I live in a 4 bed detached new(ish) build. We bought it 5 years ago before we started a family.
This is the house type we have - www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/find-your-home/scotland/renfrewshire/paisley/hawkhead-gardens/the-douglas---coming-soon
The upstairs landing looks slightly different so this is probably a newer style but it's pretty much identical.
When it's just us at home (me, dh, dd (4) and the dog) it feels fine - kitchen isn't really big enough to have two people trying to do stuff at the same time but it's otherwise ok.
The problem is whenever we have people round - especially if I have a friend round for a play date.
Downstairs is just a series of seperate, small rooms which ironically appealed to me as in our old house we had a big kitchen diner that we hated because it was always cold just didn't feel like a nice space.
The dining room used to be a play room with small sofa, tv & toy storage but now has a 4 seater extending dining table plus a sideboard plus ottoman so there is limited floor space remaining for dd to play.
The lounge has a 3+2 sofa, ottoman, large dog bed in the corner plus a tall, narrow corner bookshelf - as I sit in it now, it feels a decent size but last night for halloween I invited my friend and her dd round for halloween. Then my parents popped in and with the 4 adults (and my parents are quite large adults) and the 2 kids running around the room plus our dog (greyhound) wandering about it just felt so cramped.
Because of the lack of space in the dining room there is nowhere else for the kids to play (friends dd is still a bit young to go up and down the stairs). I just felt manic and I found myself getting wound up.
I don't often invite people round and this is party the reason - I'm not sure if it's just in my head or if we have just bought a badly configured house - ironically it's waaaaay bigger than the 2 bed flat me and my family grew up in or dh's childhood home and both of us agree that they never felt small.
Would love any ideas how to make better use of the space and have a set up that allows me to have more friends and their kids round without it feeling like a mad house.
Extending isn't on the radar at the moment although I'd love to either convert the garage or extend at the back to give a big sun room. We are redecorating soon though so keen to consider options - perhaps making more use of the wide hallway or adding more seating the the lounge that accomodates more people without it feeling cramped? Having the french doors in the lounge is a lovely idea but you do lose wall space unless you are willing to block them which seems a waste.
We're considering having another child and the thought of having 2 kids in this space just seens insane which given it's a 4 bed house is just unbelievable!
Would love to have some ideas on how to make this work better for us - I love the location and our neighbours and am loathe to move but sometimes it feels like I'm suffocating!