To the people buying/building 5-6k square ft homes

amother

Papaya

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 10:25 pm

amother Peru wrote:

7 bedroom 5 bath playroom. Living room, DR, kitchen, 2 dens, library on two floors, one for sforim one for books/reading, laundry, second living room.

Wow. Sounds enormous. What do you do with 2 dens plus a library and a playroom? I'm gonna assume a lot of these spaces are barely used. Do you have full time cleaning help?

amother

Lemonchiffon

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 10:27 pm

amother Peru wrote:

7 bedroom 5 bath playroom. Living room, DR, kitchen, 2 dens, library on two floors, one for sforim one for books/reading, laundry, second living room.

See, this sounds amazing but definitely a luxury. Not a necessary amount of space…but I’d take it!

amother

Peru

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 10:29 pm

amother Papaya wrote:

Wow. Sounds enormous. What do you do with 2 dens plus a library and a playroom? I'm gonna assume a lot of these spaces are barely used.

We host alot. My grandkids are here alot and couples. Inlaws etc.
My house is not noisy as all is spread out well. Bh. One den is unused, the rest very well used.

amother

Strawberry

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 10:30 pm

A lot depends on what you're used to. Also, a lot depends on the layout. I looked at some houses that were 1800 sq/ft and felt very spacious and some 1800 sq/ft houses that felt very cramped. I can imagine layout plays a big role in 5k sq/ft homes as well.

Does this house look HUGE to you? It's 5k sq/ft....
https://www.zillow.com/homedet.....zpid/

amother

Cantaloupe

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 10:32 pm

We live in 5000 sq fr, moved from 2200.

The space is such a tremendous bracha!!!!!

5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms upstairs. Kitchen, LR, DR and garage on main level. The spaciousness is so airy and incredible! My kids ride hoverboards around and rarely crash into each other!

Basement (not sure if it’s actually included in the square feet? A lot of times they don’t include it if it’s underground) playroom, storage room, guest room, full bathroom.

It’s much easier to keep clean than my old house because there’s so many closets and tons of room for extra furniture for storage! Our old house had piles mushrooming everywhere.

amother

Maple

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 10:43 pm

I have over 4000 SQ ft plus 2k more from basement + attic and it doesn't seem so big. Grew up in an apartment and 2 bedroom house. Starter home was 1800 sq ft with basement included. Was way too small. This size is perfect but doesn't feel extra big. Some kids still share rooms. Gonna convert attic bedroom to double as a guest suite after I upgrade the bathroom there.

Agree plenty of space to store things so less mess but dust omg never ends. Just bought one of the top of the line robot sweepers to go around twice a day. Kids each clean a bathroom and aside from the regular chores like laundry, vaccuuming is still the biggest. I spend 1-2 hrs/wk vacuuming baseboards, staircase spindles, archways, ceilings, shelves and anywhere else dust accumulates. Plus another hour on staircases just once a week.

Gotta say on top of papers. Kids bring home so much, they need to decide if they go in their special storage boxes in the attic closets or if they want to throw out or hang up as artwork.

amother

Ruby

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 11:46 pm

amother Maple wrote:

I have similar square footage. Just curious do you have central vac? And how much cleaning help do you have weekly?

Sebastian

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 11:51 pm

amother Strawberry wrote:

It is enormous. The dining room is huge. Multiple sitting areas. 6 bedrooms. Large bathrooms etc

amother

Maple

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 12:11 am

amother Ruby wrote:

I have similar square footage. Just curious do you have central vac? And how much cleaning help do you have weekly?

No cleaning help ever. No central. A split unit on the first floor and window units in the bedrooms.

amother

Lily

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 12:26 am

wow I am finding this thread so fascinating!
I live OOT, in large jewish community.
my home is BH about 1600sq ft and there are 9 of us ranging in age from 3 to 22 bli ayin hara.
5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. bedrooms are all small, the biggest one is about 13 x 11 and the smallest is about 7 x 10 (can only really fit one bed, or a bunkbed if really necessary).
OUr kitchen is small, not an eat-in kitchen, thats the only thing I feel the lack of. We have a dining room/living room, a laundry room and a big playroom.
It is fine for the 9 of us. It only feels really squishy when we have guests. Then its a challenge to find place for everyone to sleep! We have fitted in 12 maximum in our bedrooms, any more than that and we would have to put out mattresses on the playroom floor.
I can imagine enjoying a little more space, maybe up to 2500sqft would be nice! But I simply cant imagine living in a house thats bigger than that.
It can be done! You just need to keep things organized when space is at a premium.

amother

Arcticblue

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 12:42 am

I have 3000 SQ feet. Not including basement (I rent out most of my basement my basement)

Main floor: kitchen, dining room/living room, playroom/family room, small office and full bathroom. I have a big entranceway with three nice size coat closets plus a big pantry.

Upper floor: 5 bedrooms, 3 bathroom, laundry room. I have 4 kids and use three bedrooms. The other two are mostly for guests. And one bathroom is a guest bathroom.

Eta. Not in Lakewood

amother

Wallflower

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 2:19 am

As Rav Yaakov Galinsky writes about Israel: It used to be that families lived in 2 bedroom apartments and it was cozy but adequate. They somehow managed to find room for the girls, boys, and occasional guests. Then some began to have more financial success and made the move to three bedroom apartments so they could have one room for the boys and another for the girls. Somehow, there ceased to be room for the guests. So they moved to a four and then a five bedroom house at which point there was apparently no longer room for the parents because they began to frequently vacation out of the home, leaving the kids behind!

amother

Brickred

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 4:43 pm

I moved from apartment to a 1600 sq ft home thought it was so big as you get used to more space- u may want more space although probably need full time cleaning help.. rn we're BH quite content 😌

amother

Yellow

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 4:56 pm

I have 3200 sf not including the basement (so I won't include what it has).
First floor:
Office, living room, dining room, small den, kitchen, full bathroom.
Second floor:
3 bedrooms, a laundry room, a nursery (no babies anymore so it's a small single bedroom) 2 full bathrooms.
3rd floor/attic 2 bedrooms and bathroom.
Because I live in Brooklyn my house is very long and I do find it too much space many times and too spread out. If the house was more square shaped (or something) I would appreciate the space more.
On a regular basis we use the entire first floor and second floor. The attic is used when my married kids come.

I cannot imagine another 2k SF of space!

amother

Mayflower

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 4:57 pm

amother Sand wrote:

I live in 1328 plus basement probably around 1800 total. I have four bedrooms and 3 bathrooms

Same. I can't imagine a 5,000+ Sq ft home. My inlaws have a little under 3k Sq ft & it's huge! Fyi I live in NY, not brooklyn.

amother

Mayflower

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 5:17 pm

Sebastian wrote:

It is enormous. The dining room is huge. Multiple sitting areas. 6 bedrooms. Large bathrooms etc

Bathrooms look huge, & listing Sq footage is often exaggerated & include garages etc.

amother

Cadetblue

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 5:27 pm

What I found in the more square foot home is that each room is much more spacious. So not so much harder to clean and usually more closet space so everything has its place.
I have a friend with the same 5 bedrooms as me but probably double the square footage since every room is double the size than what I have.
So I can barely put 2 beds into a room and they can easily put 3-4 beds. Or desks and beds…

amother

Calendula

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 7:03 pm

I grew up in israel in a 2 br 64sqm apartment. All five kids slept in one room. No guests almost ever! The only guest I remember is my cousin in yeshiva who slept on the couch! Literally like when zeidy was young. When my sisters got married and came for Shabbos, my mother would ask friends to host them for sleeping.
I now live in a 2200 sqf house with 5 kids and feel like it’s just not enough. It’s a high ranch with a small kitchen. They layout has a lot of dead space which I hate and far not enough closet space. I can use double the size. I DREAM of the day when I have a house that I will be proud of. Gorgeously done in good taste although I’m not aiming for fancy, Just very bataamed. I hope that day will come.

amother

Papaya

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 8:12 pm

amother Lightblue wrote:

were 3 people in 350 sqf.

Why do you all NEED so much space?

I only hear this scentiment in NY.

Actually you hear it more from people in NJ. In many areas of ny we are used to living in smaller houses.