Tall thin house with very steep staircases

[OhRosalind]

We are desperately trying to move and there is very little on the market. We have quite specific needs and viewed a house today that ticks a lot of boxes: big garden, enough bedrooms for an office (I wfh) and a guest room (we’re overseas and when family come they stay for weeks at a time), perfect location.

BUT the house is tall and narrow: four floors, two small rooms per floor, so there are a lot of stairs. it’s a totally different layout and feel to what we’re used to (big open plan flat) and the stairs especially (not in the advert, so I wasn’t expecting them to look like that) have thrown me - they felt rather treacherous, but I’m wondering if they could be made safer. DS is a toddler (almost two) so I feel a bit stressed at the thought of him going up and down, though obviously he won’t stay a toddler forever.

The individual steps are marble with a protruding lip. The staircases are narrow, enclosed and steep and the individual steps are very tall and deep. I’m wondering if there is some kind of runner that could make them safer and softer? The staircase is central with a room on each side. Instead of the landing going straight across you step down into the stairwell from each side (this may be the norm when staircases are central, I can only think of one house I know where that’s the case). So even between the two rooms on the same floor you have to step down then up again to move between them and we’d have to use stair gates. DS currently sleeps with us but I’m worried about how that would work once he’s in his own room, even if we picked two bedrooms on the same floor.

Is this just all too much hassle or is it something you can get used to? For our budget and the area we want we will have to compromise on something (or several things) and having a tall thin house gives us a lot more space for our money, so it seems a little crazy to be put off by the stairs. Any advice or experience to share?

Sorry for the length!

Would stop me , two main floors and possibly a converted loft (that would be my daughter's) would be the max. I want lateral space, not a tower.

We have similar. We survived, though its a bit of a mystery how the stairs did with teenagers crashing up and down them. I don't think we have every thought about the layout. Our previous home was three floors and plenty round here are five. It keeps you fit. The top floor is much warmer than the basement as the heat just goes up. We used the baby monitor a lot, and we now message when a meal is ready. Diets are easier when the kitchen is three flights of stairs away.

Sounds a nightmare.

No way. Even three floors would be too much for me. We lived in a townhouse on three floors for 6 months and it wasn't nice. It's aot harder to hang out and everyone ends up on a different floor. Taking furniture up the stairs was a nightmare and some just didn't fit. Avoid!

I wouldn't be my choice to be honest. Steep, narrow and marble sounds like a massive headache with a toddler. I'd still be worried as he gets bigger.

I have 3 floors two and a loft conversion with wide stairs and its annoying.

Really think hard about it.
Resale will be tricky was a lot of people won't even view 4 storey houses

Locally (historic city centre) houses tend to be on 3/4 floors, otherwise they’re apartments, so I am less worried about the number of floors putting people off, but the small spaces/steep stairs might.

Good point about getting furniture up the stairs.

The alternative would be an apartment with a very small garden and/or no guest room so it’s a big decision.

Two issue for me.

One is the safety, but the other is the amount of work having to go up and down stairs all day- much of it carrying a toddler.
I live in a two level house, and probably go up stairs 30 times a day.
To put away laundry. to get something from a bedroom, to get handcream, socks, to fetch a book, find a pair of shoes, to do housework etc etc.
Doing that with multiple flights of stairs would be awful.

We've got friends in a 4 storey house, the biggest issue for me is the living areas being over 2 floors so kitchen and dining room in basement and living room and toilet upstairs. There's a lot of upping and downing. They have a mini fridge and kettle in their bedroom as the kitchen is 2 floors away, it's a hassle letting the dogs out or if you're in the attic bedroom and the door bell goes. But - they live there and are used to it, it's just visitors who have to remember where they are and get used to going up and down. The stairs are narrow but open which does make a difference.

We’ve had this in our last two houses both with small kids and it is a real pain. We spend 90% of time on one floor and the rest of the house is not used at all.
Guest rooms are nice but unless you have regular guests it doesn’t make sense to prioritise this over every day “liveability”.

Tidying is an issue, as things are always on the wrong floor. We end up with collections of stuff sitting on the stairs waiting to be taken up or down. DD, when she was about four, went through a stage of demanding that her dad carry her to bed...up three flights of stairs.

But honestly we never really thought about it. It was the only house of the size we wanted, in the area we wanted, that we could afford and it has served us well. I am planning a rather fancy stair lift for my dotage.

We have thick crucial trading carpet, which would cushion most falls, though toddlers weren't the problem. Careless teenagers (or rather one clumsy teenager - the other was cautious by nature) racing up and down have very occasionally have missed a step. But I guess that happens on any stairs.

Our house is Georgian, so has relatively high ceilings, and because we don't have a back extension, we have plenty of light coming in at the back. We see a lot of sky from our top floors. I like this. Victorian houses seem dark and hemmed-in in comparison.

Once you take the stairs out of the picture, is the living space really much better?

I would go for a flat with a decent sofa bed over lots and lots of stairs. I once watched my toddler DS fall backwards down a single flight of carpeted stairs with a stone floor at the bottom, and was just too far away to grab him. I never want to do that again and I think it would be a constant worry, especially when DC are old enough to get out of bed at night to go to the loo when still half aslrep

Nope no way. The stairs sound like a death trap for a young child.

Could you have a room which is a multipurpose home office and guest room; and have a fold-down/compact desk elsewhere in the house where you can work when guests are staying?

Are you talking about stairs which are steep like in houses in Amsterdam or steep like a 2 up 2 down Victorian staircase in the UK? I’ve lived in both and I could manage with the latter (where stairs are carpeted and slightly less steep) but not the former. In Amsterdam I always felt like I needed a harness for extra safety!

We had this, actually 4 floors but with half landings as well - and ended up with 7 stair gates, and our stairs had carpet. In some ways it is good as everyone has their own space and you get fit with going up and down but I wouldn't even consider marble stairs with young children, a recipe for disaster. It only takes one slip and you have broken teeth or a head injury etc.

Also think about getting furniture up and down those stairs!

Guest room is important as we are abroad and so when family visit it might be for more than a month at a time, And we have frequent guests. We are viewing somewhere like this tomorrow, but a sofa bed in the lounge is really not ideal.

We would definitely have to investigate carpeting/runners for the stairs if we consider it. Not sure what is the safest material? Each step is deep/tall rather than shallow iyswim so I think it’s less that they are individually high-risk for slipping, more that the steps are big so more effort, and just so hard if you do fall.I don’t know about Amsterdam @stinkyjellycat but the scary Victorian terrace stairs I know are shallow and you can only fit your toes on, they’re not like that. Nobody uses carpet here so stairs are always marble or concrete, similarly floors are always tiled/marble/stone, wood or carpet is very rare. It’s all quite stressful with a toddler but we have coped in current flat with lots of rugs.

During the day I think we’d be living on the bottom two floors: ground floor with kitchen/living room/garden and 1st floor with playroom/bathroom.

To be clear, an apartment with garden is likely to be 2-bed (so no guest room OR office). Appartamento with gardens are all divided houses (rather than apartment blocks) and that just tends to be the layout.

I am feeling stressed at the idea of any stairs now. Plus Netflix keeps promoting “the staircase” to me!

We're in a four-floor town house. If you want to live in a house with a garden near the city centre, that's what you get here. We've had two kids (youngest is 3) since we moved in. Our stairs are stone, but not particularly steep.

It's been fine. DC1 fell down the stairs once, but accidents can happen whatever you do. They both learnt to negotiate stairs safely at a relatively early age. You do need to get in the mindset that upstairs isn't that far away, but you will get calves for that (buying boots may turn out more problematic).

Furniture can be tricky, but companies exist that specialise in this sort of stuff - local places in particular will be aware of the challenges of this sort of house is typical.

If you have a door, you probably don't need a stair gate too - we only have one in the whole house (at the top, where there's a landing shared between two rooms). All the other doors are just either shut (no access) or open (access).

I'm just moving out of a three storey town house with a three year old. It's been a great house - it gave us more space than we could have otherwise afforded and worked well for having guests to stay. For the same budget we'd have got a more conventional house only two thirds of the size.

We are now moving out to a more conventional house (of course our new house also has its compromises), but to be frank we're in a better position now - salaries have gone up and we've built up equity. If I could have my time again I'd have still bought the town house when we did.

Bit surprised by the responses. Our home is three stories. On the top floor is two bedrooms, middle floor the same, kitchen and receptions on the ground floor. It’s never ever been an issue for us. The stairs are fine though.

I genuinely don’t see a need for all bedrooms to be on the one upstairs floor, unless you’ve young kids and don’t have enough rooms on any given floor to be near them.