What size home did you have when you had your first baby?

[Moseyjosey]

My sister and BIL were lucky enough to own a 5 bed house before starting their family, and they managed to do all this under 30.

We live in a two bed semi detached home. It’s a lovely street. We have a garden and a bedroom for baby, and some floor space in the sitting room but not a separate playroom or anything like that for when they are bigger.

Everyone’s different but what was your living situation when you had your firstborn and if you upsized how old were they when you did this?

Three bed terrace when we had the first two kids. Then we moved to a larger 4 bed before having the third. Still there and youngest is 11.

What's your situation?

Weird way of looking at it. We have a now 3 bed terrace in London, had twins, did a loft conversion, won't be upsizing any time soon as the location is perfect and we can't afford to in this area. You don't need a 5 bed house to start a family.

Living situation is what I said. Just a different way of phrasing the original question, which is size of home.

I have an 11 month old and we have a 3 bed medium terrace with a smallish garden. I love my actual house but regret not having a house with a drive for convenience. Only on road parking.
I want a second but likely won't upsize as such, just move somewhere with better parking. There's no need to have a 5 bedroom house before starting your family. I'd venture to say 95%+ of people don't!

We would struggle with another child in our current house as there's not a great deal of storage so we used the third bedroom, which is a big single, for a lot of everyday crap. But you manage with what you've got to an extent.

Sorry if reason for posting wasn’t clear. I was just curious as to when people with smaller homes realised they needed more space so I can have an idea of what it might look like for us and when we’ll need to move. I know it’ll also depend on if we have a second child etc

Don’t compare yourself to others OP.

We lived in a two bedroom flat. It was a lovely flat and perfectly fine for a couple with a baby. When he started to walk we moved to a four bed terrace and had another baby.

@PiggieWig I bet a flat was actually really convenient, no stairs to navigate.

I’ve recently had my first child. We live in a small semi-detached house with a garden. It has three bedrooms but the third is a tiny box room. It’s fine for now but we will be looking to move ideally before we have any more children.

Might have been better to ask that then…

One bed flat

A tiny two up/two down tied cottage that we couldn’t even afford to finish decorating. The bathroom was tacked on the back.
No central heating, a cantankerous hot water tank and the electricity would regularly go off.

a rented 2 bed terraced. 24 years on, we're in an owned 4 bed detached.

We were in the process of buying a4 bed detached when I discovered I was pregnant. We thought about buying a 3 bed instead as we were a little worried about the mortgage whilst on maternity leave but stuck with the 4 bed. Had second one when in the same house.

2 bed end of terrace when I had my first, moved to a 3 bed end of terrace when heavily pregnant with my 2nd , although the 3 bed house was actually smaller square footage wise.

We had a one bed flat (rented). No heating, no parking. Though actually I don’t think we had a car!
it was fine.
moved to a three bed terrace shortly having DC2 then a four bed before DC3.
we didn’t plan this (or the children!) and housing was much more affordable then.

One bedroom flat until DS1 was 3 then we added another room and stayed there with 3 children in a 2 bed flat until eldest was 12. It was fine although I’m glad we had more space for them being teenagers. When they were little they’d just sort of sleep in a heap together or wander in to us in the night anyway.

I had a 3 bed detached in Wiltshire. Then my charming employer 'made me redundant' first morning back from maternity leave so I had to sell it.
Moved to a truly grotty one bed rented flat while I fought unfair dismissal and then found a new job. Then bought a four bed in Hampshire.
So a bit up and down the scale really.

One bed 1960s council flat. Still in it.

Well, I think most people have understood the meaning and been able to answer fine.

We were in a tiny 2 bed when oldest DS was born

Move into a 3 bed when he was 4. Moved into a 5 bed when he was 9 and I was 32.

I bed flat. We moved to a 2 bed house when dd was 1. Family upstairs in flat brought up 2 kids in 1 bed flat though. Don't know how they did it but they managed!

2 bed flat

Now live in a pretty standard 2 double bedroom, one single bedroom semi detached house with two almost teens. Its adequate for our needs. Would we like an extra bedroom? Yes. But we don't need one.

Planning to extend in a few years to give DD1 a bigger bedroom and to get an extra room downstairs plus an extra bathroom.

2 bed flat, moved to a 2 bed terraced house when firstborn was 6 months old. Moved to a 4 bed house when he was almost at the end of primary school.

Three bedroom semi detached house (third bedroom was a box room).