To think this house IS big enough

Honestly Mumsnet really is another planet sometimes. As I said in PP your house is a perfectly nice, normal home for a family of 5 in the real world. Suggestions that you need 2 living rooms with teens are just not the reality for most people. I have two kids in a 3-bed and a small kitchen with no room for a table so a living room/diner. My sister has two girls in a 2-bed terrace. I don’t know anybody with two living rooms.

Don't feel bad OP. Some of these posters (especially one) are on another planet. However back in the real world - you clearly live in a nice house and are providing a lovely home for your family. Houses, families and kids are adaptable and I am sure you can make it work if you decide to add another into the mix.
As someone who grew up in a family of 6 in a 3 bed semi with one bathroom (oh the squalor!), please just ignore all the judgemental comments and take what you can from the many constructive suggestions. You will be fine.

Where does your garage join the house? Or does it not?

You could split it. Either the back section or add a side door if separate and keep the up and over so it looks same from street and still provides storage.

Your spare room seems a waste as an office.

Make better use of the garage. As long as you insulate well it will be fine

Don't feel like that OP!! I'd be bloody over the moon with your house, it is more than enough and just needs a bit of thinking about.

I'm in a 3 bed flat, one lounge that has a table in, one of the bedrooms is a box room and my DD wardrobe is in my bedroom.
You know what? It works and we are happy as I'm sure you are too.

Thank you.

OP I also tried to offer constructive alternatives to the layout as well as asking if you felt an office was needed over a desk space and whether a home in another location could work. I'm sorry i upset you. I wasn't trying to be nasty and say or imply that its a shit home and all your kids will be miserable. I was being honest that I think the home will be a squeeze with a new addition and offered some questions to see if you'd thought about a home in another area (not "magicking up £100k" as another poster said) or whether a desk instead of an office might work for 3 days a week or whether sacrificing a guest room might be an option..I was honestly trying to help and I'm sorry if all I've done is upset you. That wasn't my intention and I apologise again if I have.

Oh OP.
you’ve got a lovely, good size home, a great income, and you can definitely have a third!

Don't feel like a failure. I know people whose kids shared smaller rooms till out of uni! It used to be the norm.

Expectations for living standards these days are way too high. Three bath, three bed is plenty for four people. Especially with garage and garden.

My qualm for adding kids would be the environment, not number of bedrooms. And how i would cope if adverse circumstances arose.

I’m not sure what world some posters inhabit but it’s a perfectly decent sized home for a family of 4/5. I think if you really want another child, you can find the room - there’s enough bedrooms.

Do you need a proper office for WFH or just somewhere quiet to make calls/work at a laptop? If the latter you could set up a folding desk in your bedroom - it might be a bit cramped and won’t necessarily look great but it will solve the issue.

Alternatively you could have 2 children share but put their wardrobe in the office room to leave more space in their bedroom.

You could convert the garage or get a garden room for work - this is probably the best option if you can afford to do it.

People are being so incredibly mean spirited and nasty!

This is OPs home that she no doubt worked really hard to buy. Show some respect.

OP - I’ve already said that I think your home is more than fine. Round my way to buy this home new you’d be looking at nearer £700k. Good luck to all the people who consider this pocket change and couldn’t possibly lower themselves to live in such a hovel but over in the real world most people I know would be delighted.

Not read all of the thread. Can you move the downstairs toilet under the stairs. That would free up the already downstairs toilet and the storage space behind

I did see someone mentioned a garden office, you can also get shepherds huts to use as offices but I'm not sure how warm they are in the winter although you can get a stove for them

Yes although I kind of figured the smallest room in that scenario would be an office used every day so less of a problem? Agree on a pointless guest room

Hi OP, I live in a small four-bed house. And it's perfectly fine for us!

Hard to compare directly as we have an extra room downstairs (I think it should be a dining room but it's my office and can double as a spare room), but ours looks smaller upstairs (we have two double bedrooms and two box rooms). You must have a large living room and kitchen :)

We have two kids. My eldest actually has both box rooms as one just fits his bed and wardrobe and the other has his computer, but there is a slim chance we might have to look after our nephew one day, in which case he'd have to give a box room up (but would not be ideal - or one could have my office).

As mentioned I have an office downstairs but my husband converted half our garage in the garden into an office so that he could wfh too. Behind the garage we put in a summer house, but we could've put an office pod there if needed. There's always something you can try. As mentioned you could prob get a desk and chair in a very very small under-stairs office if needed. I don't think guest rooms are essential.

She's lived in it for 6 years

I hope.... despite some of the unhelpful comments, that you have been given some food for thought.

My twopence worth:
You can be flexible as your family grows and your needs change.

You already believe you will not be in the house with 3 teenagers so there is no need to address that yet.

You could make a guest space more flexible.. maybe a pull out bed in one of the kids bedrooms.. kids could move into your room if grandparents come to stay.. or camp out in each other's rooms.
The office space could also be flexible... in the smallest room while you are on maternity leave as only one of you will need it.. and when you go back to work.. I presume there will be two people working only while there are no kids in the house so one person could use the living space.. not ideal.. but maybe flexible.. also consider a flexible office space in your own bedroom.. also not ideal..

I would use the smallest room as office space, have one shared kids bedroom and one single child's bedroom... it can be swapped around depending on individuals needs.. and if things get tricky... a temporary space in the garage or the garden could be brought into play if suddenly your three kids cannot bear to be in the same room as each other... or... they share their sleeping space with an adult working space.

Ultimately, you have 4 bedrooms and a lounge... and if all 5 of you needed to be in separate spaces at the same time.... that could be accomodated.

You need ikeahackers! Done my landing office with ideas from there https://ikeahackers.net/?s=Small+home+office

Hi OP, I think with a bit of online searching you will find the solutions you are looking for to adapt your home to accommodate you all, including a new little one.

Under stairs office for one WFH, many examples if you search by image. Move the inevitable clutter from under the stairs with a combination of declutterring/utilising storage solution in sitting room below, buggy in the garage.

Sitting room is nearly 19ft long, enough room to put a wall of full height built in cupboards for storage and bring the sofa forward into the room. These cupboards can also accommodate bedding for a sofa bed in sitting room to provide guest accommodation.

Use the spare room upstairs as the second office until it is needed as a nursery.

If the downstairs storage cupboard is the standard width of the en-suite that’s enough room to put a second small office, plenty of good ideas on the small apartment sites online.

Having two distinct office spaces that you don’t need to share with the children would be worth the size trade off.

You have plenty of room, and if you have the money the garage conversion and /or a home office in the garden are other options.

Good luck.

A garden office or pod sounds to be the best solution. Install a small sofa and a screen and it can be used by older children in the evening or a weekends.

If you bothered to read the OP or even the OPs reply to you you would see that she already lives in the house she is not contemplating buying it. Not sure why you keep going on about her buying it
You telling her that she has made poor choices is just out of order. I stand by my comment, you are coming across as very unpleasant saying that OP has made poor choices.

We have 4 DC in a 3 bed one bath and DH WFH part time. Computer and desk in the lounge.
We have 3 DC in one room, 1 in another, and DH and I in another

I live in a small 4 bed. I use the smallest room as my office and my 2 kids each have their own good size room. I grew up in a small 3 bed house as one of 4 kids. I shared a room with my sister and we had bunk beds until the first of us moved out. It was shit. There was no privacy, no space for a desk to do homework, no space for friends to sleep over. I hated it.

I agree, the fact that some of the ones making the most unkind comments haven't even read the OP properly makes me laugh. Giving advice as if you were looking to buy the house instead of making what you have work.