Bedroom through bedroom-would it work?

[Kaloobear]

I am all about the property threads today. Potential flat has bedroom 3 through bedroom 2-no other route to it. It's a three bedroom flat. I am thinking of options-

1. Us in master, baby in 3, 2 as a study. When guests come put them in master and we temporarily relocate to 2.

1. Us in 2, baby in 3, master as guest room/study. This means no moving/fading but 2 is much smaller than the master.

Long term if we have another baby I like the idea of the children having adjoining rooms, though I can see that getting to whichever is in 3 in the night when necessary without disturbing 2 could be a pain. Or maybe we could cut off a but of room to make a corridor through...

It's such an odd layout I can't get my head around it.

Faffing, not fading!

Why don't you put baby in 3 and bring baby in with you in the master when you have visitors and want to put them in bedroom 2?

what are the sizes of the three room?

Is there no way at all you could change the layout? I don't think it would work with 2 children (unless they could both share 2) and I think re-sale would be an issue - I would've thought that lots of buyers would rule it out as a workable 3 bed property.

Would there be anyway you could create a narrow corridor twixt the rooms and possibly change the position of the doors?

I thought the same, move baby in with you when you have guests, and if possible put a corridor in, will it compromise the walk through room much?

How long would you plan to live there? I think it could be really annoying in the long term. I think I would avoid.

I had this situation when growing up, I had to go through my brother's room to get to mine. I think it was from the age of about 9 to 16. I can't recall it being an issue. In fact it worked well for me because I got some pre-warning when a parent was approaching!! I think people spend too much time fretting about what constitutes the ideal family home. Sure, we'd all love to have a massive house with rooms for every family member, visiting guests, playrooms and massive "heart-of-the-home" kitchens but we can't all afford that so if you like the house and it's what you can comfortably afford, without compromising your family's lifestyle and happiness, then go for it!

I think it would be a PITA to sell - is it the best place you've seen, has it many other redeeming qualities?

Thanks for the replies. The redeeming quality is the price! It's the only 3 bedder we can afford and we don't want a 2 bed that we'd then have to move from again when/if baby no 2 arrives-would quite like to settle for a bit. All the rooms are teeny but we can cope with that I think. I like the idea of bringing DD in with us when we have guests-it'd work for a couple of years at least. Hmm, lots to think about!

Friends have this arrangement upstairs in their house. In fact their twins have their bedroom which is actually the landing, so actually both their elder sister and the parents have to walk through their room.

It doesn't seem to bother them, they have grown up like that and don't get bothered by the noise. Although I think at night the parents have an ensuite so don't disturb them and the bathroom is between the landing and the sister's room so all the children have access to it.

it's tiresome, that's why it is an attractive price. The lower price will not seem so attractive to you when you come to sell it.

We have this, in our house - we can't advertise it as a 3 bedder, they call it a 2/3. But we are not into the property ladder and will probably never move. Saying that, it is a house, im not sure if you would want to move on from your flat.

When we bought it, we had dd1 only, she was about 7 and it worked out ok, used the smaller walk through room as a study. We have since had DD2, much later and DD1 has moved out (shes 21 now) but we were scratching our heads as to how it would be made to work, our walk through room is fairly small so it would have been unfair to turf DD1 out of it for DD2 to have her room as a bedroom/nursery. So with two children with a big age gap it would have definately turned into a problem and we were considering a second reception room we have downstairs as a bedroom for DD1. As it was, she moved in with the BF when she was 17 (at his parents) and is still there!

Doesn't work as a study now because this would disturb DD2, so it is now what she calls her "hall" but basically has excess toys and general crap in it. Had i known our family was to expand i would probably not have bought this house, but like you OP, the arrangement affected the sale price and brought it down to our budget and it really was this or nothing - given the choice, id not do it again, saying that, there are lots of houses like that in our town and it seems to work for people. You just work with what you have - If it were me and i was looking to resell the flat - id use it as a study with a sofa bed in for guests, and as you say, you can always give guests the master bedroom.

Our little terrace house has this layout, which I think is pretty standard for Victorian terraces, although the 2 main double bedrooms are the same size, with the third single bedroom of the second. We currently are in the front room, as we have been since we moved in, & put our daughter into the second bedroom, keeping the third as a study. However, if we can't sell (as people seem 'disappointed' by the 3rd bed, despite floorplans, description etc reflecting the nature of it) we will move into the 2nd in preparation of a second DC's arrival & put DD in our room. The 3rd bed is a great size for a nursery & would stop the 2 disturbing each other. We then plan to try & sell the house again before the arrangement no longer suits iyswim.

We haven't really ever considered having a guest room, even before DD came along & basically chucked an airbed on the nearest clear floor for guests, except when our pg friend visited & they had out bed & we were on the airbed. Then again, most of our family/friends are within 20mins drive so never been an issue.

It may be an issue when reselling BUT if you can't afford anything bigger, a compromise has to be made & personally I'd rather have the bigger house for my £££s (& a little inconvenience regarding guests) than a smaller, easier to sell house.

I might be wrong but I am pretty sure Building Regulations would not officially allow this for fire safety reasons, technically the third bedroom accessed via another one would be a study or something. Additionally as some others have said you would not be able to sell it as a 3 bed flat.

But if it works for you, then why not. If your only other options are 2 bed flats, then I think this could be a good option for you and I'm sure the quirky layout of it is reflected in the price.

We have this for bedrooms 3/4. Ds1 and ds2 are in the rooms now and it works very well. There is a door between rooms so each can have their privacy, but they can also share eachothers spaces.

I would put dd and guest, and then put dd in with you when you have guests ( or you into the guest room) it really depends how often you would use the guest room.