Do you live in a 3 or 4 storey house with small children?

[NoHotAshes]

I've seen a house on Rightmove which I like the look of, except that it is spread out over 4 floors. It's a tall, thin terrace. Two reception rooms on the ground floor, kitchen diner, utility and WC on the basement level which opens to the garden (it is lower at the back than at the front), two bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor and two bedrooms on the second floor. I have a toddler and a baby and I am wondering whether this layout would drive me crazy. I can see it could be good when DC are older but at the moment I don't want to make my life too hard either...

If you live in a 3 or 4 storey house with small children, how do you find it? Does it work for you?

[CanadaUSA]

I live in a 5 Storey residential house, all levels are finished with high ceiling no less than 8'. Some ceilings are over 8'. There's one floor that is over 10'.
Anyways, Whoever lives in a 2 storey with around 2,500 square footage or even 3,000 is not that big in fact it's small compare to my home which is 6,000 sq ft.

I have 5 levels, finished top floor attic used for a living space with TV, Skylights and lots of sunshine's, My finished attic is measured to be 40' x 30' which is 1,200 square feet it's a huge attic, i seen some homes around 1,200. Second Level with Living Room with big hallway to 3 Bedrooms, Huge Kitchen & Full Bathroom. Huge Deck access from Second Level. Main Level has another 3 bedrooms with hallway + Living Room with Big Kitchen & 2 Full Bathrooms & also a Mudroom. Lower Level is a few steps down from Main Level with 500 square feet used for an extra use and used to be a Store there and then below this lower level is the Basement which is all finished 1,200 square footage with lots of windows which is considered the 5th because it's the lowest and used as a living space.

Also have an large attached garage in the lot and have access to house that is 900 square footage. So I have 6,000 square footage in my entire home plus 900 sqft in my Garage.

I live with big family but i seen lonely people stay in homes like 6,000 to 10,000 sqft. homes for pleasure and if you stay in a home with less than 1,000 sq.ft then that is no good, either expand the home's square footage by finishing your attic or basement or buy a bigger home.

I like to live in a large home then i like to live in a large city too,

I live in Windsor the best bustling city. Windsor has over 400,000 people plus it's by Detroit and both cities compared we have 5.5 million people.

Ontario has 13.5 million people as of 2014 and in 2016 it may be more since Syrians moved in Ontario in 2015.

So I had to sign up and tell everyone that living in a big home is not a disaster even if it needs some renovations or repair by an handyman, get it done or do it yourself don't complain or tell others to live in a small home just because you could not succeed.

Most people would be jealous and would tell others to avoid big homes and I just don't like small homes even I were alone. Thousands and Millions of People have enjoyed living in huge homes, If i see homes less than 5,000 square feet like 2,500 or 3,800 I won't live in it, Because the more larger it is the better.

Now some say old people can't live in these big homes, I get it but my home is the best designed because it has less stairs too even if it has over 4 levels. Each floor is no more than 6-8.

If old people can't walk on stairs at all, then my home has an option, the front entrance has no stairs from the exterior so old people can just walk in and enjoy and don't have to go upstairs and stay and sleep in the lower level where there used to be a store.

I like the entire world to be peaceful and understand the being perfect is not hard, staying in a perfect country, perfect home and city is not hard and don't listen to others by paying rent to landlords, landlords use the money to live in their dream home,

Save money yourself be rich and do something nice in your life before saying good-bye to this beautiful universe.

[elvislives]

Bit late but we have 3 storeys and moved in with primary aged dcs. All our neighbours have moved out once they had toddlers and now we have a 2 yo we can see why. We have kitchen downstairs and living room upstairs so I have to cart DD round with me which is a PITA.

[NoHotAshes]

Well, just as I was thinking I could possibly live with it and it would be worth viewing, I see the house has gone under offer... We are moving 200 miles away so viewing is an expedition. Possibly it means I'm overthinking things.

[DamonBradleylovesPippi]

3 floors here too. I second Mamag the biggest pain is hoovering especially the stairs (have now invested in this which helps).

Would not find any other fault and ours does not even have a downstairs loo (I hate them!). Only one stairgate too.

Big plus is that our bedroom on the top floor never gets messy.

[MamaG]

3 storey here, DD and DS1 on top floor, my room and BAbyG on middle floor, kitchen etc on ground floor

I also have firedoors and smoke alarms wired in to electric

Only PITA is when one of the DC is ill and you're runnin gup and down two flights of stairs

oh and the fecking hoovering - 2 sets of stairs to hoover!

I like it though. Soon BabyG and DD will swap so both boys will be on the top floor, but I'm waiting until he sleeps through for that!

[allaboutme]

I live in 3 storey town house with 2 toddlers and have done for 2 years (before ds2 was born)
Apart from needing lots of stairgates (£££) we have had no problems at all
No toilet on middle floor (where all living space is) but ds1 potty trained with potty in living room and then was able to take himsef upstairs no problem
Slight difficulty getting new appliances delivered as they only deliver to doorstep so we have to get them all up the stairs ourselves (except John Lewis who I love and do it for you!)
We've taken all the springs out of our fire doors after my neighbours child lost the end of her finger in one....

[SausageRocket]

Ours are all self closing firedoors (without that horrid industrial looking arm bit, they just swing closed. They are heavy though so be extra careful with little fingers

[Fayrazzled]

NoHotAshes, the fire doors were put in as part of all the conversion work we did and I can't remember exactly how much they were. They're 4 panelled Victorian style doors from Howdens. I think they were about £70each but I could be wrong. We needed them for each bedroom and "living" room. the only rooms that didn't require them were the bathrooms. They were tricky to fit though because I wanted to keep the original door frames and architrave and so it was quite fiddly for the joiner. They're painted now and you wouldn't know they were fire doors to look at except they are heavier than normal internal doors. Ours didn't have to be self-closing but I think Building Regs can specify this in some cases.

[Beachcomber]

We live in a three storey house, mostly I'm pretty happy with it, sometimes it is a pain in the arse.

Our layout is; kitchen/diner leading onto small terrasse thingy (we are in France), my work space and a toilet/utility on ground floor.

First floor is a large living room which also has space for a big table that we use when we have too many people over to eat in the kitchen. This room has a door to the outside as well (we are on a slight slope).

Top floor is two children's rooms and a bathroom, then you go down a few steps to our bedroom which is huge and also has an office space in it.

We moved here before we had the children who are now 3 and 5 yo. I do do a lot of running up and down stairs but that doesn't bother me.

What does bother me about this house are more things that are to do with it being old rather than the levels. It is difficult and expensive to heat and somehow never looks as clean and tidy as a newer house could.

[Fennel]

One thing I like about lots of stairs and levels is that it feels very spacious, we get away from each other. Even though it doesn't have more rooms than many more modern houses all the staircases mean there is an air of distance, and privacy, that I think will be really useful as the dc get bigger.

[SausageRocket]

We moved to this 3 storey house when DD was 3yo, DS1 & DS2 were teenagers. All living accomodation is on ground floor (inc loo) and the 2 upstairs floors are bedrooms/bathrooms. Our boys have the top floor, we (inc DD) have the middle floor.

So in essence our house is not really any different to 2 storey living where young kids are concerned. Plus our stairs here are much safer than the ones in our previous 2 storey house. The stairs in our 2st were a continous flight whereas here they are broken up here into 2 flights (each with a half landing). The stairs here are also wider and not as steep so are much safer for kiddies to negotiate. If we had another child (highly unlikely) I wouldn't use stairgates in this house, whereas I did in my old house.

[vonsudenfed]

We live in a three story house with DD, who's two.

It works for us pretty well - downstairs is all open-plan kitchen and sittingroom, so I can see her really easily and get everything done.

Top floor is her bedroom, ours and a small shower room.

The middle floor has two more bedrooms - one is DH's study, one is guest bedroom/my study. Plus there's the family bathroom and various other odds and ends (airing cupboard, storeroom). DD doesn't spend much time here at all...

What makes it work for us is that there is a loo on every floor, it would drive me insane otherwise. Oh, and having DD miles upstairs at night is also good, as nothing disturbs her!

I know people who live in houses with a layout like yours, and it works fine, as long as you have space in the kitchen/diner for a play area and possibly even tv. If not, you might find it hard.

[Fennel]

We have 4 stories in this and in our old house with babies and toddlers (this house has 6 different sub-levels, almost every room has its own floor). Even the garden has its own stairs.

It can be a pain but we like old houses and can live with it. We have always had kitchen and living room and downsairs loo on the same floor though, which probably does make life easier. We all sleep on different levels and we just got used to it. the girls like it because there are lots of steep stairs to slide down . and I like it because it looks like an Escher house, staircases going off in all directions. So it works for us. We did have a lot of stairgates at one stage though.

[Dysgu]

We live in a 4 storey house with DD1 who is 2.10yo and DD2 who is 7mo.

We bought it prior to having children because we were planning on having them and didn't want a house that we would outgrow.

Layout - ground floor has livng room, kitchen/diner and downstairs loo.

First floor has master bedroom, nursery and bathroom.

Second floor has DD1's room and spare room/study.

Top floor is playroom.

We are in the process of changing things to move DD2 in with DD1, move study into nursery, make current study into playroom and top floor will be spare room/den.

I love this house. DD1 has always been great with stairs but we do have lots of gates and she is easy going and follows the rules!

DP wouldhave chosen a new build house on an estate but I think he likes the fact that we got a lot more house for our money as we have so much space even with 4 of us now.

The stairs do keep us fit - whatever you want is always on a different floor - but they have never got on my nerves.

I would like one day to put a loo/shower room on the second floor in the future.

I think it depends on you and what works for your family.

[BikeRunSki]

I was bought up in a 4 storey house (Victorian terrace), and am one of 4 children.

My mum hated it.

There were two loos in the house, neither of which were on same floor as living areas, so she was always running up and down stairs with a wet toddler (remember, there were 4 of us).

The bedrooms were spread out over three floors (basement and first floor, master bedroom on second (top) floor), so DPs were at least one floor, if not three away from DCs. Mum says that this did used to worry her, and she hated the idea of us coming up all those stairs at night if we wanted her. When we were older we had intercoms.

When DH and I bought the house we live in now, pre-children - Mum's first question was "Does it have a downstairs loo?", followed by "Are all the bedrooms on the same floor?".

My brothers also spent a lot of time pushing me down the stairs. But sliding down the bannisters was fun!

[squix]

We live in a three storey house with a 2 year old. Ground floor is garage, utility room and spare bedroom with shower. First floor is kitchen/ dinner and sitting room. Top floor is 4 beds and bathroom. The only slight downsides are carrying shopping up to the kitchen (unless the nice tesco's delivery man does it for us) and the lack of access to the garden from our main living area.

Also the spare room does get treated as a bit of a dumping room (out of sight/ out of mind ) resulting in a mad panic when someone comes to stay. We also had to put new fire doors in (can't remember how much), hardwired smoke alarm and a carbon monoxide sensor thingy.

Works fine for us and DD is now very confident using stairs. We did have a few stair gates though.

[moondog]

We lived in a 4 story [5 with attic] town house for a long time and gutted it completely.I used to love it but once the kidscame it was a complete nightmare [especially as my dh was away most of the time].

I remember crying to dh and saying 'I feel like I amliving on fucking scaffolding'. My life became considerably happier when we moved into a two story.

[NoHotAshes]

Fayrazzled, do you remember roughly how much the fire doors were? (Just for potential budget planning!)

Hulababy, do you eat in your kitchen or do you carry food upstairs form kitchen to dining room, and if so, is it ok?

[nouveaupauvre]

i live in a four storey house with toddler and love it- ds also seems to like it as going from the loft to the basement provides a fair bit of entertainment in itself (he does like stairs.....)
what would worry me is the kitchen on one floor and the receptions on the other. we have a kitchen/diner and playroom in the basement, when ds was tiny he was right next to me and now he can wander in and out of the garden/kitchen/playroom while im cooking or whatever and that works fine. you need the kitchen next to the garden i think like hulababy says. or else be prepared to not get a lot done while the dc are awake....

[Hulababy]

I live in a 3 storey town house. DD is 7y, but was 3y when we moved here.

Our layout is a bit different. Teh round floor is the garage, garden room (we use it as a dinign room), toilet and utility room. First floor is the kitchen and living room. Top floor is 3 bedrooms, one ensuite and a bathroom.

We generally live on the top two floors.

One thing I'd change would be to have a kitchen/diner on the ground floor, leading in to the garden, esp when DD was younger.

I don't find the stairs a problem.

[Fayrazzled]

Just come back to this re. fire: we have fire doors throughout our house and the smoke/heat alarms are hardwired into the electricity. I'm perfectly happy as a result with the children sleeping on the floor above. The smoke alarms are very sensitive and the fire doors give 30 mins protection. Our house is actually much safer now than it was before we did the work.

[NoHotAshes]

Urk, it's tricky. I'll have to ponder it some more. I hadn't thought about fire and that worries me too now!

[pagwatch]

we are in a three storey. Although the other two are bigger DD was only 18 months when we moved here.
I did have to keep an eye on her and we gave some thought to where to place certain rooms so I was close to where she naturally wanted to play. But it worked beautifully and I like that DS1 is now based in the basement which gives him a little space now he is 16.

I do get knackered going up and down the stairs a lotthough - but suppose it keeps me fit.

[OrphanAnnie]

We lost about £70k on a 3 storey town house because basically only couples seem to want them and couples don't have the £400k required to buy one apparently.
The layout is essential though and ours wasn't brilliant.

[edam]

Thing about children's bedrooms on different floor that would worry me is the risk of a fire. Although you can get your local brigade to come out and do a home safety check - with smoke alarms and a planned escape route I'm sure even my paranoia could be assuaged!