{"id":7281,"date":"2009-11-17T05:00:41","date_gmt":"2009-11-17T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=7281"},"modified":"2019-05-29T02:18:32","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T09:18:32","slug":"how-much-house-do-you-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/how-much-house-do-you-need\/","title":{"rendered":"How much house do you need?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>For more than a decade, Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company<\/a> has lived in an 89 square-foot home<\/i>.<\/p>\n His decision to live in a tiny house came from concerns about the effects a larger house would have on the environment, and his desire to not maintain a lot of unused or unusable space.<\/p>\n Obviously Jay’s home is at the extreme<\/i> low end of how small one can go with living space, but it meets his needs and allows him to live the simple lifestyle he was seeking. While it may seem impossibly small to the majority of people, 89 square feet is Jay’s right-sized home.<\/p>\n Contrast this with the average American home, which in 2004, was 2349 square feet, up from 1695 square feet in 1974. In 30 years, the size of kitchens<\/a> doubled, ground-floor ceilings grew by more than a foot, and bedrooms increased by 54 square feet. In 2004, the average family size was 2.6 people. Thirty years ago, it was 3.1 people. Our homes have been getting larger while our families are getting smaller.<\/b><\/p>\n But earlier this year USA TODAY<\/i><\/a> reported a change in that trend:<\/p>\n New homes, after doubling in size since 1960, are shrinking. Last year, for the first time in at least 10 years, the average square footage of single-family homes under construction fell dramatically, from 2,629 in the second quarter to 2,343 in the fourth quarter, Census data show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The average size of a new home is approximately 15 percent smaller than it was just a year ago. Architects and designers believe this trend toward smaller homes was caused by the economic meltdown \u2014 but they expect it to be a lasting change.<\/p>\n I’ve mentioned that my husband and I will be building a home soon, and we’ve gone back and forth with our architect on several sketches, trying to find our right-sized home. Most of the designs have been appealing, but some have been bigger than we need, and others smaller.<\/p>\n Buying or building too much home has a lot of drawbacks, including:<\/p>\n Buying or building too small is economical, but can cost in other ways. If your house is too small, you might face some of the following challenges:<\/p>\n Too big is a waste, and too small is a headache. How does one find a Goldilocks house \u2014 sized just right? There are many considerations, such as the following:<\/p>\n Once you have an idea of what you need your house to do, you can calculate your magic number. In the article “Square Feat: Foot Steps”<\/a>, architect Dan Maginn recommends starting with your current home and following these five steps:<\/p>\n Right now our number is around 1800 square feet, with a loft that can be built out later if and when our needs change. That number sounds big to me, but looking at the plans, spaces, and considering our future needs (we don’t plan to move from this house), it might just be our right-sized house.<\/p>\n What is the square footage of your right-sized living space? Do you currently live in more space than you need, or could you use some more room?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n J.D.’s note:<\/b> I love<\/u> the Tumbleweed Homes. I want one.<\/u><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/a>For more than a decade, Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company<\/a> has lived in an 89 square-foot home<\/i>.<\/p>\n His decision to live in a tiny house came from concerns about the effects a larger house would have on the environment, and his desire to not maintain a lot of unused or unusable space.<\/p>\n Obviously Jay’s home is at the extreme<\/i> low end of how small one can go with living space, but it meets his needs and allows him to live the simple lifestyle he was seeking. While it may seem impossibly small to the majority of people, 89 square feet is Jay’s right-sized home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":237059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[484],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span>Too Big, Too Small<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>Finding a Size that is Just Right<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>Calculating the Size of your Goldilocks Home<\/span><\/h2>\n
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