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Property/DIY

townhouse with kitchen/dining room on ground floor- with a 1 year old- am I crazy?!

27 replies

Brightsideisbetter · 28/04/2017 00:21

Hello wise ones!
I would love to hear any experiences on split level living. We viewed a townhouse today with a kitchen dinner on ground floor and living room on middle floor.

My thoughts are:

Plus: baba can easily play outside as he gets older and I can get on with kitchen chores while keeping an eye.
There is enough room for baba to have a couple of small toys in kitchen to entertain him why I am cooking.

Negative
As baba grows older would him playing in living room on different floor to kitchen be an issue?


We currently have a Victorian house which is long - so if he is in the living room I can't see him or hear him fron the kitchen. Our kitchen is tiny so he can't play while i cook/wash up currently.. So thinking a townhouse could be better than current set up?! I am sure how much my life will change tho as he gets older. Am I missing anything?

Love to hear thoughts...

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user1484830599 · 28/04/2017 07:14

I have just moved to a townhouse, my children are a little older, 3 and 5 but I really like our house and it really works well for us, for all the reasons you state.

I am constantly up and down the stairs but that is the only downside, and not a biggie IMO.

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chickpeaburger · 28/04/2017 08:28

I think you need to stop saying "baba"

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Brightsideisbetter · 28/04/2017 08:31

Wow! You are a prickly one! Hope it's a one off rather than your normal outlook on life to look for the negative and judge people.

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OnePlanOnHouzz · 28/04/2017 08:34

Technology is your friend here - have an moveable internal monitor system ( like video baby monitor ) that gives you iPad /phone views of the area you little one is playing in if you need to pop downstairs /upstairs etc !

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Brightsideisbetter · 28/04/2017 08:34

Wow you are a prickly one! I hope it is a one off rather than your normal behaviour to be so negative!

It's 830am and you have come onto a post just to be negative...

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Eatingcheeseontoast · 28/04/2017 08:34

I don't know, I think you have to stop saying baba too.


House sounds lovely. It's nice as they get older to have a bit of distance.

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Brightsideisbetter · 28/04/2017 08:37

Thanks for sharing thoughts- I was just quite shocked by the negatively. I thougjt this was a Mum friendly site. I am not down with all the nicknames for kids etc- I did not realise it was so vital to use them.

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offblackeggshell · 28/04/2017 08:38

We live in a town house. DC are teens, but it works well for us. Could the dining room be the room with toys rather than the living room? I would have preferred a more conventional layout, but this one means we can live in exactly the location we want, so the compromises are well worth it.

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Brightsideisbetter · 28/04/2017 08:43

Thanks for sharing. When I say dining room it's actually just part of the kitchen and after a table not that big. But I think your point is so valid/ it's about compromise. I think I value location over the absolute ideal floor plan- which for our money we would probably have to move a long way to find and then be miles from friends.

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User2468 · 28/04/2017 08:51

What about bedrooms? Most of the town houses we looked at had two bedrooms on one floor and one on another, not very practical if you have two young children.

For us, it was a no go. It wasn't practical for dog and child (having to run downstairs to let the dog out). But so many new build homes are in this configuration that thousands of families must manage it.

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Brightsideisbetter · 28/04/2017 08:51

Great point! Had not considered this... thanks

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Thirtyrock39 · 28/04/2017 08:56

I would hate it. Our kids live in the lounge - there's not many times they are in the garden though they do sit and draw at the table . Think about entertaining are you going to want to trudge upstairs if you have friends round for dinner after you've eaten ? It would have to be a big kitchen / diner/ family room for me to consider this - I know some townhouses that can fit a sofa in the ground floor kitchen /diner which would be fine but a small kitchen on. Different floor would massively put me off

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NoSquirrels · 28/04/2017 09:02

I wouldn't, personally. Lots of people do, but with kids I just know whatever you needed at that moment would always be on a different floor, and 2 flights of stairs to get to the top bedrooms would piss me off with young kids.

With 1 baby- probably OK (masses of stair gates needed tho?)

With teens - possibly ideal, different floors to hang out on.

In the middle e.g a toddler and a newborn, or 2 preschoolers, or young school age with all the morning school run drama - hell no.

So think about your changing needs in the next 2-5 years if I were you.

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specialsubject · 28/04/2017 09:27

Half of London lives like this and they survive. Kid will need lots of stair training but quite possible.

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JigglyTuff · 28/04/2017 09:30

It wouldn't be my preference - I think townhouses are a pain personally. But then I'm forever carrying stuff from one room/floor to another with a conventional layout

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MissDuke · 28/04/2017 09:32

If it is your dream location and all you can get for your budget then it may well be worth it. However if you have other options then I would explore those carefully. The positive of the baby playing in the garden while you cook is surely the same for most homes, townhouse or not? I personally would hate to manage all of those stairs with small children and if you have visitors, it seems antisocial to have to keep running downstairs to get things from the kitchen. If there was room in the kitchen for a proper living space - sofa etc aswell as dining table then I think it would work better.

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SeagullGirl · 28/04/2017 09:39

I've never live in a house with the layout you describe, but when my kids were younger they always wanted to hangout in the kitchen/dining room with me, even though the living room was only a step away. By the time they were wanting to do things on their own elsewhere they were big enough to do so without needing watching. But that's just my experience. I would do it if the house is otherwise just right.

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WutheringFrights · 28/04/2017 09:45

I grew up in a town house. Kitchen and dining room on the ground floor, lounge and bathroom on the Middle and three beds upstairs.
Me and my brother were 1 and 3 when we moved in - mum still lives there. It was a lovely spacious house and you weren't always on top of each other.

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hapagirl · 28/04/2017 09:47

When we were looking, I saw a lot of town houses. We have three kids. I really don't like the idea of having the living area seperate to the kitchen area where I often am. Even if you are entertaining, you might be stuck in the kitchen while everyone is upstairs. I was looking at mainly Georgian / Victorian houses which were built at a time when you had servants so I didn't think they were all that family friendly as I am the cook, maid, butler and nanny! As it is we bought a three storey house with kitchen, living area downstairs but also an "adults" living room upstairs.

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Appleby39 · 28/04/2017 13:43

It would be a no for me too as we always try to think out of the box and not just at ourselves....we also included in our decisions things like guests, particularly at the time my grandparents, one of which was in a wheelchair....there's no way he or my nan who struggled with stairs would be able to go up to the lounge. I guess it depends on layout and whether you see it as your forever home or just a stepping stone. If there is potential to enlarge the living space on the ground floor then that's also worth looking into.

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Justmadeperfectflapjacks · 28/04/2017 13:47

We live in an old town house. Tiny kitchen, kids play room and a bedroom downstairs. Our lounge, 1 bedroom and bathroom on middle and 3 bedrooms on the top.2sets of stairs at each end of the house so baby gates everywhere!! Dogs on ground floor only during the day or just race through the whole place!! Dc +gs downstairs during the day also til other dc in from school. . Hoping easier when won't need gates but gs only 1yo.
Organised bedlam.

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NennyNooNoo · 28/04/2017 14:20

I don't think it would be a big problem for the child to play in the living room when he gets older while you're downstairs in the kitchen. My 3 year old often plays in her bedroom while I'm downstairs. I don't think I'd fancy a townhouse though as it would be an extra flight of stairs - I already find I go up and down a million times a day often with loads of washing.

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EwanWhosearmy · 28/04/2017 15:15

We moved to a townhouse with that same layout when our DC were 11- 6 and it worked really well. Ours had 2 bedrooms on the top floor and one in the middle, and we converted the garage to another bedroom.

Then we had another baby when the older ones were teens and it was hard work. A lot of our neighbours moved once they had a baby. You don't say how old yours is.

We moved again 7 years ago and I still miss our upstairs livingroom. Had the kitchen been on the first floor as well it would have worked better for us.

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Binkybix · 29/04/2017 09:43

Works ok for us (we moved when youngest was 18months then had another) BUT our kitchen is big enough to have a table in the kitchen bit and then we have a family room next to it but open plan with a sofa, toys etc. Without that - not so sure for this age.

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Bambambini · 29/04/2017 09:48

Put us off when we were looking so was a no but some here don't seem to mind.

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