S/O Staying in Starter Home--How Big / Small was your starte

Same with ours  Our house is 1400 square feet, one of the bedrooms is 8x10 - that's smaller than the stalls we had for our horses! Our house does not have a basement so it's truly 1400 sq ft, not 1400 with a basement. It has a detached garage and it was built in 1955. 

It may seem larger to someone living in San Francisco or New York, but it's small for our area. Houses that started out at 800-950 sq feet have had additions put on already in our area. Ours was one of those houses and they added the 3rd bedroom and the family room. Many of the houses around ours now have second stories added to them. 

It's also our first and last house.

It was around 900 sq. feet. I loved that house and the lot but it was in the wrong school district and next door to the fire station with its very loud whistle so adding on to it wasn't an option. Our next house was only 1200 sq. feet, so not a lot bigger but it had the extra bedroom we needed.

Dh bought a condo (we looked together) a year before we got married and that is where we lived the first couple years we were married.  It was a 2 level, 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath condo in Santa Monica.  We sold that and moved into a 5,500 sq ft, 5 acres in the Bay Area.  I don't think we will go anywhere any time soon.  The comps (if you discount that our house is a very unusual shape) for something comparable is ridiculous.  We would easily have to pay 4 times what we paid and wouldn't get close on the square footage or acreage.  And we just refinanced to a 15 year at a great rate.  

This is us 15 years in. Same size and we are hoping to add the 2nd bath this year. Life happens and we've chose not to take on a bigger payment at this time.

Our starter home was a 3-flat building - We had a 1400 square foot apartment and a small area in the basement.

We are still in our starter. 1100 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom. We have a 1-1/2 garage. It is like an barn that is at the back of the driveway. The 1/2 extends into the yard and that the part we store stuff in. The other part fits one car, but our driveway is long enough to have 3 or 4 more cars.

Sometimes an extra bathroom would come in handy. What I really miss are closets. We have one in our room and one in the upstairs hall. There is a small one in one other bedroom which is made from the old chimney. The other bedroom has no closet and there is no closet downstairs which is very inconvenient.

The basement is half crawl space and half dug out unfinished. I have my washer, dryer and freezer right at the bottom of the stairs since that is the only place I can stand up without hitting my head on joists. We do store a bit of stuff in the basement, but not much.

We will move when we retire but mainly to get off the busy main street that we are on.

Our starter house was 2600 sq. ft. We were older, though when we married (I was 29 and my husband was 34) and housing was very affordable where we lived.

I can't believe how big some of your houses are! My first flat was only 260 sq ft. I adored it. It was one big living/sleeping area, with a kitchenette at one side, and a dressing area and shower room at the other. The study in my current house is bigger than that flat was!

I currently have about 1600 sq ft, which is quite big for this area. DS had a new girlfriend come by last week, and she reported that our house was like Downton Abbey.   It really isn't, but it's old and has big rooms and high ceilings, and she was impressed by the original fireplace and panelling in our living room. 

I'll be moving back into my childhood home sometime in the next few months. It's only about 800 sq ft, although I'll be adding an extension. I have no idea how I will fit all my craft stuff in...

Our first house was about 1400 SF, and it was on the larger side for the neighborhood. Our neighborhood was all houses by the same builder that all looked the same. In fact, our realtor told us when she showed us the 1st house we went to in that neighborhood that if we didn't like the house to tell her and she wouldn't show us any more in that neighborhood.

We stayed in that house for 15 years - and probably really outgrew it after about 5.

We've been in our 2nd house for 4 years - 2000 SF. Still not huge, but definitely bigger!

We have never lived in a "starter home" as it would be defined where I live. A starter home is a very small home - 1000-1100 sq ft or less that someone plans on only living in for a few years. Here, it is not a synonym for "first home".

Mine was about 970 SF with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. It was my father's childhood home that I bought for $40,000 when my grandfather died and sold 3 years later for $75,000. While it had lots of great memories and a great double lot, the fact that it had no central heat or air and no way to expand it because of its construction (solid rock with steel rods threaded theought the brick) made the decision to sell much easier. My father might have lived with no central air in Florida, but I hadn't and was miserable with window units and no laundry facilities or place to install them. I moved to a 2200 SF 4/2 with central heat and air, indoor laundry and a huge kitchen. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven!

Our starter home was just over 1300 sq. ft with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We lived there for 10 years before selling it and building our current home which is 2100 sq ft. We have been in this house for 16 years. It's paid for and we plan on living here until we either die or go to a nursing home. It's just DH and I. We don't have any kids. 

Our first house was about 800 SF with an unfinished 1/2 story attic, unfinished icky basement and no garage. It had one true bedroom (defined as having a closet), a small 8x10 room between the bedroom and bath with no closet that the previous residents used as a nursery, and another room with no closet that was shared by their two older kids. We immediately converted the 8x10 room into a walk in closet, and use the other no closet room as an office. Over the years, we built a 2.5 car garage, finished off the attic into my studio and the room below it was my office so it ended up around 1100-1200 SF by the time we moved.

Our current house is around 3500 FSF on acreage. I love having three real bedrooms that all have their own closets, plus an additional five closets (three of those are walk in size) in other areas of the house. Yes, I love, love, LOVE all my storage space! I don't know how I didn't go insane living in that tiny house as long as we did with three dogs, one kid, two businesses and nowhere to put all of our junk!

It was 1850 sq feet. It was a townhouse with a one car garage and a little fenced in patio/yard. It made me want to never live in a HOA ruled place again! Oh, and the size was almost just right. I feel as if we just needed one more room or a different layout on the first floor. The upstairs was laid out very nicely with 3 bedrooms and a laundry room. I still miss that master bathroom and that huge walk in closet. The downstairs had a very open floor plan. I know some people love that and I did before I lived with it. I think I would like a semi-open layout, but not everything.

Our current home was the next home. It is around 3200 sq feet on the main level with a 3000+ sq ft partially finished basement. More space than the 3 of us really need. We had thought at different points in time we might have a parent live with us, but that has not happened and likely will never happen after all.