When we talked about how this would certainly create a larger mortgage and many more years of paying that mortgage, he just said - "Well, I will just work until I am 65."
Real estate in the US can be highly leveraged with tax deductible interest. Although slightly risky, depending on how the real estate market does this could turn out to be a large windfall for him.
Not what I would do, but also not outside of historic norms.
Or he could end up like the people in the article I read recently who built some of those godawful McMansions 15 years ago and now want to sell them and retire. Except no one wants to buy them or can afford them.
I live in what would be considered a "starter home" today. 1600 sq ft of heated space with 400 sqft of semi-heated space (it's a 2-and-a-half-season room). It's just me and my husband and my kid. It's a little crowded right now, but I fully expect it to be the perfect size as the kiddo gets older and has fewer/smaller toys. Now if I could just do something with the amount of random stuff my husband collects...
Just remember that people tend to fill out whatever space they live in regardless of size. THe stuff may be crowding you now, but in a 3000sqft house it will just be 5x more stuff.
Clutter always happens, set some rules both ways, ex:
- this bookshelf right here, if its 100% full of books, something needs to be sold/donated before another is bought.
- this closet/dresser drawer, if it cant fit, something needs to go before new items get added into it.
- gunsafe, if its full, sell one before buying another.
etc...