Took the weekend off, sort of. Instead of driving around
with clients I’ve been driving around with family previewing homes. 16 homes in
two days, including my dream home in a less than dreamy location, plus a trip
to Ikea to buy Mia a new desk and Peter Rabbit (the movie) with friends.
There are times when I would love to have a bigger house, I
mean, we do have a 3-bedroom home with 3 kids, 2 grownups and a dog,
1,850sqft. We do have a great floor plan
with an open concept downstairs, a loft upstairs but there are days when I
could take a bit more space, like when trying to cram the foosball table in my
boys’ room. So, on occasion, I do get tempted by homes offering more room.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have some extra space? The trade off though, would be
moving further out to a less desirable location in a developing community. What
I really would want to do, is to knock down our master bedroom wall and make it
smaller as we really don’t need a large master suite with a sitting area. I
would be more that happy to donate all that space to create a bigger loft.
Our house is almost 1,000sqft smaller than the average
(2,687sqft) US home, at least according to 2015 census. Then again, In
Helsinki, Finland the average home size was 650sqft in 2013 and I doubt that
has changed much. Over there, many would consider our square footage quite
elaborate as would those living in Hong Kong with the average of 484sqft home.
How much space one needs differs by country and within a
country by region, and whether you live in a metropolitan area or in the
country side. A Finnish person has an average of 368sqft of living space per person
if you look at the entire country. The number would be roughly the same for someone
coming from Italy, Spain, UK or Japan. People from Hong Kong only need 161sqft
opposed to the Australians, with their 958sqft per person. When I divide the
size of our home with us living in it, we are pretty close to the Finnish
average having 370sqft per person.
How we live reflects where we are from, and what we’re used
to. I started my life in a large 2400sqft penthouse apartment in Helsinki. A
beautiful prestigious old Art Noveau building “Eol”designed by the legendary
architect trio of Gesellius-Lindgren-Saarinen (Eero Saarinen’s father) located
in Katajanokka, the Madison park of Helsinki, a tad isolated but yet close to
the heart of the city.
My parents divorced when I was 6 years old and we moved to a
smaller, literally no bedroom apartment as my father stayed at his family home.
Our new condo In the Eira neighborhood had a kitchen where my bed was in one
corner and a living room where my mom slept. Then again, some residents in the
building didn’t even have bathrooms, we did. My educated guess is that we had
approximately 430sqft for 3 people. Even if the building was old and in need of
some serious TLC it was located in another neighborhood related to prosperity.
This is the neighborhood of wealthy old families and in many ways similar to Laurelhurst,
or if you’re a Londoner - Kensington.
When I was in my teens we moved again. The tad under
1,300sqft home in Punavuori felt like a castle as I finally got my own room. It
was an up and coming, traditionally working-class neighborhood known today as a
bohemian district popular among artists, students and hipsters. Think CapitolHill. There were 4 of us, meaning we had 325sqft each. In Helsinki it was by no
means a small home. Remember, the average size of a home in Helsinki is still
650sqft and this was twice that size.
My first home was just a stone throw away. It was a small
300sqft studio apartment, once again in a building, built in the early 1900s. Eventually
I ended up sharing this home with my husband.
I wish I had pictures for you but unfortunately I don't. So, go ahead and click away.
What was in common for all these homes was the bugs. Old
buildings in tightly knit downtown area equals bugs. Whether in a fancy or less
desirable neighborhood, it came with your small friends. All sorts of bugs. Silverfish,
carpet beetles, moths and weevils were all equally gross, but something you
just had to live with. Once a building was poisoned these creatures moved to
the next one, and eventually they would be back after circling around the block
from one building to the next. To this day, when I see something small on the
floor, in our pantry or the walking closets, I will check if it moves luckily
it does not.
Since then my homes have grown. No longer do I live in an
old building either. For the past 10 plus years, it’s been a single-family home,
and before that a townhome. My children barely know what condos are, and for
these suburban children buildings where homes are on top of each other are a
mystery. As Seattle metropolitan area is getting pricier and pricier, tighter
spaces, condo living, and smaller homes are becoming reality for many. After
weeks and weeks of looking, a 740sqft, 3 bed home may start looking quite appealing
to many.
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