Downsizing...can you really???

[Zee09]

@alarmguy Yeah I can see it now the BITOG crowd
1000 sq ft house total with a 5800 sq ft attached garage
So 6800 sq. ft. under roof.....

I am looking at Palm Coast Florida (lots there) but used to go to Ocala and met a great lady that worked at Armstrong Homes.
She kept in touch with me for years........she was an agent for them.
Back in the 80's Armstrong actually listed the built-in plant-flower boxes as sq. footage. I may still have those flyers. Nuts...
Marion the great lady stopped getting in touch with me about 10 years ago- I learned she died of cancer.
I never knew her before then but funny she was just one of those great souls you meet once in awhile.

 

[Zee09]

Well folks I had an epiphany yesterday.
Seriously though I had seen a house that was inhabitated by a family of four. The children were preschoolers.

Apparently they were socialites and their house was their life and sole investment. I am not a jealous or envious person as I have all I could want and I tend to just live and let live.

This place came off to me as overly decadent if I was the one to own it.
I love big houses and houses with many rooms. I am not social much and I like it for me and not as a show.
This house was a ranch house on a slab. It was superbly renovated to the highest order but it did have me shaking my head.
If you have a two or three story house no matter how big it has a compactness to it especially if all floors have the same sq. Footage.

Well this house was just over 10k sq. ft. With 9 bedrooms and 3 kitchens. Master bedroom closet the size of a rancher itself.

Very lavishly done. That is fine but remember this is a single level home.
I can imagine having parties there.
If you did some guests would be a few football fields away in one of the many living rooms or TV rooms just about in another county

Something came off wrong about this whole deal. To each his own but I got a bit irritated about it and I am not that kind of guy so I sort of got some of the snarky comments here...lol

The owners enjoy it and are proud of it and that is all that matters.
I guess the single level sort of blows it out of proportion and to me came off a bit weird. Oh well on to the next.

 

[Pew]

2000sqft is a lot. I grew up in a 1800sqft house with a family of 5 and now I'm in a 1,300sqft townhouse. I can definitely downsize more but I say that as a single guy where all my stuff can fit inside the smallest uhaul truck. A close friend owns the 2-bd/2-car garage townhouse and the price I pay in rent is equal to a studio apartment with no garage.

 

[dareo]

Well folks I had an epiphany yesterday.
Seriously though I had seen a house that was inhabitated by a family of four. The children were preschoolers.

Apparently they were socialites and their house was their life and sole investment. I am not a jealous or envious person as I have all I could want and I tend to just live and let live.

This place came off to me as overly decadent if I was the one to own it.
I love big houses and houses with many rooms. I am not social much and I like it for me and not as a show.
This house was a ranch house on a slab. It was superbly renovated to the highest order but it did have me shaking my head.
If you have a two or three story house no matter how big it has a compactness to it especially if all floors have the same sq. Footage.

Well this house was just over 10k sq. ft. With 9 bedrooms and 3 kitchens. Master bedroom closet the size of a rancher itself.

Very lavishly done. That is fine but remember this is a single level home.
I can imagine having parties there.
If you did some guests would be a few football fields away in one of the many living rooms or TV rooms just about in another county

Something came off wrong about this whole deal. To each his own but I got a bit irritated about it and I am not that kind of guy so I sort of got some of the snarky comments here...lol

The owners enjoy it and are proud of it and that is all that matters.
I guess the single level sort of blows it out of proportion and to me came off a bit weird. Oh well on to the next.

Sounds very expensive and i wish i was their friends!

 

[Cujet]

I always lived in large houses and as a young adult I also ran a mail order business from my house as well.

Soon I plan to move and have just one vehicle and cut business way back. A few machines and not much else.

How do you know if you can live in a small 2000 sq ft. house?
And you are moving from a area where you have basements bigger than that to a no basement state like Florida.
I am not a collector or hoarder but just like space....

I like my space. I'm not a small guy and pretty much take up the door opening as it is. As I age and fail, I'm thinking I need a house large enough to accommodate wheelchairs for my wife and I. My current home is a Florida ranch 3/2 under 2500 sq ft and it is not large enough for both wheelchairs and our furniture.

My ideal home is a ranch, about 4000 sq ft, with no stairs or steps, high ceilings and wide doors. Enough room to stretch out and not bump into everything. Plus a shower large enough to roll into. My MB shower is currently 5x9 feet with six shower heads. Love it, but can't roll a wheelchair into it due to the step. If I were to do it again, I'd make it 6x10 feet with a pitched floor and no threshold or step.

Like this:

 

[supton]

Well folks I had an epiphany yesterday.
Seriously though I had seen a house that was inhabitated by a family of four. The children were preschoolers.

Apparently they were socialites and their house was their life and sole investment. I am not a jealous or envious person as I have all I could want and I tend to just live and let live.

This place came off to me as overly decadent if I was the one to own it.
I love big houses and houses with many rooms. I am not social much and I like it for me and not as a show.
This house was a ranch house on a slab. It was superbly renovated to the highest order but it did have me shaking my head.
If you have a two or three story house no matter how big it has a compactness to it especially if all floors have the same sq. Footage.

Well this house was just over 10k sq. ft. With 9 bedrooms and 3 kitchens. Master bedroom closet the size of a rancher itself.

Very lavishly done. That is fine but remember this is a single level home.
I can imagine having parties there.
If you did some guests would be a few football fields away in one of the many living rooms or TV rooms just about in another county

Something came off wrong about this whole deal. To each his own but I got a bit irritated about it and I am not that kind of guy so I sort of got some of the snarky comments here...lol

The owners enjoy it and are proud of it and that is all that matters.
I guess the single level sort of blows it out of proportion and to me came off a bit weird. Oh well on to the next.

If I was rich and could afford to pay someone to clean it for me… I’m not getting younger and neither are my parents. I can think of many reasons why i would not want to live with relatives again, if they were a football field away it might not be so bad.

Especially if I could jet away whenever I felt like it!

 

[RhondaHonda]

Yeah, basements in Florida...I think they are called underground pools...

Speaking of which...on a side question...I was once told that you never drain your in ground pool in Florida...because if you did, it would pop out of the ground. Is this true...anyone have an in ground pool in FL?

When my pool was built they put in a 12” pipe that goes down to the rock below the pool shell, about 9-10 feet. They told me if I ever fully drain it (for repairs or resurfacing to put a pump in that pipe so any groundwater below the pool shell is pumped out.

I don’t live in Florida but the pool builder had one instance of this happening. Someone had a cover on in the winter, with a pump on top of the cover to keep water off. A tree limb fell on the cover, tore it and the pump fell into the pool and proceeded to pump all the water out. The pool was now a boat and proceeded to float the deep end out of the ground taking the pool deck with it. I don’t remember how they fixed it but it was no cheap.

You can see the pipe on the left side of the pic. Can’t see it from the house or yard now as the hillside falls away and it’s on the back side of the pool.

 

[Zee09]

I have a lot in the rolling hills of Ocala Florida with the old oaks like it is here. Horse country. They say you can build a house with a full basement but in other areas you have sink holes to worry about.

Need to do serious testing. Seen where a few places sunk in The Villages.

 

[RhondaHonda]

I could downsize but have 3 young kids and a wife. Having young kids there’s just so much stuff they have (toys-indoor and outdoor, crafts stuff, games, books, puzzles, crap my wife gets them, etc). I try to donate, sell or toss something at least weekly. Love coming up the stairs from the basement with something to get rid of!

 

[Zee09]

I could downsize but have 3 young kids and a wife. Having young kids there’s just so much stuff they have (toys-indoor and outdoor, crafts stuff, games, books, puzzles, crap my wife gets them, etc). I try to donate, sell or toss something at least weekly. Love coming up the stairs from the basement with something to get rid of!

Yeah and you need your safe place...lol
Free of noise....

 

[John Galt]

Ocala Florida, Wow! That is beautiful country. I drive through that section of Florida just to see the green rolling fields with either horses or cattle grazing. And all those huge, and I mean huge stately oak trees with Spanish moss hanging down. scattered in all the green fields. Like a storybook, I’m jealous!