Living Space SQ FT: Have, Want & Need

[DaveInPgh]

Seeing and reading about the 340 sq ft Tiny house below made me think of this one.

In terms of square feet:

How much do you have?
How much do you want?
How much do you need?

http://newatlas.com/greenmoxie-tiny-house-drawbridge/45950/

[DaveInPgh]

Have 1666
Want 1000
Need ?

[Singuy]

Have: 4350
Want: 3350-5000
Need: 1200

[phantom]

Have: 1700 sqft.
Want: +900 sqft. in the form of a finished basement
Need: 800-1200 sqft?

[Fishindude77]

Have 1400 SF house + 3600 SF of shop & barns
Want same house square footage, a whole lot more shop & barns.
Need ?

[DaveInPgh]

Have: 1700 sqft.
Want: +900 sqft. in the form of a finished basement
Need: 800-1200 sqft?

I live in one of the many areas of Pittsburgh that make the news for flooding when there is a heavy rain. We have never had more than a couple of inches in our basement and it has only happened 3 times in the 14 years we have been there. But once was enough for me to remove finished basement from our future potential remodel list.

[cooliemae]

Have: 900sq ft
Want: 1800+ sq ft
Need: 900sq ft

[bigdaddybus]

Have: 2969 sqft
Want: spouse wants walkout basement finished (1946 sqft)
Need: we have 6 of us, so I would say 300 sqft a person (1800 total) is needed

[DaveInPgh]

Have: 2969 sqft
Want: spouse wants walkout basement finished (1946 sqft)
Need: we have 6 of us, so I would say 300 sqft a person (1800 total) is needed

I like your take on what is needed. When I looked at the tiny house pictures, I honestly could imagine myself living there if it was just me. I would love to buy a piece of land out in the country and put three of those tiny houses on it for my family. Each of us having our own personal space to maintain.

[Singuy]

I find interesting that a lot of you guys have a "want" to be much smaller than your "have". Seems like most of you guys overpaid for too big of a house you don't even want? Want should be the same or bigger than what you have...

[DaveInPgh]

I find interesting that a lot of you guys have a "want" to be much smaller than your "have". Seems like most of you guys overpaid for too big of a house you don't even want? Want should be the same or bigger than what you have...

Or perhaps that our want has changed over the years! I can think of numerous reasons for that to occur that has nothing to do with overpaying for a big house.

[MonkeyMama]

Have: 2600
Want: 2000
Need: 600?

Of course, the answer is complex. We wanted to have this size home to raise kids. & I think we'd be fairly happy with 1800-2200 square feet, but we wanted a home movie theater which required an extra room. Only bigger houses would have the extra room. We also have two rooms in our house that we basically never use, so if we could customize a bit I guess I will put 2000 square feet as more of our dream home size. (Cutting out the space that we have no use for).

This is 4 people, and we really value our personal space. We prefer more space while raising kids. For the two of us, we only want about 1300 square feet. That was the size of our last home, and it was perfect. I've never lived in a smaller home, so I don't know how small I would be happy with. But I am from San Francisco and space was a huge luxury there. So we overall have a mindset that we need very little. It's not like we "needed" the two extra bedrooms when we had 1300 sq ft. (In fact, we bought that home presuming we'd likely raise a family there. I don't see why we would have bought that much space even, if we didn't plan to have kids).

Personally, I would be more than happy with 340 sq ft by myself. It's sharing a small space with other people that is the sticking point for me. But is that a need or a want? To prefer some personal space? Probably more of a want than a true need.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Have 1800
Want 3000 plus 3 car garage
Need 700-900 (3 bd condo) seen and done

[bigdaddybus]

I like your take on what is needed. When I looked at the tiny house pictures, I honestly could imagine myself living there if it was just me. I would love to buy a piece of land out in the country and put three of those tiny houses on it for my family. Each of us having our own personal space to maintain.

After spending 6 months in a rental house during the construction of our home, my entire household has a better appreciation for personal space.

Like most things, I think "the space you need" is relative to your surroundings/past experience. My parents (retired) live in a 12,700 sqft home and my kids thought since we were building a home it would likely be big like Grandpas. We laughed and said sorry guys!

[MonkeyMama]

I find interesting that a lot of you guys have a "want" to be much smaller than your "have". Seems like most of you guys overpaid for too big of a house you don't even want? Want should be the same or bigger than what you have...

Well, we bought our current home in our mid 20s. People change. We've really changed our mind a lot over the years about what we want or need in a home.

For us personally, we bought our home because it was an incredible deal. We personally didn't pay for the extra for the square footage. Though we will very likely benefit when we sell the home.