BS: Counting Doors - Home Size

Subject: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 04:53 AM

Every once in awhile I notice that this old house we rent not only FEELS like it's way too big for two peeps of our age, but when other folks actually see the floor plan, they say the same darn thing.

So I'm trying to wrap my head around how MUCH bigger it is than other folks' homes, as well as how oddly laid out. (It does also have extra interior doors separating areas, where a lot of houses would not.)

It occurred to me that counting all the doors might be one way.

So-- not counting closets, but counting all the other exterior and interior doors to the house (and any associated outbuildings you are "responsible" for maintaining-- what is the number, and is it so big and complicated that you have to make an actual list to count them all?

Just the doors you actually move thru on a regular basis, getting from one place to another...

Ours: 27, counting that hatch that goes up into the second attic, where Hardi goes thru sometimes.

But not closets.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 05:12 AM

24. 400 year old stone-built house.

There;'s 2 of us too, but we use every room almost daily.

Paws

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Newport Boy
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 05:18 AM

Our 3-bedroom barn conversion has 11, plus a doorway with no door from the hall to the living room. I haven't counted the patio door or the rarely-used 1st floor external door, and I haven't included the 2 ddors to the workshop across the yard.

I assume that "closet" is what we call a "cupboard".

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: gnomad
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 06:01 AM

If a 2-leaf door (actually French windows) counts as one, then 6, otherwise 8. Only me here, though I believe that both the similar apartments in this building have two occupants.

I feel that area might be a better measure, though how well the space is laid out makes a big difference. My present home, a recent build, is very efficiently laid out, and feels plenty big enough at 60sq metres, that's about 646sq ft.
My last place was slightly larger (about 5percent) but being around 250 years old was less efficiently laid out. It felt far less spacious, and has 10 doors.

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 06:30 AM

23, including shed and garage. Me and the dog. 2,295 sq ft (approx, downstairs only, not counting shed or garage). Earliest parts of foundations early 1700s.

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 07:44 AM

Three: Two exterior and one bathroom.

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 07:52 AM

Our previous house had 23, if you count the two garage doors and two outside sheds (2-panel sliding door in each shed counted as one), but of course not counting the three gates in the privacy fence. (4,800 sq ft inside.)

We downsized a bit, to our present 9** in the house plus two in sheds outside. (740 sq ft inside.) I suppose I could count the rear door (ramp) in the trailer out in the back, since that's where we store the mobility scooters and some of the camping stuff ... but we only open that one about 3 times a year.

** Three of the nine would technically be "doorways" since they could (should?) have, but don't have, an actual door in the opening.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 09:08 AM

In the kitchen of our old farmhouse in Maine, there are seven doors. It was the major command center for the house.

1. front yard
2. back yard
3. back room
4. pantry
5. cellar
6. upstairs
7. living room

You might say that our kitchen was adorable...

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 09:24 AM

Hm. Bedrooms: 4 in the main house, and a dorm in one attic that would bunkbed 8-10 people, and one large one in the addition beneath the dorm.

Built late 1800's, with major adds/reno ca. 1980.

With that reno and addition, it became a 3-family dwelling and/or a farmworkers' bunkhouse for about 35 people, with the dining room then used as a bedroom. Total then: 6 bedrooms, three living/dining rooms, three baths, three kitchens (indoors).

One of those objective "aha" moments was last week in my PT appointment, when my mid-therapy goal of running the snowblower myself was referenced. It has not been a snowy winter, so ????? But the PTist had pictured a town driveway about 40' deep.

When I told her we lived on the "Old [local farm]" property, the conversation.... stopped for awhile as jaws were scooped off the floor. "OH. I didn't know you lived THERE...." she finally said. It has a long and wide tractor driveway that circles around behind the huge house... about 40' of which is plowed in the first emergency plowing to get Hardi to the ER if need be, then the next day there's the other 120+ feet for a longterm parking and turnaround section connecting the first 40 to the BACK door that we mostly use.

With the gasworkers' housing boom here eating up all the local housing stock, we're grateful the landlord (a friend now) has not cashed us out in favor of the THREE-fam rents he could inflate-- bedrooms-only with kitchen privileges are going now for $200/week. The only other housing now open (this side of the mountain) within about an hour's drive is a trailer; Hardi's employers are not quite ready for their Rector to move into a trailer, or move so far away from the ER.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: artbrooks
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 10:39 AM

3 outside doors - front, back and garage. 1 from garage to kitchen, 1 from kitchen to laundry. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Total of 10. No history here - suburban mid-1980s tract home.

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 27 Feb 12 - 11:53 AM

Our little bungalow has ten doors (counting the conservatory and utility room) I downsized two years ago, from a much bigger house with bedrooms upstairs, two sitting rooms etc. I hesitated, but we took the plunge. Our bungalow is small, but so easily heated and cleaned. We don't regret the move one bit. I can recommend downsizing, you'll feel so much more cosy and safe.

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Penny S.
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 05:50 AM

9, but an open doorway as well.

Ground floor
The door to the garage
The door to the downstairs loo
The door between the entrance hall and the back of the house
The door to the utility room
The door to the back room which the previous owner used as a bedroom but which is going to be my study when I get all the bookshelves up

First floor
No doors, but open doorway between kitchen and living room, which the Fire Brigade recommend I should put a door into

Second floor
The door to the bathroom
The door to the front bedroom, spare but also washing drying room, sewing and machine knitting room
The door to my bedroom
The door to the very small spare bedroom, aka box room, serving for the stuff which would go in the loft if I did not have a flat roof.

All in some sort of use, but I suspect our rich government would regard me as being a dog in the manger with four bedrooms.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 11:45 AM

16-17, I think.

about 2000 sq.ft. 2 level house kinda built into a low hill.

4 entrance doors...front, back.. lower level by the driveway... and one in a 'breezeway' to a former apartment.

It has a lower level (not a basement) that is divided longitudinaly in half by a wall, with one tiny door between the 2 halves to make what was a separate apartment, which I turned into a shop. The former occupants had the interior access door covered & locked....but I use it everyday. It is only 24" wide instead of 27-28".

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: wysiwyg
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 03:00 PM

I think the way I need to think of it is not as the house that held a newly-blending family with three rambunctious teenagers-- which is how we first saw it-- but as the home for three families it used to be. Because there are NOT three families' worth of people doing all the damn chores!!! :~)

I want to live in a ONE family house-- a small, couple-sized one, but with my present office included, all on one floor.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 03:49 PM

"I want to live in a ONE family house-- a small, couple-sized one,.."

Why that's easy, just throw money, Susan.... they will build..... what? Oh...they don't pay attention to dimes & nickles and an occasional worn dollar?

Hmmmm....

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 07:02 AM

Or I want office-cleaning staff AT LEAST!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 07:21 AM

Sixteen in my last 1940's house (eighteen including the sheds) only ten in our current cottagey 1920's house. I like this one better.

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 07:23 AM

Tsk - make that SEVEN not ten! Don't know where ten came from.

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: ragdall
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 08:27 AM

22, counting the shed under the deck and the hatch to the roof space.
There was enough room to raise our three boys here, now there isn't enough space for the two of us. I'm slowly trying to make more space by decluttering.

rags

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 08:31 AM

What's Hardi do in the attic, WYSuzie???

Ours??? About 13...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 08:43 AM

3 & an archway - but I live in a 4 room (1 bedroom) apartment

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 09:05 AM

What's Hardi do in the attic, WYSuzie???

:~)

Baits rats. Inspects for loose/missing bricks. Visits bats.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Amos
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 09:23 AM

Twelve, I think. THe conventional method for comparing houses is square footage and # of bedrooms. But I like the door metric. It raises mystery. Where do they all go? :D


A

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 04:05 PM

2..bathroom and outside. There is also a trap door to attic. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: gnu
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 06:41 PM

Back entry, dining room, kitchen, basement are adjacent on a four square foot space... now, what idiot thought THAT was a good idea? But, I live alone so it's managable although still kinda cramped when I enter.

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Feb 12 - 11:00 PM

The conventional method for comparing houses is square footage and # of bedrooms.

Yes, and if it didn't have more living rooms/kitchens/baths than he number of bedrooms would seem to indicate, it would make sense to see it that way-- that IS how we saw it when we moved in (it had been taken partly out of 3-fam mode). But ask anyone who cleans houses and they will say that the number of kitchens to clean is a significant feature to consider! :~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Penny S.
Date: 01 Mar 12 - 11:18 AM

That "where do they all go" comment reminded me of the details my parents were sent of a house on Romney Marsh. "It is believed there is another room on the first floor..." (That's the one above the one on ground level, so not, presumably, where the smugglers' tunnel entered.)

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Mar 12 - 01:50 PM

If you count a door as something solid that you have to open and close to get into or out of, and not just an opening you go through to get into a room:

7 exterior doors, if you include the garage door.
12 interior, not counting the closets but including bathrooms (2 closets are walk-in).

The house was built in 1968 and has about 3,500 square feet on two floors.

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Mar 12 - 12:26 AM

I like the door metric. It raises mystery. Where do they all go?

OUT.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 02 Mar 12 - 03:19 AM

19, including those providing egress to one's grounds.

Just finished painting thirteen of the swine - both sides and four coats; that's 104 separate sessions of boredom.

Subject: RE: BS: Counting Doors - Home Size
From: John P
Date: 03 Mar 12 - 12:47 AM

Eleven. Three outside doors and eight interior, including bathrooms. House is from 1962, about 2200 sq ft. Somewhere along the line, someone knocked down all the walls between the living room, kitchen, and dining room. I never realized before reading this thread that there are no doors at all in fully half of the main floor of the house.