Good living space or big bedrooms?

[Snakesandpropertyladders]

We are currently househunting, we have 1 DC, and hope for another.
So far we have found 1 terraced house, which is beautiful, with lots of features. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 of which are good sized doubles, 2 bathrooms, and lots and lots of cupboard space. The downside is that the living room is very, very small. The only other living space is a kitchen diner and a large conservatory.

We had it in our heads that we would spend most of our time in the conservatory, but I'm wondering how practical that would really be?
I've read on here that they are either too hot or too cold. It does have underfloor heating, but I understand that's incredibly expensive to run. If we couldn't use the conservatory as a reception room then we would be very cramped downstairs. The living room just about fits a small sofa and an armchair but I can't see that there would be room for toys etc. The garden is also not great so not much scope for extending.

Our other option would be to buy a semi-detached house that has a good sized kitchen with room for a table, and a large living/dining room. The bedrooms are small, with only 1 proper double, 1 small double and a tiny box room. It is on a large plt though and has a huge garden so there's the potential to extend at some point in the future (years, and years away though as we don't have the money for anything like this right now).

We are really torn and I must admit it's keeping me awake at night! So I thought I would ask you wise mumsnetters for some advice.

Yep that is another worry of ours!

Oh I'm totally put off the idea of moving at all now! ;)

I think the second house sounds like it's one double bedroom away from being great. Have you worked out the cost of extending? I think you could probably get away with it for the next 5-10yrs bedroom-wise with two children but after that dc2 might benefit from a bit more space.

I've not worked out the cost of extending it yet. It's not something I can see us being able to afford for a good ten years or so.

I think I have fallen in love with the look of the terrace as it has lots of gorgeous features and that's why I'm so confused. I'd much prefer the kerb appeal and space of the semi!

I would take bigger bedrooms myself as storage is a must, when kids get older surely they won't even be at home as much (out with friends etc) I would look into converting the conservatory into a more practical room.

Wouldn't the kids fight over who gets the bigger room in the second house?

How small is the living room in option 1?

It's about 15'5" x 12'5".

Option two is definitely out anyway as we discovered today that it's right next to a recycling centre aka the tip!

When DCs are smaller you need more family space which is downstairs. When they grow older they want their own space in their own rooms. Perhaps look for a house where you could put in a good loft conversion in the medium term?

We are moving / rennovating a property which will have smaller bedrooms (exactly as you describe OP) but with large kitchen with dining room, living area & a separate lounge.
We hope to have 2 children as well. In their younger years lounge will be used as a toy room. When older, lounge can be turned into a bedroom (albeit with a fire place) & a child can have the 2 original bedrooms to themselves using one as a study or whatever. We'll still have the living space of the dining room (fits a sofa) and the other living area.

For this we are giving up huge bedrooms - I mean so huge with ridiculous sized walk in wardrobes each. But they are hard to heat & it's space I would quite frankly happily give up for say a utility room or a second living room.
I guess it could be a sign of the grass is always greener but I'm happy to read on this thread that living area is deemed more important!

Can you do a loft conversion in the house with small bedrooms? They tend to be cheaper than a proper extension?

'Older' happens fast with kids. We have a decent living / dining room and small kitchen but tiny, tiny bedrooms (2 out of 4 we'd struggle to fit a wardrobe in, never mind a desk).

DC1 is only 8, but already needs a desk for homework, wants to play on the computer and wants to have friends round in his room. It happened fast.

When DC2 & 3 get to this stage we will be stuck as their rooms are basically a bed and a bit of floor space.

I'd go for living space still, but there is such a thing as too small for bedrooms: unless you have a study or playroom the living space can't be all things to all people all the time.

Still think Option 1 is better choice you have one child and looking to have another. you will have a spare bedroom (easy to use the 4th room as guest room/playroom) Plus when the kids are older it can used as a cool study area.

I am a bit confused about the downstairs and your plans for it. The way I see it is

1. Kitchen/Diner - so assume you can fit a decent dining table in here and therefore this where you will eat your main meals.

2. conservatory - great additional room and even better if it can be converted in a room later on.

3. Lounge - I assume this will just be tv and sofas mainly? My lounge is a similar size but I don't have a big kitchen and I have currently got a 3 seater sofa, dining table & 6 chairs in it comfortably with a fair bit of space to spare but against depends on what furniture you have.

Good luck though.

Interesting to hear that you can fit a sofa and a table I your similar sized lounge. There is only a 2 seater sofa and armchair in the photos of this house and there doesn't look to be much other room. There is no furniture in the house at all now so its hard to visualise what would fit in there. We need to put in 2 sofas and still have room for toys.

Our living room is 14x11 and we have a 3 seater sofa, an IKEA Poang armchair, a coffee table, a 115cm round dining table and 4 chairs, a sideboard, 2 bookcases and the tv in it.

If I had another 2 feet to play with then I'd be happy with what we've got in the room. As it is, it's slightly cramped but without the table and sideboard there would be plenty of room for a 3 piece suite and storage for toys.

I'd recommend spending some time on something like this: www.floorplanner.com/

It's how I made sure our furniture would fit! I measured up all our furniture and planned out all the rooms before we moved in and it actually gave a really accurate idea of how things would look.

Here's the plan of our living room - a squeeze, but no toys get kept in here (all get put away in bedrooms at night). With less furniture in it the space would be fine.

That's a great site Thanks, I will try it out later.

The problem with the lounge in the house we are considering is that one wall is taken up by a fireplace and built in cupboards, another by a massive bay window, and the door is on the 3rd. So it really limits where you can put sofa's. I love the built in cupboards so wouldn't want to remove them either.

I've just designed my own living room floor plan. It's actually only 11'5" x 14'7". The floorplan has made me realise that my DH is right and the room is just way too small.

Living space over bedrooms every time.

Go for living space. We've just moved from a house which had lovely bedrooms but smaller living space and we've sold as we wanted bigger living space. How much time will you actually spend in your bedrooms? If you've got play space downstairs it'll get used far more. Our new house has a much bigger living space and I love it.

I'm not a fan of conservatories as they're hot in summer and cold in winter and noisy when it rains. Electric underfloor heating is expensive, if that's what it is of course.

We've just had dc2 and am glad of the bigger space downstairs.

That is a pretty decent sized living room. You can easily fit a 3 seater sofa along the long wall (probably facing the fire place) and a two seater sofa in front of the bay window. Armchairs and two seater sofas are almost always in front of bay windows. You can comfortably get that seating and a coffee table in a living room that sized.

If you could get the heating / insulation right to use the conservatory year round that would be a good place for a play room potentially but honestly if the rooms are a good size they can keep most of the their toys upstairs.

You can't fit the sofas in with the placement of everything in the room. The door is in the way of being able to put the 3 seater along the wall opposite the fireplace. Toy storage isn't a problem it's actual floor space for DC to sit and play, especially if we have people over.

I think I'm trying to figure out ways it can work because I've fallen in love with the house. I love the idea of having a master bedroom with tons of wardrobe space plus en suite. I also like the other bedrooms but realistically the garden is rubbish and so is the living space.

I'd go for living space. We have a house that sounds exactly like option 2. We are about to extend and will get more living space, a second bathroom and a fourth bedroom.

We went to see houses with 4 bigger bedrooms in our area but they all had small living spaces and I want room to live in. We use the bedrooms for going to bed and getting dressed. We wouldn't use the space in them, not the way we would downstairs. If when the children are older the one with the box room wants more space they can have a living room to themselves.

Are you willing to put the floorplan up snakes? its hard to visualise what you mean

I would but I'm not sure how.
Basically, if you think of the room as a rectangle then;
-one long wall is entirely taken up by fitted cupboards and a fireplace

• the short wall to the right is a square bay window. Not deep like the usual bay windows.
• the other long wall has the door into the room
• the other short wall is free but if you put a sofa there or in the window you would block the cupboards from being able to open.

orite - are the cupboards something you really need in a living room - something I would question taking out to be honest or at least one side.

Depends on whether you want to still carry on looking for another house and the urgency to move.