Wanting to start a family - would you move from this house?

[2MoveOrNot]

Name change in case I out myself.

We live in a lovely house with the floorplan pictured. It's in a really nice position, beautiful garden, good parking, wonderful area - a lot going for it. However, we are planning to start a family within the next year or so, and I realise that the layout (and maybe size) is not ideally suited to family living.

My intention is to become a SAHM for approx 10 years and then return to work. We would ideally like 2 children. I fully realise that things may not work out this way, or that I might not like being a SAHM etc, but that is our ultimate goal at the moment if we are very lucky and all goes to plan.

We could move house now if we wanted to, but we have done a lot of very careful financial planning over the last few years to help us achieve our longer term goals, and doing so would set us right back. We have also done a lot to this house and we love it here.

If you were in this situation, would you...

• Move now to a more family-friendly house
• Put off TTC for a couple more years, but likely still be unable to be a SAHM due to higher bills in a likely-more-expensive house

OR

• Stay put and be financially comfortable and able to be a SAHM (assuming that was what you wanted, of course)
• Move house in 10 years time after returning to work

If we stay here, I'm thinking that 2 DC could share the small room (large single) on the same floor as us and the top bedroom could be a quiet space / play room / toy room etc. The dressing room is currently DH's office. I don't see how the bedrooms could be split fairly otherwise.

Sorry if I've rambled! Would love to hear your thoughts.

Stay put.

I would choose the house you want to be in for the next ten years now, regardless of children

Children might not come as planned, some people spend years trying to conceive others are instant. It's unpredictable. Then you may have one and want to stop at that or want to continue forever and end up with ten.

However at least if you move now you have set out they change and are starting to pay off your larger mortgage or whatever.

Moving because you have run out of space is a dreadful experience. You may find you move and promotions happen.

Could dc share then in a few years you get a garden office and the study again becomes a bedroom?

Try posting on houzz for suggestions.

Stay put. The layout is great for small kids. I'd probably move to the 1st floor bedroom with babies though.

To be honest DH doesn't need a home office anymore as he has a different job now - he insists he still needs it but really it has become his "man cave"

The dressing room could actually be made into a separate room if we moved a doorway.

We have previously toyed with the idea of moving our bedroom to the top actually, but obviously wouldn't want to be on a different floor if we had a baby/toddler.

Yes sorry should have said - we are currently in the 1st floor bedroom with the en-suite.

The house is big enough. Stay put

It is a perfectly good house for having 2 DC in. I can't see any issue with it at all. Stay put.

I would have baby 1 in with you for as long as possible then when pregnant with baby 2 move into the smaller bedroom and have the kids eventually share the bigger room. Babies don't need much space, kids do. They have lots of toys and if they grow older and are happy to play in their room you don't have to sacrifice the big top room to be a play room (what do you do if you are cooking dinner and the kids are totally unsupervised 3 floors up?) Once they get older, you move to the top floor and they get a room each. You have plenty of room.

I live in a house very similar to yours OP with 2 children.... we're in the process of moving to a house with slightly smaller bedrooms but all on the same floor and sacrificing the office space although gaining a conservatory.

I personally find town houses a nightmare with small children, with one it was fine as we used the bedrooms on the middle floor. Now we have two we've moved to the top floor and I hate the fact they are beneath us, not to mention the amount of times I trail up and down the stairs to a non sleeping toddler! Almost 5 year age gap so not ideal to share a room either.

The houses are in a similar price bracket and the same area if that helps.

I was just going to say that I’d prefer 3 bedrooms on one level. DS will be one in a few days and he doesn’t sleep quietly for more than 2h straight. No sibling would ever get sleep in the same room.

I’d also say that an ear in kitchen is very useful. Mess gets everywhere so we’ve not used the dining room since we started weaning...

A more practical house wouldn’t need to have more sq feet or be more expensive than your current one. Not sure if you feel it makes sense to move unless it’s up the ladder, though... Actually, you could get a more standard 3 bed semi and when you’re in a better financial position, convert the loft.

eat in kitchen

Thanks for the replies everyone. @JoJoSM2, the kitchen isn't too bad a size (10ft by 9ft). It does have a 2 seater table in it (as well as the proper dining table in living/dining room) and could easily accommodate a high chair as well - I agree about that being important in terms of mess!

And yes, reluctant to "side step" really due to moving costs - would prefer to make just one move in the next 20 years or so, and feel it is probably worth waiting. Our search area would be very limiting as houses don't come up very often in this area, so we wouldn't get much choice. Hmm decisions

Stay put, keep you options open and keep a weather eye on the market locally in case the perfect place suddenly comes on the market. If it dies, decide then what you want. Plans, and families, change.
The option to work less (although I'd strongly recommend you BOTH work PT so you don't take all the career hit, which will be massive over 10 years) is brilliant whether or not kids do come along.

Stay put. Being where you love being is really important when your on maternity leave - having friends nearby, places you like to hang out, etc.

Plus, that house looks absolutely fine to me to have kids in. I can't see the issue at all really

Thanks all. It seems that most would vote for staying put! :)

I don't see what's not child-friendly about it? Having the master bedroom on top floor perhaps? Don't see it is a particular issue, plenty of houses are like that.

Stay put from me too.

@Echobelly, yes I think having any bedrooms on different levels is not particularly child-friendly. Also we very much have two master bedrooms and then a single. If we had 2 children with their own rooms, then one would get either an en-suite or dressing room whilst the other would just get a single (extremely first world problem I know, sorry!)
The alternative is to have 2 children sharing and use the spare room for toys/playing/guests etc, but that seems a shame when we do have a 3 bed house.
But yes you're right, plenty of houses are like this and our neighbours with the same house type have children.

The perceived "unfairness" of the bedrooms may become an issue when you have teenagers - but under-10s do not care about whether they have their own en-suite, believe me! I think you're overthinking.
And with the unstoppable rise of the loft conversion, many, many families have their master bedroom on a different floor to their kids, not just townhouse owners.

I grew up with ‘unfair’ bedrooms. As a family we (my parents really but they said they included us in the decision) wanted to stay put and decided to have room decoration and swap I think it was every other year as we got old enough for it to ‘matter’. In the end we couldn’t be bothered and us kids had become very attached to where we were. Never felt an unfairness knowing we could swap if need be. (I had the smaller room for some time and moved into larger as older sibling moved out).
Personally if it were POSs and I loved with that floor plan I’d think abut a shower room up with the master suite and get rid of the en-suite to allow for slightly bigger second bedroom config. If I were to spend any money that would be what I’d want to do, not move.

I would stay put too. The house is fine, your children are unlikely to worry about 'he/she has got a bigger bedroom than me for the next ten years'.

Being financially comfortable is worth a lot.

You never know what might happen, for instance when I had DD between us we spent almost 9 months in hospital during the first year of her life which was an expensive as well as traumatic experience. We didn't have to worry about money (at the time .... I seem to have gone backwards in that regard).

Financial security all the way here.

I think you are massively over thinking this. The house is fine for a family. Your children will be fine if you are on the next floor and not the next room. Believe me, they can be pretty loud when they want you.

I was expecting you to post a floorplan of a tiny studio flat but you are overthinking this. Baby in with you for 6 months then you can all share one floor. You've enough options.

Though word of warning, once you start thinking about moving it can really get to you, worms it's way in.

That house is fine. You’re overthinking this!