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Original poster

house layout - would it bother you

37 replies

Mammina · 14/11/2008 16:52

we have seen a house that we love except the layout is a bit odd. It's a 3 storey house with kitchen & lounge on lower ground, bedrooms on 1st & 2nd floor.

There is a separate entrance to lower ground but the main front door (via outside steps) opens onto hallway of 1st floor (i.e. where bedrooms are). My main issue with this is that I would feel uncomfortable with DCs sleeping on 1st floor bec if god forbid we got burgled, they would come across DCs first (bec master bedroom is on 2nd floor).

Thoughts please, am I being ridiculous? Everything else about it is perfect

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 14/11/2008 16:53

Think about how you could rearrange the layout to suit you.

ForeverOptimistic · 14/11/2008 16:54

Hmm, we stayed in a holiday home with a similar layout and I felt uncomfortable with ds sleeping on a separate floor that I ended up moving him into our bedroom. How old are your dc's?

Bramshott · 14/11/2008 16:55

I don't think that would bother me at all. I would however, get a good lock and chain for the door. I grew up in a very odd house though, where my bedroom and my brother's were off the kitchen. My mum has always maintained that she saw far more of us as teenagers because of this.

llareggub · 14/11/2008 16:56

Could you block up the main entrance and just use the lower ground entrance? That way you just have one entrance to secure. I'd look at moving the master bedroom to be honest, because it would bother me.

muppetgirl · 14/11/2008 16:57

We have a house that I wasn't happy with the layout at first. 3 years on I am still unhappy with the layout...

Our living room is on the second floor (also 3 storey house) so when I am cooking ds 1 and ds 2 -12 months- are upstairs alone. It also means I always have to make sure the dogs ar with me.

We have since changed the study downstairs to a playroom/downstairs sitting room so I can see the boys from the kitchen whilst this works we don't often use the living room now and I feel it is a waste of space that I would love to have downstairs!

I was always told to have a 10 point check list when buying a home. List what you need to have and if you can fulfill 8-10 of the needs then the house is for you any less and it's clearly not.

edam · 14/11/2008 16:59

It would bother me. If you buy it, get good locks and rearrange the bedroom so yours is nearest to the main door. And keep the security chain on when you are in. (But ask the fire brigade about this - they will come out and do a fire safety check for you.)

LadyOfRObamaffle · 14/11/2008 17:03

Block the front door well from inside. Athough, as a plus it is good fire escape. Can you switch bedrooms, possibly knock walls down etc.? We have a 3rd bedroom here but it is downstairs off the hall so totally useless .

Blinglovin · 14/11/2008 17:05

I think you just need to make sure the door is secure - get security gates perhaps? You can get ones that slide closed so that during the day you can open them and keep them out of the way. If you lived in a single story place DCs would all be on same floor as front door (I appreciate that so would you).

Original poster
Mammina · 14/11/2008 17:15

Thanks everyone, some good advice. Was thinking we could get a great big bolt for the front door...
When I said DCs I meant 1 DD & 1 or 2 fantasy DCs (desperately TTC no.2!) - DD is 2.

LadyOf, true that it's a good fire escape!

It's just that I've only ever lived in flats before, not even ground floor ones, so have always felt 'safe'. (was brought up in a bungalow though... but it was out in the sticks so no burglars in sight

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Original poster
Mammina · 14/11/2008 17:50

another point to consider, it is rare to find a 3 storey in the area we want (especially one that we can afford(ish)), most of the other houses are 2 storey, so it's a toss up of a whole extra floor with not so great layout, or traditional layout with less space. Arrrrgh

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PuppyMonkey · 14/11/2008 17:53

Quirky. like it.

Jampot · 14/11/2008 19:26

can you turn master bedroom on 2nd floor into 2 rooms for children instead?

KatieDD · 14/11/2008 20:03

We left a beautiful townhouse for this reason, it was fire that bothered me more than a burglary, I couldn't live with the worry the children might be trapped above or below me, with me jumping out of a window and them not able to.
I'd keep looking.

edam · 14/11/2008 23:33

Katie, that's exactly what I always think when I see those houses where someone's converted the loft to create a 'master suite'. Why the hell would you want to be on a different floor to your children?

edam · 14/11/2008 23:34

(Unless of course you are the Lord of wherever and the nanny sleeps on the same floor as the children.)

KatieDD · 14/11/2008 23:46

I am extremely happy with my bungalow these days one extreme to the other.

ruddynorah · 14/11/2008 23:51

we're on the floor above dd. don't see it as a problm. wouldn't like the front door to open on her floor though. i had a friend at school with a house like that, was very odd.

Twinklemegan · 15/11/2008 00:16

I wouldn't want to be on a different floor from DS. Our house has a weird layout being upside down. We've recently moved our lounge downstairs into what was our bedroom because we can't afford to heat the upstairs. We could have moved our bedroom upstairs but we chose not to for this very reason. Hence we are now squeezed into the study so we can be on the same floor. The one thing that annoys me about this layout is having to leave DS downstairs when I go up to the kitchen.

Bad layouts can get very irritating, so if it isn't something you can change I would give the house a miss. We are going to turn our house back the right way up. I'm fed up with quirky layouts.

lalalonglegs · 15/11/2008 09:20

Likelihood of being burgled while everyone is asleep in the house and the burglars doing something to/kidnapping children is minimal. If you are worried about fire, do what building regs demands these days which is to install very good smoke detectors linked to electrical circuit (that way batteries can't run out) and fire doors on all the main rooms.

Kind of ridiculous that even living in a house with an unconventional layout is now seen as child neglect by some MNers .

ChasingSquirrels · 15/11/2008 09:22

there is one like this on the market near us (although middle floor is on ground level, with lower floor being ground level at the back - built into a slope).
Security wouldn't have occured to me.

MadameCastafiore · 15/11/2008 09:22

We looked at houses like this but decided not to buy one for fire and security issues we didn't want to be on a different floor to the DCs if someone broke in or a fire broke out.

Original poster
Mammina · 15/11/2008 21:02

I have to admit i never thought of the fire thing before, however since there's a door to the outside on the 1st floor, technically it would be the same as being in a 'normal' house with the bedrooms upstairs

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KatieDD · 16/11/2008 10:27

But if you're not in the room to open that door then it's no good. My worry is if the kids were sat scared and didn't run down the stairs or jump out of the window because they were frightened.

Original poster
Mammina · 16/11/2008 11:30

oh god katie that makes me feel sick just thinking about it. think I might speak to the fire dept about it & see what they say. I have kind of got round to the idea of moving the master bedroom to 1st (middle) floor if/when we have another, & children sleeping upstairs, but the fire issue has got me paranoid now.
Where we live at the moment is a flat right at the top of a 4 storey house, so hardly ideal in a fire, but we do have access to the roof (we sleep in the eaves) should something happen, and the added piece of mind that the fire station is literally at the end of our road...
flippin heck am more confused than ever now

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WingsofaAngel · 16/11/2008 11:35

We have a three storey house.

Our boys have the top floor. Our bedroom has a balcony with a door out onto it and I wouldn't have liked them being in there.