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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To want my dds to sleep in the cellar, and is my friend B U to report me to SS

92 replies

elfinblast · 10/04/2009 02:03

OK, I have smallish 3 bedroom house. Me and DH have one bedroom, DD's 10 & 8 share a room and DS has the teeny tiny bedroom.

A few years back, and at not inconsiderable expense we had the cellar done up. It has proper plastered walls, carpets and cute ceiling lights. It is 2 rooms and the same size/shape as the upstairs hall/back/front rooms.

It is dry, has heating, electricity and is full of crap.

My plan is to clear the crap and either let the girls have a room each (but there are no doors and you have to walk through one to get to the other so one would have no privacy) or they share a "bedroom" and have the other room as a lounge/tv/toy room.

Told my friend (well more a foaf) of my plans and she seems to think I am some sort of monster who plans to keep them locked in the cellar, and as there are no windows (well, it is a cellar) it is cruel and she will contact the authorities.

DD's will still be allowed upstairs and to see daylight. I'm not creating a jail. We will NEED another room in erm...9 months or so

My friend(ish) is being totally unreasonable yes?

OP posts:
TheLadyEvenstar · 10/04/2009 02:05

elf i am in a place with a cellar and we are moving out BUT if we were staying we were going to do the cellar up for ds1 to have as a bedroom as there are 9 years between him an ds2...

tigerdroveoverthebunnies · 10/04/2009 02:09

your foaf is bonkers.

My v posh SIL has this arrangement for her DSs. They do have bedrooms too (v big house) but no light in any room, if you have nice lighting etc etc (I would have daylight lamps) then so what?

ChippingIn · 10/04/2009 02:12

elfin - your foaf is being unreasonable to report you and I can't see someone from the social dropping everything to knock your door...

However, I wouldn't do it myself as it is for a couple of reasons, they'd be a long way from you (I assume up the cellar stairs, then up the main stairs??), there aren't any windows (for fresh air) and there's no fire exit... but if I really needed to use the space for bedrooms I would put in a shaft window with a fire exit.

Original poster
elfinblast · 10/04/2009 02:20

I agree with foaf being bonkers.

Thing is if I do this she will phone SS. Several people she knows have had visits from SS as she has reported them for something. Trouble is she got her first report bang on and so they tend to take notice of her.

OP posts:
tigerdroveoverthebunnies · 10/04/2009 02:31

Well it's just B~**ks isn't it. They all have perfectly proper sleeping arrangements. The girls would like more space. You are going to let them have a playroom. If one of them chooses to sleep down there then so what beak out nosey "friend". What could SS say?

Ditch the friend pronto.

BTW, when I was a lass, I had to walk thru my parents' bedroom > to get downstairs, so I could get out to the outside bog. Kid you not. And we were quite posh. what would SS have said?

nooka · 10/04/2009 02:47

What's a foaf???

I'm not sure that rooms with no natural light at all are ideal, but it doesn't sound as if you have much choice. Could you put in one of those light tunnel things maybe? A daylight light panel is another idea. I work in a space with no natural light and it is depressing.

tigerdroveoverthebunnies · 10/04/2009 02:52

According to my deductions it's a friend of a friend. Those really useful people I don't think.

No natural light isn't good really but kids don't see it that way. If they have a playroom which isn't natural light and a bedroom which is and they sort out whose sleeping where (and at that age they can swap), then so what. And for 6 months of the year it makes no diff - dark all the time.

ninedragons · 10/04/2009 02:56

Did you have your cellar checked for radon when you renovated it? I thought you weren't supposed to sleep in an underground room unless it had been specially prepared with radon sumps and so on.

ChippingIn · 10/04/2009 02:57

tiger - both the rooms are in the basement, so neither has natural light....

For me, it would be not having a fire exit, that would really bother me, but this could be fixed.

tigerdroveoverthebunnies · 10/04/2009 02:59

ninedragons are you a panicker? AFAIK (which isn't v far I am happy to admit) unless you are in the Dumnonian penisula (or most of Cornwall in plain English) the Radon threat is minimal.

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 10/04/2009 03:00

What sort of ventilation is there? And on the light thing, could you install a light tunnel or two? Failing that, there are natural daylight lamps. Sounds like it's wasted space atm, and space you need.

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 10/04/2009 03:03

Radon is an issue in the far NE of Scotland too, including Aberdeen. Friends in Sutherland had to install radon-sheilding when renovating a house.

ninedragons · 10/04/2009 03:33

No, I'm not a panicker. If I were considering converting my cellar into living space, I'd just rather have it checked by professionals with the equipment and the geological expertise to tell me it was fine, rather than take the word of some unqualified stranger on the internet.

SofiaAmes · 10/04/2009 03:40

I would be concerned about there not being a fire exit.

tigerdroveoverthebunnies · 10/04/2009 03:42

OK 9drgs. Can see your point .

Night night.

Nancy66 · 10/04/2009 08:51

The friend is an interfering old hag - it's not like you are chaining them up and throwing dry bread down to them.

BUT I'm not sure about the legalities of using it as a sleeping arrangement if there are no windows.

I'm sure the law requires windows in living areas for fire and escape purposes.

TotalChaos · 10/04/2009 08:59

why don't you and DH sleep in the cellar, and let the girls share your current room?

Gorionine · 10/04/2009 09:03

My only concern is the absence of windows, it would make me feel very trapped myself. As Nancy66 said, I would check legal aspect (I am thinking fire exit, not child abuse BTW). If all is ok and everybody is happy wth it, why not?

LibrasJusticeLeagueofBiscuits · 10/04/2009 09:09

Even tho it's the cellar is there absolutely no way to create a fire exit? Seeing as there is so much red tape surrounding a loft conversion and fire exits etc I would be reluctant to put anyone to sleep down there for safety reasons without an additional exit.

I do think your FOAF is an interfering old busybody however.

MrsMcCluskey · 10/04/2009 09:10

I would have concerns about fire exits too.
My nieces sleep in the converted attic in their house and that makes me nervous if there was a fire too as so high up.
But that is just one of MY nueroses!

LibrasJusticeLeagueofBiscuits · 10/04/2009 09:12

MrsMcCluskey if it is a coverted attic recently they will have had to adher to all sorts of fire regulations (such as a fire door at the top of the stairs) to get plannign sign off.

JackBauerKilledTheEasterBunny · 10/04/2009 09:28

YANBU. When we moved to a small 3 bedroom house when there was myself, my brother and 1 of my sisters (and my parents) my mum did up the cellar, addeda bathroom (with shower and loo), a light tunnel and had my sister in one room with the light tunnel and then the opther room was a playroom.
We used to spend all of our time down there!

saggyhairyarse · 10/04/2009 10:12

Can you put a sun tunnel or whatever they are called to get some natural light in?

ruddynorah · 10/04/2009 10:19

can you somehow dig out on one side, ie in the back garden to make a window or an exit door. my old house had a set up like that. only used the cellar as a utility room but it had its own door and a window.

ilovemydogandMrObama · 10/04/2009 10:19

well, tell your foaf to report me too as DS sleeps in the attic! Actually, it's a snazzy loft conversion and easily the best room in the house....

Could always get a sun lamp for your dungeon

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