BrianHimes.com
The wife and I have been doing a little house hunting as of late. We aren’t in a position to buy yet, but we like to look and see what’s out there. Something that has struck me as odd during our search is that in our area there were a lot of little, 2 bed, 1 bath houses built in the 1930′s and 40′s. I understand why they were built then, according to the history of the area, but what I don’t understand is why houses that size were adequate for families then, and aren’t now. Why are houses today being built 5 times bigger than houses 50 years ago?
There was an article in the LA Times today talking about repealing some of the zoning restrictions in Los Angeles so that smaller, more affordable, apartments and condos could be built downtown. Some of the builders mentioned in the article hope to build living spaces as small as 250 square feet. Now, that may be a little extreme, but then again maybe it’s not. Why do we need such large places to sleep, cook, and bathe?
I’ll admit, I want a large house with a sprawling backyard probably as much as the next guy, but is it what I need? Probably not. I bet I could be just as happy in a small condo, as I could be in a large house. After all it’s not the stuff that brings happiness. I think we tend to forget that.
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