Anyone live in a 3 storey house?

[jgm]

I've seen a couple of houses for sale that are 3 storey detached - both are built on hills so are 2 storey at the front and 3 storey at the back (or vice versa). Apart from the obvious what are the negatives and positives? I'm thinking things like long way down to let the dog out for a wee / make a cuppa in the morning? Taller shadow over the garden? Carrying shopping in from the car to the kitchen? But more square footage / rooms than similar priced 2 storey houses.

Yes. I live in a Georgian house exactly as you describe. All our 'functional' rooms are on the bottom floor (kitchen, utility, larder, office etc). The front of our house is 2 storeys and the back is 3.

I'd agree with all your points, the only thing I'd add is if you need any work to the back (guttering, roof etc) you may need scaffolding as it is higher being 3 storeys.

I don't mind it at all, you get quite adept at making sure you never go up/down stairs empty handed. I do think there is a limit on how long we'll live here as when we get older the stairs will become too much.

really depends on the layout tbh.. we are an old victorian three storey,

downstairs is hall/sitting room/diningroom/kitchen/utility,
middle is largeish landing/two beds/family bathroom
top is tiny tiny landing/two beds

usually the children were up on the top floor, so it made no difference to us on the middle

I can see it being a PITA though if the kitchen is in the middle, I don't think I would like that at all! Or if you were up and down to the sitting room with the kitchen in the basement.

Thank you user - yes I forgot to mention that at the moment we're able to manage stairs and have pre-teens so no small babies or prams to carry up and down. I think of the two I prefer the one same style as yours (although not seen either in person yet), you enter on the middle floor which has living room, toilet and garage, down to kitchen, dining room, utility and study (and garden), up to bedrooms and bathrooms. Can I ask do you notice the lack of windows on the bottom floor (on the bit which is underground)?

Thanks MsHome one of them is as you describe actually, kitchen in the basement, living room upstairs, although there is room for sofa in the kitchen and there is a separate reception room downstairs, so I can see the middle floor being a bit redundant!

Yes. Kettle in the bedroom helps

Our last house had 3 stories at the back but the basement was just a store room, it was very useful extra space though.

Now we have 3 stories but conventional house layout, it’s only 3 stories because there’s a loft conversion. It is great having the extra space but it is a long way from top to bottom.

I wouldn’t want my living space split over two stories though. I don’t think that works brilliantly for family life.

I haven't lived in a three storey but did for a while live in a duplex flat where the kitchen and sitting room were on different floors and I wouldn't do it by choice again, mostly because of the build up of mugs in the sitting room. A more disciplined family would probably be ok though. Carrying the shopping upstairs to the kitchen was also a bit of a pain.

We live in a very old 4 story house, kitchen on the ground floor, living room on 1st, bedrooms and bathrooms on floors 2 and 3. Family between the ages of 9 and 14 so no babies. There is a lot of walking up and down the stairs.. exhausting when we first moved in. And a big downside is my Mum who is in her late 70's came to visit, it was hard for her. And to make matters worse, she walked out of the bedroom and stepped out onto the stairs thinking she was walking into the bathroom. She dislocated her shoulder when she fell down the stairs and it has meant that she will not come to visit any more.

Carrying groceries and rubbish up/down to the kitchen is a PITA. Elderly relatives and disabled visitors struggle. And if your bedrooms aren’t all on the same floor there are safety issues for kids. Plus it’s a huge faff to get the Xmas tree up/down the stairs - it’s actually easier to cut it up and chuck it out of the living room window!

The biggest issue is if you do any improvements the building regs are different. Our house was originally built with non fire doors, which we replaced, and we didn’t realise that if a house is more than 2 storeys they all have to be fire doors to conform to current regs.

I am, with the kitchen hallway and storage on the ground floor and bedrooms/living room on the two upper floors

You get used to it very quickly, I imagine it would be annoying if your kitchen is one level up tho! Carrying shopping etc would be a pain!

My house is very much like you describe in your 10.41 post OP. Lower ground floor has large kitchen/diner, utility room bathroom and dining room/bedroom/my hobby room, with patio doors to the garden. Above that is the ground floor with front door, garage, lounge, study and cloakroom. Top floor is bedrooms and bathrooms. It generally works quite well for us and we certainly got more floor space than a two storey house for the same price.

The main downsides are having to carry groceries downstairs to the kitchen, and carrying cups of tea upstairs the lounge, although we always use a small tray for this to save spills on the stair carpet. Also DS tends to be in the lounge when I am cooking so not so easy to keep an eye on him then. Our lounge and cloakroom are on the front door level, which is fine for elderly visitors popping in, but visitors staying overnight will still have two flights of stairs from bedroom to kitchen/diner. Kitchen rubbish is taken out the patio door and up the outside steps to the wheelie bins kept at the side of the house. Consider where your wheelie bins will be kept. Many three storey houses around here have to keep them by the front door.

There's obviously the need to go up and down stairs more, and when we first moved in my knees ached until they got used to it, but all in all the house layout works fairly well for us, and we haven't regretted buying it and we've been here nearly twenty years now.

@jgm to answer your question fortunately all of our principal rooms on that floor face out onto the garden (top two floors are two rooms wide if that makes sense but the bottom is only one). The only rooms we have that don't have windows are our larder and pantry so it doesn't matter too much. One thing I'd say is if they actually back on to the hillside to watch for signs of damp - I appreciate if they are modern houses it might not be a problem!

Regarding the rooms at the bottom which are effectively underground are a windowless bathroom room and a windowless utility room, and I have no issues with these. We also have the dining room/bedroom/my hobby room which has a window within a light well, which does tend to be quite dark so only gets used with the light on.

We don't have any problems at all with damp, but it's a fairly modern house.

Thanks all. *BigGapMum the bins were something else I was thinking about, and we'll probably have to invest in a cup carrier for the stairs! Sounds like it's not a definite 'no' from anyone though - excited to look around them both and see what we think in person.

I have a 3 storey house. Downstairs loo a priority but the rest has been fine. Yes the stairs can be tiresome but they keep me fit!

We love in a three story flat that starts on the first floor. I've lost weight since moving here. We have loads of space and the children sleep on different floors so don't disturb each other in the night. No negatives really.

We have a four storey house at present, the basement has spare room and laundry and a room that is only used as a clothes sorting room really, the rest of the house is well used. There is a fair amount of walking up and down stairs but it keeps us fit and isn't an issue.

My 85+ year old parents have recently bought a three storey house with the main intention being to 'keep us active' .

Ours is a new style skinny 3 storey town house.

Pros -
it’s always warm
We have an upstairs sitting room which we try to keep as a grown up space -but fail miserably-
You can keep visitors in one area/floor if elsewhere is messy!
Bottom floor can be a nice family space

Cons -
Your child with a top floor bedroom will always leave something vital in his bedroom which you won’t realise until you’re exiting from the bottom floor...
It’s very hot on the top floor.
Up downup down up down....
We can hear our neighbours walk up and down the stairs too...

I live in a 3 story pre victorian terrace. As pp's have described we have an entrance on the middle floor and the basement floor also has an entrance as we're on a hill. Our kitchen and dining room are on the bottom /basement level then 2 reception room then bedroom and bathroom upstairs.
Plus sides are it is a great use of space we have auch bigger kitchen and dining room than other properties we looked at.
Our house was good value for number of rooms. I can switch off from kitchen mess!
Cons are there's lots of stairs so you need to make sure you don't get lazy with going up and down to put stuff away or make a cuppa. We haven't needed work on the back roof but the scaffolding thing is going to be more costly if we do. Equally as our basement is below ground at the back damp can be an issue. I think my family think our house is a bit of a faff on but tbh I love the space and separation between areas. I think only you can know if it will work for you.

Yep it's warm up there. Dcs will not come when called (stick a landline extention up there). Teens like the privacy...I like the quiet of them being all the way up there 😀 Scaffolding needed for painting. I would be careful of houses built into hills. You need v good talking and we were told we couldn't nail anything into it. Make sure there's a v good extractor on the lower floor if you have a shower/laundry drying on the lower floor. We had some things go mouldy in the adjoining room to the bathroom on the lower ground floor. We changed the extractor but It still wasn't as dry as I'd like it.

Tanking not talking...

I bloody love my three storey house if
Nothing else keeps me fit. Our children are 6 and 9 and we brought it with the intention that we would all
Have our own space when they are older. All double bedrooms, downstairs loo, 2 ensuites and a bathroom.
We would not have got a 2 storey and all this with our budget. I know someone who paid £100k more
For their house and do not have as much space. Downstairs as children are still young so feel we are rather separated at times but that's what we want when their older so swings and roundabouts .

I've done it once and never again. The living and bedroom spaces end up disproportionate to one another (the one I had, had four massive bedrooms but the kitchen and living areas of a 2 bed/ very small 3bed). Or you end up with kitchen and living room on different floors which my neighbour had and hated - no-one ever stayed long in that house. It's awkward having DC on different floors (if bedrooms are split across different floors).

Things you need are often on the wrong floor when you want them / you go down 2 flights of stairs only to realise you've left X on top floor.

The final straw for me was when I had an unexpected and suden illness that caused some serious mobility issues for a couple of years - the property was hell to live in then and I was so relieved to move into a normal 2 storey house again.