Peggy, my mom lived for a short while above a bar that my grandparents owned. It was in the late 1940's, I believe. Her main complaint was the lack of any soundproofing, and apparently it was quite a noisy bar. She also talked about the lack of privacy. After my experiences of living in Mexico and Zambia, I do understand about the luxury of privacy! I posted above that my new (to me) house is 790 sq ft, and I've been thinking all along it's a masterpiece of layout, because it seemed so much bigger. Well, guess what? LOL, the sellers gave me the wrong dimensions...turns out it's a hair over 920 sq ft, haha! Still, it seems spacious to me. Like cpartist, I'm making it ADA compliant...actually, I'm trying to use the concept of "universal design," which is a concept in which you make everything accessible to the widest range of people possible...i.e., children, the elderly, vision and hearing impaired, people with disabilities, very tall and very short people, etc. As cpartist pointed out, that can certainly add to the space requirements, especially when you're making everything walker or wheelchair accessible. I'm very happy you now have the privacy you wanted! :-)

Hubby and I just moved to a semi-detached home in a highly desirable neighbourhood in Toronto. It's about 1,100 sf plus 400 sf walkout basement. Our kids, who are in a transitional stage, may use the basement for weeks or months at a time. Size means almost nothing to me, location almost everything. We raised our family in a 1,200-sf ranch (with large basement) and I never found it cramped. I find huge rooms unsettling and not very homey.

The big McMansions you find in North America just don't exist in most other places. Families in Europe routinely live in 1,000-sf homes and survive just fine. When I lived in Tokyo I found myself a 150-sf apartment (including kitchen and bathroom and not a typo) that I just adored! Cultural norms are a big factor in what size feels right, IMO.

"The big McMansions you find in North America "

a lot of Americans wish anyone would take them - if they'd just go away...

I have a good number of them around me now. developers bought up some desert and scraped it dead. a lot are also cookie cutter single story somethings. maybe wantabe craftsman homes.

I grew up in homes (duplexes usually) with maybe 2 bedrooms for 5 of us. one had 3 bdrooms but the 3rd had no heat. one had 1 large bedroom and we were 4 in it. I don't like the every kid gets there own room bit - unless it's a boy and a girl. OTOH, for a lot of their lives my kids did each have their own rooms for weird reasons. 2 a number of yrs younger than the older one - and those 2 were boy and girl. 1 of my gfs (8 kids) had 4 girls in 1 about 8x 10 room and 3 boys in another room about the same size. the baby was still in the parents' room.

I think many of us have done a disservice to our kids. They think they deserve everything it seems. I've always been grateful for the way I was raised - very poor. well, not so much grateful as a kid - but since I grew up.

Debbie B. said:

Zambians can't understand the American sense that each child should have
his/her own room. In Zambia, that would be to isolate the child as some
cruel form of punishment.

Upper-middle class kids in neighbourhoods I know suffer the cruelest fate of all: each confined to their separate bedrooms with their own computer/TV, kitchenette and attached private 4-piece bath. Full-room service included. One of the biggest trends now is to twin-master suites. Why share a bedroom once the messy business of procreation is complete?

**

What do I consider "big"? For a family, anything over 8,000 sf. For me alone, anything over 2,400 sf.

According to the National Association of Homebuilders, the mean size of new homes built in the US in the first quarter of 2015 was 2,736 sf.

I know I have commented on this before. Will chime in and maybe say the same thing as before . Not going to go dig for my comments. Having lived in 1850 SQFT in two houses I NOW think those were large houses. Far from the above quotes Mean size of 2736. There are just two of us. And the animals. 90% of the time the animals are where we are in the house so no matter how big the house is in one space with us and animals it is always crowded. I guess we treat them too much like kids. And the two border collies are not tiny dogs. Not hugs dogs either but certainly big enough for us.

I am still loving the size of our 1375 house. Many times I have considered closing in the front porch which would add another 200 SQFT. Now I really do not think I will ever be doing this. If I do it would only be to create an air lock to hold out winter cold coming in the front door and then I would only enclose half the front porch. Keeping the other half for the out door stove area. And to have a covered place to stand at the door while opening it. I do think this air lock space would be an improvement but not so much to make the house larger. Just warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

I agree, Shades. My house is 1675 sq ft. It is the two of us and one medium, and one tiny dog. I have a three person sauna set up in the third (12 x12) bedroom. I also have two storage cupboards in there with sewing and craft stuff in one and jewelry sales and display stuff in the other. There are soon to be my craft table under the window and an antique chest of drawers against one wall of the sauna. The chest drawers will hold the bedding for our bed that are overflowing from the linen closet, making that storage area neater. My "good" clothes are in the closet. All of our indoor clothes drying racks are also in this room and it can get crowded when they are spread out to dry my drip-dry clothes.

The middle bedroom (12 x 15) is full of my Physical Therapy mat table (the size of a queen bed and it will serve that purpose if guests ever come. I will get a foam or inflatable mattress for it) and a barrister bookcase with my bandaging and other compression supplies for my Lymphedema needs. The craft table is soon to be moved out, leaving room for me to install a handrail and stanchions for connecting my resistance bands to, onto the wall. I have a joint disorder that requires that I keep up with exercises or I have a lot more pain. The room also contains an antique small buffet in quarter sawn oak with a waterfall front that I bought during the days after I learned I would be divorcing my first husband. It has sentimental value and it holds stuff that needs to be put away. The plastic drawers that hold all of my jewelry making supplies are also in this room. Once I move the craft table out, I will see how to arrange all of these things.

Our bedroom is large, at 13 x 16 and it is full. We bought a bedroom set when we bought this house, and we each have a big dresser and there is also a tall chest and two nightstands. I recently got a jewelry armoire off Craigslist that twirls around and has a full-length mirror on the back. There is just enough room left for that shoe rack I bought, but have not yet built! I do know that I have too many clothes. I went through my closet and took out everything that I don't wear because I don't like it. I took out everything that does not fit since I lost weight. I threw out all my ancient underwear. I have put a moratorium on purchasing clothes. I may have to glean a few more things before I am done.

Decluttering is still in progress. We also have to clear out DH's library/music room. Apparently, whenever I have said "get rid of this" or "go find a home for this," his room is where it has ended up! Poor guy can't walk in there! I am NOT sending junque to the basement, either. If we have a use for it, okay, but if we don't, then we need to get rid of it! We had a big flood a couple of years ago and spent a lot of money paying someone else to pull everything out of that basement and to throw it away. That is not a good way to clean out a basement!

I am convinced that if I had more space, I would have more clothes, more stuff I "might need someday", more furniture I am not currently using, more unfinished projects lying around. That is unnecessary and wasteful.

Totally agree on the more space more stuff. I have always managed to fill up my space no matter how big or small. I did save some smaller furniture pieces in the loft because I like to change things around in our house. These are more like accessory pieces. Small tables shelves. some times just one little change makes the whole room look fresh again. Even if I had it that same way years ago. LOL I did get rid of some furniture in the house. makes the rooms feel so much bigger.

I LOVE my drying pole across the guest bathroom tub. It is a heavy duty tension rod in the middle of the tub I slide to the wall when company comes. It holds a whole load of laundry on hangers when I need it. I usually only use it in the winter because I do have the clothes lines out side. It takes no space and it very useful. I also have a smaller wall mounted drying rack in the laundry room.

I finally shifted Joe's excess medical supplies up to the loft for now. Will donate them if not needed later. I WILL keep the under sheet sleep pads though. Those things are great for animal pads on furniture.

My space is just over 700 feet square and feels too large. I seldom use half of the living room, but when I can't manage the ladder to the loft anymore I'll move my weaving studio downstairs and start using that half more.

of course it's just me (and two cats, a small dog, a few goldfish (in a BIG tank), four looms, two knitting machines and a sewing machine). A partner would need his own room with a door away from all the open space, so we could get away from each other. Weaving is a fairly noisy enterprise I wouldn't want to impose on someone else and I wouldn't want to hear a peep of any sort of sports on tv. I sometimes fantasize about a tiny house set up as a separate weaving studio, but I can't afford it and I love my tiny loft in the treetop studio.

Under sheet sleep pads are the only thing that get washed around here most days! Mr. Toby is on prednisone and he drinks a lot and is now peeing AS he drinks. Luckily, he sticks to peeing on the pads, but doing a load or two of pads a day takes a lot of time since I put them through the soak cycle, then the super-duper wash cycle that goes from cold all the way to very hot to sanitize them. Finally, today the vet says we can try him off the prednisone! YES! We have a ton of these pads from the days when DH's dad was weak and unable to stand or sit anymore. I also bought some for the dog we had then who liked to pee in the house because she was rescued from a bad hoarding situation and never got used to living in a family.

Nancy I think it was you that told me about those pads. They really are great. I have only used two of them the rest are still packaged. I think I bought 6. Was not sure how much I would need them but wanted them on hand because when Joe got home from the hospital I did not have time to deal with anything but him. I am sure I will be using them again and happy I have 6. Good to know they really stand up to lots of washing.

Stringweaver. This house will be huge for me as only one person when that time comes but I have plans to use every bit of it. You are right the looms can be noisy and dusty too. We lived in two 800 SQ FT houses and it was a good thing we got along well. It was tight. We did have two bedrooms at both houses and one of the houses had 12 by 12 bedrooms. I had one as my craft room guest room and would escape to it but no way to escape the TV noise. Fortunately hubby does not like sports except boxing and when it comes on I usually drift off to my studio or the sewing room or master bedroom or yard. I am NOT NOT NOT a sports on TV person. I might not even have a TV down the road. But I can get lots of free DVD's from the library. Things Joe would never want to watch. I KNOW I will not PAY for a TV service. I can also use the Free movies on ROKU which I got free a few years ago.

worthy, your comment " One of the biggest trends now is to twin-master suites. Why share a bedroom once the messy business of procreation is complete?" made me laugh.

Seriously though, with a hubby who snores through walls, and us taking turns sleeping on our (apartment) couch many nights, I would TOTALLY go for a twin master suite home, lol. (Instead I'll settle for the spare bedroom).

LOL loointomyeyes83. Funny thought. One of the manufactured home plans we looked was split floor plan and if we had decided on that plan I was going to stretch the two bedrooms on that end to kind of create a twin-master. My thought was for maybe my Mom to come live with us or later down the road a caretaker for us. Make great guest rooms too. This plan had the bath at the end of the hall with bedroom door opening to bath door only feet away. Not actually in one room or another. But I remember the days of a bathroom in the master bedroom unheard of or in my life style. The second bedroom was going to be my studio so no one really sleeping there.

yes, a 2 mstr bedroom home has a number of uses. a parent coming to visit or live, a roommate or a care giver (good idea), even an adult kid coming back to live for a time.

I can certainly see separate rooms even if married. I've always said if I remarried I'd want separate homes... at least a separate 'wing' of the house. I like being alone too much - lol!

Glad to see all the comments...we are currently building a 1627sq foot home, 1 adult and 2 small kids in the household, so this will be plenty room for us, at about almost 550sq ft per person....I thought it might be too small, glad to hear it's not....

Tim I think in our household of two adults the added two border collies and 4 kitties in the house should make up to at least half another person or more. LOL We are about 1375. I never really could figure out how the say 550 SQFT per person adds up because I think it is how you live in your house. I live all over the house but hubby mostly lives in his recliner bedroom and bathroom. He rarely goes into my studio or the guest room and only uses the dinning room to walk through and he does not cook at all so no kitchen use other than the coffee pot.

Hoping you will share your build with us.

I always thought it was 1,000-1,500 square foot base...depending on your climate. If you can't go outside for more than half the year (bad or cold weather) you'll need more space for living areas. And then 200-250 additional square feet per person. That covers a main living area with a bedroom (and a little more living space) for each additional person. Of course, I like a lot of storage....so maybe that makes for a larger footprint.

And basements should be counted (IMHO) if they have any usable storage or living space...even if it's just a winter playroom for the kids : )

We have a home-based business, so I consider that as another "person" when it comes to square footage. LOL And if you have to entertain formally (for work or family) then that might take a bit more space, as well.

ETA: For living spaces, I'm counting enclosed porches, sunrooms and any other living space that keeps most of the elements out, but lets you enjoy the view!

Interesting that this thread came around again. I posted when it first started (under 'flgargoyle') and have since finished our house. The house came out at 1444 square feet, but that is the outside dimension, and due to the thick walls, the actual living space is 1295. There are just two of us, and only one BR on the main floor. We love the way the house lives; it feels open and spacious. We use every room of the house, every day, which was one of the goals. As I mentioned before. we have a full basement which is a walk-out, so it has windows and a door outside. Future plans are to finish a bedroom and bathroom down there so that we have a space for over night guests. The rest of the year, we won't be paying to heat it or cool it, and without any permanent HVAC, it's not considered living space for tax purposes.

One of the things that makes our house work so well is the amount of storage we have. In addition to the basement, we have a large barn (28 X 48) with a huge loft. This allows us to take a minimalist approach to decorating the house, while still keeping some of our 'treasures', which we can rotate into our decor periodically.

Mushcreek you brought up some thing I did not even think about in SQFT measure on our house. I also measured the outside and did not reduce the SQFT by the 6 inch outer walls AND the 6 inch wall down the center. Since this is a manufactured home and we live in heavy snow country we did add to the roof load capacity and it does give us that 6 inch wide center wall. YIKES do I really want to know we have less SQFT than I thought??? LOL I would have to sharpen my pencil and I am not awake enough to deal with that right now. I did not count the front porch as it is not closed in.

I do know when we had larger houses I used all of them and filled them up. Then we bought smaller houses and I had to pare down. I do tend to live within the space available big or small. I would prefer to have less stuff and I keep working on that. Have been for years and I can not figure out why it is not all gone by now??? GGGRRRR on me.

Most tax offices use the outside dimensions to determine the 'heated' square footage, as it's the easiest way to measure the house. I explained that because my walls were over a foot thick, and that I certainly couldn't consider the walls to be living space, I should only to be taxed on the inside dimension. To my surprise, they agreed! They also asked me if I wanted to change to agricultural zoning, which saves me about $700 a year. Gotta love an honest civil servant.

Shades, I pare down, but dang, more stuff comes in....

I love collecting old furniture...I don't have lots of knickknacks because the cats would just knock them off, but i have a lot of chairs and little tables and cabinets. I kind of keep to my rule of a piece going out when one comes in and I declutter at least once a year, but I am amazed at what sneaks in and I have no one to blame but me. :)

Stringweaver I am so like you in the little chairs and tables and small cabinets. UGH. I have a small suitcase with a purse collection. I try to keep it small but need to change things up depending on if I am doing chemo with Joe or hospital and do I need to carry his wallet and the tiny flip phone prescriptions etc in MY purse. So my totally minimal purse is useless when I have all this other stuff to carry. This is the only reason I have more than say three. While in that area I discovered in changing purses I kept dumping the old stuff out but not tossing it. WHAT was I thinking?? So I took care of that one today.

Jay I forgot you have one foot thick walls. Ours are the six inches. but you are right we can not live within the wall space. I did figure it out the best I could and we are ruffly 1290 here not counting inside the walls.

We were lucky with the tax appraiser being our friend and I let him in the house. It is good because we actually went through the receipts for building the garage and other construction and he noticed I did not have a dishwasher and some other smaller things in the house that lowered our tax. The one room I was considering a guest room is really just a den because it has no closet. Dow goes the taxes again. On the garage he was guessing a higher cost for foundation and when I pulled out the receipt and showed him it saved us. I actually was clueless what Joe paid as that part of this construction was his deal and I took care of the packing moving and cleaning. So this is good for the new construction people to keep those receipts.

There are developments on the cool new build down the street. Two days ago there was an inflated dome roof over the structure. And it was in the paper today. It will be a sprayed concrete construction, from the outside in, so all the interesting stuff is happening inside the shell for now. It will have a domed roof and those three intersecting circles. The view is wonderful, so I expect there will be lots of windows. It's for a family of four, so I have no idea how the interior space will be divided.

I read the article again...they're saying it's going to be 3000 square feet....I wonder if that included the loft, because it doesn't look that large as I drive past, although I wonder if that figure includes the garage.

http://news.hjnews.com/allaccess/under-the-dome-providence-family-building-unique-home/article_0461ea92-b8e4-50d8-a3d6-4cf705f5bff8.html

OH that is so cool. I liked their Facebook page so I can see more photos of it. thanks. Very interesting. The dome home here was built with triangles of wood.

Today there are pictures of the rebar going into the house. Very interesting. I did not realize it is in Utah. checked and it is 386 miles from us. I think I am between you and Debbie .

My partner and I live in a 4,000 sf 3 story home on 3 acres. We both consider this normal or decent size. We wouldn't mind something a bit bigger.

Well that is great Tim. This house is fine for me even though it is considered small. I do not want to have to even think of cleaning a 4000 SQ FT house.

Oh, the clutter I could commit in 4000 sq ft! I believe I should have no more than about 800 sq ft, for I abuse anything more with piles of stuff that are never even visited.

I'm amazed at the sizes of houses! I don't think I've ever even known anyone with a house over 3000 sqft in my entire life! And I have a family of engineers and my husband has a family of Doctors so I'd say we're definitely middle class.

We have 1150 sqft and I think it's definitely enough room for 7-9 people. If anything, I'd want a little more space for an entry, and a bit more closet space in our room, but really that'd basically be only about 50 more sqft, but the space itself seems plenty spacious. We do have tons of windows, so maybe that helps:)

Melodiya99 - 7-9 people living in 1150 sq ft does not make for a happy situation.

Love to see this thread coming back up. UGH I agree in the 7-9 people in an 1150 SQ FT house. Too close for me. Now Joe is gone I have totally taken over every square inch of this house. I do not wish for it to be bigger but I use all of it even more than I did while Joe was here. not sure why other than I might have more time on my hands being alone. I find myself going into every room more than once every day. Love my studio being in my living room now with the excess now in what was the old guest room. the new guest room/sewing room/office gets much more use and is easier to work in now that is is a larger space. I am sure it is more comfortable for guests too.

HA Nancy I laughed on you filling it up. Me too and I try so hard not to. I did some more churning of furniture today and two things actually made it to the garage to give away. Course I brought more to the house but only one of the two things actually came into the house. I am trying very hard not to create more storage space. GGGRRRRR on me for my love of little shelves tables chairs.

I decided the other day that the clutter on the patio is unbearable, so I went to the city's website to see if I could have a shed. Turns out that I can. So now I am designing one. I am planning to get the garage cleaned out and all the stuff for gardening, plus the ladder, the scaffolding and maybe the lumber pile into the shed. I am aiming for one side to have a planting bench with greenhouse windows all above it.

And no, we have not done the bathroom yet. I am thinking that if the garage was cleaned out, it would be easier to do the construction in the bathroom. I must contact Jim, find out if he is still in business and if he will fit us in.

Nancy I am not done in my garage re-do for me now living alone but really working on it. I built a great tool holder and so pleased to not have them falling all over the place now. And always a place to put them not all over the yard. Organizing your garage will make a huge difference and I love the idea of the green house and potting bench.

Chris, I keep thinking of more and more items that belong in the shed. Imagine being able to walk in, get the spreader. lay down weed and feed, and put it away without having to unbury it from underneath everything else in the tiny shed I now have! It could be a great help. Not to mention that there may come a time when we could get a car or two into the garage. That has never before happened. I have made contact with the shed builder, so that is one ball that is rolling.

Your tool holder will please you each time you use it.

I am back to trying to figure out the shower pan for my bathroom remodel again, too. The pan I originally wanted to use is only 32 inches deep (which means that only about 30 inches is in the shower itself) and I stood in one that size and I just can't see maneuvering a wheelchair in that space. If I ever need a wheelchair, I want this shower to work for me. So I am investigating other sources, including manufacturers of ones made for hospitals and nursing homes.

I would think 30 inches would be pretty small. Especially if you needed a wheelchair.

Oh and your shed. YES make it as large as you can afford. Having extra space is always a good thing. Especially when you do not have to heat and cool it. I am loving my tool holder. It really is the little things that make life so much easier sometimes.

I'm not an expert, but I don't think wheelchairs come into the shower. You need access though....low entry points for transition, a seat, room for a shower chair if needed, and possibly another person if you need help. A removable shower head might be handy, too.

Sometimes, if there is a very painful problem that makes transferring too risky, the wheelchair does go into the shower. You may be in a special wheelchair designed for this purpose. Mostly it would happen if I needed a Hoyer lift to get into the chair in the first place.

I have a Connective Tissue Disorder. My genes have the wrong "recipe" for making ligaments, tendons, cartilage, the lining of my digestive system and so on. At age 58, I don't have any untorn cartilage left in my right knee and something is moving around down there when I walk sometimes. I can't get a knee replacement because manipulating everything around my tendons and ligaments will stretch them out, likely making them even worse at holding the new knee together than they are doing now. I may get to the point someday when I cannot bear weight with one or both legs.

On top of that, I have a fat disorder that makes my legs very large and swollen and painful to touch, so bracing them won't work. Calorie restriction will not make this fat go away. I have it in my arms, as well, and when I was ill with intestinal problems and losing weight, my arms actually added a half inch of fat while I lost 20 lbs. I am just screwed!

I have purchased three shower heads. There will be a traditional wall-mounted one for hubby, a rain head mounted on the ceiling in the center of the shower, and a hand-held mounted where it can be reached standing or sitting. Each head has its own on/off/volume control. A separate control sets the temperature for the whole system. I have a big bath bench that I can move in and out of the shower as needed. I am not going to put a wall-mounted or tiled bench in because they take up room and cannot be used in some circumstances.

Maybe it's because as an adult I've never lived in a space larger than 1000 sq foot, but I would love 2000 sq feet and I'm sure it wouldn't feel big to me, at least initially. We are 2 adults and a toddler, and now a young fetus which at some point is going to come out and take more space. I know everyone says that bigger always means you have more to clean, but it seems to me that smaller means more clutter. I know people will say that, depending on your personality type, you'll fill up whatever space you have. But I doubt it for me (not sure about that toddler!). The last home I lived in while a minor was about 1700 sq ft, 2 adults, 2 minors. It def didn't feel too big. There was one room we barely used, but I think this was due to the open floor plan. In my head, if it had been a separate room with a door, it would have been used more because you could read or watch tv privately in there. anyway, point is, it didn't really get dirty, so I don't think extra space necessarily requires a lot of cleaning.

To answer the original question, I consider 2500+ to be big, 1400-2400 to be medium, <1400 is small, <800 is tiny.

Worthy - i never considered two separate master suites would be used by a married couple. When I heard the concept my first thought was inviting an aging parent into the home. My second thought would be if widowed, to share the home with a friend.

Hello to all! New to this forum, and don't mean to hijack, but just read NancyinMich's June 8th post and have to comment that it sounds like we have the same fat disorder.

As far as house sizes go, I live by myself in a 1250 sq.ft home, which feels substantially larger than my last which was just a little smaller, but on two floors. Since my bedroom was on the main floor, I seldom went upstairs and basically lived in 450 sq ft.less than now. Too cramped! The LR and kitchen here are in fact substantially bigger and I have a large dining area that didn't exist in the other house. I am content with this size, but if I had a magic wand, I'd make the bedrooms a foot or two bigger, and would have at least a half bath attached to the "master" bedroom. There is only one bathroom in this 50's ranch. However, too much more square footage would just be more to heat, cool, and clean. My utilities are very reasonable. I think anything bigger than what I have is medium sized, and anything more than 2000 is large. From my perspective.

Indigo Rose, if you are not on any of the Lipedema Facebook pages, let me know, and I can add you. I don't see a way to get a message to you on the Houzz site, so email me at nbarbour59@icloud.com if you are interested.

Thank you! I'll try emailing you this weekend. But I'm not on Facebook.

Nancyinmich, I've not been able to access my email, and am having internet issues. Now another problem; earlier I got on and my curser was moving by itself. I freaked out and shut off my wifi. Just got back on and a note popped up that said another device is using your computer's IP address. What the heck does that mean? I have only one "device". I am going to shut this down and ask the IT people at work tomorrow. I work very late, so don't do too much during the week. I'm looking forward to getting in touch with you, though!

Indigo Rose, I will watch for your note. Hope the issues get solved! Write down my email so I can delete it from this forum.

It's funny, my current home is one story, around 1600 sq ft, 2 full baths, with an attached garage. No basement as we are in Florida. Built in 1999.

Our old home was 1100 sq ft, but had a full finished basement as well. There were 2.5 baths. Built in 1957. Detached garage.

Even though our old home technically had more usable sq ft, it was much older. Our current home is newer, so it has more of an open floor plan. It also has high ceilings in the living room and 9ft ceilings in the other areas (vs standard 8ft all over). Although I often wish my kitchen was a bit bigger and that I had more storage space, overall our current home feels MUCH larger.

Hello! So I live in a community with big houses, and it’s what I have been around forever. To me, the average size house in my area is 4,500 sq ft, and a big house is anything over 6,000, and a small house is anything under 3,000. My current house is 5,400 sq ft, and my last one was 8,000 sq ft, so I have downsized a bunch! The normal house here has three floors, four bedrooms, and five bathrooms, normally with a movie room, two kitchens, and a basement. These are the things in my house as well.

I believe 2000 IS large. Under 1000 small,1000 - 2000 average. But I grew up in a family of 6 in a 1000 square foot home and until last year lived in small homes. The house we bought last year is 2180 square foot and seems huge. I really can't imagine living in something larger.

I grew up in a pretty small house, well below 1800 ft², but as I moved to different places, The affordability factor came in to play in different parts of the country, I lived in Connecticut and we had just under a 2,000 ft² house for almost half a mill, then I moved to Georgia, and built and moved into a 9,000 ft² house with a full basement, billiard room, workout wing and a dance floor, Not to mention a half court basketball court in the rear of the home, moved again in 2001 and built another home from the ground up that is 6,800 ft² on 1 and 3/4 acre on a golf course, So I've been around large homes my entire life pretty much. Now that I've gotten older, anything below 3,500 ft², is a small home, 4500 ft² to 5,900 ft², to be a medium to large size home and 6,500 ft² and above to be very large homes, in my area that I live in it is not uncommon to see homes that are 10 to 12,000 ft² on the average, and even a few homes averaging 15,000 ft², to 25,000 ft².

I guess I would consider big anything over 4000 sq feet. My sister lived in a 10,000 sq foot house. I hated it. It was so big and so much wasted space. It did have a ton of storage but then you just collect more stuff.