One of my co-workers who lives in a fairly new 5000+ sq. ft. house was telling me that he and his wife will only be able to use half of the house because of some work that needs to be done downstairs. The furniture has been moved upstairs into the media room and now they must live constrained in a mere 2500 sq ft or so. He describes it as a sort of hellish situation that has been visited upon them. How will they manage to survive in less than 5000 sq ft?
A good friend just bought a ~4,200 sf home and they were bemoaning all of the new furniture they would need to fill the giant space. And it IS giant! they have 3 children.
On the Anti-Anti-mustachian side my best friend is raising his 5 children in a 1,200 sf home. The giant home trend is truly baffling to me.
Not to me. But Ihave a few things that make a giant (well, maybe just big) house a want for me.
1: I like a big unfinished basement--shoot hockey pucks, bows and arrows, storage for furniture (my parents currently have 2 sets of furniture for pretty much a whole house stored down there—all bought at estate sales. They’re waiting on their stuff to sell to move the new tuff up), storage for hockey gear (not something that you want in a living space, and not something you want to keep outside in the winter). You can’t have a big basement without a big footprint.
2: I like having a family room, a guitar room, a big kitchen, and laundry NOT in the basement.
3: I “need” a king sized bed, and the furniture that we have is pretty big too (sentimental—used to be my grandparents. Also very, very high quality). So while a big master is not a necessity, I get claustrophobic in a small bedroom with everything around me.
EDIT: I should note that I won't actually be in a "Big" house for at least 5 years or so, and even then it will likely "only" be about 2000 sqft depending on the amount of bedrooms.