Random stuff worth reading on the internet thread

[falafel]

Sure. But this entire article is focused on the happiness of families with kids at home. So I stand by my point. Yard space and bathrooms.

Or just kids.

[Donuthole]

Once kids are gone, backyard space appears overrated. We use the pool, the grill, enough patio space around a couple of dining tables for outdoor eating, and ignore the other 90% of the back yard.

Sure. But this entire article is focused on the happiness of families with kids at home. So I stand by my point. Yard space and bathrooms.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Once kids are gone, backyard space appears overrated. We use the pool, the grill, enough patio space around a couple of dining tables for outdoor eating, and ignore the other 90% of the back yard.

Yeah I used to wish I had a bigger back yard. Now I think it is about right.

[beefytee]

Once kids are gone, backyard space appears overrated. We use the pool, the grill, enough patio space around a couple of dining tables for outdoor eating, and ignore the other 90% of the back yard.

It probably depends on where you live. Backyard space in Utah is probably a lot less valuable than backyard space on the coast in California. There are, like, 3 days a year where it is comfortable to just hang in the backyard in Utah. It was nice when my kids were young but not seeing a lot of value with it now.

With the unseasonally warm weather before Christmas, we did set up our projector and did an outdoor movie one night. You don't need a lot of space for that though.

[bluegoose]

Square footage is overrated, but backyard space and a plethora of bathrooms are underrated.

Once kids are gone, backyard space appears overrated. We use the pool, the grill, enough patio space around a couple of dining tables for outdoor eating, and ignore the other 90% of the back yard.

[Clark Addison]

I am good with just 10, my recliner and some space around it. It is all I have to myself anyhow, so its good that is all I want.

I need a door

[Copelius]

I don't care that much for square footage. The majority of the time we were raising four kids we were in a house a little over 2700 square feet. We could have afforded more but it always seemed plenty big.

Having said that I do need 100 to 200 square feet of that to be pretty much all mine to do with as I please.

I am good with just 10, my recliner and some space around it. It is all I have to myself anyhow, so its good that is all I want.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I could afford a bigger house, but I don't want one, so this article confirms my biases.

[Northwestcoug]

I would like to add some square footage to our 2000 sq ft. (185 square meters!) house. I'd like some type of high-sun exposure room for plants. I have a couple of bonsai trees that are mightily struggling with the lack of sun in these blustery wintery times. As it is they are only getting wisps of sun when it's out, given its trajectory and low angle. A conservatory-type space would be cool.

And it would be nice for Mrs. NWC to take her bagpipe chanter and get the hell out of my office.

[Clark Addison]

I don't care that much for square footage. The majority of the time we were raising four kids we were in a house a little over 2700 square feet. We could have afforded more but it always seemed plenty big.

Having said that I do need 100 to 200 square feet of that to be pretty much all mine to do with as I please.

[Donuthole]

Square footage is overrated, but backyard space and a plethora of bathrooms are underrated.

[falafel]

Interesting article. Premise is that large home don't make you more happy. In many cases, the opposite happens. Also, you are most happy with 4 people in the household.

This is gift link, so it should work.

https://wapo.st/49qfhDa

I liked the article, but I did not like this "assertion" by the author:

No one can win this game. Consider watching a sports game in a stadium. If one person stands up, the person behind them can’t see. So they stand up. Then another. Soon, no one is left sitting because everyone is trying to see over the person in front of them. No one is better off, and the experience of watching the game is ruined.

That’s life in many American communities today, Rojas says. “You will never have enough,” he said. “When you live in a castle, you will say, well, it’s not Windsor Castle.”

This guy doesn't go to many "sports games", I'd wager.

[Northwestcoug]

Interesting article. Premise is that large home don't make you more happy. In many cases, the opposite happens. Also, you are most happy with 4 people in the household.

This is gift link, so it should work.

https://wapo.st/49qfhDa

This validates Mrs. NWC. Our last 2 house purchases have been downsizers. She feels more comfortable in a smaller home. Her preferences for lot size, on the other hand...

[Jeff Lebowski]

Interesting article. Premise is that large home don't make you more happy. In many cases, the opposite happens. Also, you are most happy with 4 people in the household.

This is gift link, so it should work.

https://wapo.st/49qfhDa

Why smaller houses can lead to happier lives

It turns out asking “Are you happy with your home?” yields a very different answer than “Are you happy with your life?”
January 6, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EST

The American Dream is virtually synonymous with a larger, suburban house. But as the size of the average American home has nearly doubled, the people living in them aren’t any happier.

Space is only one of many variables in the equation of a happy life, says Mariano Rojas, an economist at the National Technological Institute of Mexico. It’s not the most important.

The average newly built American home includes more than 940 square feet per person, up from about 550 square feet in 1973.That’s because even as the typical single-family home has grown to 2,400 square feet, the number of people living in them has fallen to a record low of 2.5, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

But after meeting our basic need for shelter, square footage has, at best, a tenuous relationship with life satisfaction.

[Moliere]

No need to read. Just go have a chat with a GenZ white man, especially one fresh out of college looking for work.

Even my liberal Gen Z daughter (pronouns in bios and everything) makes fun of the required class she had to take at Univ of Texas on gender and race.