To think nine bedrooms is a bit much?

[houseymcmousey]

Someone I work with has just bought a nine bedroom house for two adults and one child to live in. They aren't having more children or having anyone else move in.

Just out of interest, how big would you go if money was no object? For me I think 5 or 6 just to have a couple of guest rooms but nine seems bonkers to me. It has enough space downstairs for a playroom and office so they aren't using them for that. Just thinking of all the bed linen makes me feel faint.

I live alone and bought a 5 bed house. I knocked two rooms together to create a big master bedroom with dressing room and en-suite, kept one as a spare bedroom, turned one into a cloakroom/boot room type place and one into a study.

I would happily take a 9 bedroom house. Wouldnt have a bed in every one though obviously and I would hate the cleaning. They are quite easy to fill I reckon. Bedroom for me and DH. 3 bedrooms for DC. Guest bedroom. A play room. Beauty/wardrobe room and a Storage room. I'm quite plain with my decor through the house so would have one outrageous room. Pink flamingos wall paper, disco balls you name it.

We have a 6 bedroom house, it was our dream home and we love it. 1 bed for me, one for DH (who snores), one for each of our 2 children, one study/guest room and one spare/guest room.

And it is so much work to clean and maintain that I really hadn't anticipated - having moved from a 3 bed. It takes about 12 hours a week on average to keep a basic level of cleanliness and to maintain the house and garden.

We're too cheap to pay for much help (we have a weekly cleaner but this really covers only floors and a quick bathroom scrub). DH and I do about equal amounts of indoor work and kids do their share - but maintenance and garden is all me.

I'm lucky to have such a lovely home, and wouldn't give it up - I just wish I'd thought a bit more about the time and cost of cleaning and maintenance.

I don’t have nine bedrooms, but my house has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms. We also have a big playroom and a separate gym. I absolutely adore having this much space. We have friends and their kids stay over fairly frequently, plus guests from England once or twice a year.

Nine bedrooms is more like a hotel!! Definitely a couple of extra bedrooms but I would rather the space downstairs .

Hmm... Well they could have a bedroom each plus a dressing room each so that's 6. A study, guest bedroom and then one as storage or music room. There! I knew I'd be able to use them all. Wouldn't like all that cleaning though....! 😂

Maybe they fell in love with the house, its style and history, even the grounds and gardens.

My mother lives alone in an enormous house on six acres - the property has wonderful old trees, lots of wildlife, absolute privacy, and that's why she bought it.

It's a bit soulless, I think, to just buy a house because it fits by headcount.

I don’t think I would want nine bedrooms because it might encourage people to visit...

We have three (just me and husband) - our bedroom, the attic room which is a cinema/gaming room but with a daybed and trundle for guests, and the back bedroom which is a dressing room/office/craft room.

I could make use of a fourth but after that I’m not sure.

We do have a lot of downstairs space though, due to an extension.

I think I would need 12 bedrooms!
One for each of us. 4 kids 2 adults. Kids have a room each and me and DH a room each as sometimes.its nice to have your own space. Plus a room to share. A play room. An office and 2 guest rooms or maybe 3!

@LonginesPrime

I could easily use 9 bedrooms.

4 bedrooms for us, study, reading room, lego room, music practice room (soundproofed) and a guest bedroom.

That's assuming the office is downstairs as promised, OP!

Ha Ha, I thought we were the only ones with a lego room. Is it a thing?

1. Me and DH
2. Dd

3-4 Home offices for me and DH 5 homework room/study for dd 6 craft room 7 guest room.

I could fill 7 for 3 of us very easily. 9 isn’t much of a stretch because I can think of lots of uses.

Please describe to poor me that has spent most of my life in US the use and furnishings of all these studies?

If they can afford it good for them, perhaps they have plans for the future.

I‘ve been contemplating how best to use these nine bedrooms (because what else is there to think about in the middle of the night). We’re a family of five so a bedroom for the kids, a dressing room and bedroom set up for the adults. A craft room, a games room, a spare room, a room to store the crap in so it doesn’t get damp in the garage, and already I’m out of space.

@choli a study is essentially a home office, though usually smaller.

Frazzled13
Wed 02-Sep-20 18:40:28

They might not have wanted 9 bedrooms specifically, but surely once you get to a certain price range, the houses that have the features you do want (large kitchen, multiple rooms downstairs, big gardens etc) will all come with lots of bedrooms.

YY to this ^^

I don't think you can get anything smaller in Montecito, and maybe the nine bedrooms were incidental and the rest of the features of the property were the big draw. Long private drive off a private road, security gates, secluded location, view of the ocean, five acres, guest house, gardens/grounds that feel like home for Harry. Or it might be both the nine bedrooms and large number of bathrooms, nice for guests but also for nanny/cook/housekeeper/security if they are to live in, which would make sense for staff as none of those people could afford to live within several hours of the house otherwise.

Yes, my study is just a word for an office. In fact I call it my office, not study. (We bought a house with 4 separate downstairs rooms so I could work from home when we moved here in 1997)

A lot of old English houses with 9 bed rooms but one bathroom upstairs are converted into a smaller number of bed rooms but with an en suite bathroom to a few of them.

Maybe they want to open a B&B?

We added 2 more to our 4 bed when it was only DH and I. We have since had 1 child.

Came in very handy during lockdown. We have a room each (so can escape each other if we need to) and have the others set up as playroom, gym and office.

I could easily use 9 bedrooms

1 for me
2 for kids
1 walk in wardrobe/dressing room
1 for storage (all kitted out with cupboards and drawers).
Kids hangout/chill room
Gym
Office
Guest room

I have three and live alone . I think it's too many though.

@AnyOldPrion I live in London and 3-4 bedroom flats are so hard to find. That is my dream too. Having grown up in a 8 bedroom house (with 3 receptions and 8 bathrooms), I wouldn't want that for myself as the cleaning is just the tip of the iceberg. The maintenance/repairs is on a whole other level. When I was a child, we lived without air-conditioning for years despite being in a tropical country because the communal air conditioning system cost tens of thousands to repair and my dad was too stingy to pay. Would imagine it's similar for heating

When I was growing up I had a friend who not only had about 10 bedrooms but they also had 4 fully enclosed flats in one wing of the house.

@Glitteryone

I could easily use 9 bedrooms

1 for me
2 for kids
1 walk in wardrobe/dressing room
1 for storage (all kitted out with cupboards and drawers).
Kids hangout/chill room
Gym
Office
Guest room

But then if the house has nine bedrooms the chances are that there are several other rooms on the ground floor offering ample space for gyms, offices, playrooms etc.

I've been slightly addicted to Escape to the Country during lockdown. It is noticeable how often some retired couple proclaims they want to downsize, only to sneer at anything with less than five bedrooms, vast kitchens and reception areas, and an acre of land. It's just as well I'm not a presenter, I'd struggle not to ask how the hell that's downsizing. But I did cheer on the woman who, when presented with a house with a family bathroom and four en-suite bedrooms, said "Five toilets to clean? No thanks!"

Maintenance is a bigger issue than cleaning. The bits you don’t use don’t need cleaning as much and I find it’s easier to be tidy and organized when you have enough space. In the old house we had too much stuff so it used to pile up and cleaning meant moving stuff around.