Here is another trend I find baffling and perhaps you can enlighten me on what I am missing. Often a times, I will watch the HGTV channel because in some ways, I am very much stereotypically a homemaker and love watching hours of people looking at homes, buying them, renovating them and sometimes selling them.
That being said, the massive square footage requirements that many featured buyers have are really hard for me to wrap my head around. Families of four will request upwards of 4k square feet, for example. Grown couples that indicate no desire to have children will look for houses with similar or more square feet. And people looking for their first homes will complain when they are brought to a 1500 square foot house that is within their budget.
(Caveat: This square footage madness does not typically apply to those looking for apartments, and especially those looking for apartments abroad. In those cases, I am awestruck that people can make less than 800 square feet work for them).
According to the internet, the average home size in the US is around 2700 square feet currently. The average family size is 2.6 (both of these stats were taken from 2009, so yes - outdated by a few years. But while I can imagine that the ongoing recession has downsized square footage a bit, I doubt it's led to an increase in family size). This is insane. Do people really need around or over 1000 square foot per person to exist?
Now, I do have some extreme examples. I know that my mom's family of ten lived in a very small house (I'd estimate at about 1200 square feet with an unfinished basement); it had four small bedrooms and one bathroom. I know also that my mom is eternally grateful that our family of seven had three bathrooms but we, too, made do with less bedrooms than people - my parent's house has four bedrooms. The first time in my life that I didn't share a bedroom was, strangely enough, when I moved into a dorm for college.
So I know it's possible to exist in smaller spaces. And I honestly don't know what I'd do with more square feet besides find junk to put on shelves and to store more seasonal decorations; but I don't think my quality of life would go up. So help me out here, guys. Let me know what I need more square footage for. Right now, my husband and I live in a 1500~ square foot house. His sister is living with us and we have two small dogs and no space issues as of now. HGTV dictates that with three people, our house should be twice as large.
Oh, and don't get me started on our lack of double vanities. Again. Another rant for another day.
I would like more square feet in my home. I don't need it, but I still would like it. I also grew up in big houses. For most of my life I have always have my own room. I like my space. But I also understand that there are people who don't mind sharing their space, I'm not one of them.
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