Renovation before kids - any advice?

[GrowingRoses]

We just bought our first house and are hoping to have kids in 1-2 years. The house is functional but the opposite of our taste and we want to renovate it before the tiny feet come along. But without actually having had children, its hard to know what I should factor into renovation - I don’t want to redo everything in three years! What changes did you have to make after kids arrived?

it’s a three story house. Ground floor is open plan living kitchen room which we hate and going to close living room off and lose some kitchen for a small utility room. Second floor is two bedrooms and a bathroom which we plan to make a bedroom, play room and kids bathroom. Top floor is loft bedroom with eaves and sloped ceilings that will be ensuite master bedroom. I like the idea of there being a kids floor and parents floor so there is some privacy and toys can go wild but mayne this is totally unrealistic.

Kids floor and adults floor is great when they are older but not when they are babies. My youngest was 5 when I had the loft done and moved to a separate floor.

Also playroom on first floor probably wouldn't be used for ages - you would not leave them alone upstairs at a young age (and they would want to be near you anyway) unless you use it as a centralised toy storage but that would be annoying taking everything up and down.

Sounds lovely!

When they are little (under 5) they like to be in the same space as you and when they are very little (under about 3) you need to watch them constantly. On that basis I wouldn't wall off the kitchen from the lounge.

You could do kitchen and playroom (open plan) on ground floor and use one of the upstairs rooms as a grown up lounge. Then switch it round when they are school age.

You might be better leaving the lounge/kitchen open plan, as then you can watch them while you cook. Otherwise you will be constantly popping in and out.
Also, I personally wouldn’t want to be on a different floor when you start leaving babies in their own room.

Yes, I agree that open plan is great when they're young (even though I agree that I prefer the rooms separate generally) and there's no way I'd be sleeping on a different floor until they're a lot older. Utility room is a good idea though!

The best thing you could possibly do, if you can fit it in, is install some kind of boot room to deal with all the shoes, wellies, trainers, coats of every variety, scooters, sports kits and school bags. If you can put your washer/dryer and a sink in there too, it makes the process of cleaning up muddy stuff etc much more efficient.

We did this when we renovated a few years back and it transformed the tidiness of the hallway/entrance and in fact the rest of the house. It is the first thing any parent comments on when they come to visit because they’re inundated with this volume of stuff and don’t have anywhere to put it.

Also great if you decide to get a dog!

I agree with other posters that for many years you will be next to your children - initially because they are kamikaze loons who can’t be trusted, but then they also spend years being clingy even when they’re safe. You are going to spend a lot of time in the kids area.

i would definitely keep a bath if there is one or put one in. Yes little kids can shower, but a bath is great for kids.

Our playroom was on a different floor to the living room/ kitchen area. The kids never used it. They wanted to be near us.

It's great now they're teens and have it as a hang out space.

Boot room (dog room) downstairs loo and shower.

Live in the house for a year before you do anything to see how light and shadow crosses the rooms during the day and across the seasons.
Move out temporarily.
Do all the technical stuff like rewiring plumbing and drainage first.
Then do the "pretty" stuff.

Storage storage storage- prams, bikes, camping stuff, sports kit, toys
Wiring for internet through whole house (WFH as well as TV and games later)
Y to a good boot room/entrance/utility.
Don't have light carpets in your busy areas downstairs.
Spare bedroom or room that works for a guest room if you have grandparents who might stay over.
Keep you spare paint for touching up of walls.
Basically if you don't have much space, flexibility is essential, rooms that can be adapted or closed off with dividing doors.
We didn't have a playroom but all the toys in the lounge went into cupboard units at the end of the day so it felt like the grown ups room in the evening.

Tbh I wouldn't buy a three-storey house with kids. It's a pain going up and down all the stairs when the thing you need is on a different floor, and when you have kids it just adds to the faff. However, sounds as if you've already bought it.

As PPs have said, you really need to keep the ground floor open plan. You will be in the kitchen a lot - preparing meals and tidying up afterwards - and you'll need to have the children with you to keep an eye on them. If it's an open plan kitchen/diner with space for a play corner, that'll be ideal.

When your baby is a newborn, they will sleep in your bedroom for at least the first 6 months. So you can all sleep in the master bedroom on the top floor. But when you move baby into their own room, you'll need to be on the same floor, so you'll need to all sleep in the two bedrooms on the first floor.

"how much space do babies need to play in the watching closely stage?"

Babies don't need much space. They stay where you put them. But once they can crawl (around 6-9 months IIRC) it's harder! And toddlers love to move around and you end up with toys everywhere. You can't contain them in a small space and expect them to be calmly occupied while you cook. You also need to consider the safety aspect; you can't have a baby in a bouncer too close to the hob for example.

Storage. Put in as much storage as you reasonably can. Places for coats, hats, wellies, somewhere for the pushchair, high chair. All the other bloody great big, bright and flashy toys/walkers/jumper ops etc that they end up with, craft supplies, a million stuffed animals.

We lived in a three storey house when ours were babies/little.
I don't get the issue some have with being on a different floor once they're out of your room - with a monitor it was fine for us. What's going to happen?!

But yes, playing in the day they wanted to be nearby, so I'd still separate the lounge (I hate open plan) but have an area for playing/ a TV in the kitchen

Just looked at your floor plan. I don't think it makes a good use of space with that huge kitchen. I would look at partitioning it differently to give you a utility room with an airer (kids create a lot of laundry ) and downstairs WC, and then a more space efficient kitchen /dining area maybe with some big built in cupboards.

For me the "all on one floor" issue is less when they're babies (although I would find it annoying to go up and down the stairs for any night wakings) and more for when they're older. DS1 is 5 and wouldn't like it if we were on a different floor to him, and if he calls out from nightmares or comes to get us then it's easier. That's likely very child dependant though!

We have glass bi fold doors between our lounge and kitchen diner and they are a really flexible solution meaning space can all be open or can close it off if one of the kids is watching TV and the other is doing homework. I hated having a separate lounge in our first house (despite buying the house with that in mind!) because you are forever popping in and out when they are small and adding the doors means you aren't committing either way and can quite cheaply revise your plans in the future.

It's amazing how much stuff little kids have and how large their equipment is (jumperoo!). I would plan two play spaces, one in each of the downstairs rooms. My colleague has an upstairs playroom and their pre school children are never in it as they want to be where you are and you will.need to be downstairs.

I wouldn't go for built in furniture as our toy storage needs change all the time as our kids have grown so we find flexible storage cupboards, Kallax (there is a reason all parents have at least one of these!) and shelves more useful.

Those storage cupboards under the stairs look massive so could you get a toilet in one and a utility cupboard in the other? I agree a utility room is amazing if you can get one in, personally I don't think your kitchen layout works very well and if a kitchen refurb is already part of your plan I would revisit the space and see if you can keep some through flow between the kitchen and living space and get a utility in as well, even if it's a single glass door between the two areas you can see through .Toilet can still go under the stairs if space is tight.

For bedrooms, I would have the bigger of the first floor bedrooms as yours initially and keep the top room for a study/spare guest room when children are young. We were up multiple times during the night with our children for several years and if I'd had to go up and down stairs each time I would have found it insufferable. Also don't be surprised if your maternal instincts kick in and you want your baby on the same floor as you. As your family grows and privacy becomes key you can move up to the loft bedroom at that time.

Do you / will you need to WFH? I'd have loft room as office/evening adult hang out space/spare room. You have bedroom on first floor and one of those rooms becomes kid(s) room.

For at least six months baby is in with you, depending on sleep gremlins it can be more like two years so you don't need baby bedroom from the get go. My kids prefer sharing a room to one of their own (5&7 yo).

We have separate dining and living rooms which is warmer and helps with WFH. I think it's also easier for kids to eat without distraction from toys in open plan living/dining space. But I wouldn't put a wall in for that!

Playrooms often become messy dumping grounds.

Not to sound gloomy, but conceiving and having babies is an unpredictable thing and building works ate unpredictable and often cost more/take longer than you think. Talking from experience. Prioritise what you want done, remember if you're borrowing to fund it then mortgage lenders give you less if you have kids because of reduced earning power/nursery costs so get the money before the kids, ideally.

Plenty of people end up heavily pregnant in a building site/with baby in dusty, half built house - timing is important! We've been in our fixer upper nearly a decade and, erm, it's not quite fixed up yet.

Depends if you have a good sleeper or not. If your baby/toddler wakes a lot in the night (one of mine did) it's annoying enough having to get up, let alone go up and down stairs! Also when they get old enough they'll come into your room when they need you, I'd rather they weren't going up/down stairs in the night when half asleep.

I really appreciate the wealth of wisdom here. I think my summary is:

• When they are small (under 3 at least/under 5 probably), open plan kitchen/dining/play area is ideal
• Ideally sleep on same floor as them until they are about 5 to avoid going up and downstairs, but this really depends on kind of sleepers you get and monitor is an alternative
• Utility room and downstairs loo make a big difference
• Boot room/space for epic amounts pram/bikes/sports gear etc
• Because kids change so much, go for flexible storage where possible - and as much of it as you can
• Spare room for grandparents (we are planning to build a garden office with space for sleeping and a loo)
• Keep extra paint for touch ups to walls
• Have a bath
• Live in the house for a year before you do anything but factor in both renovations and TTC are unpredictable
• Do technical stuff before pretty stuff.

Because of the house layout we can basically either have open plan kitchen/living room or closed living room (or play room) and utility room + downstairs loo - if you had to choose one or the other what would you prioritise?

"Because of the house layout we can basically either have open plan kitchen/living room or closed living room (or play room) and utility room + downstairs loo - if you had to choose one or the other what would you prioritise?"

Frankly, the ground floor isn't big enough for a separate utility room. You could do a utility cupboard under the stairs or even put a washing machine in/near the bathroom on the first floor.

I'd definitely want a toilet on the ground floor. When baby is small, you won't want to leave them on the ground floor while you go to the loo on the first floor, and when they're a toddler they'll follow you to the loo (so it'll be slow making sure they go up the stairs safely before you can get to the loo). Potty training is ok because you can have a potty on the ground floor, but without a toilet there you'll have to carry the full potty upstairs to empty it.
I do think you should be able to fit a downstairs loo somewhere in that floor plan without losing too much space in your open plan kitchen/diner/family room.

If budget allows, I'd be looking into doing a small ground floor extension, which would give you what you want/need - extra space for loo/utility and a separate front room (living room or study) but keeping the open plan kitchen/diner/family room.

@NameChange30 utility cupboard is probably more accurate - basically easher dryer side by side and pulley airer above. So its only 1.2m wide, about 1.2m deep. We don’t really want to extend (its already been extended a bit anyway) as a lot of garden will get eaten up by garden office but you are right it could be worth considering an extra metre or so.

In your plan, I would love living room door closer to front door. Then you free up under stairs and end of hallway as downstairs toilet/ laundry space.

My 4 year old still wakes every single night. So sometime between 12-5am he wakes and walks half asleep to our room next door. I wouldn’t want him walking up or down the stairs at night alone when he’s half asleep due to risk of falling down. So I would bedroom on the same floor until at least 6-7 years

if you haven’t got a garage, then add shed later for bikes/ scooters/ ball games/ beach stuff