Where does the third kid go?

[Dreamingofthree]

I have 2 and I’d love another but here’s the issue, space.

on the surface of the matter would seem fine as we have a 4 bed house but we need one of the rooms as an office as our jobs are predominantly wfh.

bedrooms are 2 doubles and 2 singles atm the kids have the singles, we have one double and the other is an office/ spare. But say we had 3 what would we do then? I’d look to get pregnant this time next year and mortgages as are they are moving and upsizing isn’t viable right now, neither is additional borrowing for an extension, maybe a conservatory that we could use as an office but still not until rates calm down.

current dcs are girl then boy. We’d keep baby in with us until about 9 months and then we find they sleep better in their own space.

would you put the boy and girl together for a time in the double room and then have the baby alone til they sleep better and then move them in with a sibling of the same sex til we can get a conservatory built? Seems a lot of moving about for a child, and would a girl who’s 7 want to share with a 2 year old (if the baby was a girl)

anyone done a summer house office?

i know it’s a bit cart before the horse but I like to think things through

Assuming you don’t have in home childcare then do you need a dedicated office? I have a corner of our living room. Not ideal but kids are mostly at nursery / school…

I have three. Currently in a 3bed. My boy/girl share a bunk bed and baby is in her own room in a cot. Boy is 5 girl is 7. Two girls will share when baby is 3 and ready to go on the bottom bunk so will be 9&3. Boy will get his own room. Although we will be looking to move but as you said with interests rates as they are sharing seems likely. I might look at one of those room divider beds if we really can't move. We also have a playroom which I intend to turn into a chill out teenage room once my oldest needs her own space and a later bedtime.

Whilst on mat leave I’d be at home with the baby and the kids would be back from school at 3:30, all our downstairs is open plan. It’s not really ideal, esp for the hols when we split it with our AL

Garden office?

do you have an extra room downstairs? Ours is all open plan, so nowhere to hide lol

Like a sort of summer house? I was wondering about that, but then I wondered how secure they might be? We’ve got a new build so the garden isn’t particularly large but we could make it work I suppose

Loft conversion

I have a similar situation to you. We have a master bedroom, boy(9) has a double room, girl (7) has a single and the 4th room which is a single is my dressing room- which became my wfh room Iv now had to give up that room to make way for baby (she will move into there when older). We have an office room downstairs but my husband works from there which we might be able to fit both of us once I go back to work.

To put both girls in one room I'd have to move my son to a smaller room which I really don't think he would be happy about.

Do you have any space elsewhere downstairs that u can use for a desk and chair etc, or in ur own bedroom?

We have a 3 bed semi with 2 doubles and a box. 3 kids.

Box room was office, we got a garden office and baby is in there. Older 2 share one of the doubles.

We are doing a massive extension - box room child into current master, one kid stay in other double they’re currently sharing with sibling, third sibling (most competent and best sleeper) is going down into the current dining/playroom!! And will end up spreading into the adjoining conservatory I’m sure. Going to be so cool. Never use the playroom as they just bring everything into the living room.

Think laterally and see if that’s an option for you, you’re already ahead of us as you have 4 beds to start with.

The office/spare room becomes the office/nursery and then the office/3rd child's bedroom.

At some point before child three is a pre-teen and needs their room during the day you either divide that room into two to make an office and a bedroom or you extend/move/loft conversion/garden office etc. But that's at least 8 years down the line.

Or you move the office space into your bedroom.

We have 4 DC , 4 beds upstairs and made the dining room the 5th bedroom so DC have bedroom each. Both me and DH WFH full time . I use my dressing table as a desk and work from our bedroom DH works in lounge. Not ideal , would love a spare bedroom or an office but we manage.
When DC were younger the youngest 2 shared a double bedroom. Its a compromise but its fine x

I'd get a garden office. Or maybe partition off the second double so that there's a small office you walk through to get to the third single bedroom.

That way they each have their own room as they are all at different stages. You get a small office space inside the home for one of you and the other can work from a desk in the living room or at the kitchen table.

You have so many options

*put office in bedroom with room divider
*get summer house
*get children to share double
*make corner of living room/dining room office space with room divider.

You have a 4 bed! You have so many options have that 3rd child if you want it x

Garden office here ! Works really well. Also helps separate work and home.

Btw My husband uses dining room, car, bedroom as office when he's wfh we live in a tiny 3 bed the smallest room is like a cupboard and we have 3 children one soon to be an adult. It's cramped but we are happy and there's more to life then stressing about making everything perfect.

My dressing table doubles as my office as I've 4 kids at home. I blurr the background to hide the rest of my bedroom!

We have a 4 bed and my husband works from home in our bedroom using a fold out desk. He just folds it away at the end of the day and it doesn’t take up much space. The kids all have their own rooms. Older 2 are both boys so could share but my husband is happy to work from our room so this works fine for us.

just switch the bedrooms around:
double - you
double - 2 older kids then 2 same sex kids
single - baby then different sex child (or eldest, or most different in age, or whatever)
single - office.
It is pretty indulgent to have a double as an office. Perfectly possible to have a great office in even a box room. You just need it to be sensibly designed.

After 2 years working in a corner of the living room (me) and bedroom (dh), we got a Skycube garden office a year ago. It was craned over the fence, and is completely "plug n play".it's amazing, and, like you, means we've plenty of room inside the house without having to move.

It would be me and DH that would need desk space, our bedroom just isn’t big enough for it either

we had the office in the box room before dc 2 came along and the second bedroom was the spare, we then bunged all the office stuff in the spare room and got a day bed and now it’s a sore cum office

I would have loved a third too, but house snd finances didn't permit so we stopped at 2.

Assuming you don't get twins, you will have three, which means you will have two of one sex and one of the other (anything else is physically impossible at this point).

After the first 6-12 months (of cot in your room) I'd put the 2 of the same sex in the big room, the third child in the small room, move the office to the second small room and keep the second big room for mum and dad. I think sharing is nice for littler kids as it stops them being scared of the dark.

When the kids got older and were ready to have their own rooms each, then is time to look at a summer house/garden office. Not sure why security would be an issue; you take your laptop back in the house at the end of the day, surely??

The other thing I'd think about is using your second living room (assuming you have a proper 4 bed with the downstairs floor space to match the upstairs space for 4 beds/2 baths).

There's a family with 11 kids who manage in a 4 bedroom house. They're often spotted with the Radford family.

Do you have a garage? A couple of neighbours converted their integral garage to an extra room and one converted half to an office and left half for garden equipment.