for a family of 4, no problem. Buy that house.

I honestly feel that the bedrooms in my house are larger than the bedrooms, excluding the master, of modern homes.

[jeoff]

Originally Posted by cqholt

I honestly feel that the bedrooms in my house are larger than the bedrooms, excluding the master, of modern homes.

Yeah, I've noticed some extreme examples of this in some upscale new builds--an insanely large master bedroom with secondary bedrooms about the size of (one of) the masters' walk-in-closets.

[kaitlyn142]

Of course you can. You can make almost anything work. My grandparents raised 6 kids in tiny little 3/1 house that I think was ~1200 sq ft. People think my husband and I are crazy when we reminisce fondly about the two of us and our cat living in ~450 sq ft, but we were so happy. It really forces you to only keep what you need and love.

[CSD610]

Originally Posted by equinox63

Is 1500 square feet too small for a family of four in Atlanta? Could any Intown residents reveal the pros and cons?

If you want it to be too small then it will be too small, if you want it to be just righ then it will be just right.
Personally I think that is too big but that is just me and Mr. CSD, we are quite happy in smaller spaces, less clutter, less time cleaning, less separation because there are limited rooms and space to be in.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Nobody ever wished for LESS square footage.

So my take is this....if you can't afford more square footage, then definitely, you make do with what you have. If you can easily afford 2500 square feet and are trying to save money, want to be a half mile closer to something, or some other rather silly reason, you'll definitely live to regret making that tradeoff.

At least that's what I think. But it's all based on your point of comparison. Ask a Haitian earthquake survivor, and they would say you can easily fit 10 people in 1500 square feet, and it's like a palace because it has indoor plumbing and air conditioning.

But this is the United States, and it's the 21st century. Kids have lots of toys. People entertain guests. Families visit. Adolescents take 45 minute showers. Some kids need more alone time than others. If I was stuck in that close proximity to my family the entire time I was growing up, I would have been an anxious nervous wreck.

Yes, people do downsize. Yes, there's even that weird tiny house movement. But if we're talking 21st century United States, the median of our society would say that 1500 square feet is probably tighter than you wanna be for a family of four.

Part depends on layout. There are some really efficient 1500 sf houses and some really inefficient ones.

Part depends on closet space. A lot of older homes have very little.

Part depends on you and how much stuff you have.

We lived in a 1700 sf house with formals, so when you take out the living room which we didn't use much, it was more like a 1400 sf house. We did use the dining room as our regular dining area, giving us more space in the den/breakfast room. But it was an old house that had been gutted by an architect and so had very little wasted space (like hallways). We had 2 walk-in closets in a 3-2 along with a couple of other good sized closets. With two people and a cat it felt very big. With two people, a cat and a kid it was plenty comfortable. But when we got to two people, a cat and two kids it started to get tight. We had double shelved a couple of the closets and had things packed everywhere. The kids had lots of stuff. We were really ready when we moved to a larger place when the kids were elementary age.

[vtecluder617]

We are a family of 3 (1 year old daughter) and our house is 1900 square feet including the finished basement, and I feel like we're busting at the seems. Kids have ALOT of crap. and its usually bulky stuff. My wife and I will try to purge things every month, but every occasion my kid gets more crap from the grandparents and uncles and aunts (xmas, birthdays, Easter, impulse buy etc etc) If we were a family of 4-5 I would want a house around 2800-3200 sq ft.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by cqholt

I honestly feel that the bedrooms in my house are larger than the bedrooms, excluding the master, of modern homes.

Newer houses tend to have fairly small secondary bedrooms and giant masters.