I can never relate to wanting to live in New York. Why would I willingly choose to have a tiny apartment on actuary salary when literally anywhere else in the country I could get a nice house?
Maybe I’d feel different if I was single
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It depends on your situation. If it’s you and a girlfriend in your 20s/30s and you’re walking distance from really nice bars/restaurants it can be a great place to live.
Or if you live full time in the suburbs but want a place to spend the night to avoid the commute on late nights.
I could not afford to live in NYC.
I once spent $1500 in 30 hours and that still boggles my mind. (drinks, dinner, drinks [this was the time we closed that wine bar then moved to another bar til we closed THAT at like 4 am], cab, hotel room, wife came into the city and we had lunch, saw an opera, dinner, and home).
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And lower energy bills. I personally would prefer a smaller house but my wife has a lot of stuff
looks at trees and orchards from my Po window
Po is good. I’ll take -40% income for -60% living expense.
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Location, location, location. NYC has a great scene for people who like the fast-paced lifestyle. Small apartment is not ideal but people learn to manage. My first wife liked the tiny apartment in NYC. For most of our marriage I was doing a reverse commute out of the city.
When I wasn’t married to her my preference was NJ - still expensive but at least I got more space for what I paid. Was a good feeling when my wife and I moved down south and got a nicer apartment for half the rent, then bought a house a couple years later.
Depends on how many floors.
I had a 3500 with 3 floors, it’s okay, but I’d like each floor to be more spacious. I say if each floor is over 1500 sqft then that’s good. So 3000sqft for 2 floors is good. Over 1500sqft for a condo is good.
Congrats on the coming arrival 
If I add my 2 adult kids who live with me, I’m very middle class. But remove them and I’m flirting with high society.
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make sure to use protection
Ha no, I took 2 weekends per month + 3 hours every Tuesday as roughly 5/30 = … wait a minute… why did I give us 10 days a month?! Oh man that’s a generous definition of # of days we technically see the kids. The # of days we actually have the kids is less than 5… my poor husband 
.
Joint custody amirite.
Isn’t it how much you support the kids? I included my adult kids although one doesn’t live here bc I still support them.
So my house is 1200sf. It was big enough when it was just the two of us. We currently have 4 people’s things that have accumulated over 20+ years. I have gotten rid of a lot of my own stuff but I’m only one person. My biggest complaint is that I have no space that is my own, where I can sit and read a real book and drink tea. BY MYSELF. Should we decide to stay here forever I’m getting a sun room.
I’m not sure how much sf I want ideally. I have a large family and would love to host Sister Day with my 3 sisters and have room for everyone to sleep. I also have a grown daughter who is disabled and may not be able to support herself ever. I’d love for her to have something more than her tiny room. We’re actually planning some rearranging after little sis’ wedding that will help with that.
The calculator adjusts income WAY too much for entering 1 person vs. 2. I spent many years being the sole income for a 2 person household. When I became a 1 person household my expenses barely changed. If anything, they went up because I now pay someone to do all the random shit that my ex used to take care of while I was at work.
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We have ~3,250 finished sq ft, for three people, and it’s just too much, imo. We have three living rooms and a master closet that’s 8’x14’. Plus with a finished attic and finished basement we have four floors, it’s a lot of stair laps. I might tolerate the size if it wasn’t 100 years old, it needs some TLC and every project is scaled up due to the sheer size of the place.
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I think the amount of work scales with the number of rooms, but not with the sqft. Like, you can have a 5k sqft house with 2 bedrooms, and most of that space is empty floor space in the living room, which is super easy to clean.
A 5k sqft house with 5 bedrooms on the other hand is a nightmare.
Agree for things like cleaning. We have four bedrooms plus an office, four bathrooms, three living rooms. And a… I guess a sort of library room. It’s a lot of rooms!
The other issue for me is remodeling, where you either pay by the sq ft or work by the sq ft. And at some point I will re-build our windows, which is more a function of sq footage than room count, I think. I want to re-build the porch that the house had when it was new, but it’s something like 14’x35’. For these projects, everything is at a pretty decent scale. I’ll take this to the annoyed thoughts thread!
A lot scales with the quantity of plumbing fixtures, but vacuuming scales by sq ft. Of course that one’s easier to outsource to a cleaning lady.
I would love to find someone to do the weeding though. Hubby and I both hate it and can’t find anyone to do the work. Maybe we’re looking in the wrong places. 
Do you live in the middle of nowhere? There are so many weeding companies out there.
Yeah - that’s weird if you can’t find that. Unless maybe you just want the weeding done and want to keep doing the rest of the yard work yourselves.
We’re in the suburbs. What do I search for in Google? I can find people who will cut the weeds and put Preen and mulch on top for like $1,000 and then one week later the yard looks like crap again.
I can’t find anyone who will come out weekly and keep it looking nice all spring/summer/fall.