Buying a townhouse with small DC - good idea??

[lovechoc]

Hi there

We are considering buying a townhouse as it ticks many of the boxes but MIL brought up the issue of safety (as there's two stair cases in the house) and I hadn't actually thought of that. I have a 3.6yo and a 3.6mo. Would it become an issue later on?

Does anyone else have a townhouse with very young DC and has it ever been an issue?

TIA

We bought a two-bedroom townhouse when we were just a couple. DS1 (now 2.8) and DS2 (now almost a year old) were both born here. I love the space being in a townhouse creates. DS1 in downstairs bedroom so hardly bothered by DS2's crying (who is upstairs with us). Took a while for DS1 to work out how to come down the stairs safely (he used to just lunge head-first!). DS2 clocked it straightaway and amazed us by coming down the stairs the right way from day 1. They both have had a few falls down the stairs but they are carpeted and haven't done them much harm. You know what? Kids adjust very quickly to their environment... You will have to keep your eye on them for a while but it will be fine!

my mother has one. it drives me up the wall having to run up and down stairs when i am staying with them. so that would be my bug bear. but i cant see that they would be any less safe than a house with one set of stairs.

you have to be organised,i have nappies and wipes on every floor.no one is allowed up or down empty handed.i do come downstairs loaded up everyday as i hate running to top floor in the morning.
dds have fallen down a couple of times whilst crawling but otherwise no safety issues at all,have stair gates as dd2,20months likes to every bolt upstairs at
every opportunity.
mine are both expert climbers now.

DP and I bought our 3-storey townhouse 5 years ago prior to having children. We now have a 4yo and a 22mo and the stairs cause no problems. DD1 fell a couple of times - I remember the first time as I watched her do a complete somersault in the air! She cried and was fine!. DD2 has never fallen down stairs and we have never had a stair gate at the bottom of the top stair case since before DD2 was born as DP fell on it and pulled it off the wall!

We love the space! The loft is converted but we still access it with a loft ladder - which we have to put away when we are not around as both DDs can climb up and down easily but I worry about them falling down the hole - they never have!

I chose this house. DP would love a more 'traditional' house but he has never complained about the stairs. We figure we can stay here for ever if we choose as the house has so much space for us all. DDs share a room on the top floor - then they also have a playroom up there. The idea is that they can have that floor to themselves when they are bigger! We have our room on the middle floor along with the smaller bedroom/office and the family bathroom. We put in a downstairs loo which has been useful but we don't actually use it that often and DD1 tends to run up (or down) to the main bathroom most of the time.

Just don't buy one with the living room on the first floor. Ours was great pre-children but a pita afterwards. We moved when dd was 12m because of this.

love our town house - kitchen on ground floor, living room and one bed + ensuite on middle, beds and bathroom on top.

AFter all, small children grow up fast! Stair gates would be necessary in all homes (prob even a bungalow to keep them out of places).

The space is huge compared to what we'd get in a conventional layout.

Have lived here all dc3's life, and she's never fallen down stairs. dc2 was 18 months and we didn't bother with a gate.

a friend has one with a 3 year old daugther. when she was a baby particularly, it drove her bonkers and she was up and down stairs constantly. i wouldnt like it as you might be on a different floor to the kids alot.

We had town house but moved when ds was 2 as it was such a pain keeping going up and down all day. Bought bungalow so gone from one extreme to another!

Yes I have one. We have 4 stair gates which are not an issue. It keeps you fit and as the other poster said, we have nappies and wipes on 2 floors. It is a bit of a pain if you are on the ground floor and want something on the top floor but no safety issues. DD is 11 months. Carrying things from floor to floor is difficult (like the washing basket) as you can't carry DD and the washing so you have to kind of do it in relay. We always have a pile of coffee mugs on the banister waiting to go down to the kitchen.

thanks for everyone's input here :)

It seems most are not keen on them. We don't seem to have a great deal of choice at the moment as we can't get as much house any other way at such a reasonable price. You get a lot for your money with a townhouse that you can't get with a conventional type of house.

That's reassuring supergreenuk about the fact you have no safety issues. I suppose children just adapt to the environment and you just have to be cautious as usual when they are starting to explore.

"Carrying things from floor to floor is difficult (like the washing basket) as you can't carry DD and the washing so you have to kind of do it in relay. We always have a pile of coffee mugs on the banister waiting to go down to the kitchen."

And that's something I've been thinking about the past couple of days actually, how am I to juggle carrying a washing basket from top floor all the way down to ground floor to the kitchen with two DC. I suppose it would just have to be done in relay!

If you search my username and thread title including "townhouse" you'll find a good thread I started with lots of opinions about townhouses with small DCs when we were considering buying one - I think opinions were about 50/50 split pro and against!

I have a 3 bed 3 storey townhouse. Moved here when DD was 3y. I love it. The stairs don't bother me in the slightest.

All our bedrooms are on the same loor - top floor.

Middle floor is the living room and kitchen.

Downstairs is the garage, a toilet, utility and then a "garden room" which we currently use as a dinign room.

Now DD is older and the way we live has changed a bit as a result, we are looking at extending and moving bits of ours around. We intend knocking through the dining room and utility, extending out a bit and creating a kitchen/living space, with the utility at the back of the garage - will put a temp wall up. And then the current kitchen will become DD's playroom, so the small room can be a permanent guest room.

I live in a 30s semi with a loft conversion, so also spread over three floors. The running up and down stairs is a pain, and the living room does feel a long way from the kids' bedrooms when they're asleep.

But we are here for the long haul, and I reckon the disadvantages with this layout when you have small children will be balanced by the huge advantages later. In particular, being able to have teenagers playing their music two floors up, and not through an adjoining wall to our bedroom

It really depends on the layout. Our townhouse had 2 bedrooms on the top floor, living room, bathroom and smallest bedroom on middle floor and kitchen, garage and cloakroom on the ground floor.

We moved in with children of 11, 10, 8 & 6 and had no problems. Neighbours moved in with no children and without exception moved out before the child was 2 (3 couples).

When we then had another baby we found it a PITA. DD2 was basically confined to the middle floor (gates top and bottom of each flight), and if she wanted to go in the garden somebody would have to go down with her (and sit in the kitchen). I think it would have worked had we had another room on the ground floor, or the kitchen on the same floor as the lounge.

We are now in a traditional 1930s semi

We have bedrooms top floor, living room dining room and kitchen on the middle floor,
games room garage and toilet on the ground floor.

Apart from extra baby gates it has never been a problem.

Having been in a house that leads onto the garden, with DCS in and out all day traipsing mud, I prefer it this way.

Having a room downstairs where they can bring their friends without disturbing anyone is good.

The ones we have looked at all have the kitchen, bedroom 1 and a toilet on the ground floor, bedroom 2, bathroom and lounge on the first floor, and bedrooms 3 and 4 plus a boxroom on the second floor.

The one thing that may bug me is the fact that the lounge is on the first floor whilst the kitchen is on the ground floor. However as someone else has pointed out, as the children grow up and are more independent and want their friends round it will go full circle and we'll be glad that the kitchen and lounge are seperate so we can get some peace and quiet! Still deciding just now, and by the time the mortgage lenders give us the nod the houses we've looked at will probably be gone anyway.