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Nice if you did all that work by yourself. I’ve seen smaller homes in UK.
Nope. I wrote checks. My best friend acted as my contractor and did much of the carpentry. I wintered in my Vermont ski place the four winters the house was torn up with all the remodeling.
992 square feet isn't all that small. The average size of a new American home in 1950 was 983 square feet. Two bedrooms and one bath in 1,000 square feet was pretty normal for a family of four.
My place is 992 square feet. It was perfect for one person. A spare bedroom for guests. An office wing off the master bedroom so I had delineation between work/telecommuting and the rest of my life. It's a crawl space under the house so I don't have storage. I have a townhouse ski condo that's a bit bigger than my house with a basement. I recently purged 26 years of accumulated debris out of that basement.
My parents raised us in about 900 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, there was 5 of us. It was built in 1950, they bought it in the early 1960's for 12,000 I think. That house sold last year on Realtor.com for 330,000, it still had the original hardwood floors throughout. Not kidding and I was shocked, they also added on a 2nd bathroom.
I grew up in a circa-1950 house that was 800 sq ft. It was a Cape Cod, only 4 rooms on the main floor: two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen/dinette combo, and a bathroom. My bedroom was only 7' x 10'; I know because as soon as I got my first job I took out a loan to make it bigger. My parents' bedroom was probably 10 x 10 or at most 10 x 12. They paid $10,000 for it in 1950; they put $1000 down and my dad took out a $9000 GI Mortgage.
There was a full basement and a walk-up attic but both were unfinished and only used for storage, not living space. The size of the house didn't bother me until I was about 12 years old and started needing more space. In high school I remember my tiny closet being so jammed that it was hard to pull clothing out, LOL.
I could never live in a house that small again. It has taken me more than five years to stop feeling cramped in the 1400 square feet (just pulled out my interior floorplan to doublecheck the numbers) that I now have. There is no way that I could ever live in this house with another person though. I got rid of tons of stuff and maximized every inch of space but still wish there were more. I'd rather have 2000 sq ft, and 2500 sf would be perfect for me at my stage of life. So I am about 600 sf shy of my "personal minimum" and 900 shy of my ideal. Since leaving my parents' house I've always had houses that were larger and so this one feels really small by comparison.
The upside to having this house is that there is zero room for overnight guests (the 3 bedrooms are Bedroom, Closet Room, and Library/Computer Room) so I have a readymade excuse. I deliberately have chairs in the tv room rather than a sofa, for that reason, too. I don't want to stay overnight in anyone else's home and don't want any overnight guests in mine; I would rather pay for a hotel room for them instead (or for me.)
One floor.
doors wide enough for wheelchair if ever needed.
Bathrooms big enough for a wheelchair.
Safety bars in bathroom
Mostly wood or title floors with some area rugs
Make the garage as big as possible for storage.
17 different paint colors.
High ceilings
Ceiling lights More better than fewer.
Ceiling light with all fans incase you need some extra light. Fans can be controlled by remote (probably better for some rooms but not all) or wall switches
Regular and walk in tub
regular and walk in shower
Figure out what you will want to do in each room
Built in items and big pantry
pull out slides for pots and pans in cabinets
Several outside electrical outlets and hose connections.
Reflective lining in roof for radiant heat.
circulating hot water pump on timer
WiFi thermostat.
combination/key locks on front door - not wifi enabled. Good for emergency entry as you can give 911 the combination.
I would go toward open rooms from main living area
dehumidifier in the South
Walk in closets
High toilets
High bathroom counter tops
No sealing "grant" counter tops
Make sure elevation of home lets water drain away from home and you are high enough not to flood
Consider slop of driveway. I like a little slop not enough that you have to use your parking break when you park a car. If you will park cars in the drive way may want to make the driveway a little wider than the garage opening. Pavers look better than concrete.
Probably no gutters - they need cleaning
Wiring for TV cable and internet
Consider location of inside electrical outlets
Outside sprinkler system if needed.
Grass that does not need cutting.
Go with the look you like as whatever you think is popular now may not be when you sell.
As you know this is a short list. I would put all items on a spread sheet then decide which you think are important. i.e microwave over stove burners or built in the wall. Oven at floor level or a couple of feet high. And it goes on and on but best to do what you are doing before building.
Country french two story brick and architectural concrete Hardwood floors with high ceilings. Large home on smallish lot, more lo flower beds than grass. Warm, old world looks that we both like. Suits us well. We live on firrst floor with upstairs for guests which we have often.
In a northern suburb of Dallas, close to all the conveniences we need yet avoiding rush hour is it easy to get around even 18 miles to Downtown located specialists for health challenges. We like the North Texas climate. hot summers is the off season. but fall and spring as well as most of winter are great. Enough rain things are green and grow well yet lots of sun too. We do not travel but being near a big airport gets us more guests than a small town would. Within 100 miles of two immediate family members and 200 miles to another.
If I had it to do over again I might go to Nashville Tn area for its cooler climate and new fast growing ways. But not likely to move again now. If we do it will be to southern Nashville suburbs to a smaller home with an elevator, Ive seen two attached homes that fit this definition recently
I'm a little surprised at the number of retirees who mention having or wanting high ceilings.
I get the whole "makes the space look bigger" thing, but I'm wondering if most who favor them perhaps live in a warmer climate? Because in areas with cold winters a cathedral ceiling is the most inefficient. Heat rises and cold air sinks, so ideally you would have your heating duct or baseboard at floor level, from which the heat rises up and stops/spreads out when it hits the 8 ft ceiling. But in those cathedral ceiling rooms the heat just keeps rising and "collects" and sits at the highest point which may be 12, 15 or even 20 ft above where the occupants are. Which means you ned a mechanical means to circulate it. Fine if you are okay with ceiling fans but personally I hate those with a passion, so I'd never want a room with a high ceiling.
Obviously this isn't a problem in those parts of the country where the heating season is short or practically nonexistent but I have always questioned the wisdom of cathedral ceilings in cold-winter areas.
Then again, I dislike many of the things that other people think are pluses in a home's design (I don't like skylights or fireplaces and would much rather have a solid wall than lots of glass) so my anti-high-ceiling stance is probably just another apple in the same basket, lol
I will add we have flat ceilings of 10'. 12', 16', and 20'. All the high ceiling rooms have a ceiling fan which we use. The fans can be reversed to blow up or blow down, but they are pretty high up so we leave them in the same mode year around. Our second floor ceilings are 9', 2 bedrooms, media room, game room are up. We have two fireplaces which we rarely use but like the look. No sky lights, we are not fans of them either. Open floor plan though as LR and DR are open to each other, though LR has 20' celing and Dr is 10'. Kit, Brk and Fr are open to each other at 12' ceilings. We like the open look and with two long halls we have MBR separated from rest of house and KIT, FR, and BRK are down a hall from rest of first floor as well. We had no separation in our last home and like have it now.
Danish and Italian modern mostly. The atmosphere though is one of utilitarian comfort. Lots of books still laying around (despite having given away about 1,500 lately), kitty toys, many kitty condo/towers, comforters, pillows.
Our style is "rustic cabin in the woods", which suits our personalities...we're both nature lovers, neither of us are style conscious, and we don't care about updating to keep up with current trends. We have no intention of trying to please anyone other than ourselves, so if we built again, we would likely stay rustic.
Since you intend to retire there, I think making it your own style is important, since you won't be worrying about resell value after you're, well, no longer retired.
We did the same. It's a very simple house that my husband designed. It's perfect for us.
I'm a little surprised at the number of retirees who mention having or wanting high ceilings.
I get the whole "makes the space look bigger" thing, but I'm wondering if most who favor them perhaps live in a warmer climate? Because in areas with cold winters a cathedral ceiling is the most inefficient. Heat rises and cold air sinks, so ideally you would have your heating duct or baseboard at floor level, from which the heat rises up and stops/spreads out when it hits the 8 ft ceiling. But in those cathedral ceiling rooms the heat just keeps rising and "collects" and sits at the highest point which may be 12, 15 or even 20 ft above where the occupants are. Which means you ned a mechanical means to circulate it. Fine if you are okay with ceiling fans but personally I hate those with a passion, so I'd never want a room with a high ceiling.
Obviously this isn't a problem in those parts of the country where the heating season is short or practically nonexistent but I have always questioned the wisdom of cathedral ceilings in cold-winter areas.
Then again, I dislike many of the things that other people think are pluses in a home's design (I don't like skylights or fireplaces and would much rather have a solid wall than lots of glass) so my anti-high-ceiling stance is probably just another apple in the same basket, lol
We’re in California, most of the time we have the opposite problem except this year.
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