Width of typical Philadelphia rowhome?

[thegreattwizz]

Man, and I complain about my interior walls that are 14' 6".

[Naveen]

I think it helps most to treat houses like these the way one would an apartment. If people can live smaller, then there's plenty of space. It definitely seems small at first to people used to big houses and big appliances and having room for everything but if one adapts to the space as opposed to trying to adapt the space to oneself, it's no big deal really. The fact that so many of our appliances have gotten sleeker and smaller certainly helps, too. Positioning is also incredibly important, as well as prioritizing. If you have a smaller couch, you can have a bigger TV. Smaller tables mean more leg room and room to move. Little nooks and spots for one or two to eat can be very useful. Smaller houses are just fine for single people, couples, and young families. It's when you have a growing family that "cozy" becomes "cramped", which is the reason many people moved out of those smaller houses in the first place.

Obviously you know all of this already but those who are new to the area probably do not. It's a shock to see how small some houses in the city and elsewhere are but when you've lived in them for a bit, you get used to it and become much more efficient in the way you live.

After having moved into my first home and spending the time and money to furnish it (still not done), I can say that smaller is better if it works for you. And really, when you look at people on the West Coast who often don't have basements or attics, even a Philly rowhome has more storage space.

[Brooke]

I got a good chuckle out of your post. Last year, we moved from a 1600 square foot house in Fishtown to a 2700 square foot house in Germantown. We realized that when we were living on the first floor that all of our stuff fit there and we probably bought too big of a house. Add 1 baby though...sure, her stuff takes up room. But we definitely could have gotten by with 2000 square feet easily. Or maybe 1600 laid out differently.

My last house was perfectly decorated and redecorating the rooms periodically was a joy. This house is just overwhelming. What the heck to do with an 11 by 23 foot living room?

[CHIOSSO]

I spent a good part of my life in a trinity, you learn a lot about moving furniture. Me and my friend had a headboard stuck in a spiral staircases for two days.

[MariusPontmercy]

I got a good chuckle out of your post. Last year, we moved from a 1600 square foot house in Fishtown to a 2700 square foot house in Germantown. We realized that when we were living on the first floor that all of our stuff fit there and we probably bought too big of a house. Add 1 baby though...sure, her stuff takes up room. But we definitely could have gotten by with 2000 square feet easily. Or maybe 1600 laid out differently.

My last house was perfectly decorated and redecorating the rooms periodically was a joy. This house is just overwhelming. What the heck to do with an 11 by 23 foot living room?

Didn't those houses have families of like 6 in them, along with their maid/butlers or whatever?

[MarketStEl]

Didn't those houses have families of like 6 in them, along with their maid/butlers or whatever?

Depends on the age of the house.

Those four-story mid-19th-century row homes that you find mostly west of Broad Street could be described in this fashion; the help lived on the top floor, whose ceiling height, you will note, is about half that of the first floor's.

But an 11 x 23 foot living room might also describe one of those open plan main floors you find in new construction all the time these days.

HomeInspectorBC: Thanks for the detail, but the Rowhouse Manual needs one addendum: Trinities are also quite common on the narrow intrablock streets of Washington Square West, like the ones you describe "between 12th and 13th, Locust and Pine" (actually, south to Lombard). Most of the houses on the "little streets" from 8th west to Broad south of Locust are trinities, though there are a few "little streets" with larger residences (400 block South Iseminger, e.g., or 300 block South Camac, the widest "little street" in Wash West and IMO one of the loveliest blocks in Center City. I used to walk down it all the time when I lived on Waverly Walk, a "little street" that had been turned into a pedestrian path when it and the alley to its south (Addison) were redeveloped with modern, and much larger, homes in the 1960s.

[Naveen]

I got a good chuckle out of your post. Last year, we moved from a 1600 square foot house in Fishtown to a 2700 square foot house in Germantown. We realized that when we were living on the first floor that all of our stuff fit there and we probably bought too big of a house. Add 1 baby though...sure, her stuff takes up room. But we definitely could have gotten by with 2000 square feet easily. Or maybe 1600 laid out differently.

My last house was perfectly decorated and redecorating the rooms periodically was a joy. This house is just overwhelming. What the heck to do with an 11 by 23 foot living room?

2700 sq. ft. Wow. Germantown is one of those places that should be more expensive than it is. Big, beautiful homes in the city!

I actually looked at a house that had a similar sized living room to yours. They had it set-up like two room, a sitting room style set-up closer to the front windows, and then a living room proper closer to the dining room.

[thoth]

This post sounds dangerously un-American

I got a good chuckle out of your post. Last year, we moved from a 1600 square foot house in Fishtown to a 2700 square foot house in Germantown. We realized that when we were living on the first floor that all of our stuff fit there and we probably bought too big of a house. Add 1 baby though...sure, her stuff takes up room. But we definitely could have gotten by with 2000 square feet easily. Or maybe 1600 laid out differently.

My last house was perfectly decorated and redecorating the rooms periodically was a joy. This house is just overwhelming. What the heck to do with an 11 by 23 foot living room?

[thegreattwizz]

My last house was perfectly decorated and redecorating the rooms periodically was a joy. This house is just overwhelming. What the heck to do with an 11 by 23 foot living room?

Buy a bigger TV. Our living room is 14'6" by approx 28' (then it has two steps up to the dining room). We sacrifice about 5ft in front of the steps so its easy to walk, have a 60" TV in the corner by the front facing floor to ceiling windows, and have the furniture arranged there. Walls certainly are bare. I share your pain; I went from a 850sq ft 2br/2ba condo (she had a 1200 sq ft 2br/2ba); and now we're in nearly 4k sq. We still have a den and bedroom entirely empty, as well as a sitting room with the fireplace that is bare; both are our winter projects.

We considered the 'too big' part, but I have a 9 year old daughter, and we're planning a baby shortly after we're married, plus friends/family routinely stay with us, so a guest room was kind of a necessity. Yes, 'too big' now, but in 18 months, it'll be the right size.

[nayls142]

Philadelphain's don't realize how good we have it. The standard lot width in Manhattan is 25 feet - which was nearly always divided into two 12.5 foot apartments, which were further reduced by air-shafts and central stairs (5 and 6 story walkups are common). My boyfrend's old apartment was 12.5 x 80' (gross), with rooms that were effectively 11', 9.5' and 6' wide. Try finding a good spot for your TV in a 9 x 15 living room.

(more reading - it was called a dumbbell apartment, and thousands and thousands of them are still occupied http://brownstoner.wpengine.netdna-c...loorplans2.jpg).