would you rather live in a large house or small house?
 

if you could have any size house you want, would you have a large house or small house?

i used to want to live in a large house, it's how i was brought up. now that i'm older, i've become fond of smaller dwellings. i found a large house made me want to fill it with stuff, usually extra crap i don't need. i now live in a small apartment (2 bed, living room, kitchen, bath) and find it's pretty damn roomy, almost too roomy (i am single). i find i spend most of the time in one room, i use the other room for my bicycles.

i'm intrigued by small dwellings, i think i want to go smaller, minimalist as hell. i got this book on super small homes from here:
Relaxshax's Blog
and it makes me want to live so simply. it is sort of unrealistic, but it's a cool idea.

living in a small space can make it difficult to entertain company, so i can't really get much smaller, but still, to me, the large house seems so....outdated, but i tend to be odd like that, i'm not a good consumer and i don't like accumulating lots of things.

given your druthers, what would be most ideal for you?

Large house, no question. Mrs. Levite and I have a LOT of books, which need a LOT of space, and we also really like having guests.

In the best of all possible worlds, I'd love to have a house with three or four bedrooms with big walk-in closets, big bathrooms (for big English bathtubs and separate showers), a couple of offices, a big huge living room, big dining room, huge kitchen (gourmet + kosher = need a lot of room), readily accessible large attic, large basement rumpus room. And as long as I'm wishing, I'd love enough space outside for a pool and hot tub, pool house with sauna, and enough room for both a small English garden and a small Zen garden.

None of which, I am sure, we will ever come close to being able to afford....

small house if i'm single when i own my own house. huge house if i'm married by that time. i also have a huge library but if i live by myself i tend to be outdoors and more extroverted when on my lonesome.

however if a wife and kids are on the horizon i'll definitely need more space for the kiddos and definitely shop space for my "experiments"

When there were three kids, cats, a dog and a husband, a large house served us well.

Now I would love a nice home with little maintenance required, so smallish would be good.

I grew up in 2,000 to 2,500 sq. ft. homes. But, then again, I also grew up with 7 other family members.

I have now lived in sub-1,000 sq. ft. apartments for over 10 years. I've been in my current 715 sq. ft. apartment for over 5 years. I live with one other person. It's what I'm used to. It has defined my adult living experience.

Now do the math.

Even at 2,500 square feet, 8 people means around 312 square feet per capita. In my current place, I have 358 square feet per capita. Though I'm sure some of my houses growing up were as small as 2,000, meaning only 250 to 300 square feet, depending on whether some of my siblings were still around.

That said, I don't find living in 715 square feet "small." Not overall. However, I do find the kitchen (galley) and bathroom a bit small. That's the only exception. Otherwise, I don't really think about it much.

Would I like more space? Sure, of course. But the fact is, we can't really afford it. Not in this city. Even if we bought a place, it would probably barely reach 1,000 square feet. The only way around that would be to move to the 905 belt. That may just happen. Also, a private yard would be nice.

What would I be happy with? I'd feel like a king in 2,000 square feet. It would even have enough room for a kid or two if that ever happens.

After 20+ years of renting, my wife and I bought our first and probably last home 10 years ago. It's a fairly modest, 1100 sq ft cabin in a not so modest location. It suits us well, less to clean and maintain with enough room to stay out of each other's way when appropriate. I'd prefer more land for puppy romping and neighbor distance; but this is what the budget allowed.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../th_house4.jpg

I prefer a small house with wheels and its own propulsion system. :)

My wife and I owned a house that was too big. Two people don't really need 3500 sq ft and more than 2 bathrooms. I was naive and underestimated the amount of time and work it took to keep the place clean.

Now that almost every book published also has an ebook version, those walls of books fit on a disk drive.

I don't know about needing a large house for book storage. One of the coolest houses I've ever been in was my favorite professor's house. He had a three-bedroom rambler, and every bit of available wall space was custom bookshelves, more or less. He has quite a collection of art, as well, and the shelves were designed to work with the pieces he had. He admitted that it helped that he had a large office at the university for MORE books :lol: but ever since I saw that house, I've thought that I could get by with less space. My main problem is shelving. I don't have enough shelving designated for books. Inadequate storage in my existing house means I'm using shelves meant for books for other things (i.e. the food I canned). As such, I probably have another several hundred books in the attic.

Ideally, I'd like a house with just enough space for everything, including kids. I'd want a house with a separate play area so that my future children could have enough room for their play stuff without taking over my living room/family room/great room (whatever). As a babysitter, I get irritated when parents allow their children to take over what I see as the communal spaces of a home by letting their children permanently store toys in these spaces, when they have perfectly fine bedrooms or playrooms. I nannied for a family with a small house (I loved that house), and they had 1 space suitable for playing with larger toys--the living room. The parents truly appreciated my rule--yes, we could play in the living room, but come 5:00, it was cleanup time (and they knew it was, because All Things Considered used to come on the radio at that time). I loved that house because I could clean it up in less than an hour. My only complaint was the lack of playspace for the kiddos.

My current house feels too big for my needs. It's become a crap collector because it has too much space (1500 square feet, three bedrooms, basement, attic space). I really really need to divest myself of some crap.

Large house. I want one with wings. That is a 'summer wing' or a 'winter wing' that I use just during those times. I would like to have to use a golf cart or Segway to get around. I also would like to have dumbwaiters installed. Ideally the Overlook Hotel from the movie "The Shining" would fit the bill, especially with the creep factor built in.

I live in a 1500 sq ft detached two story and it is big enough for a family, yet small enough for empty nesting when that time comes. It also close to downtown and the lake and to restaurants making it doubleplusgood. In this way I manage my disappointment at not having 'wings'.

A giant home filled with lots of people.
Or, a tiny home filled with just us two.

I like small spaces. I also like community.

Growing up, my family had a fairly large home. It felt far too big for the number of people living it. I often wondered where everyone else was, and did my best to fill it with my friends in the afternoons. I swore up and down that I would never have such a large and lonely home.

My now-husband and I used to live in a single room in a cooperative house that had a lot of people. That was fun. I would happily live in a huge house again if I had it filled with friends, family, co-workers, or even random people. I love the dynamics of a large and diverse community crammed into a small space.

When we moved into our first one-bedroom apartment, we shared it with another person. We partitioned off the living room with a curtain and it worked out well. It was a bit lonely, though.

Then we moved across the country to another 1-bedroom apartment. It had significantly more square footage. We felt isolated, lonely, and we couldn't possibly fill all of the extra space that we had at our disposal. We had no idea what to do with it. So next we moved into a smaller 1-bedroom apartment that was about half the square footage of that place. It was just about right for everything. But we became frustrated with needing to store our bycicles in the living room, needing to visit a laundramat to wash our clothes, and having no garage to work on our own cars.

This weekend we're moving into a 2-bedroom townhome. I'm pretty sure that it's going to feel like far too much space. The big draws for this place: our own attached garage, and a community setting. There's regular social events and a community gym, pool, etc - plenty of time to interact with neighbors, which we're really hoping will be fun.

We miss the comraderie of community living. I hope we have an opportunity to live in a cooperative setting in the future.

or what about aerodynamically functioning wings that produce lift?

I would be happy with something small. I find that more space = more crap to fill it.

I'd rather have a garden with a small house attached.

Similar to ggirly above, but not quite: I prefer small or large space filled proportionately with people.
A small spot, central location. Critical for me would be some sort of private spot outdoors, no matter size.

Small house Big yard/lots of land.

I don't want a lot of space that will collect stuff. My parents were collectors and i dont want to turn into that. I could be happy in a studio apartment as it's just me and two fat felines. I don't really need a lot of space. I suppose things will change as I grow older. I survived in a medium sized home with 4 other people growing up. I had my own room and was content. I spent a lot of time either hidden in my room or outside.

I currently live with snowy and E, although I have spent most of my time in a rehab facility. I have a feeling I'll spend most of my time in my room. Not because I don't want to spend time with them...it's just who I am. When I lived with Cinn and Crack, I spent a lot of time in my room. When I lived with the ex SO I did the same thing. It's what I've been doing since I was a kid. I emerge for sustenance and to potty. I am a very private person and like to be alone. I don't need a lot ofspace for that.

Now open spaces outdoors is much more appealing. I would like to focus on outdoor square footage rather than indoor. If I wasn't secluded in my room, I would do so outside.

I do like to entertain. That would be the only reason for me to want ample indoor space. I'd rather have outdoor parties, but weather doesn't always allow that.

ZS, like you, I used to like the idea of having a lot of land, mainly so I could play with more plants. But then I learned more about myself and my craving for interaction, and realized I found it far more rewarding to work with plants for a living and have a few little things in a balcony garden, rather than a lot of land that I have to maintain alone. I'm opposite of you in some ways, I suppose. I get an energy-high from teaching and otherwise interacting with people. But when I want to be alone, I really don't want distractions.

Started out with a small 1100 square foot home- now have a much larger 2600 square foot home- NEVER GOING BACK- more space and breathing room, and finally a place for everything to be, and be easy to find without digging for it- love the change, especially since the wife and I both have extensive hobbies, a home based business, and a child (and cats)......

Large house for sure. Otherwise I feel claustorphobic (sp?).

Eden and I have a smallish two bedroom. The second bedroom is "his," with his desk and computer stuff, and we plan on putting an extra bed in there for guests.

For the most part, it fits the bill nicely, with two exceptions: Eden wants more counterspace in the kitchen, and I'd like another bedroom to use as a library/personal office/den. The third bedroom isn't a huge deal, though...we have bookshelves all over the house (including the kitchen), and like snowy's professor, I'd be very happy if every inch of wall space was covered with books and art.

So...a smallish house, with acres and acres of land. That's what I'd love to have.

A simple & clean one story house will do just fine. Small is cool, just not micro. I embrace small minimalist inspired homes ie. wood floors, no nic nacs (sp?) etc. Easy to keep clean and maintain. :)

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...qQ5PtS1Gxg&t=1

*Oh and nice small garden in the back is cool...must have though is a 2-3 garage to keep my babies (cars) safe from thieves/the elements.

Steve from Blue's Clues has a sweet bachelor pad with no wasted space and a neat central courtyard feature:

The Bachelor Pad of Steve From Blue's Clues! [Slideshow] | Co.Design

ooooh...that IS nifty. Want, please.

Why not just a nice, medium house? I don't need large but I get antsy in a small house.