house layout - would it bother you

[Mammina]

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

I wouldnt like it..but then I am a bit strange about house layouts and obv quite a prude when it comes to the unorthodox with re floor plans..There was a house near us where we lived before that you entered off the street, but that had all the other rooms below the entrance rather than above, as the back garden was kid of two stories lower than the front iyswim..I used to pass it and worry about the layout for the people that lived there, even though id never even been in..so you see, mad as a hatter

wings I think I would feel the same. does the fire issue worry you? how old are your boys?

er yes scootini, I think you are a bit mad !
having always lived in a flat and brought up in a bungalow where everything is on the same floor anyway I'm kind of thinking hell, it's a house with loads of space, who cares if our bedroom is on the same level as the lounge

We live in a dorma bungalow...kids rooms are on the ground floor and ours in the dorma. I had never thought about the burgulary senario..... but I have only been broken into once and it was I was out. The likelyhood of a burgurlar breaking in while you are home is very low. They prefer houses that are empty.

Think it comes from being nosy and nebbing in other peoples front windows as I pass, which then leads me onto thinking about how I would use the space.The it bothers me if I cant think of a good way of doing it..Should prob just stop looking huh?

The boys are 5 and 9.

The only way anyone could get in upstairs is if the climbed onto the balconey.

The window in their room is opens enough for them to get out of via a ladder.

We have just moved into our house which we completely renovated first. It only has a 54m2 footprint and very thick walls and for various reasons we ended up with kitchen/dining, shower-room and kids bedroom on ground floor and our bedroom, bathroom and living room on first floor. On the top floor is a very small open plan study and roof terrace.

I was worried about sleeping on a different floor to my DDs but the reality is ok, they are no further away than they were when we lived in a big flat and they were two rooms away down a corridor. I worry about fire (but have yet to fit the smoke alarms especially since all the windows have bars (it's in Spain).
We could have had the kids on the same floor as us but would have to have sacrificed half the living room which is only about 20m2.

If the OP likes the house in general than the layout can be worked around. Locks, smoke-alarms etc can be added. You can always use a smaller room for the master bedroom to be nearer the DC.

have people coming for lunch so have to go & sort some food out, but thanks for all replies, will check in later

Don't think I'd buy a dormer bungalow with the parents' bedroom upstairs but each to their own. I'm too paranoid about fire.

Burglars do break in when they think the occupants are asleep upstairs - happened to two friends of mine recently. But that wouldn't worry me as much as a fire - I imagine most burglars would be more interested in handbags and wallets rather than ds.

Errrrrm ..... Fire alarms?

I would prefer my kids to be downstairs where they could climb out of a window without the 10 foot drop on the other side.

Also if there is fire coming up a hall and their room is on the other side of the house how are you going to get to them.

No house is perfect in terms of fire safety. Ours works for us and our evacuation plans.

I have been in 2 houses where there were fires, my parent's split level house and a traditional 2 up 2 down. The first was much easier to get away from the fire than the second where we had to crawl through a smoke filled hallway.

DS is going to be moving downstairs shortly (chalet bungalow) as he needs more space. I did think carefully about it from the fire risk point of view but have decided that with various smoke detectors etc, those ladders so you can climb out the window and get down to his bedroom window, I am OK with it. I am looking into getting a walky talky so I can speak to him in case of an emergency during the time it would take for us to get out of the window and down to him, probably sounds ridiculous but I would feel happier about it.

Round here there are loads of chalet bungalows and a lot of people sleep on different floors to their children so it feels relatively normal.

No house is perfect and it's a case of making an evacution plan and smoke detectors on every floor.

My problem with third floors is it's so damn far to jump if you had to, even if mum and dad were below screaming for them to jump I don't think my kids would. And it would take longer for the firemen to get to them and through more smoke/fire/god know what.