Buying A Home
elinrich
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
How much sq footage is good for your family of 4 or 5?
My H and I have 2 LOs under 5. We currently live in the 3 bedroom 1340 sq ft house I purchased before we were married and after a couple of years of talking about it, have finally jumped into selling ours to find one with more space. I always imagined we'd atleast go with a 2500 sq ft one but have recently found a beuatiful brand new house in our favorite neighborhood. It has 4 bedrooms, which is good cause we want to have one more child. So it's 2037 sq ft. We've given our earnest money but I'm now starting to worry that maybe 2037 may not be a big enough jump in space. I'm curious what works for your family of 4 or 5. Thing is if we went bigger in that neighborhood, we'd have to go way over budget and we can't do that.
Re: How much sq footage is good for your family of 4 or 5?
Definitely going to depend on the layout and how big you want your living spaces to be. I think the most space should be focues on where your family spends most of their time (family room, kitchen, etc.). Ask yourself, are you okay with smaller bedrooms and a larger living space or are you not willing to sacrifice any space. Are your children or future children okay sharing a room or do you want them to have their own room. Idealy I think around 2000 sq ft is good size for a family of 4 or even 5. There are just questions you have to ask yourself when looking for a new home. And if a home has a smaller living room but decent size bedrooms, can you add living space to the basement (if the home has one).
It all comes down to what you feel is going to be suitable and comfortable for your growing family. Best of luck!
My Blog:Through My Eyes
We are building a house that is 1965 sq.ft. 4 bed/2 bath and we have 3 kids. Our previous house was 1698 3 bed/2 bath and had a terribly lay out. The living room was cut off from everything. You had to walk through the kitchen to get to the dining room or any of the bedrooms. The closets were almost non-existent. It was fine when we were childless but with 3 kids it didn't work.
The new house is not that much bigger but the lay out it great. It has a great room so the kids can all have space to do individual activities but still be together. The bedrooms are big enough that our two girls can share a room if we decide to have another baby. The closets are just standard size but they come with closet systems so I get twice the useable space in the same square footage.
Like the previous posters mentioned, it is all in the floor plan. We looked at houses as large as 2800 sq. ft. and hated the way they were set up. Our house is significantly smaller than those but it feels so much larger because of the way the rooms are all laid out.
Good luck.
I agree...floor plan matters.
When DH and I were first married, we lived in a 1900 sq. ft. 3 bed/2.5 bath townhouse that he'd bought new right before we got engaged. It had a very open floor plan, and a nice sized basement. While we never lived there with kids, I think we could easily have done so, especially if we turned that basement into a play room. We wouldn't have had a guest room but that would be ok...we could have put a fold out couch somewhere, plus it was close enough to our families that we wouldn't have had many OOT guests anyway.
We currently live in a house that is 4 bed, 2.5 bath, about 2,400 sq. ft. It will be a little under 3,000 sq. ft. when we finish the addition/renovation we're in the middle of. We have two kids now and definitely need that added space! The house is older and not nearly as open. That means less play space, smaller bathrooms, a kitchen that is about the same square footage but more cramped feeling due to how it's arranged. If we hadn't planned to do this renovation from the minute we offered on the house we'd never have bought it.
Does the new house have an unfinished basement that you could eventually finish? Or is there enough land that you could build on later, if the need arises?