Are you going to have to make changes to your house for baby?

Starfish113 · July 2016

We are, and we are still stumped by what to do. We have 4 bedrooms. But our kids are 10, 8, and 6 so not really at ages where they could share with a baby. We have a "bonus room" above the garage which is now the playroom so we might add walls (it's pretty open now) and try and make that a room? Or see if the oldest wants to move to the basement, but that's unfinished so we would have to finish that.

Let's hear your housing dilemmas!

Tennis11785 · July 2016

We have a two bedroom, and both bedrooms are about the same size and both have their own bathroom. The only difference is one has a walk-in closet and a standup shower and the other has a sliding door closet but a full tub. We're currently in the walk-in closet room, but plan to flip to the other once the baby is born. The standalone shower is really small and DH and I both prefer to use the full tub shower. I'd hate for one of us to need to shower and the baby is asleep and we wake it up.

SC&JC · July 2016

This is a big delimma for us. We live in a small one bedroom condo with a den that is now a office but will be the baby's room. However, I will have to rearrange and get rid of lots of furniture to make everything work. I would love to hear what others are doing with a small place.

thehappyphotog · July 2016

Not really a dilemma for us, but I convinced dh to add a wall of windows to our master bedroom before the birth. We are planning a home birth and I'm a photog so that extra light is important. I realize that's kinda crazy and I'm ok with it lol. Now watch me give birth after dark again.

We have 4 bedrooms and this is #5. Our boys share a room and my oldest just graduated and moved out. Baby will be in our room for a good long while, so we are converting the extra room into a playroom for now. We'll move them all around eventually.

HeatSparks · July 2016

Yep. We will have to have the older two and the younger two sharing until we buy a bigger house. Yay twins.

Starfish113 · July 2016

HeatSparks said:

Yep. We will have to have the older two and the younger two sharing until we buy a bigger house. Yay twins.

Twins will probably be happy sharing at least!

BumpasaurusRex · July 2016

I'd *like* to finish our basement but that's likely not in the cards. It's big enough to have an extra living space, small laundry room, and perhaps a playroom.

Not a dealbreaker but it would be nice. Although DH and I both know this isn't our forever home, it might help resale value when we decide it's time to sell.

Starfish113 · July 2016

thehappyphotog said:

Not really a dilemma for us, but I convinced dh to add a wall of windows to our master bedroom before the birth. We are planning a home birth and I'm a photog so that extra light is important. I realize that's kinda crazy and I'm ok with it lol. Now watch me give birth after dark again.

We have 4 bedrooms and this is #5. Our boys share a room and my oldest just graduated and moved out. Baby will be in our room for a good long while, so we are converting the extra room into a playroom for now. We'll move them all around eventually.

Yes the baby will be us for a long time too so at least we have time to make it all work!

HeatSparks · July 2016

@Starfish113 yes! It's the older two I'm worried about at 2 and 6

scifichick09 · July 2016

We don't HAVE to change anything, but we are painting the nursery. We're renting a 3 bed/2 bath house and only one of the bedrooms has been painted in the last 30 years. We convinced our landlord that letting us paint the other bedroom would be a benefit to her, and she agreed!

peachesnbean · July 2016

We will see. If we do, it will be far off. We typically bed share for about 10 mos. If baby is a girl she will go in with my other daughters, if baby is a boy we have some thinking to do... We have a pretty unique living situation, so, we will see what happens!

Partyof6? · July 2016

My kids, 7, 7 and 5 currently have their own rooms, but the girls will need to share when baby comes. They are 7 and 5, and actually were really excited about it with the baby we lost, so I know they will be again. My oldest daughter has a really big room so our only dilemma will be furniture arrangements.

cantalopes24 · July 2016

I just really need to stop saying we just moved and unpack crap already. The babies room is currently full of stuff I decided I hate and want to sell and I need to get my garage in order so we can figure out what we're doing with our basement.

Knottie16288692 · July 2016

I'm at a loss of what to do with our little house. DH runs his business from home so one of the bedrooms is his office. One bedroom is our master bedroom. Then there is the nursery... the size of a walk in closet. I don't even know what the purpose of that room was when they built this house... Anyways, my 8 month old occupies that room,and its barely big enough to put another crib. It doesn't even have its own closet. I'm thinking I might repurpose an old chest of drawers to be able to hang clothes in it. I might have to get a mini crib for the newest baby. Anybody have any advice on mini cribs? Are they worth it or should I just deal with less space and buy a regular crib?

momousekee · July 2016

We live in a 2 bedroom townhouse, which is actually pretty big for the area at 1000 sqft. Right now, my 12 year old has the slightly smaller bedroom, and we have the bigger one.

Baby will sleep with us in the bigger room for 6 months or so, then I don't know what we'll do. 13 isn't a great time to start sharing your bedroom with an infant. We might subdivide the living room so there's a bed for us. We might subdivide our bedroom and just let the baby stay there for longer...

I see creative furniture in our future.

Gingersnap · July 2016

We have 3 bedrooms, but one is attached to the garage, and for some reason I just don't feel comfortable with either kid being in the room with a door to the garage.
We plan on upsizing, but not for about 5 years.
We will probably keep this kid in with us until it STTN, and then can share with DD.

catiecatp · July 2016

We're moving internationally in 2 weeks - from one 2 bedroom condo to another 2 bedroom condo. Our hope is that our condo here will sell relatively fast and we can look at buying a house before the baby comes. But our lease agreement is until the end of January... so we'll be packing and moving in January. I'd much rather be in our new place by December so we can have our Christmas in our own place and also move well before baby arrives, but it doesn't look like it is in the cards for us. DH won't be working by that point (we'll most likely still be waiting on his green card to go through) so he'll do all the packing and hopefully we'll make some good friends who can be paid in pizza and beer to help with the actual move.

If we were going to still be here we'd have to get rid of a lot of furniture to convert the home office into a nursery.

DarkSerendipity · July 2016

Not much of a difference, because the house is already set up for a two year old. The baby will be with me for a few months anyway.

fourPsinapod · July 2016

Not this time. We have 3 bedrooms so this baby will get their own room. I have always been pretty adamant about only having 2 kids but DH wants more. If we had more, we would have to move or put two kids together. There's not much else in the way of living space in our house as it is now. I wish we would have bought a house with more storage options.

BumpasaurusRex · July 2016

Knottie16288692 said:

I'm at a loss of what to do with our little house. DH runs his business from home so one of the bedrooms is his office. One bedroom is our master bedroom. Then there is the nursery... the size of a walk in closet. I don't even know what the purpose of that room was when they built this house... Anyways, my 8 month old occupies that room,and its barely big enough to put another crib. It doesn't even have its own closet. I'm thinking I might repurpose an old chest of drawers to be able to hang clothes in it. I might have to get a mini crib for the newest baby. Anybody have any advice on mini cribs? Are they worth it or should I just deal with less space and buy a regular crib?

We did something similar to this for DS' room. If you had to move it out of the room to make space for another crib, you could just add curtain rod to the front and hang a long curtain drape to hide the clothes.

Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/d9/0b/a1/d90ba14f22d2793eec3862f29f36d3a0.jpg

ljoyw_27 · July 2016

We are hoping to finish off the basement and make that into a playroom, right now our third bedroom is the playroom. If this one is a boy we will let our older son decide if he wants to keep his room or move into the other one, if its a girl she will get the current playroom.

WinchesterGirl · July 2016

We are still debating making this house work, or try to move before baby.

We own 3 houses currently, and were already planning to shop for the 4th. However, normally we're not on such a tight timeline... now the debate is to buy a cheaper house as a rental right off (original plan), or get ourselves a bigger home and rent our house.

Our house is tiny - 878 square feet, 2/1. We really want a 3/2... but the market is just crap right now. So every 10 minutes we're back to discussing how to make this house work for another year or two.

Also I'm really jealous of all you ladies with basements. In Florida we call that an in-ground pool.

Xstatic3333 · July 2016

WinchesterGirl said:

We are still debating making this house work, or try to move before baby.

We own 3 houses currently, and were already planning to shop for the 4th. However, normally we're not on such a tight timeline... now the debate is to buy a cheaper house as a rental right off (original plan), or get ourselves a bigger home and rent our house.

Our house is tiny - 878 square feet, 2/1. We really want a 3/2... but the market is just crap right now. So every 10 minutes we're back to discussing how to make this house work for another year or two.

Also I'm really jealous of all you ladies with basements. In Florida we call that an in-ground pool.

How cool to already have a real estate portfolio going! I'm impressed! I bet you can make your current home work with 1 if nothing better pops on the market. We have a 3/1, technically, but one of the BRs opens to the outside so it won't be appropriate for a child. We'll make it work as long as possible, but we're planning a small family.

rachoochoo2 · July 2016

Our housing dilemma is that we are living in a 3 bedroom 1000 sf apartment with 3 (soon to be 4) kids. We are pre-qualified for a home loan but for personal reasons won't buy until next year probably right around or shortly after baby arrives.Good thing newborn babies don't take up much space and baby will be in our room for up to 6 months regardless of whether we get moved or not.

LaurenAshley04 · July 2016

We have a cape cod - our upstairs is 1 large bedroom with a bathroom, nook, and 2 closets.
Downstairs we have 2 bedrooms (currently an office and playroom). Our almost 2 yo sleeps in the nook. My dilemma is move her downstairs to her playroom (DH likes this idea) or leave her where she is and hope the new baby doesn't wake her up!

varimama · July 2016

We've just started the home buying process and are hoping to move before this baby gets here. Our realtor already told us about a house he sold where the morning everything was going to be signed the woman went into labor so everyone met at the hospital and she had to sign in between contractions and the husband kept having to run out of the room sign a paper then go back in. We don't want that to happen so FX we find something. We currently rent a 2 bedroom apartment and this is our first so we could make it work if we don't find something but I'm hoping we do!

poofwok · July 2016

We have a 3 bedroom. One is currently the office and once we know the sex of the baby, we will turn it into a nursery. We will have to squeeze a few things around here and there but it should be okay. We will definitely want/need a bigger place in a few years.

SweetT · July 2016

We have to do some switching but no major renovation yet.
DD is in one of our downstairs bedrooms and across the hall from her br is her playroom. We are going to move her playroom to one of the upstair bedrooms, make the playroom DD's room and her current room babies room. I think. The playroom has a great walk in closest she would appreciate but her current room has a big bay window which is beautiful.
We have over 1,000sqft unfinished upstairs we plan to renovate that space to 2 more bedrooms so the kids will be upstairs. Turn the current playroom into an office and add DD's bedroom space to the living room then the kids will have their own loft area and we'll make the additional bedroom upstairs a proper guest room since we don't have one now.

hispenguin · July 2016

We live in a three bedroom home and the nursery is currently a craft/play space so the only thing we have to do is purge and relocate the desk to the basement.

Partyof6? · July 2016

Being a Realtor I see a lot of funny options. You can always tell when sellers have run out of room for their kids. A couple days ago we opened up a closet and there was a crib in it that was clearly in use. Yup, out of room for kids, lol.

WinchesterGirl · July 2016

@Xstatic3333 One of the houses we just looked at actually had the only back yard entry from the house through the master. So every morning to let the dogs out, DH would be waking me up. That was a deal breaker! Builders really don't think entrances/exits through sometimes!

tclayton53 · July 2016

We live in a 3/2 house that we love. The front yard is very large and our long-term plan is to build a home addition adding 2 additional bedrooms (we hope to have around 3 children). With #2 we are losing our guest room so are thinking about purchasing a vintage trailer/camper to fit on our side yard that could serve as a guest house, play house and beach house (we are California coastal and could bring it to the beach for the day/night).

SweetT · July 2016

WinchesterGirl said:

@Xstatic3333 One of the houses we just looked at actually had the only back yard entry from the house through the master. So every morning to let the dogs out, DH would be waking me up. That was a deal breaker! Builders really don't think entrances/exits through sometimes!

We looked at a house that we absolutely loved, but the only way to the backyard was through the garage. The only view to the backyard was through the master bedroom window. It was so weird!

imalwaysme79 · July 2016

We're in a 2 bedroom town-villa. Currently the second bedroom is the office/husband's closet/cat litter box/sports memorabilia room. We will have to clear the whole room out and turn it into a nursery. Not sure where my husband is going to put his clothes. There's not enough room in *my* closet.

FerForShort · July 2016

imalwaysme79 said:

We're in a 2 bedroom town-villa. Currently the second bedroom is the office/husband's closet/cat litter box/sports memorabilia room. We will have to clear the whole room out and turn it into a nursery. Not sure where my husband is going to put his clothes. There's not enough room in *my* closet.

This is us! Our extra bedroom has a desk, a bunch of instruments, and DH's sizable boot collection. If it's a boy we are planning on hanging his guitar, banjo and mandolin on the wall and just calling it a music themed nursery. I have no idea where all his clothes and boots are going to go though. Old house = small rooms and even smaller closets.

Shawlls · July 2016

This will be our second child (1st will be 26 months when 2nd is born). We are selling our 2 bed + den townhouse, as we have bought a house. One thing I wnat to share is that with our first, we made the den into her room, and I'm so glad we did because it gave us a spare room to have in-laws and other guests. Babies need very little space (den fit a crib, dresser, small bookcase). We likely could stay in our current place, but it makes more sense to move as our new place is closer to family.

Babymakes5! · July 2016

We will be putting our sons together in the master, and us take the middle room, baby with the smallest room. Looking forward to doing up a big boy room for them. Thinking bunk beds and superhero theme

lfrank12 · July 2016

We have a three bedroom and this is our first child so combining the guest room and office shouldn't be too bad. The biggest issue for us is our upstairs bathroom, which is the ONLY full bath in our house. We have been putting the renovation of that off for so long, but now that I'm pregnant we need to find some way to get it done. Pregnant with no shower for a week is bad enough, but I can't even imagine that once we have a newborn.

angeltennis3 · July 2016

We have a 4 BR/2 1/2 BA. My DD is in what we want to continue to be the nursery (its closest to the master), so she will be moving into a room just a tad farther away and the baby will get the nursery. We started painting that room way back in December as my getaway project when my Inlaws were visiting.

On our first floor, we currently have a family room (no toys allowed, adult only space) and converted the living room into a play room to more easily keep an eye on DD while she plays.

The plan is to finish our basement, which we are about 50% done but my FIL and DH are doing the work themselves so I expect the remaining 50% will take another 2 years (which is fine because I don't anticipate our kids needing independent play space for a while). We are finishing it into two rooms - a "man cave" with a bar (which will be in a separate room with French doors that lock entering into it) and a play room for when the kids are old enough to play independently.

pennylucille-2 · July 2016

We have a small 2 bedroom, 2 bath house. Our extra room is currently jam packed with storage, since our garage is our office for our home business, and we had to get all storage out of the garage. So basically, we just have tons of stuff to go through and get rid of. No major renovations, although we will definitely paint, and probably install some kind of shelving or more efficient storage in the closet, since it is just a standard long skinny closet with a pole and no other storage.

Moonbeam828 · July 2016

We're going to be switching the purpose of 2 rooms. We're lucky to have a 4/3; they're currently used as a master br, DS's br, DH's office, and "my" room (used for all my girly stuff and storage). We're changing H's office into the nursery since it's next to DS's room (we like the idea of having both kid rooms together). H will move his desk and stuff into the extra room. That means I have to majorly pare down my craft supplies and makeup stuff, which I can't lie, does make me a bit sad, lol.

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