Useless Conversation

[Samwise]

To me it says a lot about the rest of the country that 1200 sq ft is a "postage stamp".  My house is on the books at something like 850 right now.  I'm in the process of upgrading to a palatial 1300 sq ft by building out the basement.  

[Merusk]

Mine's considered small at 'only' 2,200 s.f. and 1/16th of an acre.

 

[Viin]

1/16th of an acre is really small, I think our 1/4 acre lot is small.

[ghost]

You know, 1200 square feet with 2 or 3 kids can be a little unnerving.  I can see why people have opted for more space as they could.   

[Merusk]

1/16th of an acre is really small, I think our 1/4 acre lot is small.

You're right so I checked and realized I fail at reading.  The lot's ~1/4 acre (.22) the paved area is 1/16h.  Damnit.

[HaemishM]

I've never gotten the security deposit back, no matter how much effort I put into getting the place cleaned. 

This. Never ever have I gotten a security deposit back. I consider it lost money and count myself lucky that I don't get charged more than the deposit.

[Numtini]

Only security deposit I lost was because of a housemate and I sued them for it in small claims court. The last one tried to take it, but I sent them a threat letter including a checklist of what we'd cleaned and photos of the condition when we vacated. (We had a feeling they were going to try and documented.)

FWIW, our house is 1080 sq ft. The size is fine, but it's laid out very inefficiently.

[Viin]

Our house is a 1400 sq ft ranch on 1/4 acre. If it had a basement it'd be perfect. 3 bdrms and 1 bath with 3 girls is going to stretch my patience in about 3 years.

[ghost]

Our house is a 1400 sq ft ranch on 1/4 acre. If it had a basement it'd be perfect. 3 bdrms and 1 bath with 3 girls is going to stretch my patience in about 3 years.

You're going to probably be ready to dig your own basement.

[Samwise]

I'd imagine that will have much more to do with the 1 bath than the square footage.

Multiple bathrooms was a non-negotiable for me when I was house hunting.  I cannot abide a single point of failure.

[murdoc]

Any house here under 2,000 sq ft (not including basement) would be considered small. Our place is 1,500 without counting the fully finished basement and it seems tiny to what the majority of the people I know have.

[Samwise]

Not shocking to me that Australia wins this one.  

[ghost]

I'd like to see Texas by itself. 

[Samwise]

Ditto, I tried to find numbers by state but couldn't find any similar nice infographics.  For a useful comparison I think you'd need the various metropolitan areas broken out from the rest of their states; California's average is going to be way higher than SF on its own since land gets a lot cheaper once you get out of the more desirable coastal areas.

[ghost]

Any area with McMansions is going to be super high.  My wife's cousin bought some 5000 square foot monster in Temecula for next to nothing. 

[Nebu]

If land is cheap, you build out.  If expensive, you build up.  Most of those charts don't surprise me.

[Samwise]

I'd assume the home size goes by habitable square feet, not footprint.  Not so much a case of up vs out as it is simply less.  I could be wrong though.

Having marveled at the teeny tiny demo apartments in IKEA, I'm actually surprised Sweden's not smaller.

[Chimpy]

I'd assume the home size goes by habitable square feet, not footprint.  Not so much a case of up vs out as it is simply less.  I could be wrong though.

Having marveled at the teeny tiny demo apartments in IKEA, I'm actually surprised Sweden's not smaller.

If I stay in this house long enough to fix the things the previous moron "do it yourself" owners did that annoy me I am definitely going to buy the bathroom fixtures for the basement bathroom/laundry room from IKEA. They have some amazingly useable but compact vanities/sinks and I am sure they have corner showers that are much better than the Menard's special I have now.

My house is 1850 sq ft on 1/4 acre. And I live by myself....I should have bought a smaller house but oh well. 

[Selby]

If I stay in this house long enough to fix the things the previous moron "do it yourself" owners did that annoy me I am definitely going to buy the bathroom fixtures for the basement bathroom/laundry room from IKEA. They have some amazingly useable but compact vanities/sinks and I am sure they have corner showers that are much better than the Menard's special I have now.

You won't regret it.  Our house was done by the previous owner in all Ikea for the kitchen and it's surprisingly really nice and easy to use everything.  Would I have done it myself?  Probably not, but it was already done this way and it's been very nice so far.  The refrigerator hole was too small which is annoying, but that's life.

And I just moved to a 1400sqft house 1.7 miles from the beach in the SF bay area on 1/8 of an acre.  It's so much nicer than the 900sqft shitbox I was living in.  Fucking landlord kept my deposit and is charging me extra over the paint on the cabinets peeling off (50 year old paint) and the kitchen sink "having some black spots in it."  The place was a hellhole of mold and mildew with a leaking roof I was told to not worry about yet somehow I'm expected to ensure that the 40 year old appliances and vinyl tile and 60 year old bathroom was completely spotless and free from arachnids?  I hope she doesn't rent it for a long time.

[ghost]

I'd assume the home size goes by habitable square feet, not footprint.  Not so much a case of up vs out as it is simply less.  I could be wrong though.

Having marveled at the teeny tiny demo apartments in IKEA, I'm actually surprised Sweden's not smaller.

If I stay in this house long enough to fix the things the previous moron "do it yourself" owners did that annoy me I am definitely going to buy the bathroom fixtures for the basement bathroom/laundry room from IKEA. They have some amazingly useable but compact vanities/sinks and I am sure they have corner showers that are much better than the Menard's special I have now.

My house is 1850 sq ft on 1/4 acre. And I live by myself....I should have bought a smaller house but oh well. 

Maybe you could lease out a room to Sky to store all of his thousands of miniatures.

[Ironwood]

And Wood.

[Sky]

My garage is almost as big as my house, but one stall. I could store two-three years' worth in there.

My problem isn't so much square footage (950), it's separation. I'm loud, I play movies at theater volume, games with explosions, electric guitar, drums, etc. I'm a generally loud person. My fiancee enjoys peace and quiet. Hence, she doesn't live with me. Works well. If she does have to move in, I'll be learning a lot about sound dampening materials. And moving into the basement.

[ghost]

I bet you're a great neighbor.   

[Yegolev]

Having your fiance or wife live in a separate home will really solve about 80% of the issues with a marriage.

[Ironwood]

 

[Sky]

Yes and yes.

My neighbors actually tell me to play more guitar and stop closing the windows while I play. I should get around to learning more country and classic rock songs for our firepit nights.

[Nebu]

My neighbors actually tell me to play more guitar and stop closing the windows while I play. I should get around to learning more country and classic rock songs for our firepit nights.

Start learning the bagpipes and see if the sentiment persists.

[Sky]

I think violin is next on my wish list. That should be almost as bad.

[Rasix]

That's one way to stop the encouraging remarks from your neighbors.  Bad violin playing is.. god, I still have nightmares. It's like someone put cat fighting noises on a synthesizer.

[Yegolev]

You can always just start playing the violin but quickly break into telling jokes.

[Yegolev]

I found out today that there's a new version of PuTTY.  Not useless, but not sure where else to post it.

[Nebu]

You can always just start playing the violin but quickly break into telling jokes.

Take my wife... please.

[ghost]

What about the banjo?  I had a neighbor in college that "played" the banjo and it is a good thing I didn't own any firearms at the time. 

[Rasix]

I found out today that there's a new version of PuTTY.  Not useless, but not sure where else to post it.

In this episode of idiots at work:

Two co-workers pop in front of my door. "You headed to the meeting now?"   Meeting is in 8 minutes and just down the hall, like 30 steps away.  
"No."

[Merusk]

Having your fiance or wife live in a separate home will really solve about 80% of the issues with a marriage.

False.  At most it's 50%.  You'll still be wrong about decoration and cleaning and money arguments can only double with two places.