What would you do in our position?

[Weightloss12]

Hi, we’re a family of 5. Me and my fiancee currently share a room with our almost 3 year old daughter, we bought a 3 bedroom terraced house in January, our son has the box room, and our autistic 5 year old daughter has her own room, we’re thinking ahead to how we could make it work bedroom wise, our loft isn’t an option, and splitting the rooms would mean splitting a window, and unsure if it would be safe fire regs wise. We can’t put our 3 year old in with our 5 year old because she isn’t safe to be left unsupervised. WWYD?

Probably hasn't had a lottery win to buy a bigger one, at a guess 🙄🙄

Ones 3, ones 5 - hardly a massive age gap!

The 5 year old is presumably at school. Getting kept awake could mess up his school day if he’s tired. If it was a two and a three year old, or two 5 year olds, it’s different

Sofabed downstairs for parents. Bedroom each for kids. That’s our plan.
kids need their space adults just need somewhere to crash.

It’s not about the age gap as such

It’s not about the age gap as such

This is actually probably the best idea if they aren’t willing to sell.

We have divided a double room like a PP post with bunk beds. So the window is split between but you can still open fully the extra wide window.

Teen one side tween the other side. Privacy and no major structural changes.

OP would your autistic daughter be willing to share with your older son as long as the bedroom was safe?

Exactly.

So many comments about choosing to purchase an unsuitable house.

Wake up!

yes but as people are saying, they got the house for a lot less than market value. So they could sell up and use profit to buy a larger one

You're making a mountain out of a molehill. Plenty of 3 & 5 year old share. If the 3 year old keeps the 5 year old awake, just settle the 3 year old to sleep first.

The 3 and 5 year old are the girls and they can’t share because the 5 year old can’t be left unsupervised with her, she would and has hit and pushed her, it’s not safe, my son is 10

If OP can settle the 3 year old over the summer when the son is off school then sharing would probably be possible. It comes down to whether she’s bothered about disturbing his sleep to begin with.

But a 3 year old waking up and shouting for mummy isn’t great for when 5yr old is at school next day

To all those snarking about "not everyone can afford a mansion", some posters are just asking what they had planned back in January...Christ. They had 3 kids then too. The info is being drip fed.

Give up your bedroom for one of your DC and you and DH sleep in the living room on a sofa bed

Do you have a living space that could be a bedroom instead for a child or for the adults so the children get a bedroom each? A dining room or study type room for example?

If not then your options are:

1. Divide DD5’s room into two smaller rooms so they have a room each
2. Divide your bedroom so that there is a room for your other child

Because a 3 year old girl cannot share with a 10 year old boy, and you say the girls can’t share for safety reasons.

Sell.

Use the profit you'll make (because you bought the house at a huge discount) to buy a 4 bed house

Or

You and partner give up your room and sleep downstairs

Or maybe they couldn’t because - shock- they might still not be able to afford it!

Sorry, got them a bit muddled up. Unless you're able to sleep downstairs yourself I'd just find a way to split the biggest room in two.easiest way is to do it with bookcases or the like. Go right up to the window frame if it's in the middle. You could even put a corner curtain rail up on each side (if you understand what I mean??).

id probably sleep downstairs myself & give the kids the bedrooms, but there are so many variables, it's hard to say.

could your 10 yo not have the loft, not officially converted?

Then really your only options are for you and DH to move downstairs and your 3 year old has your room, or sell and get a house which can sleep everyone.

Waiting for a bus recently, I looked at the house opposite and noticed a bedroom had been divided with a Y shaped wall, the fork of the Y having two windows opening on to a single external window. Would this work for you?

They're not going to be able to afford a 4 bdrm, with the proceeds of a 3 bedroom & im sure if they could afford a big enough mortgage to live they'd be doing that

Hard to know without knowing price of the house and area I guess. But if it’s a 3 bed it’s probably worth over 150k. Presumably profit of 75k if they sell on for profit would be enough to maybe have a loft conversion in a same-sized house.