Why Did Janelle Brown Get Twice The Space In Lehi?

Recently, Sister Wives fans have started to reflect on the past seasons of the show. During the first season of Sister Wives, some fans remember that Janelle Brown had a much larger area of the home than Christine Brown Woolley or Meri Brown had. Some people are questioning why that was the case.

Janelle Brown Had The Lion’s Share Of The Lehi Home

While most times fans remember Janelle Brown for making sacrifices in her living for the family, now fans are reflecting on one instance in particular when she had the winning share. During the first season of Sister Wives, the plural family introduces themselves to the world while living in a huge combined home in Lehi. Admittedly, the home design came from a polygamist making it facilitate the needs of the plural family. Reportedly, it had 6000 square feet with three separate “apartment style” areas which were all connected on the inside. Each wife had a separate entrance, kitchen, laundry room, and master bedroom. Within Janelle’s portion, the kitchen was 800 square feet and used to accommodate many family functions. During that time, Robyn Brown and her kids had not joined the plural family just yet.

At that point, Janelle had the entire left side of the home while Meri and Christine split the right side by levels. While they all lived under one roof, they discussed it as a cohesive living experience where they could aid each other with raising kids but also have personal autonomy. However, fans are questioning why Janelle had such a larger section of the polygamist home.

Why Did Janelle Brown Get Twice The Space In Lehi?

On Reddit, one Sister Wives fan says, “Why did Janelle have 2x the sqft as Christine in Lehi?” Furthermore, they elaborate by saying, “If this was explained somewhere, I apologize, but why did Janelle have an entire half of the polyg house, while Meri & Christine split the other half?” Notably, the left side of the home had an upstairs and downstairs level that was considered Janelle Brown and her six kids’ portion of the home.

Several fans question the division:

• “I don’t think it was twice the square footage or half the house? Where is this info from?”
• “If you believe their graphic and compare to the outside, Janelle’s section looks more like ⅓. But we know from Coyote Pass the show’s graphics aren’t reliable.”
• “Janelle didn’t have half of the house.”

The Brown’s combined home in Lehi. – Sister Wives

Fans Weigh In

After the initial post about Janelle Brown’s segment of the Lehi home being twice the size of Christine Brown Woolley or Meri Brown’s portion, other fans weighed in.

• “I believe Janelle actually owned the house (used her retirement money to buy it or something along those lines), and so she got the biggest of the 3 living spaces.”
• “When they first split up the house, Jonelle had the most kids (6) to Christine’s (then) 5. They didn’t know she’d have another at that point. And, yeah, it’s only a one kid difference, but as stated above, there wasn’t Really any other way to split it.”
• “I read the book but it was a long time ago. Throughout this journey, I recall it was explained as Janelle had more kids and they were older. Also, it was Janelle who made buying that house possible. Furthermore, Janelle didn’t originally follow them to Utah. She was happy with her job. Kody, finding this house, encouraged her to come back to the family. I have the book in my Google books. I’ll look and see what I find when I’m winding down tonight.”

Other Fans Think That Janelle Brown Didn’t Have Half

Some fans point out that Janelle Brown’s left side of the home was an addition to the other apartments. The original two apartments that Christine and Meri Brown had were part of the original floor plan. With that, some say the left side wasn’t necessarily the same size as the right.

• “Janelle’s portion didn’t include any of the middle section of the house, it was just the left side so it wasn’t half.”
• “They all had three bedrooms so it really just different sizes because of the layout of Janelle’s was kitchen/living room upstairs and bedrooms downstairs while the other two apts were all one floor and same layout. The home was obviously built for a three wife family, perhaps the original builder intended Janelle space to be like a main wife space, like a primary apt. I think, more likely, he needed the whole house to be a certain measurement and had to work within that. I’ll be the first owner moved because they took on another wife (wonder how it worked out for them).”
• “The house isn’t original. It was added on to.”
• “Where are you getting 2x the sqft from?”

 

What do you think? Did Janelle Brown have a larger square footage in the Lehi house? Do you think it was because she had more kids? Are you ready to see more episodes of Sister Wives? Drop your comments below.