Bedroom layout

Allycat11

DH and I are looking at houses (first time home buyers) and I was curious what parents of young children think when it comes to number and location of bedrooms.  In our first choice area our budget pretty much guarantees us a 3bed, 1 bath, 1,000 sq. ft house with no garage.  However, there are other houses that are significantly nicer and larger that come up on a somewhat regular basis.  Right now we are eyeing a 4bed, 2 bath bi-level home with a 2 car attached garage.  The only downfall is there are 2 bedrooms up and 2 down.  DD is our first child and she is 8 months.  In a perfect world, we probably will have 2-3 kids spaced 2-4 years apart and won't plan on moving again for awhile.  

So, keeping in mind budget and average house in this area, would the bedrooms being on different floors be a deal breaker for you?  

ETA:  Also, if it is not a deal breaker, at what age would you be comfortable having your children on a separate floor?

penguingrrl

Bedrooms on different floors wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. DH and I both grew up in Cape style houses with two bedrooms up and two down. Our parents had downstairs bedrooms and gave the upstairs to the kids (easier to hide the mess when company comes over!). I would not be comfortable having young children downstairs and me upstairs, but would be fine with me down and the kids up. It wouldn't be my ideal (I would prefer all bedrooms upstairs) but to get into a well built house in a good school system I'd make it work.

Minipenguin

It wouldn't be a deal breaker for me if I liked the house. If you have another baby while living there, I would keep him/her in the other downstairs bedroom until s/he is only waking up once or twice a night and then move the baby upstairs. Unless you co-sleep, then it's kind of a moot point.

AimeeL85

It wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. Not ideal, but I'd definitely choose it over having the smaller house.  I am not ashamed to use video monitors as long as I want to!

meglew

It would not be my preference, but all other things considered, if it is a great house in a great location for a great price, I wouldn't let it be a deal breaker.

kcisthebombdotcom

We have a 2 level house. The kids share a room currently to stay on the same floor as us. When they're older and express wanting to be in their own space, well move one of the kids upstairs. It's really no biggie IMO.

catycate

No biggie to me, especially to get a 2nd bathroom.

penguingrrl

Oh and as I've yet to live somewhere with 2 bathrooms since having kids, not having a second toilet in the house would absolutely be a deal breaker for us.

Andrewsgal

We just custom built and we built it purposely so the kids were upstairs and we are downstairs. We have the master down and 4 bedrooms up with the game room and media room. We built our house so as the kids get older and have friends over the whole upstairs will be their space.

rockyrollgirl

Not a deal breaker for me.

blondegirl22

We are renters for now. When we were looking this spring DH loved a certain house, but for me I didn't because the master was downstairs.. DD was such a bad sleeper at that point, I knew I would never get any sleep.. Our someday dream house, will have their bedrooms upstairs, when they are older.

Allycat11

Thank you for the input everyone.  We definitely discussed the possibility of DD and hypothetical baby #2 sharing a bedroom for a little while to keep everyone on the same floor if we end up in a house like this.  

Allycat11

NandaB said:

Where are you? I'm in California, and while earthquakes don't really scare me since I've always lived here, the idea of my kids being a flight of stairs away during an earthquake (or fire actually) concerns me.

Michigan.  The worst weather we get here is snow storms.  I can absolutely see why that would be a concern in area where earthquakes are common.  That is a good point about fires though, definitely something to consider.  

eaglesfan700

When we lived in the city we were on a different floor than DS.  We co-slept until he sttn, at 3 months old, then moved him into his room on the floor below ours (the floor our bedroom was on was the main level, so he was below us, but not on the main level).  

I was concerned about it when we bought, but it ended up being a complete non-issue.  We are in our forever home now and shortly will be making the 3rd floor of our house a master suite.  All the kids will be on the 2nd floor

penguingrrl

I've been in single story houses that had far more space between bedrooms than places with stairs in between, so I guess I don't see why that alone would matter.

Disneygeek77

We have a 1.5 story now with a 4 and 2 yr old and actually really like it. At first I was really worried about a fire , but we have several smoke alarms on every floor, keep their monitor on at night, several fire extinguishers and a fire plan.

bumpuser8448316

For me, bedrooms on different floors are a deal breaker. But, I have rheumatoid arthritis so stairs in general are an issue for me. We're having a hell of a time finding a one story.