Houses - how big would you go?

[BoRED S2upid]

I’d be more about the land than the house tbh. 5 beds would be fine but I’d want a garage complex.

There are some ex footballer types local to us and the houses don’t tend to be that big but land and garages are always present.

[AB]

Between 7 and 8,000 sq ft (not sure exactly without checking) we bought last year for 4 of us (including basement). Cleaners come in weekly.

Genuinely have 5 bedrooms and a couple of other rooms I've hardly been in, I do feel a bit like we've bitten off more than we can chew at the moment as we're renovating but I love the space. Kids will love it as they get a bit older.

A house of this size does NOT need live in staff

[gotoPzero]

AB said:

A house of this size does NOT need live in staff

Depends... I have heard some live in cleaners offer great "service"....

[Baldchap]

PositronicRay said:

simon_harris said:

the things that amazes me most about this thread is how many people don't have staff!

We couldn't do without ours, what is the point in working all week if you then have to clean, iron, garden and do boring house maintenance work at the weekend or evenings.

I don't care what size house you have it is a much better quality of life just having that sort of stuff done for you.

Becoming an employer comes with its own responsibilities, legal, moral and financial.

You don't have to be an employer.

Our ironing is taken away once a week and returned the next day by an ironing company. Our pool chap comes once a month and sorts all that (pool autodoses etc so no need for more frequent maintenance) from a pool maintenance company. Our gardeners are self employed and come when they want (and do what they want - it always looks great!) and our self employed cleaner comes on Wednesdays - robot vacuums and a 'clean as you go' approach cover the rest.

No issues of morality - we pay the cleaner whether she comes or not and put her wage up above inflation every year (50% since 2018) and she is more than happy and certainly doesn't take the Michael. Everyone else sets their own wages (or their employer does) and if we aren't happy we would go elsewhere (we are happy).

I do most of the maintenance beyond anything specialist because I can and I enjoy it. I renovate houses since I stopped 'properly' working and as such have the gear and usually the knowhow to sort most things. We do have a gas safe plumber and electrician that know the house for anything particularly tricky or dangerous, of course - I'm not about to dismantle a noisy boiler, for instance.

At no point do I have to worry about PAYE, pensions, etc. Life couldn't be simpler.

Edited by Baldchap on Friday 24th March 11:18

[kambites]

Our house is a little under 200 square meters (excluding the double garage and ~4x2m brick shed) and feels about right for the three of us; I don't think more living space would be of any real benefit. I would choose more land over a bigger house.

[98elise]

gotoPzero said:

Room sizes make a big difference.

For me I would love a 3000-4000sq ft house.
But 4 bed with just a lounge, kitchen/diner and utility.
All good size rooms and also good size bathrooms.

I hate the modern 3m x 1.5m ensuites.

This. I've rented villas in Florida that had no more rooms than I have in my current home, but each room was 3 or 4 times bigger than an equivalent uk room.

Main bedrooms come with walk in wardrobes and huge bathroom suites. Kitchens are large and open plan, often with their own dining table (as well as having a seperate large dining area). A laundry room off the kitchen was pretty much standard as well.

One place we rented had a master bedroom suite that was bigger than my current homes footprint.

Edited by 98elise on Saturday 25th March 11:19

[PositronicRay]

Puzzles said:

Everyone is different, to me 1,500 per person is too much, I don’t want to have to deal with cleaners etc and 1,500 for two people is very comfortable imo.

I’d probably end up between 2000 and 3000sqft. Some how a 3000sqft bungalow seems a lot more effort that a 3000sqft townhouse.

Too many stairs in a townhouse, dead space.

[bennno]

PositronicRay said:

Puzzles said:

Everyone is different, to me 1,500 per person is too much, I don’t want to have to deal with cleaners etc and 1,500 for two people is very comfortable imo.

I’d probably end up between 2000 and 3000sqft. Some how a 3000sqft bungalow seems a lot more effort that a 3000sqft townhouse.

Too many stairs in a townhouse, dead space.

equally some bungalow layouts are abysmally inefficient - not to mention the comparative cost of heating versus a similar sqft house.....

[renmure]

We had a clearer that came in for a morning every fortnight in the last house but that was just to do all the little things that you never get round to, such as dusting skirting boards behind beds and furniture and moving things to vacuum under them, particularly in rooms that were seldom used. We'll probably get round to organising something similar here.

Cutting and maintaining 5 acres of lawn with a big triple cylinder mower took about 1hr 15mins in the last place so not worth getting anyone in to do that. Despite the new garden being about 1/10 the size I expect it will be similar here with a far smaller machine as things are far more intricate and fussy so far less of a broad-brush approach. Flip side is that my Ryobi 18V battery hedge trimmer, which didn't make much of an impact on 160m of 3m high beech hedging and was just used to tinker around shrubs, is now all I need.

[PositronicRay]

bennno said:

PositronicRay said:

Puzzles said:

Everyone is different, to me 1,500 per person is too much, I don’t want to have to deal with cleaners etc and 1,500 for two people is very comfortable imo.

I’d probably end up between 2000 and 3000sqft. Some how a 3000sqft bungalow seems a lot more effort that a 3000sqft townhouse.

Too many stairs in a townhouse, dead space.

equally some bungalow layouts are abysmally inefficient -..

Agreed, but easier to resolve.

[kiethton]

Current house is 1,900 sqft and more than enough for the wife, newborn and myself. Only 1 more child planned but...

In the next year or 2 I'll be adding 3 garden rooms (c500 sqft) then a bigger extension planned will see the total nearer 3,800 sqft;

2 living rooms
1 big open plan kitchen, diner and snug
5 beds
3 en-suites
Gym
Office
Golf simulator
Hot tub/sex pond

Can't think of anything more we'd need

[simon_harris]

Baldchap said:

PositronicRay said:

simon_harris said:

the things that amazes me most about this thread is how many people don't have staff!

We couldn't do without ours, what is the point in working all week if you then have to clean, iron, garden and do boring house maintenance work at the weekend or evenings.

I don't care what size house you have it is a much better quality of life just having that sort of stuff done for you.

Becoming an employer comes with its own responsibilities, legal, moral and financial.

You don't have to be an employer.

Our ironing is taken away once a week and returned the next day by an ironing company. Our pool chap comes once a month and sorts all that (pool autodoses etc so no need for more frequent maintenance) from a pool maintenance company. Our gardeners are self employed and come when they want (and do what they want - it always looks great!) and our self employed cleaner comes on Wednesdays - robot vacuums and a 'clean as you go' approach cover the rest.

No issues of morality - we pay the cleaner whether she comes or not and put her wage up above inflation every year (50% since 2018) and she is more than happy and certainly doesn't take the Michael. Everyone else sets their own wages (or their employer does) and if we aren't happy we would go elsewhere (we are happy).

I do most of the maintenance beyond anything specialist because I can and I enjoy it. I renovate houses since I stopped 'properly' working and as such have the gear and usually the knowhow to sort most things. We do have a gas safe plumber and electrician that know the house for anything particularly tricky or dangerous, of course - I'm not about to dismantle a noisy boiler, for instance.

At no point do I have to worry about PAYE, pensions, etc. Life couldn't be simpler.

Edited by Baldchap on Friday 24th March 11:18

Exactly, our cleaner comes in twice a week, is self employed and sets her own rate,which is a surprisingly decent hourly rate. she goes through the whole house in the 8 hours she does over the week and then when we want a spring/deep clean we arrange that as a separate visit. gardener comes in once a week and between him and my wife they will decide the projects for the season and she will buy the plants/supplies as and when he asks her too. His prices went up by a whole £2 an hour this week and we had to pressure him to do that as he hasn't had a rise for a while. Maintenance is done by a network of specialists that do a lot of work in the local area and are well regarded.

For reference the house is just over 2500sq ft the gardens about an acre or so. We probably spend £400ish a month but it means we can do exactly what we want when we want to do it evenings and weekends, and that is well worth it for how hard we work and the hours we do.

[DodgyGeezer]

interesting thread. Like it or not however you can't get away from running costs and location being issues to consider, even with the mythical EM win you'd have to consider costs at some stage.

If the EM numbers were to come up (which they won't seeing as we don't do the lotto) then yes I'd likely look at a place/plot a fair chunk larger than where we are (chalet bungalow) - by fair chunk I'd imagine. For example:
- currently our sitting room is 26' x 13' and I'd happily see it a little larger (maybe 4' each way)
- our bedroom is somewhat smaller and I do think that having a walk in wardrobe and en-suite would be lovely, actually similar dimensions to my ideal expanded living room
- decent sized kitchen/diner
- then 3 extra bedrooms upstairs with a nice bathroom and I think that that's pretty much the chalet sorted.
- garage? I'd be more than happy with a generous double (saw one place described as having a 'double' where it was about 16 x 16 )
- neighbours? Don't mind to be honest, maybe 20' from our walls to the edge of the garden and similar for them is enough separation (especially as you get older)
- land... not too much. I hate gardening with an unholy passion and Mrs DG tolerates it so a gardener is a required extra expense

The problem is trying to find something that brings this wishlist together. In fairness we're nearly there with our current house, but things we can't change will mean a move at some point (busy road, new developements incoming)