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.

FWIW I have an annexe and I think an extension is infinitely more useful, if I had to choose between them I'd choose an extension every time.

in your house I'd make the top floor a guest room and office.

Yes you could also use the top floor as playroom.
Due to our house layout, we have day to day toys in small room next to living room and he plays downstairs. But have a playroom higher up in house where we go up with him and had toy kitchen, brio, other larger things set up

Just bear in mind you're going to spend most of the first maybe 5 years wherever your child is playing so if they're in their 1st floor playroom you're not going to be spending much time downstairs cooking etc. it's not so bad through a door where they toddle back and forth / can shout you and you pop your head round, but it's going to get boring FAST if you're constantly up and down stairs, especially before they're old enough to do stairs confidently on their own. If you have a playdate, are you happy them being upstairs alone the whole time?

Are you definitely only having one?

I'd use first floor bedroom as yours to start with, moving up to the top floor as they gain independence and are more able to play alone. If you end up with more than one, this is also the age to split them.

Short term use upstairs for guests / office space and decorate neutrally so it's easier to convert into your bedroom.

Wouldn't have open plan with kids, it's hard enough keeping them away from the cooker / snacks as it is

I'm on a different floor to 4yo.

So obvs he comes up and sleeps in my attic and his bed is untouched...

I wouldn't bother with a playroom. They like to play close to you or in their rooms. A playroom just scatters stuff into a third zone which is little-used.
Ime anyway!

We have a separate lounge and open plan kitchen diner plus an under stairs w/c and a laundry cupboard to hide the washer and dryer. We didn’t have lots of space to work with but I really like having a separate living room, much more cosy, and closing the door means they baby can’t crawl away and get up to mischief when we’re in the lounge together 😂 also means an extra wall to put storage up against!

plus our baby happily plays in kitchen/diner when I’m in there and we’ll soon get a learning tower so she can get more involved with what I’m doing when a little older.

All toys are stored in our alcoves in the living room. Echo others, get lots of storage! We’ve found ottoman beds to be great for the constant getting out and storing of various baby stuff as they grow out of equipment and clothes so quickly (and then you get it back out for subsequent kids)

Definitely would recommend keep a bath, they are fab for instilling calm at the end of the day plus provide lots of entertainment once they can interact with bath toys!

We bought an amazing house about 100m2 before we had a baby and then we had a baby and I have wanted to move since. We realized we wanted specific schools and nurseries going forwards even though there was a decent school on our doorstep (not many nurseries though). Then we moved basically 2 years after we bought the house. I always think you're not sure until you have kids, so I'd not invest a lot of money especially into extensions etc as it's very costly in this day and age and it won't extend much in your plot/space. You may want to keep in mind that while you love the house now (we absolutely loved it to the point where we fought off 7 other offers in sealed bid during COVID), it may change. Do you have great primary and secondary schools in the catchment? So while I think some things like downstairs loo are money well spent (you will at least break even on that), anything more involved I'd leave until the first kid is 2 yo. Then if you have to move, you don't have to worry about lost money, you just sell a bit higher than purchase price and move.

Also closing off to create separate living lounge and dining/kitchen makes sense if there was another reception or dining room. It's just money that won't see any return. Think of sale value, not kids, make thoughtful investments to enjoy the space and make return.