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?

The autistic daughter might not have a choice due to the circumstances.

I think she said she (the daughter) can get violent further back don’t quote me on that though

I have a neighbour who lives in a very small three bed house with five kids and her husband. They are all now over 10 - four girls and one boy. One is non verbal and can be aggressive. She should have her own room. The boy should have his own room.

They are officially classed as over crowded.

Unfortunately there's very little they can do to remedy the situation. They are stuck with it.

It's far from ideal but they literally don't have a choice.

The OP will ultimately have find a solution she doesn't like or want at this point as it's not viable to carry on like this either.

Here

Sadly as it’s a private house they own there’s not much they can do unless they change the house drastically or move. She doesn’t want kids to sleep downstairs, she doesn’t want to do a loft conversion (unsure why she didn’t say), can’t divide the bedrooms due to fire risk, and doesn’t want the kids to share bedrooms. Plus there is only one back door in the playroom so if the playroom was converted into a bedroom they’d need another back door installed for taking bins out etc.

It’s not like if they had a council house and could try to apply for something bigger.

Another back door can’t be installed because the kitchen has units all around it, and they’re mid terrace so can’t put one on the side of the house.

Can you put one of those beds in the Lounge that go up into the wall during the day for you and your husband. Sorry can’t remember the word - is it maybe a Murphy bed.

I don't see a problem with accessing the garden via a bedroom tbh.

Alternatively they could use the front living room as a bedroom and the playroom as a living room.

Yes that’s probably the best idea

I agree.

This doesn’t help you but you said you don’t understand the mortgage you have - you really need to understand your own financial commitments and not leave them to your partner.

For a start as you aren’t married - are you even on the mortgage ?

What would happen if you split up ? Etc etc.

I'm curious as to why the loft conversion is not possible, is it access/room for stairs etc?

In the meantime, the playroom is a space worth using. Try it out anyway with a blow up bed 😊and test how it might (or might not...) work for you.

It could be, but we went up there yesterday and it’s not very high, my oh can only just stand up in the middle

What about making the playroom the living room and having it open planned with the kitchen and dining room and use the living room as a bedroom?

Baby monitor in each child's bedroom so you CAN hear them?

See this is the option im
most leaning towards with either a nice sofa bed or a Murphy bed, if both the young ones have a decent sized bedroom there’s no need for a play room

how tall is he?

Could the living room become a bedroom and open up the playroom and kitchen to make an open plan living space with access to the garden?

My loft is converted into a bedroom and there's only room to stand up if you're under five foot.

Kids would manage it fine. I have to stoop when I'm up there. But yours would make a playroom for the kids, surely? Then you can turn the playroom into a bedroom?

They would need to get a wall put up to make the playroom into a bedroom. Not definite whether this can be done with the type of build it is.

5”10

Small extension downstairs?

We’ve come to a decision, in the new year we’re going to start sleeping in the playroom, we usually sit downstairs untill about 11 anyway, we literally only go up to sleep, we think we’re gonna get a day bed, that turns into a double, something like this, so it’ll be like a chill out space/ snug in the day time, and our bed at night. By that time our youngest will be about 3 and a half, and we will get baby monitors to listen out for them

And then with the kids room. My son who will be coming up for 11 will have our room big room, and he will have our kingsize bed, it’s only a few months old so he might aswell have it, and our wardrobes will stay in his room

our youngest little girl will go into the second biggest room, which is pretty much above us, because the littlest room has a bed build over the box and it’s too high for the 3 year old.

and then our 5 year old daughter will take the box room, which she loves anyway, my son has signs on his door saying keep out because she’s always trying to invade his room, and we’re thinking of making the space under the bed a sort of sensory space for her, it’s a decent sized box room to be fair

How? Was it done a long time ago?

Mine has clearance for DH to stand and he's over 6ft, but it's 2 inches too short to be able to classified as a bedroom... We'd need to raise the roof, which we can't do without next door doing it too, as we're terraced. OP would need all 3 of her neighbours to do it, which seems unrealistic

Current build regs say you need 7ft 3 inches to be able to convert to a bedroom, or 2.2m.

I asked chat gpt to design their rooms, and now I can’t wait to sleep in the playroom 😂