Space

Aside from the castle my future husband is going to buy for me, I don't really fantasize about having a huge house. I see a big house as something that cost more to heat and cool and clean. I especially don't understand why small families need big houses. Why does a mom, dad and two kids need a four bedroom house? Or bigger?

In my neighborhood, the houses are pretty small. Little post-war ranch and bungalow styles houses. Most are about 1400 sq feet, have a living room, kitchen, one bath, three bedrooms. Maybe there is a dining alcove set off from the kitchen. These are the size of houses that our grandparents raised our mom's and dad's in. Kids shared a 12x12 room. And it was doable!

Having visited a friend who recently bought one of these houses, I felt a little claustrophobic. And it makes me feel bad because I feel like I'm trying to create a justification for having a larger house. And then I started thinking about the relativity of size. These houses were built for my grandparents generation. both of my grandmothers were 4'9". I'm 5'9" And entire foot taller.

My 4'9" grandmother could be in a 12x12 room, which is 144 sq feet. She would have an approx arm reach of 5'0 so let's just round up and say my grandmother could take up 25 sq feet which would leave 119 sq feet of non-human space available. At 5'9" and a 6 foot reach I take up about 36 sq feet which would leave 108 sq ft. And we aren't even calculating actual body mass. I know 11 feet of difference doesn't sound like a lot, but section off that much from one of your rooms and see if you don't notice it. And then section of that much from every room...

And then there's just being a whole foot closer to the ceiling too!