re: Smallest house you’d be willing to live in

What do you mean by “willing to live in?” Like either you live in this small house or die?

If I had a choice, 4000SF. If I didn’t have a choice, a box.

For me the biggest issue is bathrooms. I like to know that I can go blast arse on a toilet at any time and in peace.

A perfect setup would be a tiny house with a nice outdoor kitchen and 2 or 3 other tiny house structures nearby all converted into beautiful bathrooms. All on some beautiful land in a great climate - I’m thinking some sprawling vineyards in Baja or Provence.

Lol this is so true. I have a house in Bucktown and a lot of these houses don’t have master baths with dual sinks or a toilet detached in the master bath. I would not have bought the house I am in if it didn’t have those features.

I'm fine with a smaller house (less than 1,500 sq ft of inside space) if I have a decent yard, a front porch with chairs, a big deck in the back (at least 300 sq ft) and a shed. Would prioritize social and open spaces over bedroom size.

We don't have a huge house right now and would easily get rid of half the stuff we have inside tomorrow if I could.

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1200 for a family of 4 would be fine in a nice area where there was a lot to do and you weren’t just always at home.

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Maybe that's why my parent's 1,300 sq. ft. home (for 4) didn't seem so small when we were kids.

During the school year, you woke up, went to school, came home, did your homework as quickly as you could so that you could go outside and play until dinner (i.e., when the street lights came on). If there was any daylight after dinner, you'd go back out and play until the sun went completely down. You'd then watch a little TV with the family and go to be. When you turned 15/16 and got a car, then you'd stay out as late as your curfew hanging out or playing sports.

During the Summer, you'd go outside almost as soon as you woke up and you'd stay outside until lunch. Then you'd go back outside until dinner. Then you'd go back outside until the sun went down and the street lights came on.

I.e., you were never really inside the house and so there was no reason for the house to seem so small.

Nowadays, the kids just stay inside all day playing on video games or computers. There is noise coming from almost every room. And, it seems like you're always on top of each other.

Current family of 4 - 3000

Empty nest - 2000

There are ways to make a smaller space workable. But with 3 young kids, I'd need at least 2,500 SF to store all their shite. Same with 2, probably. Once the kids are older and they don't have giant arse toys anymore, 2,000 would be easily doable, but the layout would have to be perfect.

I’m just concerned because we’d be downsizing from what we have now, but like I said our current house is just not laid out well at all.

Our starter home right now is about 1700, which is huge for the two of us...I'm low key already getting anxiety about when we start putting kids in it

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1800 and under suck entertaining visitors.

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Ours is under and great for entertaining....but that's probably because a ton of our SF is in our kitchen and we have a killer patio