Would you buy a bungalow with young children?

[hummingbird12]

Just that really!
We're going to look at a bungalow this evening. It's in the area we're desperate to live in. 2 minute walk to our DC's current primary school.

The location is lovely. Great primary and secondary school options. Houses in the area don't come up often and usually out of budget. The bungalow has a great garden and is down a quiet little lane which we love.

We are currently in a 3 bed semi, small garden (although a good size house) with on street parking 10 minute drive from school.

The bungalow is only a two bed but the plan would be to get rid of of the conservatory and do a brick built extension for an open plan kitchen/living/dining area and then turn the current kitchen into a 3rd bedroom.
Will include a floor plan.

Just wanted to further opinions before we go to the viewing ☺️

Why wouldn't you buy a bungalow?

No need for stair gates and they hold their value. I am not sure why you might think the fact that it has no upstairs is relevant at all.

I don’t know where you live but I live in Ireland and when I was growing up most people lived in bungalows. I always wanted to!!! We lived in a very old 2 story, but my dad had grown up in a bungalow. So they were common here even in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Where I live now has a combination of both and I would happily move to a bungalow as it is the only way to get a detached house where I live. All of my friends who live in them moved in with very young children and are still there waiting th teenagers. In fact, it is the only house type that suits all life stages.

Yes, although we ended up buying a 2-storey, we looked at plenty of bungalows when we moved house.

The only thing we said was that we wouldn't want to have to put young DC in a bedroom that was right by the front door.

How does asking for opinions on this make me a weird person 😂

I've had very positive responses. I've personally never lived in a bungalow and I thought some people may find it cramped and feeling like you're on top of each other with young children.
Seems it's quite the opposite but thanks for your input ☺️☺️☺️

I don’t quite understand the logic in going from a three bed semi to a two bed bungalow which, even when extended, will still only be three bedrooms. Is the difference in location so immense as to make all the moving costs and hassle of building worth it? They are only a 10 minute drive apart …

We also don't have a driveway at the moment and live on quite a busy road. Our kids can't just go outside on their bikes for example, we have to drive somewhere suitable.
The bungalow is on a lane at the end of a quiet cul de sac. Our kids could walk to and from high school when the time comes

sounds perfect to me OP!

Because some people think that if you live in a bungalow and sleep downstairs someone will break in and murder you. But if you live in a bouse and sleep upstairs then they cant break in and walk upstairs and then murder you. 🤣

The floor space looks great and rooms are big so can prob be rejigged without extending.

I grew up in two bungalows until I was 23. Personally I didn't like them as I like the proper separation between living and sleeping. As a teen it was great for sneaking in and out lol.
I just prefer sleeping upstairs as I feel safer. I think if you can properly zone that bungalow it could work well. I wouldn't want a bedroom next to the front door and would prefer at back with an enclosed garden for safety reasons.

Ah right so there are other benefits which are worth trading the extra bedroom and cost for, I get you.

Thank you for all the feedback.
I totally ageee It does need some re jiggingI Yes I wouldn't put my children in a bedroom at the front of the property.

The extension details are obviously only an idea at the moment and it could change after we see the property tonight.
There is a lot of garden space to play with and if we do like it we would have a really good think about the best lay out suited for us 😊

I grew up abroad, everyone lived in villas that were single storey ie bungalows. Loved it, perfect for families.

my Mum downsized to a bungalow when my children were small

it was a really nice house. The only downside was that once one person was up (and my
mum was a very early riser!) , everyone was up because noise carried. I’d try and have the kids’ bedroom a little bit away from the kitchen , for example

Absolutely! Location sounds perfect and you and make the house fit your family.
Good luck!

I grew up in a bungalow and it is great for everything to all be on one level (esp if you have pets). It's also future proof if you intend staying there forever.

I'm a bit confused by some of the responses, you don't seem to need an extension. Flip bedroom 1 and ensuite with kitchen and utility room and block off door from dining room into lounge. Creat a new door from lounge into the new kitchen. Lounge looks to be a long room, so perfectly possible to have a dining table at one end. If you wanted to, you could potentially knock the wall down between new kitchen and this and have open plan. Depending on the construction type this might not be as expensive as you would think and would certainly be cheaper than an extension. Other thing to look out for is pitch of roof and width of hallway to see if there is the potential to go upwards later. If the ventilation is poor in shower room, because you have nothing above it you could potentially put a skylight in.

Another benefit of bungalows is the attic space, because they tend to sit on a bigger footprint than other types of house, you often have huge amounts of storage in the attic.

I would have no issue with kids sleeping on ground floor or near door. As long as you keep it locked it shouldn't be a problem. Ground floor bedrooms are much safer in a fire which is far more likely a risk than some randomer climbing in and running off with your children in the night.

Okay this is a great idea! Thank you!! 🤩
The conservatory isn't very pretty so we would replace it anyway with something more modern but this way the plumbing can sort of stay where it is! Thanks

I grew up in a bungalow and it was absolutely fine. It was quite a different layout to that though as all the public rooms were together at one end of the house off the main hall, and the other side of the hall had a passageway that had all the bedrooms and bathrooms. There was a door at the entrance to the passageway to keep out noise and another door half way down the passageway to further dampen the noise to the kids' bedrooms.

When my DC were little we lived in a three bed flat with about the same total square metres as your bungalow and all bedrooms and public rooms coming off the same hall. It actually worked fine as DD slept like a log no matter what and DS slept better when he could hear us in the sitting room because we were nearby. His room was directly opposite the kitchen and I used to put a load of laundry on at his bedtime for white noise. When we moved to a two storey house when he was about six years old his sleep went to shit because it was too quiet.

I'd snap it up, OP!

My parents live in a small, square 2 bed bungalow and when we stay I do feel like there’s no privacy and noise just travels. I really noticed it when putting young baby to bed, every toilet flush and kettle boil could be heard.
on the flip side a bungalow of that size and shape I’m sure would be a lot better and no stairs is a defiant bonus to me. Good luck with the move and renovations.
ps I also shared a room with my sister as a child and loved it.

All great feedback and ideas.
Thanks so much ☺️

I'd knock through between bedroom 2 and kitchen to create a kitchen diner.

Split the living room to make another bedroom at the top end, door to it from what remains of the lounge - v cheap to do. Between the existing dining room and the bottom end of the lounge you'd have decent daytime space.

Then ultimately, when you've saved up, put a bedroom and bathroom in the loft.

I lived in a bungalow for a few years and far from feeling cramped it had a real sense of space as there was no staircase taking up room. I aways felt as though I was on holiday!

do it! bungalows are great for small kids as you can use all your space all of the time.

Yeah. I suppose most people who go for bungalows, won't be moving in with children. I never thought about that.

@hummingbird12 Whilst your two daughters are more than happy to share now, trust me, as somebody who has got two daughters close in age, they will not want to share once they get to their teens. I really wouldn't be moving into a two bed property with two children. Nope.

And whilst I don't think it's super weird to live in a bungalow with children, I don't think anybody can say it's really common. I hardly know anybody with children who live in a bungalow. I think I have met 3 such people in my entire life.

One was a lady in her 70s who had her 30-something son living with her (I knew them around 20 years ago.) Then one of my neighbours has got a 4 year old (in a 2 bed bungalow.) And then there's my cousin, who has 4 kids in a bungalow.., But it's a purpose-built-from-scratch, 5 bed bungalow, with 2 bedrooms in the roof. Plenty of room for everyone.

I grew up in a bungalow, my parents still live there. If you extend too much you can end up with no-window rooms in the middle, such was my bedroom. DPs have now reconfigured it to a hallway. I would think carefully about the circulation in the house. Otherwise the lack of stairs is no problem and if course a giant loft.