How much space do you need?
i often watch HGTV – a canadian tv channel of nothing but home improvement type shows – real estate, selling and buying, painting, swapping painting with your neighbor, worlds worst handy man etc. Lately, its nearly all programs geared towards following people as they try to buy a new house. Some of them are shows from the UK, some from Canada and the USA.
It always strikes me as odd though when i watch – people in the UK usually buy a home in Italy, France or some other such European hot spot city, and as such are content to spend mega bucks on a tiny flat – some dont even have their own bathroom- you have to share with your neighbor down the hall. The UK people are content to have a small space if the view is great, or if they’re close to the night life etc… and they work around that tiny cramped quarters to make a home.
People in North America? almost every show, every ‘couple’ have the same complaint – ‘its too small’. This with 4 and 5 bedroom homes that have two or three baths! this with an acre of land, swimming pool in back yard and master bedroom the size of many UK people’s entire flat!
so this led me to ponder – how much space do you need?
photo courtesty istock
i used to think i wanted this big rambling Victorian style home when i ‘grew up’. Something with a rambling porch and a round turret that i could turn into my own private ‘library’ or reading room.. or perhaps make it into my art studio if if faced south east. Something with lots of ‘gingerbread’ on it (gingerbread being the term for that fancy curly-q scroll work on the porch posts and as trim, etc). I really wanted a house like this when i was in my 20’s. i dont any more.
the older i get, the more i hate cleaning house… but its more than that. i’ve realized finally, how little half the world actually has – not just financially, but in terms of property etc. If people in the UK are quite content to live in a flat of less than 1000 square feet – and some with children to boot – why cant I? and then of course is the entire situation of Africa and developing nations – living in a one room shack with thatch roof and dirt floor – cooking on a hotplate or fire – not some big fancy stainless steel range – and truly, most African people seem to have much more hope, more joy, more sense of family, than we do here in the West. There has to be a lesson in there somewhere.
me? i’ll be content with a 2 bedroom bungalow – a spare room for my family when they visit overnight. a small living room, no dining room – we eat in front of the news at night anyways. a kitchen that is functional, not large, with maybe a breakfast nook when we decide not to be in front of the idiot box. one bathroom will suffice and a stacker washer dryer would to. and space to do my art and photography. maybe a deck added on by us for the summer. goodbye to the victorian rambler. i dont need you any more.
Tags: bungalow, how big is your house, how much space do you need?, take up less space, too much space, uk flats vs usa condos, use less space, victorian home
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