House Lust

Who Needs a 401(k)? I’d Rather Have a Castle

Excerpts:

[There is] a newly overwhelming lust for space. In 1950, the average American home measured just 938 square feet. By 2005, the average had grown to 2,434 square feet.

....
The rise in house sizes has not been accompanied by qualitative leaps in the use of space. Yes, there have been innumerable technological advances in everything from heating and air-conditioning to kitchen appliances. Home theaters and so-called mud rooms, for changing into and out of foul-weather garments, have become the rage.

But as Mr. McGinn notes, “Unlike the robber baron-era mansions, modern-day megahomes don’t feature dozens of bedrooms or entirely new kinds of rooms — they mostly just take the rooms you’d find in a normal house and make them really, really big.”

The challenge of filling up those rooms, he adds, is being met by outsize furnishings like the “extreme ultra king bed” that is 12 feet long and 10 feet wide.


Book: House Lust: America’s Obsession With Our Homes

Comment:

Above is an aerial picture of where I grew up (in Fort Wayne Indiana):

Address: 4061 S Monroe Street, Fort Wayne, IN, 46806

My parents bought this house for $ 9,600 in 1950. It had 2 bedrooms, and 1 bath. Along the way, my Father built a bedroom in the attic and finished the basement. My Dad also built the garage in the backyard (note the alley). The inset picture in the upper left is not the exact house, but a home currently for sale in the same neighborhood that looks much like my boyhood home (remove the dormer and it is almost identical!). My guess is the square footage (with the finished basement and attic bedroom) was about 1,200 sq. ft.

I have to admit, I would not buy a house like this today. One bathroom! You've got to be kidding! How a family of five lived with one bathroom!?? I don't even remember!