Pros and cons of modern townhouses and family living

[janethommo]

Hello ladies

We're thinking of moving to a bigger house soon as running out of space with our toddler and her ever increading toys/wardrobes/food etc etc.

We live in an area with lots of new builds and we currently live in a 3 bed link detached which we love but just not enough living space/reception rooms.

We're looking at town houses near to us and would appreciate views of people who live in one or have lived in one - how did you/do you find it with living with children?

Its a different concept of living - we've seen some townhouses that only have a kitchen on the ground floor with lounge/dining on first floor and discounted those as inpractical.

We're now considering other designs that have other reception rooms on the ground floor e.g. use the downstairs room and/orconservatory for day to day living with the children, toys etc then the upstairs lounge being the more formal living room/adults room/evening room. This style has a dining room and kitchen also on the first floor with bedrooms on top floor.

Views either way based on your experience? Its hard imagining in a house with this layout!

Thanks
Jane

if you "live" on the first floor you will not get into the garden so much.

It can be quite difficult carting things up and down more than one staircase constantly, which you will be if the kitchen and family room are on different floors. You might also find that you and dc need to be on different floors at one time which can be impractical, if you need to cook and the want to play downstairs or put washing on, then if you're drying outside will have to be taken down then up to the 2nd floor.

Hi, I have owned 2 town houses - both very different and the experience of living in the first one helped when choosing the second one. The first one just had a garage, hallway, utility and downstairs bathroom on the ground floor - the kitchen, dining and living room were on the middle floor and the bedrooms and bathroom were upstairs. It was a brilliant place to live until we started a family, felt very private as there was no one walking past and the view was amazing. After DS was born, little things started to become a problem - not least the amount of stair gates we needed! One of the most stressful things was bringing the shopping home - was sometimes 3-4 trips up and down the stairs to the kitchen, and never felt conform able leaving DS in the car whilst I was up and down and in and out. Equally, didn't feel right leaving him upstairs alone whilst sorting the bags out. Before I sold the house, I had a bit of work done downstairs - and soon realised that we spent all our time on the middle floor, hardly ever venturing downstairs unless we were going out.
The second townhouse (where we live now) is very modern - we bought it off plan 12 months ago and could only imagine how it was going to work. The ground floor has the garage, hallway, bathroom, and a large kitchen and family room combined. It's big enough to cook, eat and even has room for a sofa. There are patio doors out into the garden which are pretty much open constantly and the garden really feels like part of the living space. On the middle floor, there is a massive living room with patio doors (Juliet balcony) looking out over the garden, the main family bathroom and the fourth bedroom which the kids use as a homework/computer room. On the top floor there are 3 bedrooms (ours has an en suite). Living here is really nice, we have plenty of space if we all want to do stuff together but areas where you don't even feel like you're in the same building as anyone else. The only draw back to this lay out seems to be the bathrooms (there are 3, so shouldn't really complain) the main bathroom is on the middle floor, so if the 2 boys need the loo in the night, they have to go downstairs as they would wake us up if they came in to use the ensuite. It's only been a problem a couple of times (mainly DS1 "forgetting" to come back upstairs after his wee and sleeping the rest of the night on the settee).
So, with all this in mind - I think town houses are fantastic places to live, especially if your kitchen and dining room are on the ground floor.

Hope that helps! Good luck in your search

Strawberry - that's very true! But it does improve your memory. In those first few weeks, it'll drive you mad realising that you've left something on the top floor when you're ready to leave the house. Before long - you NEVER leave the top floor without checking you've got everything (either that, or learn how to live without stuff very fast).

We used to live in a town house where the living room, WC and office/4th bedroom (converted half of double garage) were on the ground floor. The kitchen/diner and third bedroom (used to be open plan small living room) on the first floor. Then two bedrooms and bathroom on the top floor.

It was ok until we had DD then I hated it. A kitchen on the first floor was just too impractical. I guess if we'd kept the open plan living area it wouldn't have been so bad (but needed the space for mum & dad to stay) but trawling shopping up the stairs was a pain. And BBQs in the garden were a nightmare carrying food downstairs through the living room patio doors.

Ditto to stair gates! We moved out when DD was one and rent it out now. If we ever moved back we'd move the kitchen downstairs into the converted garage.

I also wasn't keen on the small landings and narrow hall with our tall narrow town house.

Only problem I have with our town house, is that with two bedrooms on each floor, I can only have both DCs near us if they share a room. DD is a nervy creature and don't move to a seperate room on the middle floor and DS is almost 3 and can't trust him!

Neighbour has same problem and while we both love the houses otherwise, its forcing us to think of moving.

I'd agree that it depends on the layout. kitchen/dining on ground floor works best I think.

For older children they can be brilliant as quite often have more than one ensuite, one I looked at a while ago had a bedroom and ensuite on the ground floor which would be ideal for teenager who wants to get away from parents.

The biggest downside I have found is the gardens are usually very small, something to bear in mind if you want some outside space for the kids. Ultimately this is the aspect that put me off buying one.

I'll second that layout is crucial. Our townhouse was originally, grnd flr = hall, garage, wc & kitchen/diner; 1st flr = sitting room & bedroom with ensuite; 2nd flr = 2 bedrooms with ensuites. It was difficult with small children. As pigletjohn has suggested, we hardly ever used the garden. It was also hard trying to prepare meals and supervise children as the kitchen wasn't an ideal place for them to play in.

However, a bit of imagination and (rather a lot of) cash later - it's a perfect place for a growing family. We've gone into the garage on the ground floor creating a kitchen/diner/family room. On the first floor we now have the "grown up" sitting room and a study/children's den/guest room. We then now have four bedrooms over the 2nd floor and 3rd after converting the loft. The house feels twice the size of before.

A big advantage of this layout is that we can escape the children if we need to. Having the reception space split over two floors works really well as they get older.

Visitors always seem to mention the stairs, but I can honestly say that I don't even notice them. I happily go up and down them all day.

My father has a townhouse (in the US) and I quite like it. I don't notice the stairs really, and he has loads more space than he would get for the same money in a detached house in his area.

If you have the space and inclination, if you have both a washer and dryer, I'd put them on a higher floor than you might be naturally inclined to do. His are on the level with the bedrooms, and really, if you aren't hanging it on a line outside, it makes sense to not have to schlep it all up and down stairs all the time.

My friends had a townhouse and ended up moving because it didn't suit them with a small child.

On the ground floor was just a huge Garage, you went in on the 1st floor which was 2 large bedrooms and a bathroom, the 2nd floor was a kitchen/diner and living room and then the top floor was master bedroom and family bathroom.

Very very odd. It basically meant that the kids had to sleep on the 1st floor and the parents were right upstairs.

Horrible really. I think it would have worked if the kids were teenagers and liked having their own space, but with smaller kids it was impossible.

They all seem to have quite different layouts though - but I'm not keen...

We moved into a townhouse with 4 DC aged 11, 9, 7 and 5 and it was ideal. On the ground floor we had kitchen/diner, clockroom and garage, which we converted into an internal room. First floor large livingroom, bathroom and bed 3. Second floor 2 large bedrooms, one with ensuite.

I loved the fact that nobody overlooked us. You could have the furniture any way you liked in the livingroom because nobody could see in, so my computer was by a window. I didn't like having to go up and down to the kitchen , or the fact that Dh was so lazy he wouldn't take cups back downstairs.

There were only 5 houses in our row and another 4 in the road behind. Everyone who moved in with older children stayed, but anyone who had a baby after they moved in, moved. Then we had a baby and could see why. Stairgates everywhere, and we basically lived on the middle floor. We couldn't use the garden because it meant somebody would have to stay in the kitchen to watch DD.

We moved to a "normal" house when DD was 2 1/2. I don't miss the stairs, but I do miss the 3 toilets, and we are very limited over where to put the computer because the bay window means it could be seen from the street. Oh and I hate the distraction of people walking/ driving past.

We are in a townhouse with the living rooms on the ground floor. It's fab.

We looked at ones with living rooms on the 1st floor but I wouldn't be comfortable letting DD out in the garden while I was in the living room/kitchen if there was a floor between us. (She's a toddler.)

Our futility room is on ground floor, when weather is bad we put it onto the top floor to keep it out of the way while it dries. Pain in the ass.

At the moment it's just us and DD so we are all on one floor. When she's older she can move upstairs.

Only issue is that our living room and kitchen etc are to the back of the house and garden so we have no view out the front. Annoying when waiting for a taxi and means that we can't just keep an eye out for DD if she's playing out front.

I can live with it though.

We have a townhouse with the garage converted into dh's den, there is a shower room and a utility room original on the ground floor and the back is extended to give a guest room with door to garden. The first floor is the kitchen at the front and lounge with patio doors to the roof terrace of the extension (with steps to the back garden). The second floor has 3 bedrooms and a (very small) bathroom.

We've lived here 12 years, we moved in with a toddler ds and dd was born after we moved in and it's always worked for us. When the children were tiny a playpen was essential so we could safely bring shopping it etc but that wasn't an issue.

We are a very tech family, we have two cameras pointing out the front, one with a view of the whole drive from the kitchen and one by the front door, both of them record and the footage is stored online but usefully the one by the front door has a movement detector and still pictures of the person there come up on my computer screen and are sent by text to my phone so I know if I want to go to the door and answer it. (We also have cameras all over the living areas but they are only activated when the home alarm is set including a camera directed at my beloved guinea pig so I can check her form work).

We almost bought a townhouse, and I posted a very similar thread - if you search my username and "townhouse" as the thread title, you'll find lots more views.

Basically, some people like them and some people don't. HTH !

Another thread here

We've been in our town house for three months now and I love it, BUT (and it's a big but) our house is built into the mountain so the ground floor has the garage, downstairs toilet, utility room, under stairs storage and a home cinema/ playroom, upstairs has the kitchen, the garden and the living room and top floor has 3 beds and a bathroom. We are very lucky because it feels like a normal house with the downstairs rooms being a complete bonus. The garden being off the kitchen on the first floor makes all the difference and means we have a very light airy house. Hoping to get big bi-fold doors in the kitchen soon.