Everyone just has their priorities, some are into expensive garages, fences, or automation etc., and others into nice furniture, ecological building materials, or whatever, everyone as they like.
My parents lived comfortably on 100 sqm with one bathroom and never missed anything, I would never build a new house without a second toilet or at least one toilet on every floor, including the basement, provided it is not just used for storage.
Nice and high-quality furnishings usually cost more money but are mostly value-stable and also independent of trends, so from a long-term perspective usually cheaper. We buy rarely but when we do, then high quality. I find it a pity that many things are perceived as "reasonable" (i.e., necessary), but when it comes to furnishing and design, the standards drop significantly. Maybe I should start a thread called "Special Furnishings and Ideas."
Why "stinknormal" and why do you doubt that? It’s solely about the person feeling comfortable, and there are trillions of possibilities for that or it is up to each individual when and with what they are satisfied. That has nothing to do with the house. I would not be inherently less satisfied in an apartment; then I would simply have other options in life. The house is nice, but it also limits you; everything has its consequences.
It is always important to me that I feel maximally comfortable inside the house, and that for me also includes beautiful items, good lighting, and equally good sound from the speakers.
Well, that was cliché-bashing now: 105 are unhappy with their junk, and 5 have found the philosopher's stone? If you asked the 105, they would surely see it the exact opposite when they walk by your house or in it. Some home builders (like anglers and hunters, etc.) are also little self-critical about their own build or like to report with incense burners.
I know here in the forum alone one or two houses I would move into immediately, although, for example, they do not have controlled residential ventilation installed. I have one myself and would do it again; nevertheless, I find the criticism too harsh, as if that were the only option.
You argue somewhat flatly, and what’s wrong with a dining table with beautiful design, please?
There are areas where, in my opinion, money flows through people’s fingers naturally; I have two examples close by. Two smokers, regular restaurant visits or delivery service, motorcycles, skiing, city trips, wellness weekends, several subscriptions, cars with many unnecessary trips, and much more. Don’t get me wrong, all that is possible and I would never want to devalue it, but ultimately these things cost a lot of money, and sometimes it is then missing elsewhere. But giving that up or significantly reducing it would not occur to them. I might buy a sofa or a pair of speakers for €5000, which I then have and maintain for a lifetime. Both—or all of that—is possible and totally okay, however everyone does it for themselves.
That’s how it is: if I don’t spend these €240 on ordering service or cleaning lady, I have €15,000 saved in 5 years, which I would, for example, like to invest in comfort inside the house. I know some such calculations from my work and am still amazed that people don’t know where their money really goes.
My entire argumentation referred to people who simply cannot afford the new build including all these luxury goods.
They are financing on the last thread and do not want to save on ANY of these things. On the contrary, they try to save on things that, in my opinion, a home builder simply should not save on (yes – maybe just my own opinion) in order to be able to show off with consumer goods.
Everything you say is true—and yes, many can simply afford it!! But very, very many also complain about how expensive building a house has become, save in the completely wrong places, and then afford exactly the things I was talking about.
In my opinion, something is simply going wrong there! Maybe I am a bit too conservatively minded—but honestly, I can no longer listen to this complaining.
Sorry for the extreme off-topic—but sometimes I ask myself where this extreme consumer society is leading and what it does to people and especially to the children growing up here...