Size Matters
Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:52 am
According to my wife of forty years size does matter and to this day she is not satisfied. I have tried to explain to her how important it is to appreciate what she has, but that argument has worn thin over the years. She occasionally sees what her friends have and frankly she is jealous. Nevertheless, I view the size we have grown accustomed to as quite adequate and it works for us, well me anyway. 
You see our home was built in 1929 and the overall size is about 1800 square feet, but today the average size of a new home is over 2,400 sq ft. In fact in the area where we live that is the size of the first floor so you can easily see why size matters.
I urge my wife to maintain a reasonable perspective on this size thing because 40 years ago the average home in the US was about 1100 sq ft, now that is something so small perhaps it is not up to the job. By the 1970s an American home had grown to 1500 square feet. American homes, on average, are nearly twice the size of those in many European countries. There those Americans go again taking more from the environment and using more energy to maintain these Mc Mansions as we like to call them. But take heart, many Americans are now losing what they could never afford and never needed, except for the fact size mattered to the Jones’s next door too. :-2
While the homes have been growing in size, the average family size has been shrinking and although I don’t have the statistics, I suspect with a nearly 50% divorce rate, we also need more than one house for a family that in the 1950s would all be living in the same home. Yikes, signs of progress are all around us.
How did we get to “need this size of a home for an average family of 2.6 people? It is all quite clear, no longer is a living room adequate, it now has to be a great room or a family room and possible a media room as well, or all three. A kitchen is no longer used for cooking a meal, but rather for “entertaining. If you don’t believe me, just watch an episode of House Hunters on HGTV. The kitchen also has to be large enough to have the always essential center aisle, with granite counter top of course. I was in a house still under construction recently and the kitchen had four ovens, yes that’s four and all were top of the line Viking products. “Boy, I said to the builder, “this family really likes to cook. “Not really, he said “The woman doesn’t cook, but she felt the kitchen didn’t look right without the ovens. This was a vacation home by the way.
And what about bedrooms, what do you do in a bedroom other than sleep¦oh wait I’m not that old. In any case, you need space for a bed, a dresser, a couple of end tables and a closet. Oh nooooo, you need a sitting area, a fireplace and ten feet on either side of each and of course, you need a walk in closet the size of Luxemburg or you may need two of them. Don’t get me started on what’s in those closets. Hey, I have had the same pair of dress shoes for twenty-years, new soles and heals every now and then and I am good to go. I must admit I did capitulate to my wife’s desire for something more adequate size wise, we had our very typical 1929 closets ( all three of them on the second floor) redone by California Closets ® megabucks for a bunch of white shelves if you ask me. Today’s master suite includes a deluxe bathroom complete with a two person shower (I wish), two sinks in the vanity and a whirlpool tub. Bedrooms now average 12x12 up from 9x10.
So there you have it, in America apparently size does matter although generally at the expense of common sense. Now these homes come equipped with three Blackberry’s® that’s so the 2.6 people living in them can communicate with each other when they are in separate parts of the house. Occasionally, the trip from the media room to the kitchen is so long one of them never makes it in time for the evening meal¦brought home in its entirety in a neat package from the local grocery store. :-5
You see our home was built in 1929 and the overall size is about 1800 square feet, but today the average size of a new home is over 2,400 sq ft. In fact in the area where we live that is the size of the first floor so you can easily see why size matters.
I urge my wife to maintain a reasonable perspective on this size thing because 40 years ago the average home in the US was about 1100 sq ft, now that is something so small perhaps it is not up to the job. By the 1970s an American home had grown to 1500 square feet. American homes, on average, are nearly twice the size of those in many European countries. There those Americans go again taking more from the environment and using more energy to maintain these Mc Mansions as we like to call them. But take heart, many Americans are now losing what they could never afford and never needed, except for the fact size mattered to the Jones’s next door too. :-2
While the homes have been growing in size, the average family size has been shrinking and although I don’t have the statistics, I suspect with a nearly 50% divorce rate, we also need more than one house for a family that in the 1950s would all be living in the same home. Yikes, signs of progress are all around us.
How did we get to “need this size of a home for an average family of 2.6 people? It is all quite clear, no longer is a living room adequate, it now has to be a great room or a family room and possible a media room as well, or all three. A kitchen is no longer used for cooking a meal, but rather for “entertaining. If you don’t believe me, just watch an episode of House Hunters on HGTV. The kitchen also has to be large enough to have the always essential center aisle, with granite counter top of course. I was in a house still under construction recently and the kitchen had four ovens, yes that’s four and all were top of the line Viking products. “Boy, I said to the builder, “this family really likes to cook. “Not really, he said “The woman doesn’t cook, but she felt the kitchen didn’t look right without the ovens. This was a vacation home by the way.
And what about bedrooms, what do you do in a bedroom other than sleep¦oh wait I’m not that old. In any case, you need space for a bed, a dresser, a couple of end tables and a closet. Oh nooooo, you need a sitting area, a fireplace and ten feet on either side of each and of course, you need a walk in closet the size of Luxemburg or you may need two of them. Don’t get me started on what’s in those closets. Hey, I have had the same pair of dress shoes for twenty-years, new soles and heals every now and then and I am good to go. I must admit I did capitulate to my wife’s desire for something more adequate size wise, we had our very typical 1929 closets ( all three of them on the second floor) redone by California Closets ® megabucks for a bunch of white shelves if you ask me. Today’s master suite includes a deluxe bathroom complete with a two person shower (I wish), two sinks in the vanity and a whirlpool tub. Bedrooms now average 12x12 up from 9x10.
So there you have it, in America apparently size does matter although generally at the expense of common sense. Now these homes come equipped with three Blackberry’s® that’s so the 2.6 people living in them can communicate with each other when they are in separate parts of the house. Occasionally, the trip from the media room to the kitchen is so long one of them never makes it in time for the evening meal¦brought home in its entirety in a neat package from the local grocery store. :-5