It's time to rethink the single-family home as the American dream, author says

[MineralMan]

3. I Grew up in, and Currently Live in, a 900 Sq. Foot House.

Both my childhood home and my present one were built in the Post-WWII housing boom. Both are three-bedroom, one-bath houses. Growing up, there were two adults and three children living in that 900 sq. foot house. Today, it is just my wife and I, living in the one we bought in 2004, 50 years after it was built.

Back in my childhood days, the largest bedroom was my parents' bedroom. My sister had the smallest bedroom and my younger brother and I shared the third bedroom. All bedrooms were off a hall from the living room, with the bathroom and master bedroom on one side and the other two bedrooms on the other side of that hall. My current house has exactly the same layout.

There is a decent-sized living room and a kitchen/dining area in the rest of the house. Today, only one of our bedrooms is used as a bedroom by my wife and I. My wife's office is in the smallest bedroom, and the third bedroom, which also has a door into the kitchen, has been converted into a dining room. My office is in the unfinished basement.

As a family, when I was a kid, somehow we managed to grow up and go through our teens in that 900-sq. ft. house. We didn't really need or want anything larger. With just one bathroom, we scheduled our bathing times, out of necessity. Otherwise, anyone could use it, as long as someone else wasn't in there. It worked out OK, except for a couple of years when my sister was just entering her teens. But, we managed.

These days, houses are much bigger, but many, many families still live in those 900 sq. ft. houses. They're still adequate. They're much cheaper to build, but nobody builds houses that small any longer. So, those many, many families live in those old 40s and 50s houses. They're still managing OK. That's actually plenty of space, and tends to favor family unity, out of necessity.