Preparing for baby - need renovation advice!

Lyette1206 · March 2016

We live in a tiny house. Before baby comes we need to remodel essentially an entire floor to make room. We already have a daughter who will be 3 when baby arrives.
Our options are as follows:
1) we can create three smaller bedrooms. Two rooms will have modest closets, third bedroom would have to have a wardrobe. Each child would have their own room. Our room would be small - about the size of a prison cell, lol. Obviously this makes furniture options challenging, and storage will need to be creative. Ditto for each child's room.
2) we can create two larger rooms. Each room will have good sized closets, plenty of space for furniture. However, the children would share a room. We are planning on having baby in with us for the first few months (DD was in our room until 4 months or so).

For or those moms with multiple children - did any of you have babies and toddlers sharing a room? Any advice? Is the extra space to move around worth dealing with the cons that come with room sharing? I'm worried they'll wake each other up in the night, or that they'll have different bedtimes/wake up times. But, as baby gets older, those will get easier. Is it worth toughing it out for the first year or so?

Rosehip15 · March 2016

My kids (girl & boy) shared rooms from when they were about 3 & 1 years old until a few months ago, just shy of 11 & 9 years old. It worked great - I'm sure there were moments when sleep schedules didn't jive exactly, but it wasn't such a big deal that I remember it at all. If they were same sex, I'd probably just have kept them together, but my daughter was starting to get modest. I think the bigger questions are do you see yourself being in the same home in the longer term, whether you're thinking you'll have more kids and same sex vs mixed sex. If you think you'll move in 5-8 years, you'll want to consider resale value & what will make the house most attractive at that point (not that it's the only consideration). If you think you're really there for the long haul, I'd renovate as you think it will work best for that time frame.

I'm facing a similar pickle. I really can't see how putting a baby/toddler in with a middle schooler will work, so we definitely need another bedroom - also because DH's family is all from abroad, and it's important to have space for them to visit. So we'll be talking to an architect soon to explore options!

Good luck!

Bperkun · March 2016

Do the 2 larger rooms. So many kids share rooms. I think it ends up just working itself out. You deserve a nice bedroom too so go for the extra room

CopperLane · March 2016

What will the room dimensions be?

I have an older house and the biggest room is 10x12, second biggest is 10x10 and we have two that are smaller than the 10x10. From what I'm used to, these are small rooms, but not too small to where it's hard to fit every standard bedroom item. The closets are pretty small too, DH and I have learned to utilize a dresser to make closet sharing easier.

PleaseSendPicklesNow · March 2016

Hi, I'm lurking from the July boards and I hope it's okay if I weigh in. When planning a reno, it can help a lot to learn about zoning regulations in your area. In most areas a room must have a window, updated electrical outlets, and a closet to be considered a "bedroom" per zoning rules. And if you improve the property to a large extent (by raising the number of rooms), your property taxes might go up. Fun times! My mother is an interior designer and helps her clients deal with all this--it's a normal part of her job.

With that said, if you're having two girls I'd go for two bedrooms. If you're having a girl and a boy, and you won't be in this house for too many years, ditto. If you have a boy and a girl, and you plan to live there through the middle school/high school years, I'd go with three bedrooms.

Emztron500 · March 2016

I would personally rather have 2 comfortably sized rooms than 3 that are all squished. Baby will be in your room for the worst of the night-waking months, and if the siblings share a room it'll be easier to keep all their clothes in one closet, have space for them to play with their toys in there, etc. And you can do bunk beds at some point and save even more on floor space. Although I do agree that if you'll be there a long time and are going to possibly have a boy and a girl, you won't want them together when they're getting close to puberty. I grew up in a family with 7 children and so room-sharing was always the norm! I was the youngest so I eventually got my own room when some older siblings had moved out, but it was so weird for me I would more often than not go sleep on the floor in my brother's or my parents' room.

TheHauntedHauswife · March 2016

I agree with what Rosehip15 said. For the time being, consider what your future plans are. If you think you will be able to get the boy(s) and girl(s) into their own rooms or atleast gendered rooms in the future when you sell this house, then go with the 2 bigger rooms if the small rooms are really going to be THAT small. Because resale sounds like the bigger rooms are going to be a little better. But also curious on what CopperLane said, What exactly are these sizes. We have 3 ''small'' ish rooms, i think they are 10x12 each, and they are really fine for now and I could see them working in the future if we needed them to. But definitely we plan to move for more space in 5 or so years.

edeibel89 · March 2016

I agree w PPs about thinking about resale value. When H and I were looking for a new house, we really adored one but the previous owners had done what it sounds like you are thinking about doing and it just made all the rooms so teeny tiny that we decided to look some more and we passed on that one. Also, I shared a room with all three of my siblings at different times over the years, and I have 1 brother and 2 sisters. I don't think it should be a big problem until they're older and need the privacy.

Lyette1206 · March 2016

Thanks for the advice!!
We are team green, but I'm not worried about the boy/girl mix until puberty when I think all kids probably need a little more privacy.
As for resale - we aren't too concerned about selling any time soon. The property values where we are are insane, and we actually are planning on doing a second major renovation in 5-10 years where we'll likely end up rebuilding/add major addition, because we can't afford to go up a level in terms of price. So I mostly just need to modify the current house to make it more comfortable and functional until we can do the bigger remodel.
if we did the three rooms, they'd all be about 9X10ish. Our current room is 9x9 and we had significant trouble finding a dresser that would fit and still have space to open the drawers.

Rosehip15 · March 2016

Lyette1206 said:

Thanks for the advice!!
We are team green, but I'm not worried about the boy/girl mix until puberty when I think all kids probably need a little more privacy.
As for resale - we aren't too concerned about selling any time soon. The property values where we are are insane, and we actually are planning on doing a second major renovation in 5-10 years where we'll likely end up rebuilding/add major addition, because we can't afford to go up a level in terms of price. So I mostly just need to modify the current house to make it more comfortable and functional until we can do the bigger remodel.
if we did the three rooms, they'd all be about 9X10ish. Our current room is 9x9 and we had significant trouble finding a dresser that would fit and still have space to open the drawers.

Then I would go for two rooms. Having the kids share a room was great, just sorry it's over now:)

Want a personalized experience?

Preparing for baby - need renovation advice!

Re: Preparing for baby - need renovation advice!

Choose Another Board

Search Boards