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Seems like it was just a few months ago when the latest trends in housing were McMansions, huge homes on average size properties.
But times are changing.
With environmental and economic concerns weighing heavy on the minds of many Marylanders, for some it just makes sense to live – and sometimes work – in the same old space for longer.
Less may be more according to the competing cliché, but construction over the past 50 years implies that bigger is better. The average American home grew from 983 square feet in 1950 to 2,512 square feet in 2007, according to statistics from the National Association of Home Builders.
Repeat buyers have a median of 2,000 square feet. First-time home buyers clock in with smaller sizes to match their lower average incomes, with a median of 1,500 square feet, according to the America Housing Survey by HousingEconomics.com and NAHB.
Realtor and broker Connie Stommel, owner of Exit One Stop Realty in Clinton, agreed that people will still go for as big of a house as they can afford, and price determines size for her buyers.
"It's not that they're looking for smaller homes; they're looking for a price tag trying to maximize what they can get for their money," she said.
Homeowners, who once expected to trade up after five years, have accepted the need to stay in their homes a little bit longer, Stommel said.
Stommel added that although customers haven't typically sought out small houses, economic concerns are driving a new kind of search, and in the NAHB's survey, more than half of respondents said they would pay up to $11,000 more on a new house if they could save on utility bills.
"(With) the entire episode with the gas hike, people are looking at things in a different vein, thinking ‘We have plenty, we have enough, we don't really need bigger and better, we can make what we have better,'" she said.
It's part of the agent's job to help clients think through space needs in the first place.
"We have to get their head out of having a super bath in the master bedroom and having a wonderful shower instead," Stommel said. "We have to retrain the buyer; they have to think through their process a little bit more. People buy these big homes and can't even get furniture in them."
The economic squeeze is also changing how buyers view housing purchases, Stommel said.
"People are rethinking that the house should be more of a home and not an investment where it's going to make them lots of money," she said.
Interior designer Delores Metsopoulos of ENA Home Improvements in Lanham said that buying decisions are market-driven.
"People who might have moved aren't moving and also because of uncertainty of the economic situation," she said. "Clients will say to me they're thinking more like ‘We should be saving, we really don't need to move, what we have is adequate.'"
Staying in smaller home
So what to do to make your smaller space efficient and attractive when your environmental conscience or pocketbook causes you to stay put?
Decorating smaller spaces is a niche market in an international design industry that does not lack trends. On the national scene, Sarah Susanka, founder of the "Not So Big House" philosophy and accompanying multimedia empire spends her time instructing homeowners in the finer arts of consolidation, clever design and storage, laced with a fair amount of pop psychology.
Ideas in her books and YouTube videos include defining areas with doorways and frames to give a sense of place, dispensing with formal living areas, and condensing family life into kitchens and family rooms to conserve space and promote harmony.
Gregory Paul Johnson at Resources for Life and the Small House Project lives in a 140-square-foot house and has spawned a community looking to do the same, helped along with a list of resources on his Web site (http://www.resourcesforlife.com/small-house-society) that lists designers and builders who can help build and outfit a smaller dwelling.
While no homes in Prince George's County are known to be as small as Johnson's, real estate agents and designers are seeing some demands for smaller spaces, or homeowners renewing instead of trading in their space.
Metsopoulos, the interior designer, said that many of her clients are staying put, and the renovations and space solutions needed to make small houses work is in demand.
"We're finding people are taking the opportunity to renew older furniture and put in draperies," she said. "They're not spending a whole lot of money on moving but they're re-doing what they have, painting, shades, that kind of thing."
People are using existing space as wisely as they can, she said. While bathrooms can be difficult to transform, kitchens can often yield space.
"We're putting in counters, bars and workspaces where they have areas where they can put their computer spaces in," Metsopoulos said. Working a lot with kitchens and bathrooms, she makes adjustments like converting kitchen space to workspace in a home where heavy cooking isn't a priority.
Michael Birchenall, a magazine editor who works out of his Bowie split-level house, has perfected his home office set-up over the past decade as "costs and the economy" kept him from branching out into nearby office space. Instead, he worked with the skeleton of a spare bedroom and made it his own.
"The folding closet doors came off and I converted it into more bookshelves and the drawers used by the previous homeowners now contain office supplies," he said. "I added one file cabinet to hide … no, I mean organize things out of sight. … I made a to-scale grid drawing of the space to make sure everything would fit before I made any purchases or moved in any of my current possessions."
Birchenall's home office set-up has paid off. He is "so spoiled" by working at home, he said.
"Recent stories about office evictions have me believing I made the right call," he said. "I can monitor electric, water, recycling, etc. more closely in my home office than depending on a landlord who may have another agenda."
Good bones
Richard Layman, a historic preservationist on the board of Community Forklift in Edmonston, citing an Environmental Protection Agency statistical summary, said that 50 percent of the U.S. waste stream is made up of building supplies. Layman said that Community Forklift's warehouse is full of home and building supplies offered at 40 percent to 80 percent below retail that homeowners can use to redo and maximize existing space.
Layman is a former Mount Rainier resident and bicycle commuter who moved to Washington, D.C., to be closer to work. He has owned small bungalows in both places, and said that one does not need a lot of anything to make a home – one just has to have a home with "good bones" and the will to work with and not against the architecture.
Ruthie Mundell, Community Forklift's Outreach Director, says she uses space-saving techniques along with materials from the warehouse in her small Brentwood apartment. A mantel serves as her headboard and a shelf made out of mini-blinds by local artist Susan Chapin holds an alarm clock, lamp and baskets.
"My living room is small and dark," she said. "I collect mirrors as they come in and hang them together on the wall. The reflected light makes the living room seem bigger."
Layman said that living in a small space is not without material sacrifice, but that it is one he and his family are willing to make.
"Living here means we are slimming down stuff," he said. "Maybe we don't need 20 plates or 15 mugs from all over the place. We get rid of clothes and shoes, but do you really need shirts you wear one time a year?"
Community Forklift showcases "customer creations" on its Web site – some of the space-saving and environmentally-friendly projects that made homes just a little cozier and more livable, including screens for room dividers and artwork that doubles as storage.
Layman's kitchen includes an18-inch-wide dishwasher and a compact refrigerator in the pantry, space and energy-conserving appliances that he's acquired along with others from Beltsville's Alco Appliance. A Community Forklift partner, Alco services a wide range of old and reconditioned appliances.
The NAHB's "Home of the Future" survey released this year predicts that by 2015 the size of a newly constructed home will level off to around 2,300 to 2,500 square feet, with the traditional living room disappearing and a focus remaining on a central family room.
No matter how big or small a home is, though, making a house work is a function of personal style and preference.
"I made the space to fit my needs and my comfort quirks, so it works well for me," said Birchenall, the magazine editor.
Layman agreed.
"Do you really need a huge house or is a bungalow in Mount Rainier more than adequate?" he said. "It depends, but it was for us."
