2 or 3 floors?

[imeanwhy]

Here's the dilemma...

We are considering buying a house. There's one that is within our price range quite comfortably. It means more spare cash for a good lifestyle after. We can also extend a bit if we wanted in the future. My main concern is that it's across three levels so lots of stairs. It's fine now but we want this to be a forever home. Would it be silly to buy a house with so many stairs if we are looking to grow old in it?

The problem is that homes with two levels only in our area are almost always a stretch for us financially and while we could afford one perhaps, it might mean no more everyday luxuries. Is it worth it? I lean towards the 3 level one but worry it's going to be a mistake

Well, you might have to buy two stairlifts instead of one. Budget for an extra £5K.

The staircase is very narrow and turns. Not sure stairlifts would fit... however I have never researched for one so there might be a product there. Good thought. Thank you

My opinion...Go for the 2 floors. (Town houses are a PITA). The 2 floors are a better investment than dinner out, nightclubbing, coffee out all the time or whatever your 'lifestyle' is.

We have a 3 storey house, and my only (but biggish!) issue is that we have to be on a different level to my son. When we bought the house, we didn't have children, and although we knew we wanted them, the thought of different floors didn't seem as bad as when it actually got to that point.

If I could choose again for this stage of our lives, I would probably go for a 2 storey.

So, I suppose my answer would be if you have young children / would like young children, I'd recommend a 2 storey!

Very good point.
So in this case, the particular 3 level house allows for two main bedrooms to be on the same level so we can be on the same floor as DC. There is also a bathroom on every level so there's no issue with going up/down steps in the middle of the night for the toilet either

We have a 3 storey house. 3 beds on the first floor, 2 on the second. I wouldn't need more than 2 hands to count the amount of times I've been up to the second floor this year. We're going to extend the ground floor to incorporate a ground floor bedroom and leave the second floor bedrooms as storage. I genuinely CBA with those rooms. Although we already know this house isn't our 'forever' home. We've 3 generations living in it now. When there's only one (ie grandparents and children gone from home), we're going to sell up and downsize. It's too big for us to retire in.

This is interesting @Viewfrommyhouse
Thinking about it, in theory we could mainly live on the ground and first level most of the time and have the top floor for guests and a home office, (we some times work from home). And yes perhaps I am overthinking the retirement... needs might change by then

Our plot is large (4 acres) - no way I want to be sodding about on a mower in my latter years for 10 months of year. IF we didn't have the acreage, I might consider staying, but I'd still make the upstairs rooms for guests only and live on the ground floor. Which essentially makes it an absolute waste. I'm already fantasising about a 2 bed ground floor flat with a courtyard garden 😅

I live in a three storey and I love having three floors. Possibly because it’s a new build with small rooms, so it feels more spacious/easier to get away from the kids and from work (I wfh) as I go up to my top floor bedroom. The same amount of rooms on 2 floors wouldn’t feel as spaced out.

I don’t think 3 floors is ideal for elderly people, though fine for younger people.

If you feel strongly that you don’t want to move again in your 70s say, I would not be buying a house with 3 floors.

Stairs keep you fit, MIL is in her late 80s and still doing great and I'm sure running up and down her stairs all day is a big factor.

We have three floors. The top floor is my office/spare room. I like having work on a different floor, the physical separation helps the mental separation. But my ideal house would be a four storey georgian townhouse.

People on Mumsnet have a bizarre vision of old-age where every person of retirement age can't manage without a stairlift! The quickest way to lose the ability to manage stairs is to live in a bungalow where you never need to use the muscles in your legs.

@Tupster you are not wrong there. In fact neither set of my grandparents had a stairlift and my parents and in laws don't either. They all lived in houses with stairs. However, my parents have only 2 levels and have always been quite mobile. My in laws have lots of levels/stairs and now struggle with mobility issues unrelated to stairs and as a result find life hard in a house with lots of stairs... it might be the luck of the draw there up to a point, no matter how fit and healthy we try to keep...

My parents moved into a bungalow in their 50’s and it significantly and negatively affected their leg muscles which is not a positive thing in old age. More stairs now may stand you ( literally) in good stead later.
My husband and I retired 3 years ago and were lucky to be able to build the home we will live in into old age. We built over 3 floors. On the top floor there is a huge storage room, we figured this was a good idea for ongoing independence because my dad was always asking us to put things in or take them out of the loft plus clambering up ladders isn’t very safe as you age. On the second floor are 4 bedrooms including ours for now and on the ground floor we have a large open plan space with kitchen/dining and living area. We have a separate large study a utility room and a big shower room with an easily accessible shower. This room has doors to a large downstairs bedroom and the hall.
All the downstairs floors are tiled so there is free flow. My parents struggled with the changes of flooring especially when they started to rely on walking frames. The study could easily be converted to a carers room if necessary in the future. Essentially we’ve configured the house so that it works for us now and will do so as we age when we could use the downstairs as a sort of bungalow. If you did your extension could you achieve something similar?

@Icanthinkformyselfthanks thank you, this is very useful. Yes, an extension could add space for an extra room. And we could even have one of those office/cabin/outbuildings as a yoga room/summer room if we wanted, the garden is big enough.
I am now leaning towards the 3 floor one even more!

I love the idea of the home giving us exercise, I hadn't thought about it like that at all. Thank you lovely mumsnetters! This is all incredibly helpful

I love my three storey house. As pp have said, I think it keeps you fit. Stairs are great exercise and tbh, if it gets difficult when I get older I am determined to keep at it, even if I'm slow going up and down! Use it or lose it I suppose...

I fail to see how it is necessary to have 3 floors over 2 to keep you active, especially as some people have said on this thread they may stop using the third floor if it gets too much when elderly.

This thread is about 2 floors versus 3 floors not about a normal house versus a bungalow. I agree that buying a bungalow could have an impact but as long as you have a house with stairs you will be using your leg muscles to climb stairs all the time and don’t need an extra floor.