House layout advice

[Sunisshining12]

We're in the middle of a major renovation & are lucky enough to have some extra rooms. Interested in your opinions on layout, especially those with kids. We just have 1 baby at the moment so can't really get our heads around what would work best in the future when LO is older & possibly more children here. This is our forever house so resale isn't a big factor . The original layout we planned doesn't seem to work now we are parents!

Finished house will be 4 bed, 1 ensuite, & a main bathroom
The attic is large plans to convert that

Option a:
Attic - cinema room, plus partition with a study area & separate loo
'Spare' reception room - music room for DH piano & guitar

Option b:
Attic - a 5th bedroom with ensuite & dressing room area
Spare reception room - cinema room (possibly squeeze piano in there too?)

The view from the attic window is fab over countryside.

What would you do?

I’m afraid schools do find that children who are not spoken to, don’t have meaningful conversations with adults, who watch films and tv all the time and especially who play computer games all day long are more likely to have speech delay. A lot of this entertainment is passive baby sitting.

I have a big house. We don’t use all of it all the time! Does it matter? No. Not really. Ditto all my land. Or all the cars. We have also changed how we use the house over the years. It evolves. Yours will too.

Yes I am trying to label rooms, I think that's to do with the building plans where every room has been labelled.

Bubbles I appreciate that & agree that too much TV is bad, but I wasn't planning to use it as a babysitter. I watched lots of Disney films as a child and turned out okay :-) It would be my DH who would end up disappearing in the evenings!!

Do the loft as a large room with storage and a proper ensuite with shower and loo. You can use it as a cinema room or whatever you like but when it comes time to sell market it as an extra bedroom. It's extra bedrooms that increase the value, but you need a proper shower en suite for that to work. Playroom must be downstairs on level with kitchen.

Jur make sure that enough of attiv is given over to storage. Under eaves plus a large spacious cupboard with shelves. That plus a big shed should be ample. Once it's plumbed and carpeted etc the use can be fluid over the years.

Can I suggest if you are having work done and expect teens in the loft that you install some form of communication system?

Bells lights intercom - anything to get their attention at tea time?

children who are not spoken to, don’t have meaningful conversations with adults, who watch films and tv all the time and especially who play computer games all day long

Seriously Bubbles?? I think you're being controversial for the sake of it. No-one is suggesting the existing of an attic room with maybe a tv in there or a games console means that the OP's children will be watching tv all the time or playing games all day long and will not be spoken to

arf at tulips suggesting that you might have trouble communicating with the loft. I was going to say pretty much the opposite!
If the loft does become some sort of teenage den, you want sound proofing so their gallumphing overhead doesn't keep you awake in your bedroom.

I bought a large family home when pregnant with my first and used to drive myself mad trying to decide what each room should be, in ten years what would each room be, etc,etc....

You know what I spent hours agonising over it and 5 years later I still don't know :) It's evolved into something that works for now and I'm sure as the kids get older it'll evolve again.

I’d make the attic as another reception room - you can use t as a cinema room / play Room / sleepover den etc. I would put a bathroom up there and also some good storage for suitacases and other crap.

We live in Australia and practically everyone we know has a “theatre room” (including one person who has a tiered room twice the size of Tony Sopranos with a $6000 slab of marble over the bar area, that they don’t use). A visiting child was horrified that we don’t have one. We have a library instead as we always fancied one. (Paperbacks rather than first editions, unfortunately ... )

I think you can have it all with the downstairs room and save £40k by not doing a needless attic conversion.

Friends of ours have cinema fittings in their playroom. Projector on the ceiling and screen rolls down from ceiling when not in use. It's got a big squashy sofa in there and it's playroom by day, cinema by night.

I would use the downstairs room for music room by day, cinema by night. We find a music room with doors useful for children's music practice too. Don't bother with the attic conversion (which may also compromise one of the downstairs bedrooms), and enjoy paying your mortgage off what, 3 years earlier?