Those with 3 or more

CaitlinJ22

What kind of house do you have? how many bedrooms/bathrooms/how big is your living area?

We are growing out of our starter home and plan on looking in the next 6 months or so. We are TTC #3, and we think we want 4 or possibly more children. If you have 3 or more kids, can you give me idea in what works for a larger family, or what your wish list is for a more family-oriented home? (if you don't have most things you want in your current home).

Thanks! 

Raffes484

We're having our 3rd and we're done after that, but our home is 3 beds, 2.5 baths and 1800sqft.

We have a decent amount of living space - enough for a living room and a playroom and we'd have more if we finish our basement.

I wish we had a 4th bedroom. Even though I'd still have DS1 and DS2 sharing a room, it would be nice to have a guest room and/or office for DH.

When we were looking I was also insistent that we have a decent sized yard. Our house is on .33 acres and it works well for our needs and our giant dog (120+ lbs rotty).

kfriscia

I am pregnant with #3 now (haven't added a ticker yet) and it will be our last. We are closing on a new house next Friday. It is 2900 square feet it is prob a little bigger then we NEED but in this market it was a great deal for a GREAT price. My fav thing is that is has a living room and a separate family room so we can turn one of those in a playroom. We live in a SMALL house and there are just toys everywhere. I also like that is is large enough for bday parties/holidays/ playdates. Previously we always have to do them at our parents house because we just didn't have the space.

TonyaCody06

we bought a big house knowing the future size of our family and no future plans to move. Our house is 4,200 sqft (5 bedroom, 3.5 baths). The game room is where we "live" with the kiddos. Each child will have a room of their own (which was important to me). 

We keep all toys upstairs (which is gated) so at least 1/2 the house doesn't look like a Toys R Us...ha!

sfshawna

First of all, we live in a very HCOL area. We're very lucky to have a house here, especially a detached house with a yard. We have a 3 bed/2 bath house that is beginning to feel small. We have 2 kids in each bedroom, and the new baby is still in our room. I'm more than fine with room sharing. Each kid having their own room seems both boring and kind of lonely to me. And, the rooms are really nice size, and almost all toys are in their rooms, so not in common areas. But, I do have a wish list for our next house! I would love a family room, ideally right next to the kitchen, and ideally with direct access to the backyard. One more bedroom and possibly an additional office space/study area would be awesome for when the girls are older. Basically, our house is fine for now, but as the kids get bigger it will feel smaller

sfshawna

mummyofsix:

We have six kids. Our house is 5 bedrooms, but two of those bedrooms are INCREDIBLY big- like 20x18. I can fit three twin beds orphanage style in them.  

There is also a semi-finished room on the second level (same level as the bedrooms that is an additional 500sqft. We don't use it yet because the kids are too little to be somewhere where there is still framing visible, etc, but if we stayed here til they were older it would be a great rec room.  

The house is 2950 w/o counting the rec room, and about 3500 with it. That said, we are 'outgrowing' it because the rooms we use a lot really need to be bigger. We have an enormous formal dining room thats bigger than our kitchen, for example. We don't need any more square footage, but we need a bigger kitchen and another living space. We would buy differently next time.....  

That sounds so dreamy. Do you want to switch houses? San Francisco is a fun city

LDQAM516

Our house is just a little under 3,000 square feet with an unfinished basement... not included in that square feet...we plan to finish. We have 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. Half of our downstairs is our living room which is right open to out kitchen. We would like 4 kids also...which is why we plan on an addition with a better living room and master bedroom downstairs...and then remodeling and extending our kitchen into where the living room is now...I hate to say it...but without a great place for our kids to go until we finish our basement and/or in the near future...I feel like we will be majorly cramped with three LOs...they just run around the first floor constantly and it drives us crazy...For me, I would love to be at 4,000 square feet once we add on.

MammaBear81

sfshawna:

First of all, we live in a very HCOL area. We're very lucky to have a house here, especially a detached house with a yard. We have a 3 bed/2 bath house that is beginning to feel small. We have 2 kids in each bedroom, and the new baby is still in our room. I'm more than fine with room sharing. Each kid having their own room seems both boring and kind of lonely to me. And, the rooms are really nice size, and almost all toys are in their rooms, so not in common areas. But, I do have a wish list for our next house! I would love a family room, ideally right next to the kitchen, and ideally with direct access to the backyard. One more bedroom and possibly an additional office space/study area would be awesome for when the girls are older. Basically, our house is fine for now, but as the kids get bigger it will feel smaller

 This is us (about 2,000 sq ft), but our bedrooms are slightly smaller and we have a large playroom where all of the toys reside (I would go insane otherwise). The boys are in one room, and the girls are in the other.  We also have a 4th psudo bedroom for our au pair (room with a closet and door) that we could use for the kids (or a guest room) when we no longer need an au pair.  We don't ever intend on moving, but we would like to put a nice size addition onto the house, modify the kitchen a bit,add a large "family room" with a fire place and a master suite. 

TheMutleys

Great post!

We bought a starter house last summer.  Our intention is to finish remodeling it, add a 2 bedroom/1 bath +laundry room and new garage.  We plan on moving in about 3-4 years.  I copied all of this wisdom into an email, so that it will still be around when we start looking. 

I mainly want a playroom.  While we are going to be adding 2 bedrooms, I am going to one of the current bedrooms into a playroom.  I want the toys OUT of my living room.  

I know that we don't want a formal dining room because that will just be wasted space.