still working on this and need additional help

Question

two houses are for sale on the same street. the second house has 1000 square feet less than twice the square feet of the first house. together the houses have 4400 square feet. what is the square footage of the first house?
2x-1000 = 4400 ???
Let F stand for the area of the first house. Then 2F - 1000 = area for the second house. Both of those together = 4400.
Thus F + (2F -1000) = 4400
Does that help?
no it doesn't, I am not getting it. how would I find the square footage of the first house using an equation ?

Answer 1

You must be referring to

http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1272494440

Two experts each gave you almost the entire solution.
from
F + (2F -1000) = 4400
F + 2F - 1000 = 4400
3F = 5400
F = 1800

So the footage of the first is 1800 square feet.

check:
1000 less than twice 1800
= 2(1800) - 1000 = 2600
Together do they add up to 4400?
is 1800 + 2600 = 4400 ? YES