To think this house IS big enough

[Coconutsandpalmtree]

For 3 kids and wfh (needing an office)

im not sure it is, but surely it should be and I’m missing a trick as to how we can make it work, DH and I have decided we’d like another child.

it’s a new house (6yrs now) so I took a pic of the floor plan from the developers. It’s pretty generic but it’s tight on space.

the front double is our bedroom, built in wardrobe and the space by the ensuite is a chest of drawers that we really need.

the smaller back ‘double’ (on floor plan) is more a single tbh, but that’s my eldests room. Front single youngest. Other double is a guest room/ office.

we really need an office for wfh. There’s no place for stud walls due to the windows.

we do have a garage though and a classic new build garden aka small.

what do you think? Can another kid fit here?

yabu- no way
yanbu- yes with some outside the box thinking that I’ll share :)

Wtf are people on? Do they realise there are plenty of families with 4 kids in a 3 bed house? Some, God forbid, have even more than that.
How anyone can say a 4 bed house is small for 3 people is beyond me? Do they genuinely think everyone has 2 spare rooms and a house is too small if you don’t?
Although two of the rooms are singles, they’re both much bigger than the room I had for my entire childhood and I coped and am not too emotionally scarred as a result

If it's any consolation we are planning on having TWO children in a tiny 65sqm two-bed flat, at least for the first few years. Obviously it's tantamount to abuse but what can you do

This. One of my neighbours has just had a lovely lean-to added to the back of their house. No planning permission required, fully insulated, and was erected in just one day. It's basically a garden office, but is attached to the house.

Is there a reason you can't convert the loft other than damp possibility? That could be sorted in the conversion and cheaper than moving house.

@BooneyBeautiful Like this?
looks great! I’d never heard of them before.

I’m not sure, the developer said on completion that you can’t extend upward, it’s to do with the build

This thread is nuts. The house is about as big as mine, ok I only have 2 kids (and a dog) but they are large teenagers and we gave masses of space. Both DH and I wfh and we often have DH’s mum to stay for weeks at a time. Some people must have serious amounts of shit to store.

Only on Mumsnet would a 4 bedroom house not be big enough for 3 children. 🥴

I don't think @EatTheGnome meant inherit, I think they meant benefit from living a comfortable life without being squashed and overcrowded.

I think they meant benefit from living a comfortable life without being squashed and overcrowded.

Yes and that is the nasty bit - its not remotely squashed or overcrowded and to suggest her family are living an uncomfortable life is rude and offensive. Not just to OP but to the many many families who don't live in massive houses but have perfectly comfy, happy and thriving family homes.

Agreed.

This thread is weird. The majority of people must live in smaller houses than this.

I grew up in a house so big that as a little girl I was really excited to see what a "normal sized" house was like inside, and even I can see that there is plenty of space for 3 children in this house and that the horrified comments are utterly bizarre. Plenty of people live and have lovely happy lives in houses much smaller than that

I think you might have hit the nail on the head, excessive consumerism meaning people feel they need heaps of storage. We live next door to a family with a very large house but they buy so much stuff that twice a year they fill a skip with brand new looking toys and equipment. And then the deliveries for more new stuff begin! And they have replaced their kitchen twice in the 6 years we have lived here! According to DD the mum has an Instagram account all about the house

Its hard to keep trying to do my bit for the planet when your neighbours are just pissing it away (vast AstroTurf lawn included)

OP has already said the house is tight on space, and wants to add another child. Once the children get bigger, it will feel even tighter. I'm aware that people (including us) have lived in far smaller, but the whole point of the OP was that space is tight can we fit more people and stuff in, and people are giving their opinion because they were asked.

OP has already said the house is tight on space, and they are thinking about another child, which won't make the space feel any bigger. How nice that you grew up in a "big" house; I grew up in a run-down council house - would that have been "normal" enough for you to visit to see how the "normal sized house" people live?

The house would be big enough for three children if one of the bedrooms wasn't an office. It's probably big enough for two children to share the bigger bedroom, depending on age, but whether they want to is another matter. OP asked for opinions, and people are giving opinions. How strange to think that's weird, when it's literally the point...

Can you put the older two in the office then use the smaller bedroom for a baby and the small double as an office/ guest room? I would get a pull out sofa for guests. You can’t plan your life around the occasion guest coming and a guest room is a luxury a lot of people don’t have these days

We had storage built into the eves of our attic for extra storage we can slide the big plastic storage box’s onto shelves and it has doubled our storage and no mould we put the little silicone things in each one it’s been fine.

There is nothing squashed or overcrowded about OPs home even is she does have another child

My boss had one and his was about 28k it’s beautiful though and cheaper than moving I expect

Cupboard in sitting room would probably make a small office space. Or move your youngest into the second double with new addition when the time comes and use the boxroom as an office. I wouldn't use anything that small as a bedroom. Invest in some bunk beds. If you end up with a gender clash then you might have to swap them around later on.

But you are currently worrying about something that a) may not happen and b) if it does the baby will be nine months in the making followed by about six months in yours at least.

@Coconutsandpalmtree sorry you've had such a strange response on this thread.

I have three teenagers and live in a small 4 bedroom house. Like you we have two doubles and two singles, we decided that my kids would have a room each, so we don't have a guest room and I wfh on a fold out desk in the living room. Guests stay in our room and we have an inflatable bed we use downstairs. We did extend downstairs so we have an extra living space, this is also quite small but it's useful so we are not all on top of each other all of the time.

Housing is so expensive these days, we have made the intentional decisions not to move and spend some of the cost of upsizing (with all the associated costs like stamp duty, legal fees, moving costs etc) on the small extension. A conservatory would be another option if you have some space for it outside.

Our choice was based on wanting to live comfortably - having holidays, not worrying if something breaks down etc rather than stretching ourselves to have a bigger house. I do sometimes wish we had more space, but I always come back to thinking that we have a nice life that we couldn't necessarily have if we had a bigger house, and this house is completely fine!!

Definitely not. Move or shelf the new baby idea. They won’t always be a baby, one day they’ll be a teen with tons of their own stuff and they may well want their own space.

I've compared it to my own house, I have 3DC and DH works from home. The only way I can see this working once you have a third child is a garden office (I suspect the garden isn't massive though).

I don't think needing storage is just about consumerism. Children come with hobbies. Just finding somewhere sensible for the bloody cricket bag is something I've never mastered. A family of 5 = 5 bikes. You've got to keep the hoover and ironing board somewhere.

If you're a teen and live in a house without much space, you learn to live without much "stuff"

HTH

Children come with hobbies. Just finding somewhere sensible for the bloody cricket bag is something I've never mastered. A family of 5 = 5 bikes. You've got to keep the hoover and ironing board somewhere.

They have a garage. And probably don't plan on keeping 5 bikes in the house!

What so reduce the amount of stuff her existing children can have because she wants another baby? Sounds a great idea.