would you consider this house small or large?

12 years ago

My husband and I are designing are house plans, I don't know how to post a pic of them but the measurements are:

40' width and 32'depth with room/nook of 12'depth on the front of one side of the house, second story is the exact same measurements with a total of around 2800 sf. ft. This is a farmhouse design. What do you guys think? I think it is quite big and will fulfill all our needs, there is only 4 of us. Our home now is 30' width by 26' depth, one story, so in my opinion this home will be huge, but he is seeing it as the width is just not big enough? any advice please?

Oh and it will have a full size basement although unfinished, just for storage and the like

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Comments (9)

graycern
12 years ago
To me that's a big house. We have 4 in our family (2 adults, 2 teens) and live in 1680 sq. ft. house. It has has all the space we need.
allison0704
12 years ago
I'd consider it average. Neither large or small.
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Thanks for the responses. Right now I am using the house myself and renting a bedroom to a friend (he is moving out into a house of his own soon). The bedrooms are rather large, the finished basement is plenty spacious also, but not exposed or a full height ceiling. I do not have kids or a spouse. I bought the house as a way to get away from rising rental costs and to invest some time/money into to update. The house values in neighborhood are doing very well. Right now I am still "ahead of the game" if I wanted to sell and cover closing costs but I plan on living here for another 2-3 years or renting the home out to make some extra income. My next door neighbor put in a 4 season room with a natural gas fireplace and it sold for 25k more than mine (same layout and floorplan) when they bought it in 2015. The issue I have is the weird, small layout in the center of the house and lack of any substantial dining/living areas. It feels more like an apartment or trailer than a house on the inside due to this. The exterior looks nice (needs some landscaping and a new roof soon) and the private back yard with river view is quite nice. Having another 300-400 feet of space would make the house much more livable and marketable as it would have a legitimate living and dining space and more privacy for the bedrooms. I am also aware that without a 3rd bedroom the ceiling is limited so I do not think a full room addition would be cost-effective. At this point I am leaning towards a sunroom/4-season, but depending on cost may need to hold off for a year or so. After talking to some people I think the garage conversion would detract from the value and not be worthwhile in the long run. I work with a retired contractor (he works as a janitor now) on remodeling. We can handle the drywall, flooring, roofing and most other interior work. I would be hiring out for any foundation, electrical and other work that requires permitting with licensed and insured contractors. If the sunroom option does not look feasible anytime soon I am considering using the large 15x15 master bedroom as more of a hang out room (has lots of windows, decent location in terms of flow) and living in the smaller bedroom. Then using the central/entry room as a dining area.
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babs711
12 years ago
For me, the width and length don't matter. It's HOW the inside layout functions for YOUR needs. In my opinion as a member of a family of four, 2800 square feet is a great size. It's average. There are many that live in smaller homes and many in larger. Is that total square feet or living (air conditioned) square feet?

We moved from a house that was about 2500 square feet. I never felt it was too small at all. But the functionality wasn't there. We're now building bigger but that's because we added some things, not because we couldn't have lived with less space. 2800 is just fine as long as the layout is functional.
kelvance
Original Author
12 years ago
I think the functionality is great ( could anyone tell me how to post a pic of the layout from a PDF? Then you could see the layout, but I don't know how. And 2800 is the total heated ft.
mjlb
12 years ago
Depending upon the software to which you have access, you could save your pdf as a jpg. If that doesn't work, but you have access to a printer and a scanner, you could print the pdf, and then scan it as a jpg. Then upload jpg to photobucket, tinypic, or other photo hosting site. Then copy and paste link to your post.

It's a bit of a pain, but less so when you're motivated.
kelhuck
12 years ago
@kelvance- you need to convert the PDF to a JPEG file. (With a program, or scan it in and save it as a JPEG, or just take a pic with a camera.)

Then, go to Photobucket and upload the picture. The picture will have an HTML code underneath it. Click on it to "copy" it.

Come back here and start a message and paste the HTML code directly in to the message box. You can then "preview" your post and see if it shows up correctly before you officially submit the message.
chispa
12 years ago
As other mentioned the layout can make a big difference. A large house can feel small and a small house can feel large! For our family 2800 + basement is a bit small, but that is based on the way we live and entertain. We are homebodies, so having lots of space at home is important.
LuAnn_in_PA
12 years ago
2800 sq ft would be average size around here.
michoumonster
12 years ago
depends on your location. 2800 is a big house where I live here in CA.. the average sized lots around here are 6000 square feet, which is the size of some houses in other areas..

would you consider this house small or large?

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graycern

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would you consider this house small or large?

Comments (9)

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