Anyone regretted buying a house that is too big?

[Deleted User]

We have a 4 bed detached now that is around 1750/1800 sq ft and I find it absolutely perfect with 2 adults and 2 teens and working from home. Integral double garage is a gym / utility room / good sized kitchen diner / lounge / snug / wc / upstairs 4 lrg bed with 1 ensuite and the 4th bedroom is a brilliant office space that we both use as wfh.

I love it because I know we utilise every inch and just right on storage without us hoarding. But - I know me and dh will probably disagree when the kids have grown up because I won't see the reason to have so much space and I know he won't want to downsize. But - I do understand that sometimes you get something larger than you need for other reasons. I know we would still ideally want a detached house but could happily have a smaller detached but it still probably wouldn't reduce the space enough. The size of house we would probably need then is relative to a small semi perhaps but then we wouldn't have detached/garage/parking that are important to us so to get these then the property tends to be bigger and you probably don't use enough of the space.

I'm worried about getting use to extra space and struggling to downsize. My parents are late 70s and just the two of them in going on for 3000sq ft and they just can't get their heads round downsizing even though they know they only really live in a v small percentage of the house and just keep 'stuff' in the rest of it that again they don't  use. I can't get my head around it but they are happy with it. There are other houses that would probably give them a better lifestyle, especially for location and maintenance, but everything now feels 'small' to them. 

TripleH

My paternal grandmother lived in a 5 storey guesthouse. Her and my grandfather ran it until he passed and she did until the last 3 years of her life.

She lived in the basement (bedroom, lounge, kitchen and bathroom). The restvof the house was stuck in a timewarp.

Silvertabby

Just the 2 of us, but we went for a new build 4 bed detached in the early 1990s.  We originally looked at 3 beds, but had to upgrade to get the downstairs living space we wanted.

Nearly 30 years later, we certainly aren't rattling around - master suite, dedicated guest bedroom, hobby room and study.

lookstraightahead

I lived in a rental with 5 toilets once. We didn't need the space but it was in the right area for us. It was a townhouse so a bathroom for the bedrooms, a downstairs loo and a separate main bathroom. The actual house didn't warrant / wasn't big enough for all those toilets so I guess it was so that someone could say they had five toilets 🤣.

Scotbot

I am 1 in a 4 bed house. If Sarah Beeny were to do a heat map she would find I use all the rooms all the time with the exception of the spare bedroom. Downstairs kitchen and living room in constant use.  Likewise bedroom, study and dressing room upstairs. British EAs wouLd call the dressing room and study bedrooms, Americans and Aussies would call them closets.

trix-a-belle

i'm single & my first place was a 4 bedroom semi but I really didn't notice, my usage of upstairs was mostly reaching the top and then turning immediately right into my bedroom & downstairs was the kitchen & living room, so lots wasn't really used. I bought for the location being convenient at the time and didn't plan to stay beyond about 5 years but ended up there for 10 years & it worked & I expanded into some more of it over time for wfh spaces.
This place is a 3 bed detached & I live in the space completely differently, it feels bigger in some ways but smaller in others. I value my workshop/garage space so in an ideal world a 2 bed detached house with a 2+ car garage & a bit of green space would be great but they just don't make them.

Once you start to live in it in your way and figure out how to use the space you will start to blend with it, crack on with putting your stamp on it and it will come.

Thrugelmir

trix-a-belle said:

Once you start to live in it in your way and figure out how to use the space you will start to blend with it, crack on with putting your stamp on it and it will come.

With more space there's a natural urge to fill it with something. 

Murphybear

We haven’t bought a big property but we did rent one.  We moved from a 3 bedroomed mid terrace in mid Devon to a house on a farm on the edge of Dartmoor.  It had 4 bedrooms and 3 reception rooms.  The rent was the same

It didn’t have a garden but there was loads of space being on a farm.  The cat loved it as there was a field of sheep backing on to us.

It was lovely having tons of storage and a separate dining room.  

Ibrahim5

lookstraightahead said:

I lived in a rental with 5 toilets once. We didn't need the space but it was in the right area for us. It was a townhouse so a bathroom for the bedrooms, a downstairs loo and a separate main bathroom. The actual house didn't warrant / wasn't big enough for all those toilets so I guess it was so that someone could say they had five toilets 🤣.

I think all the houses on our road have got five toilets. One in each bathroom and one on the ground floor. Modern houses tend to have more bathrooms. I think two bathrooms are probably enough for most houses though.

Ramouth

Ibrahim5 said:

lookstraightahead said:

I lived in a rental with 5 toilets once. We didn't need the space but it was in the right area for us. It was a townhouse so a bathroom for the bedrooms, a downstairs loo and a separate main bathroom. The actual house didn't warrant / wasn't big enough for all those toilets so I guess it was so that someone could say they had five toilets 🤣.

I think all the houses on our road have got five toilets. One in each bathroom and one on the ground floor. Modern houses tend to have more bathrooms. I think two bathrooms are probably enough for most houses though.

A bathroom for each person is very handy if you have a norovirus (sp?) outbreak!