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Everyone has a different meaning of an American dream. For some earning dollars at bare minimum wage having escaped poverty and poor living conditions in a third world country is living an American dream while some need showbiz celebrity status to feel having achieved it.
As a new immigrant to this country, I was overwhelmed with the house sizes here in the US. Back in my home country, we were living in 1000 sqt 2-storey house sitting on a 860 sq ft of land. It has a one car port. The moment you enter the house is already our family room. I still own the house and its rented for $290 a month, it fully covers our mortgage.
Now, we're in a 1.5 storey 1900 sqft 3BR house in a suburban Phoenix. The house is sitting in almost half the land area whihc is 7000 sqft land.
It is probably too small for a family of 6 (2 adults and 4 kids) by American standards but it is already too big for us. We converted our dining and living room into one big indoor play area for the kids. We dine in our eat-in kitchen. 2 kids share in each common bedroom. The whole area of the house is busy. My wife and I spend most of our time in the kitchen and family room while the kids love their big play area. I can't complain though I wish (1) we have a separate bathroom for the kids, ours is jack and jill type and (2) there's another decent size bedroom for the guests.
I know a family who just recently moved in here. There are only 4 of them in the household but the house they bought is a 3000 sqm 5-BR house and 4 car garage. They bought the brand new so it is expensive and it is way way too far from the city. I mean, if I were them, I would just buy a 3BR house and save the extra money.
I think the last situation depends on how long they would like to stay. If the family has 2 teenagers, in 10-15 years, they'll have their own kids, which means extra rooms in case the grandkids come over. I think 3 bedrooms works for some, but if you have multiple kids or are planning on having kids, it won't be enough.
Our first house was three bedroom, one bath, carport and a small yard, in the 1980's. I put a new roof on it (tore off the shingles and asphalt paper, applied new ones), enclosed the carport (with new modern windows).
Our second house was a three story four bedroom and two bathroom home with garage and walkout family room (house was on a slope). It had a gigantic two car garage with 12 foot ceilings and decent crawlspace in the attic and small toilet and sink.
Our third house was a three bedroom and two bathrooms and a large two car garage. A smaller yard, but more modern home with 10 foot ceilings. We have lived in this house 20 years...
The upstairs formal living room was never really used as a living room. My parents have a couch and a couple of recliners in there, a chess table, and misc. furniture, but no one has sat in there in years. It's a glorified storage room.
We have 3700 sq ft. 4/3.5 and we love it, it's just right. No desire to live in a smaller home at this time. We are a family of four.
REally, it's all about layout. A 4,000 sq ft box (we lived in one of those), with the rooms just a chain of rectangles and squares and tons of open spaces gives the impression of being immense/overly big, with extra useless rooms.
Our home is older, more traditional, cozy. Compartmentalized in some areas, open in others. But the openness isn't to the point of being vast. The home never gives the impression of being cavernous, which is one of many reasons why I love it so much. We use all of the rooms at some point in time, whether once or twice a year, once a month, or every day.
That’s about in line with the statistics on hand washing
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