A 5 bed house but 2 downstairs.. with young children?

[Floorplanhelpp]

We’re currently looking at buying a house that ticks most of our boxes (we have a healthy budget but in an expensive area where we are unlikely to get anything that meets all requirements). However, there are two downstairs bedrooms (and bathroom). Upstairs has three large doubles and two bathrooms.

We have 3 children under 5. We are thinking of having the master plus two bedrooms for the children upstairs (two can share), and once they get bigger, we’ll move the master downstairs and they can share upstairs.

Would this bother you? We’re not sure if it’ll make the house hard to resell incase people view it as a 3 bed rather than a 5 (and it’s just over £1m, so it would be seen as a 5 if reselling rather than a 3!).

YABU - it wouldn’t bother me
YANBU - it would bother me

Snap. My youngest is on a different floor from all other bedrooms. I've never considered it a problem. I've never lived in a house where we were all on the one floor. This thread has made me think. Am I odd?!

I honestly see downstairs rooms as reception rooms, so I'd consider it a three-bed. But what's the layout? Is it over three floors? If the bedrooms are on the second floor I would consider them bedrooms - it's ground floor rooms I wouldn't consider bedrooms, I'd consider them a second reception room or a dining room etc

If the house was otherwise perfect I'd use the 3 bedrooms as yours plus two between the three of them for now, then when they're older and able to be on a floor by themselves I'd move downstairs and let them have a bedroom each upstairs.
We had our two boys in what is now the spare room until they were old enough to move up to the second floor and I'm glad we did as they're pretty noisy when they're teenagers, DS18 chats his girlfriend on the phone late at night and both of them like to shout at times when they're gaming!

Our house is as you have described. We now have the older 2 boys downstairs, been there from age 12 and 9, and our 8 year old is upstairs along with us. It works for us and the older 2 have never complained. We put both downstairs at the same time as didn't want 1 downstairs on their own. We have a kitchen,lounge diner and a separate lounge area but we live in the family area. The set up works for us.

I agree

I would be happy with this set up.

I’m house hunting for just me and DD and ruling out housed where our bedrooms are on separate floors as she is a complete scaredy cat and would hate it at the moment. But as long as I could be on the same floor now and not separate until much older I think it’s a huge positive to have a downstairs bedroom or two where there’s plenty of living space too.

Blimey, I'd never sleep with sn 'almost 3 year old' so a 2 year old. 2 floors away & on the ground floor.

Was thinking exactly that! I love a downstairs bedroom. I wish I had one in my current home, it would be very handy for guests.

We have a three storey townhouse. Not to be a harbinger of doom, but I look back and wished the bedrooms were all on the same level as DS1 (now a young adult) has terrible MH and drug issues and I often torment myself that I’d have been more present on the same level as him.
Apart from little child safety issues, the teenage years are the ones where you might want to be nearer.

We bought our 6 bed farmhouse with 3 upstairs bedrooms and 3 downstairs (plus separate playroom, sitting room, and kitchen dining living room) when our children were 4 and 6. They chose to share a bedroom upstairs and we needed to have a downstairs bedroom when we moved in as I was quite poorly and couldn’t be trusted on the stairs at the time. The upstairs rooms are at the opposite end of the house to the downstairs bedrooms, but it worked absolutely fine. To be fair they aren’t (or weren’t) ones for getting up much in the night, and we just said to them if they did ever need to come and get us they could just bump down the stairs on their bottoms. They are 12 and 14 now and have a bedroom each upstairs and we just ended up sticking with our bedroom downstairs. Sometimes if the kids are ill they’ll decide to sleep in a downstairs bedroom to be nearer to us.

It didn’t put us off buying at all, but the house was on the market for 2 years before we bought it. It is worth about £1m and is very rural so I’m not sure it was the bedroom layout that made it slow to sell.

When I read the title I thought no but the set up you have viewed sounds perfect but I would give them their own rooms by Y7 (11/12 years old).

It’s fine. I grew up in a house like this - bungalow with dormer bedrooms added into the roof space. My parents slept on the ground floor in the master bedroom and my db and I were upstairs. It was a bugger when we were teenagers, creeping in after a late night because we had to pass their door (always ajar) to get to the stairs, and there’d always be a ‘what time do you call this?’ wafting through the darkness, no matter how we tiptoed. 😆

In my own home, we sleep on the third floor and the dc are below us on the second. We moved up there when they were middle primary sort of age, and it’s been completely fine. It did cut down on the early morning sneaking in for cuddles though, as they couldn’t be arsed with the stairs - this was a good thing, but I also missed it!

I was in a similar situation. Three kids, two shared until they were a bit older then eldest moved downstairs around the age of 6. No problems at all

Sounds completely fine to me. Our kids are 7 and 3, we house hunted 18 months ago and discounted anything where the kids would have a separate staircase or be upstairs if we were downstairs. We ended up not moving as DH changed job and have just started looking again now and I'm genuinely astounded by how much that requirement has changed already. I'd still want the 3 year old on the same floor as us, but the 7 year old would be delighted to have her own floor already. 😂

Don’t know where you’re getting your information from but it’s wrong. 20 years in the fire service tells me that. Also statistically most house fires start in the kitchen so unless yours is in the roof space….

Ours is a 5 bed converted bungalow. 2 bedrooms downstairs and 3 upstairs. We also have downstairs a study kitchen dining room and two living rooms. If all rooms downstairs were reception rooms that would be ridiculous!

Our house is like this, we have a bedroom and bathroom downstairs, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms 1 floor up and then another 2 bedrooms and a bathroom on the top/third floor. It definitely did make it less valuable than a "normal" 5 bed and as a result we could afford it! However, it actually works really well now we have older kids, to be on separate floors, and I love putting guests downstairs with their own bathroom because it keeps upstairs private.
Ultimately, unconventionaly layouts do make a house a bit less valuable and a bit harder to sell, but that'll be factored in when you buy it, as well as when you sell it - you can probably afford it because of this, and its probably not been snapped up because of it. It will fit for someone so it will sell (especially as it sounds like a desirable location). Also, if you love it and it works well for you, you can keep it for a long while.

I watch this US show about two brothers renovating houses for people. It is a massive selling point to have the primary bedroom as they call it on the ground floor or the first floor as they call it and have the children upstairs, people are looking at these fab houses and rejecting them because the parents bedroom would be on the same floor as the children so just thought I’d add that

Sounds great longer term. We are currently considering a loft conversion as we prefer not to be on the same floor as the kids as they get older. I’d prefer not to have to bump into future dd’s boyfriend on the landing in his pants on the way to the loo if I can avoid it. Plus, the noises of teenagers….

I would regard this set up as a bonus, giving you greater flexibility and choice over the years with a growing family. In my opinion this can work well over two floors but not three - I am not a fan of town houses, having lived in one. I've also had a house with downstairs bathroom and bedroom, along with a large kitchen / dining / living room and separate sitting room. The sense of space and size of rooms are important in that set up.

To some extent, as it's a conversion, you have also to consider the overall impression of the house to a viewer and whether it looks like a good quality, balanced and cohesive vs unconvincing conversion. That includes the exterior view - its setting and whether it looks right and sits well in the outside space. Some conversions can make a house seem just not quite right. Without seeing it, we cannot form a view on that.

The other important thing to consider is the purchase price. You'll need to carefully research and weigh up that, gauging local market conditions, level of interest and competition etc to ensure that you do not pay high, as that is what could make you lose out in future if you come to sell.

We decided not to buy the house in the end as we decided it was too many compromises (more to do with the size of downstairs as opposed to the bedrooms being on the ground floor!) and ultimately overpriced. So here’s the property! It has been reduced in price.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/173037644

Nope, we have this set up. Have 5 DC so 6 bedrooms. One is downstairs. It was sold as a ‘games room’ but like, we don’t need a games room. It could also be an extra TV room or something but makes more sense to be a bedroom. It’s eldest DC’s but I should say he was 10 when we moved here so that’s different to under 5’s. You’d keep them upstairs until older though anyway so I say go for it!

It's not that far away. Only a few steps between each floor. So the 12 year old and 3 year old (now) are only a couple of metres away. And her room isn't anywhere near the kitchen. It's a a big house. But it's never occurred to me until I read this. I was on the ground floor growing up with everyone else upstairs so that's probably why.

Good luck with your search OP

I like the option of having multi purpose rooms
My house has one downstairs bedroom with en-suite
When DC were young we had it as a playroom
DS now has it as gives him more privacy
When he moves out - I will probably use it as a study/craft room
I’m not planning on moving so if as I age I can’t manage the stairs it will be perfect!