Advice from Moms with 2 story homes

MrsMegF · July 2012

We are beginning to look for a new house and I'm on the fence... 1 story or 2. I like the idea of the kids being on the same floor as us but almost all the second story homes have the master down with the rest of the bedrooms up.

So my question is do you feel like the 2nd floor is a pain or do you love it and why? Does it bother you to have the kids up with y'all being down?

We have a 2.5 year old and hope to have another little one in a year or so.

Angela814 · July 2012

We have a 2 story home with all the bedrooms on the second floor and all the living space on the first floor. I love how it's separated. I'm not sure if I would like a master bedroom on the first floor. As it is now, it's not a problem to put the kids to bed upstairs and then spend time watching TV or on the computer downstairs. I suppose the only disadvantage would be having to go up and down the stairs in the middle of the night since my kids don't like to sleep. It would be a non-issue if they both sttn.

ebb7 · July 2012

Our master is downstairs and the other bedrooms are upstairs. Honestly, I love it. I feel like after DD goes to sleep, we can still make as much noise, etc. as we want and not disturb her. As a baby, we didn't move her upstairs until she was only waking once or twice a night so we weren't going up and down the stairs a million times. She is a good sleeper now so it really is a non-issue for us having her up there.

mbgreenwalt · July 2012

Our house is a split with 2 bedrooms up and 2 down. We're upstairs with the girls (they share a room). I won't have them on a different level than us until they are old enough to evacuate the house by themselves in an emergency.

dragon_chica · July 2012

Angela814:
We have a 2 story home with all the bedrooms on the second floor and all the living space on the first floor. I love how it's separated. I'm not sure if I would like a master bedroom on the first floor. As it is now, it's not a problem to put the kids to bed upstairs and then spend time watching TV or on the computer downstairs.

This.

LouRN09 · July 2012

dragon_chica:

Angela814:
We have a 2 story home with all the bedrooms on the second floor and all the living space on the first floor. I love how it's separated. I'm not sure if I would like a master bedroom on the first floor. As it is now, it's not a problem to put the kids to bed upstairs and then spend time watching TV or on the computer downstairs.

This.

Ditto.

MMMiller · July 2012

I live in a raised ranch so it's kind of a different story all together. We have a TV/family room in the downstairs of our house so we can watch tv and relax while ds is sleeping. However, as far as bedrooms are concerned ours is right across the hall from his and I love it. It is a comfort for me to know that I am just steps away from him if he needs me. I would be very uncomfortable if we were on different floors.

AmandaP678 · July 2012

We also live in raised ranch, but I know I wouldnt like the master on a different floor.

groovygrl · July 2012

We actually ruled out first floor masters in our house search b/c I didn't like the idea of being on a separate floor from the kids until they're older...more for the nighttime stuff but didn't really think about the emergency issues that pp mentioned... Our room has always been down the hallway from them so the noise was never an issue. However we had good friends who had a baby the same time as us & had a first floor master & didn't seem to mind...however I think the mom slept in baby's room on a daybed for a long time instead of going up & down constantly. GL!

Arcadia1114 · July 2012

We weren't thinking ahead when we bought our house five years ago. Our Entire upstairs is the master bedroom. There is a sitting room off the main bedroom. Ds sleeps in the sitting room. He is away from us but nearby if he wakes up. When he gets older, we plan to take a smaller room and make the upstairs a bedroom/ playroom for him. We don't want him on the lower floor alone.

Kadyra · July 2012

Our 2 story has all the bedrooms upstairs. At this stage, I wouldn't want bedrooms on separate floors. I miss our 1 story though. I hate those damned stairs!

Adriamichelle83 · July 2012

We have our master on the 1st floor and the other bedrooms on the 2nd. I was nervous about it at first but it's proven to be really ideal. Especially if you have company over and such. It'll be even better in a few years once she gets more independent and wants to have friends over and such. This was the ideal situation for us as we just bought a house we'll be in for at least 5 more years.

LoCarb · July 2012

Our master is on the 1st level and the other BR upstairs. It is a PITA until kids STTN but otherwise I love the separation and privacy (after bedtime).

*LrCg* · July 2012

We have a 2 story with a master on the first floor. We designed our house and I love it for so many reasons! For us, we bedshared with our kids for the first 5 months and they were sleeping 12 hours by the time they were 8 weeks old so it wasn't a big deal when they went upstairs. I like the privacy of a first floor master not to mention the security. The way our layout is, everyone is always so surprised that our bedroom is downstairs- especially since we have 3 bedrooms upstairs they just assume we're up stairs. So for break ins- no one would expect us to meet them where we would. Of course everyone brings up fires but as my Uncle who is a fireman Chief says we could all be upstairs and not be able to cross the hallway so fire alarms and fire drills are a must. Also, I'm not sure if its because its just how my kids are or if its because their upstairs but we've never had kids crawl into our bed in the middle of the night like I hear from most of my friends. Our kids are now 2 & 3 (another on the way) and we do still have video monitors on them. We have talked that in a few years we will probably just get rid of the video monitors in their rooms and put a sound monitor in the hallway.

This is our forever house so I never wanted a master on the 2nd floor- I want to be able to be in our house until the end and for me, walking 18 stairs when I'm 80 years old just to go to sleep doesn't sound appealing (our laundry is on the first floor too). Not to mention, when my kids are teenagers I'm going to love the fact that their on one side of the house and we're on the other!

angelame1979 · August 2012

We are in a 2 story right now but close on our new home this week which is a rambler. I am super excited to have a more open living space than the broken up one we have now. You have to think about what you want.

Advice from Moms with 2 story homes

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