Ideal ratio of space to people?

[nuisance26]

~I'm going to drive you all crazy with my questions about building a house! I whittled my favorite house plan down to 1293 square feet(also simplified the style to save money ). For some reason it seems too large and too small at the same time.
DH and both grew up homes around but less than 1000 square feet. His was a family of 5, mine was a family of 7. We both played outside a lot.
Most days the 800 square foot house we live in seems much too small but we try to make it work. If we had more closets and one more bedroom, I think the space issue would be mostly resolved. That would bring us up to 950 square feet for our family of 5. But we still couldn't live the way we would like to because of the house size.
I *want* the convenience of not having to homeschool and craft and eat at the table. I *want* a bathroom that I don't share with the kids. I *want* to have our table outside of the kitchen. I *want* a larger living room. I *want* to have company over without feeling like sardines. I *want* to host out of state family overnight.
So as far as needs go, I think 200 square feet per person seems right. When I include the wants that are within our means, it goes up to 250 per person. But specifically, I think the ideal space for an adult would be 350 needs/450 wants and kids 100 needs/150 wants.
How much space do you feel is just right per person?
I'm including everything that's finished between the walls in my square footage, closets too.
ETA: When I was growing up, my older two brothers went to school and my sister, younger brother and myself were homeschooled. So most days it was 4 people in 1000 feet. DH, his brother and sister went to school and both of his parents worked. I think the fact that I'm going to be home with all our children nearly all the time is influencing how much space I think is ideal. Maybe some things on my wants list should really be shifted over to the needs list.~

[Debbie-cat]

I consider 250sf per person ideal. Remember your children are going to grow into larger people. Teens take more room. Also consider that they will grow and leave the nest and then you will be rambling around in a large home unless you want the space for when grandchildren visit. Don't just think of now....think of your needs in the future.

Don't worry...you don't drove us crazy with house questions!! What are friends for?

[Russ]

Nature abhors a vacuum, so if you have empty space, it will be filled.

Will the house have a full basement? If not, in my opinion, it's too small because as the kids get older, the toys and stuff get larger.

I am not suggesting a McMansion, but maybe a 1500 Sq-ft ranch. You want to be comfortable, not cramped.

[OOwl]

My husband and I raised our two children in a 900-square-foot house that I thought was fine but my husband thought was too cramped. When the children got old enough where sharing a room (boy and girl) wasn't much fun for them, we added on to the two-bedroom house, giving us three bedrooms. That was better, but always tight, especially for family holidays, had no guest room, and there was not enough seating for everyone. Years later, we now have one kid launched, one kid living at home while she attends law school (locally, thank God!), and we added an elderly family member in the household (and our five dogs). Since the family is actually growing (new DIL, with kids to come), we elected to buy a larger home. New home isn't large, but has tons more storage space (cabinets go all the way to ceiling to take advantage of that extra space to store little-used items and stockpile items), a guest room (finally!), larger dining area (not formal dining but just larger casual dining area), a breakfast bar that I anticipate us using a LOT, and a dedicated laundry room (10'x10' with extra walk-in pantry). Since we all like the outdoors, too, we chose a house with a large, covered front porch (swing is the first addition!), and we're adding a covered back porch, as well (to wipe down dogs' paws before we bring them inside, to put our aviary for our birds' outdoor time, and a seating area for entertaining guests, barbecues, etc.). Most of my friends are astonished that we'd buy a relatively small cottage to live in, but I really do not like those large, sprawling houses with no character that all look the same and are wasteful of resources and space. Your new house sounds like it's going to be just wonderful for you. I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses. Have you picked out a floor plan yet?

[krbshappy71]

I think it depends on how you use that square footage. If its well laid out, it will seem just right, if not, you'll feel cramped no matter how large a home.

My home is Total Sq Ft: 1014 with a mostly unfinished basement, but 1 bedroom and 1/2 bath finished in the basement. The unfinished basement is wasted space for us, completely open with a tiny bit of storage going on. If we had more people I'd have made another bedroom down there, if I had more money I'd finish it and have another level of house, but as it is, its just empty.

What I like about my house that might help you: OPEN FLOOR PLAN. Living room, dining room, kitchen are one huge room when you walk in. This has been so nice as a family and I know its not for everyone but I have really loved it over the years. People always comment how big it looks when you first walk in. It has been nice to be able to fix dinners while still being a part of living/dining conversations.

Make your house work for you, don't fill it up with stuff, and I'm sure whichever size you choose will be just right.

Congratulations on building your house! How exciting!!

[imagine]

Just a thought.

I think the Duggars house seems huge. And has a place for everything. Two kitchens, a dinning area, indoor playroom, main closet, a storage area, girls room, boys room, mom and dad's room, a sewing craft room, boy's media studio room, reading lofts, office for mom/older children house school room?, room for mutiple computers, office for dad, huge laundry room with multiple dryers, a huge pantry,prayer closet, a hand full of bathrooms/bathing rooms, a grandparents suite and a extra room they call the good bye room

The house is big enough that the children sometimes skate in the house and run in the house quite a bit. Their total square footage is 4,000 That comes to a little less than 200 square footage per person ( grandma lives with them). And people on the net complain the house is to small for that many people. Seems plenty big enough to me they sometimes squeeze in families for visits that have the same or approx the same members as them.

Having lived in several houses I feel it is about layout and ease of storage. The house that had big closets seems bigger to me than the house with Victorian closets although they were the same square footage and the same number of rooms.

[Spirit Deer]

I don't think it's about how many sf per person. So much depends on how the space is arranged. A large home that's poorly planned will seem too small while a smaller home well-planned will seem plenty big enough. Your lifestyle affects the need for space, too.

If you're putting in a basement, and if the basement doesn't end up being too damp, you can build a smaller house and still have plenty of room. Basements are great because banks usually don't require them to be finished before the financing is completed, meaning you can finish it off on your own time as you can afford it, which may enable you to cut down your mortgage. If you're planning basement bedrooms, be sure to plan for egress windows which are usually required by code and are a smart idea even without a code requirement. You can double the size of your house by including a basement, which does not double the cost of the house. A basement is a great place for a playroom where all the toys can live, or a recreation area.

It's always cheaper to build up rather than out. So a two-story house is cheaper to build than a one-story with comparable square footage. Plan carefully if you go that route though. Having lived in a house where all the bedrooms were on the second and third floors along with the bathroom on the second floor, I can tell you from my own experience it got old fast having to run up and down stairs all day long. It would be worse now that we're thirty years older.

Basements also provide good storage for things like canned goods, seasonal cooking equipment, freezers, etc. If you don't have a basement, don't forget to find room for all those things somewhere. And be sure the spaces will be big enough. Our house included an alleged freezer space. We laughed when we saw it, because it would have only been big enough for the tiniest freezer on the planet. We ended up adding a coat rack in that space, along with the pressure tank for our well.

It also makes a difference what sort of non-bedroom space you need. For myself, I need a full office. By accident I ended up with three rooms. Some of the space is used for storage of our camping gear and some tools and things like paint that can't freeze, but most of it is for office things. My husband also has an office in the house. In addition, I have a room dedicated to sewing and hobbies. There wouldn't be room to put all my stuff in a closet or under a bed. Bear that in mind if you have things like that which will require storage. IMO, it's not possible to have too much storage, but it also has to be the right kind of storage. Think about the things you do that require lots of equipment, like your homeschooling, cooking, or other activities. You will need much more space than someone who doesn't do those things.

[Libby]

Wow lots of input here! nuisance, do not be afraid to ask questions - as DC said, what are friends for?

If it were up to me, I'd not build the house according to sq ft. I feel its all about the lay out. I, too, am also a fan of the open concept floor plan - so long as its laid out well.

You could go two ways:

* smaller bedrooms which would be used for sleeping/dressing only with a larger common area for 'living' (homework, socializing, entertaining etc)

OR

* moderate bedrooms with the intent for some 'living' to be done in there as well as having a retreat/sanctuary type space with a moderate common area

[bonnotsm9]

We lived in a 1400 sq. ft. house with 5 and, later, 7 kids. The general use rooms- living room, kitchen, den, etc. were too small. I wish we'd made them bigger, even at the expense of making the bedrooms smaller. It really helped to have an unfinished basement for storage. The kids also played there when the weather was too bad to go outside.

[RaineyDaye]

My house (circa 1920s) is about 1600 sq ft. When my two daughters were living here, that came to 533 sq ft per person, and the house seemed cramped at times. However, the main floor is not well-laid out for our "modern" lifestyle (how did people manage with such cramped kitchens?), and another full bathroom would have been a huge improvement. Now that its just me living here, there is plenty of space. So I agree with those who said layout is more important than square footage!

[nuisance26]

Will the house have a full basement?

~No, we're in Wetland territory so it would just get flooded. We do want to build a garage with an upstairs storage area though.~

Have you picked out a floor plan yet?

~A favorite? Yes. 892 square feet downstairs and 400 upstairs. And I did choose a house based on layout, not style. I really prefer Georgian, Colonial and Federal house styles. ~

I think it depends on how you use that square footage. If its well laid out, it will seem just right, if not, you'll feel cramped no matter how large a home.
What I like about my house that might help you: OPEN FLOOR PLAN. Living room, dining room, kitchen are one huge room when you walk in.
Make your house work for you, don't fill it up with stuff, and I'm sure whichever size you choose will be just right.

~This is one thing I absolutely insisted on in the floor plan! The open living space is 14X 22 feet with a high ceiling. The kitchen is not a part of the open plan, which I prefer, and is 14 X 12. The upstairs is built over the kitchen and master bedroom portion of the house with the rest of the roof area open in the dining/living area.

Their total square footage is 4,000 That comes to a little less than 200 square footage per person ( grandma lives with them).
Having lived in several houses I feel it is about layout and ease of storage.

~Actually it's 7000 square feet. I watched the show last month and remembered thinking that was way too big, even for their family size. Where Does the Duggar Family Live | LoveToKnow
Storage is of monumental importance to me. We have no broom closet here. No coat closet. This house has only 7 linear feet of closet. I made sure that there were appropriate amounts and locations of closets to suit our needs.~

Basements are great because banks usually don't require them to be finished before the financing is completed, meaning you can finish it off on your own time as you can afford it, which may enable you to cut down your mortgage.
It's always cheaper to build up rather than out. So a two-story house is cheaper to build than a one-story with comparable square footage. Plan carefully if you go that route though. Having lived in a house where all the bedrooms were on the second and third floors along with the bathroom on the second floor, I can tell you from my own experience it got old fast having to run up and down stairs all day long. It would be worse now that we're thirty years older.

~I was just wondering this morning if we could call the upstairs of the plan an 'attic' and finish it into the loft later. The downstairs alone would give us 100 more square feet than we have here.
I read about it being cheaper to go down or up instead of out(less roof surface and foundation work!)so I chose a plan that did that. But I was sure to insist on a master bedroom and bathroom on the first floor. I want this to be our forever home so our future needs are being considered. By the time we're old and don't want to go upstairs we can just close it up!~

* smaller bedrooms which would be used for sleeping/dressing only with a larger common area for 'living' (homework, socializing, entertaining etc)
OR
* moderate bedrooms with the intent for some 'living' to be done in there as well as having a retreat/sanctuary type space with a moderate common area

~I've always preferred large living areas and small bedrooms, providing the bedrooms had a good closet. The two bedrooms in the plan I chose are 12X14(with 14 linear feet of closet) and 10X11(with 8 feet of linear closet). The smaller bedroom is upstairs. There is also an open loft upstairs that I would use for a third bedroom. It's 14X15.5.
The rest of the house has 14 linear feet of closet plus the 6X8 foot laundry/freezer/broom closet.

I really wish I could post the floor-plan but I feel like that's a security risk. ~

[nuisance26]

However, the main floor is not well-laid out for our "modern" lifestyle (how did people manage with such cramped kitchens?), and another full bathroom would have been a huge improvement.

~They had their servants work in there and didn't know how inconvenient it was? ~

[nuisance26]

~This isn't the plan I like best but I think this is good use of space. Since we wouldn't be putting in a basement/drive under garage, the stairs in this plan could expand the kitchen and coat closet and include a pantry.

That's only 1124 square feet!~

[imagine]

~Actually it's 7000 square feet. I watched the show last month and remembered thinking that was way too big, even for their family size. Where Does the Duggar Family Live | LoveToKnow

Wow that is really big!
And yet people say there are to many people for a house that size. I don't understand it.



Thanks for correcting my mistake.

[shoiji]

I think alot also depends on what you can afford. With utilities just going up all the time the thought of heating/cooling a large home seems impractible.

However, you do have a point when you realize you will be spending lots of time in the home with your children. If everyone was going their separate ways during the day then I think you could manage better with a smaller home.