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Don't think I could fit my baby grand and home recording studio in one of those. And I ain't gonna live without those.....
I'm guessing if you have a baby grand you use it, and your home recording studio too. Nothing wrong with having space which gives room for things which enrich your life. What gets me are the people who have the fancy piano, but nobody plays. It's for show. Or put in specialty rooms but rarely do any of it. But other people have them so they have to too....
To me that is wasting space. If your a movie fan and want a theater room, fine. If your putting it in to watch a movie maybe once a week, and can tell the neighbors about you movie room as a reason then its just wasting room. Cut off the power to all but the core rooms and see how long it takes to notice.
The thing is huge is costly in terms of heating and cooling too. If your 'open flow' means you can't shut off a room then its very wasteful. And its not just your business, but everyone's since everyone pays for the need to expand the services serving empty rooms.
In my small house is one bedroom I don't use as a bedroom, though it could be. But I do a number of crafts and save the scraps since they remain useful. I have my stash in there. Between it and the yarn, I seldom have to go out and buy stuff for a project. And I keep the printer and stored computer stuff there too, though usually don't use it for a computer room. No need to put the other stuff in the living room when I don't use it as often. So its a multi purpose room. It's not bad to keep stuff, just the stuff which isn't every going to be useful. A color of yarn which is unusual I'll keep it all since it would be hard to find. Small bits of a yellow I could replace anywhere are not going to be used. It's all about what you can do with it and how easy its replaced.
When I had a 325 sf apartment I kept this stuff too. I don't have many clothes so the big closet became my supply cabinet. Larger or smaller, I kept what was useful.
If you look at your 'stuff' and realize that most of it will stay there until you move and don't want to drag it along, then please give it to a thrift shop or someone, don't toss it as garbage. Your half full art set might be a wonderful thing for someone else. Your out of style dress might be great for someone who couldn't afford it. We all owe Mother Earth for her bounty and the least we can do is find a new home for 'stuff' we used to value.
Unless you build it yourself - and I'm long past being able to do that - so-called "tiny houses" are stupidly expensive. They're not worth the money.
And as a potter and weaver, plus sewing, quilting, knitting, and crocheting, I need some extra room. I need a heated studio for my pottery, a room - it could be a small room - for my loom, and a room for everything else I do.
I will probably put the loom in the living room when I get my own place. So I could manage with 2 br as long as I have a workshop area for the pottery as well.
Something in the area of 900 to 1200 sq ft without a basement. At the lower end of that if there's a real workshop or finished/finishable/dry basement, 700 sq ft to 800 sq ft in the rest of the house.
And a good sized yard for garden/fruit trees/flower beds.
As I age, the adjustments you have to make to make a tiny house work will become increasingly beyond my abilities to deal with. Narrow steep stairs and ladders are already risky for me. Having to pull thinks out of niches or fold them up and down - don't have the strength for it. Narrow hallways are difficult to navigate.
They're just not very practical, especially for elderly or disabled persons. And as I said in the beginning - they are just ridiculously expensive for what you get if you can't build it yourself.
Not passing judgment at all but when assessing your 'green issues' with staying in a 3000 sf home after your children have moved on, you should consider that this large home can be better used by a family who needs the room, helping your community to 'optimize' existing housing stock.
I assume you've done this with your home(s) along the way? "Oh, look...the neighbor is living in a house that is too small. Here stranger...I'll move out and "optimize" for the community so you can have my house"!! Sure thing!
Do you even own a house? Doubtful. What a stupid idea.
If every emptynester held onto their large homes then more homes would be needed for young families - more energy used for building new homes, more building waste, more land clearing (for homes and wood) more suburban sprawl, etc, etc. There are also aggregate economic impacts with capital tied up in a larger more expensive home rather than put to other use (e.g. invested).
More homes will always be needed because people tend to reproduce... it has nothing to do with "empty nesters" per se'. FWIW...I have a house for sale if you are interested and want to put your money where your mouth is....LOL. 600K and it's yers...
I'm sure your town likes this to happen though because you are paying higher taxes on the larger home and you are 'blocking out' a family who would add education expenses.
Every home pays property taxes (school funding is also in this payment) to their COUNTY (not town)according to the value of the home whether an empty nest family lives there or a family with 5 kids in school lives there. No one is "blocking" anyone else out by occupying a home with 2 empty bedrooms. Most empty nesters stay because they have worked their entire lives to pay down the mortgage and see no reason/cannot afford to sell and move...even if taxes would be cheaper/etc. again...it just isn't your business unless it is your home. You do own a home (to know SO MUCH about it all) right?
No apologies from here. It's a public forum and we all see it differently. Tough shat.
Every home pays property taxes (school funding is also in this payment) to their COUNTY (not town).
You're so confident, I hope you're right. Sadly for you, you are not right. In how many places (US states, US regions, countries) have you owned property? YOU might pay your property taxes to your county but I can assure you that's not how it works everywhere in the US. In different parts of the US I've paid property taxes to counties (like your provincial self), towns, cities, and i've also paid tax allocations to Independent School Districts which are entities that have taxing authority in places I've lived and owned property. Other people can probably name additional ways it's done but from memory that's what I've experienced in the USA.
Outside the US I've also paid occupancy taxes and lived in places where the schools were supported by other types of taxes but I wouldn't expect you to understand that if you can't even understand that things are different outside of your little part of the world where you happen to pay property taxes to your county. Likely even the next state over from you is different!
To whom property taxes are paid is not the main point of our debate (or even remotely interesting) but the fact that you so confidently corrected me, using capital letters even, speaks for itself. No credibility. We all get things wrong at times but when you come out guns blazing with such ignorance you embarrass yourself.
Get out more. Travel a bit. Talk to people. Amazing what you can learn. Open the ears. Don't be so quick to open the mouth.
We live in an unincorporated area of our County in CO....no "town" here to pay those taxes to whatsoever...smart azz. Second house is the same way (Lake County....not in the town limits of Leadville) smart azz.....as is the third in Fremont county. (the "town" is a PO a campground and a coffee shop and levies no "town" taxes) smart azz. Yeah...talk about shutting up and learning something Richard. You've owned property so many places/are such an expert... you should know such things....yet...
Buy something with some imagination for a change. Life stuck in "town" is showing on you. there are places outside the town limits...really...there are.
Back here in the Northeast our town zoning prevents people that own a housing lot from building anything too small to keep the neighbor's property values from falling. They also ban house trailers except in over crowded "parks". They will do most anything to keep relatively poor people from moving into town.
Right down the main road we have a company that builds prefab sheds. Some are big enough to classify as tiny houses. Now way the town would let anyone put one on a lot even with municipal water supply and sewage service.
Back here in the Northeast our town zoning prevents people that own a housing lot from building anything too small to keep the neighbor's property values from falling. They also ban house trailers except in over crowded "parks". They will do most anything to keep relatively poor people from moving into town.
Right down the main road we have a company that builds prefab sheds. Some are big enough to classify as tiny houses. Now way the town would let anyone put one on a lot even with municipal water supply and sewage service.
In Northern NewEngland there is no such thing. Small homes are allowed, so are house trailers, in more urban areas, we can be seen alongside McMansions.
Just curious how quality of living is directly proportional to house size?
Are you meaning having to give up certain creature comforts?
In some people' mindset the size of your house is a quantifiable measurement of your standard of living.
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