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 :)

My ds didn’t need planning permission to convert his garage but he did need building regulations.
It was a very simple conversion though.

I know its crazy now that there seems to be the trend for a bathroom for every bedroom. It really isn't needed. If you were to take the floor space that each bathroom takes up in some of these new builds you could easily have a whole room to use as a home office, bedroom, separate lounge, dining room. So much importance seems to be given to a room that most people will spend the least amount of time in

It’s small compared to older houses but a small garden office wouldn’t take up all the play space, as people have extended a bit to the back too (too costly imo)

What a silly comment, it’s not a big 4 bed at all but it’s a bit daft to call it ‘a very small house’

The house is about 400k atm, to get a 5 bed it’s about 550k which with things as they are is outside my comfort zone rn, it’s affordable but it would be an expensive mortgage.

we also have older parents to think about then we are talking 700k for houses with an annex and dm would need to sell her house and use the equity she’s not at the point of doing that yet, so it’s about bridging the gap

Yeah OP... why don't you just buy something bigger....?

(Hopefully the sarcasm doesn't need pointing out, but just in case)

Sorry if I am repeating what other people have said, OP, but I would convert the garage into a guest room/home office. Then I would get a good joiner and get them to build in as much storage as possible, using every inch of space possible, like building drawers into stairs for shoes etc, multi purpose furniture. We did this in our first place, a tiny two up, two down terraced house that had been extended to include a kitchen diner and a small shower room and it was amazing how much space it gave us. There are loads of fantastic ideas online for small spaces, like studio apartments, that a good joiner could copy. Ikea hacks is another good site. I have loads of books and our joiner built in bookcases under our stairs that had a hidden door that opened up so we could access the cupboard underneath it for the hoover. He put little rods in that braced the books and stopped them falling off the shelves when the door was opened. If the garden is big enough for a small garden office, I would put one out there when the kids are much older and can play unsupervised and make it child heaven - it's kid junk in your living space that really gets you down, imo. That house is NOT too small, you just need to be a bit creative when you don't have acres of space, as very few people do.

Moving costs a lot now with stamp duty, solicitors,, estate agents. Cost us 20k eight years ago. That's dead money.

I was just about to add this into my post! Think of all the improvements you could make with £20k and you wouldn't have the stress of moving.

Exactly, so if we move it needs to be a house that fits long term plans and let’s be honest it’s such a fucking pain in the arse

I'd definitely use the biggest room for two kids to share. I have two kids, 2 years apart. They have a bunk bed with underbed storage, plus loads of toy storage all in their bedroom and still lots of floor space. We have a three bed but didn't want one in the loft bedroom until they were older. They love sharing and would continue to for years... especially as we are now having a 3rd child so will need to use the spare bedroom when baby gets bigger.
We do plan to move in a few years. But in the meantime we like our house and it's easy enough to fit 3 small (ish) kids in it. Oh and we only have 1 bathroom 😱. That is less than ideal, particularly as they both seem to need it at the same time every evening. But again....we manage just fine. We'd rather wait and do one move to our forever home then move multiple times and climb the ladder slowly.

The magic money tree has not yielded a fruitful crop this year 🥲

I'd stick with 2 kids rather than cram a 3rd into a small house.

You must live in a mansion then

@Coconutsandpalmtree working from home, are you likely to get mega pay rises, how's the promotion tree in your place of work and your partners for that matter. Because one of you will need to pull a rabbit out of the hat to move to a larger property as your baby, small children, morph into tweens and teenagers.

You haven't said what ages your DC are now.
Once they are at school, you will have the run of the house to WFH except for an hour or 2 at the end of the day.
Or, if you are both working, they will be in childcare anyway
so again you can work anywhere in the house.

If you/DH are on maternity leave/paternity leave, only one needs a WFH space and that could be upstairs in a bedroom, so the other parent and DC can go about their day as usual.

Is there a scenario I've missed whereby all 3 DC are at home and both parents WFH, other than at the end of the afternoon?

Sorry, my mistake 🙂

Meant to add, I WFH as do many of my colleagues and plenty work in their DC's room.

What’s the total sqf or sqm? The plan you’ve uploaded makes it hard for people to understand the space, especially as they’ve drafted furniture into the only positions it will fit. The bedrooms are small and inflexible - only one is a proper sized room. Apparently the garden is tiddly too. Are you hoping someone will say ‘amazing house go for it’? Sigh.

Do you have room for a shed in the garden? We converted a small 8x10 ft shed into an office (much cheaper than buying a purpose built garden office), got the windows changed to double glazing, insulated and cladded the inside and got electric run to it. It’s worked really well for wfh and given a bit of extra room.

The kitchen is a kitchen/dining, it's plenty big enough for five!

Exactly, you don't require a purpose built space, just a quiet corner.

It does piss me off that employers and I know a few have dumped leases on offices or reduced space to save money but the WFH employee hasn't seen a bean of this cost saving exercise.

If the garage is a double then there is loads of space to convert and keep storage, maybe even a shower room and use it as guest/office or let the eldest use it. Even a single garage would be big enough for a room and en-suite. You would just have to be ruthless with "stuff" keep a tiny shed for garden equipment. Not many people put their car in the garage so I don't think you will be devaluing the house.

Literally no one said the garden is tiddly that’s just you.

only one a proper size? I don’t get that.

two are single rooms not box rooms but singles. Single bed, wardrobe, desk and chest of drawers size.
2 are double, double bed, bedside tables, wardrobes and draws.

no, but I just don’t understand the whole it’s a tiny box of a house shithole style comments. It’s not a palace and it’s not a big 4 bed, it’s a small 4 bed, but it’s still a 4 bed. The garden is the size of the house at the back. The rough size of the rooms is on the side

Mega pay rises, unlikely, but then no one really does. We’d move around. Both top end of middle management id say but in fruitful sectors (finance)