Townhouses

[AllyAlly]

Hi
We are currently selling our house & have seen a 4 double bed detached house we like. The ground floor has a double integral garage, cloakroom, kitchen/breakfast room & dining room. The 1st floor has the living room (with juliet balcony), bathroom & bedrooms 3 & 4. The 2nd floor has the master bedroom with a big ensuite & bedroom 2 with ensuite. We would convert half of the double integral garage into a playroom for the kids.
We've always been opposed to townhouses but when we viewed it we immediately changed our minds. I am concerned about our children being on the floor below us in case of burglars but then again we would have a burglar alarm.
Does anyone live in a townhouse? Would you recommend?

I don't have a townhouse but do live in a house with 3 floors. The children sleep on the floor above us.

I love it and would never change it.

I think Hulababy may live in a townhouse.

I would be more concerned with difficulties getting the dcs to sleep when they are on the same floor as the living room, rather than burglers! I guess they would get used to it though.

Other than that the layout sounds fine. I know a few families in townhouses where all the kitchen/living space was on the 1st floor and it just didn't work for them - all ended up converting the garage to a kitchen.

Our children sleep on different floor to us - makes not a jot of difference. Incidentally, it is the same floor as our living room - quite handy when they go off to play in their rooms and everything goes mysteriously quiet. I have much more idea what is going on.

I like in a 3 bed 3 storey end townhouse.

Ground floor - entrance and hall way, utility, garage, downstairs toilet and a "garden" room which we now use as a dining room

First floor - large living room (big enough to have dining area) and a kitchen (with room for small table)

Second floor - master bedroom with ensuite, 2 more bedroooms and family bathroom

The one you are looking at sound smuch larger than ours and as it is detached I wouldn't really call it a townhouse as such.

For us it works really well as our maining living accomodation is ont he top two floors, and we all sleep on the same floor. At night we set our alarm for the bottm floor. I like the security of the first floor living; not sure why.

More and more houses are being built over 3 floors now - many with two floors of bedrooms. I think this is because of land prices, esp a few years back.

I really like it. You get used to the stairs

We lived in a georgian townhouse right in the town centre and had massive problems selling it, not many people like them and 4 beds is aimed at families.
What's the garden and parking like, those are big factors too ?

we do now and I have once before

I would recommend

the IMO key is having the kitchen/breakfast room (where you end up doing most of the 'living') on the ground floor with access to the garden - I find ones like Hula's that have (eg) the garage and a study on the ground floor and all living accom in the middle never work as well for me.

We have garage, cloakroom and kitchen-diner on the ground floor
living room, bathroom and bed4 (playroom) on middle floor
3 beds on top floor

We have large playroom, garage, conservatory and toilet on bottom floor; large living room and large kitchen with dining table plus utility room and another toilet on middle floor and three beds, one ensuite, and family bathroom on top floor. I absolutely love our house and wouldn't change it for anything. The only downsides are having to carry all the shopping upstairs to the kitchen (especially when you have a 3-year-old and 1-year-old to look after too!) and havign about three hundred stairgates to think about. ALso, the bottom room never really gets warm enough in the coldest part of winter - unless you put the heating on, in which case the rest of the house is too hot!

On the plus side, it's great having all our living space on the same floor and they say that you add an extra year to your life for every set of stairs you have!

oh stairgates

do not get me started

we bought the house when dd was 10m and cruisin
bought 4 stairgates in readiness
renovated house over the summer
moved in when she was 14m
by which time she could do stairs alone in complete safety

still haven't fitted a single one

anyone want 4 beautiful BabyDan beech stairgates, still in their blardy boxes?

I grew up in a townhouse and really disliked it, but yours sounds much bigger downstairs which I think is key. We had: garage, WC, small kitchen, small dining room on ground floor, then on 1st floor main bedroom with ensuite and living room, then 3 more bedrooms and a bathroom on 2nd floor. We all got fit going from kitchen to living room every time we wanted a cup of tea or forgot something. And it was a pain going up so many stairs to the top bedrooms with laundry etc. My parents had to move away recently when they got too decrepit to handle the stairs. But if you have a nice area downstairs that is large and pleasant to sit in I would think that's not so much of a problem.

with a small kitchen and a small dining room on the ground floor I'd consider remodelling to have a big eat-in kitchen

better use of space IMO

I lived in one for a few years. bloody annoying. dont do it.

I would have done that too MrsB. My parents' neighbours did it and it looked lovely. But Mum and Dad couldn't get their heads around not having a separate dining room. Mind you, they also liked the artex on the ceiling and the carpet in the bathroom...

we've got one and love it

ours was..
ground floor - integral garage, stupidly long hall, small utility room with loo, downstairs room that never really had a purpose other than storing junk

middle floor - lounge, kitchen, bathroom

top floor - three bedrooms

then we re-modelled and now it's...

ground floor - not quite so big integral garage, not quite so long hall, cloakroom (posh name for downstairs loo and sink!) and fabulous kitchen which is huge, has an enourmous table in it and has an extra bit hidden round the corner to act as a utility room (was part of the garage)

middle floor - lounge, study (will have all pcs, homework space etc, currently room full of junk ), bathroom

top floor - three bedrooms

ypou get used to the stairs

Just like MrsB here, except we've just finished converting old kitchen (middle floor) to bed + ensuite. 3 beds, study and big bathroom on top floor. Fab!!!

Our kitchen is on ground floor, and in the summer months we live there! Access to garden is key.

Our 'garage' had already been converted when we moved in, and was an internal bedroom for the mil so we made it into our big kitchen and utility (though looks like garage from outside).

DC love living here; all their friends love coming round! Not going to move until all dc have flown the nest (so at least another 16 years...)!

I live in a semi over 4 floors - lower ground floor has a bedroom and bathrooom (which we use as a spare or for an au pair when we have one), a store room (more of a walk-in disaster cuboard) and a playroom with access to garden up some steps. Raised ground floor has living/dining room, cloakroom and kitchen with access to garden. 1st floor has master bed, family bathroom and dd's room, top floor has ds1 and ds2's room plus a laundry/cloakroom. Top tip if you can put the washing machine on the top floor where the bedrooms are, saves a lot of stair walking with piles of washing. The layout works for us - although when kids were smaller having the playroom on a separate floor was slightly annoying, but now it is FAB. I have always been a bit laissez-faire about stairgates, so this was not a problem for us really. And we're pretty fit from all the stairs, although I do find myself yelling like a fishwife to the kids on the top floor because I can't be arsed to walk up.

Hated hated hated it and would never do it again.

We had big kitchen with access to the garden and a conservatory which we used as a playroom off the kitchen, loo and converted garage, which we used as a dining room on the ground floor.

Huge lounge and one bedroom on the middle floor and 2 beds and 3 baths on the top floor. Having children on the other floor was not an issue however it was horrible having the lounge on a different floor to the kitchen. It drove us demented and the lounge was rarely used. We love entertaining and the layout made it almost impossible.

We moved to a normal house 2 years ago and it's the best thing we ever did.

I would like to convert our downstairs a bit too, but as we are likly to move again at some pint we wouldnt get the money back on the costs.

I'd like to know the utility and garden room into one, and take in part of the garage (leaving enough of garage to allow for small car and/or some storage) and the understairs area, and turn it into a large kitchen diner, with doors out into the garden.

I would then change the upstairs kitchen into a playroom for DD and have the 3rd bedroom set up as a proper spare room.

Thanks everyone for your replies, most helpful. The garden isn't massive but plenty big enough to kick a ball around & it is secure. At the front there is space to park 2 cars, which is fine b/c we would only be converting half the double garage into a playroom so would still have a single garage left. With having the playroom on the ground floor next to the kitchen I am guessing I would be downstairs with the kids during the day & DH & I would use the living room at night - but obviously not have the TV blaring!
Another question here - are 3 storey houses very hot during summer time?
When we sell we will go back for a 2nd viewing to see if it really works for us.

We live in a townhouse. We have

ground floor: garage (now an internal bedroom), cloakroom and kitchen/diner

first floor: living room, bathroom, bed 3

second floor: master bedroom with ensuite, bed 2

Ours is laid out so that the kitchen, living room and main bedroom are all at the back, which helps with noise, and gets all the sun. The main room can get very hot in the summer but in the winter the ground floor is cold.

We were happy with it, except for the constant clearing of cups from the livingroom, which gets really irritating. But then we had DD2... (we moved here with kids of 6+).

All our neighbours have moved out as soon as they've had a baby and we can see why now DD is confined to one floor and we have to remember to keep the bathroom door shut too (in our case it's worse because the dog lives in the kitchen so I can't take DD downstairs with me). I am desperate for rooms on one level.

AA - yes, it does get hot on the top floor in the summer so we've just had ceiling fans installed (2nd nature to dh who is from deep S USA!). But our heating bills are tiny, and we never have heating on in the day in winter, and rads all v low when they are on.

Lots of families around our 'block' and also plenty of people who just never moved out! Something about the layout seems to suit some people more than others.

For me, one of the key advantages is the extra light you get by being 'up', even in the gloomiest winter day.

Thanks again everyone - a lot for DH & I to consider!!

I love ours! - we have downstairs: previous garage extended and converted into long kitchen/diner, playroom with patio doors to garden and cloakroom. Middle floor has our bedroom, living room and nursery (was the original kitchen and used to be a study before the baby came along!). Top floor has two more bedrooms plus another small study/bedroom and the bathroom.

I tend to live downstairs as we have the kitchen/diner open plan to the playroom - and we haven't decorated the living room yet - 4 yrs later!

xx