Would 4 bedrooms work in a blended family?

[SoManySquishmallows]

Hi,

We are a blended family with 4 children between us, another baby due in early June (this will 100% be our last!).

Children are:

DD 6 (mine) - lives with us 80% of the time, does majority of her school days/hobbies from here so has lots of her belongings here

DSD 12 - visits EOW and half of school hols, doesn't have many belongings here (through choice)
DSD 9 - visits EOW and half of school hols, has lots of belongings here

DD 1 (ours)
DD unborn (ours, due in summer)

We are currently renting a lovely 5 bed house which we have only just really settled into (moved early last year) and had hoped to stay in fairly long term. However the landlord has just let us know he plans to sell early next year, so now we (mostly I!!) am massively stressed about what to do next. We had however always planned to buy together in the near future, and this is a much more desirable option than looking for another rented house for the short term as they are few and far between where we are.

A house is currently on the market (and has been for a while) which is absolutely perfect for us in every respect other than it only has 4 bedrooms. However, it has massive development potential and could be extended to provide at least 1 if not 2 additional bedrooms. We are due to view it next week but my question is, how would you divide/allocate the rooms based off the below? The girls currently all have their own rooms (including our toddler) but clearly this wouldn't be possible in the potential house.

4 bedrooms:
1 very large (easily room for a king sized bed and lots of other furniture)
1 large (built in wardrobes, drawers and still room for a double bed)
1 large (built in wardrobes, drawers and still room for a double bed)
1 small (sloping roof, just room for a single bed and a few small pieces of furniture)

In the current house we'd always planned on shifting rooms around to enable our two youngest to share as this makes most sense in terms of age gaps, with DSD12 probably going into the current smallest room as she only really uses her bed and small desk currently, doesn't have/want toys or anything much in her room other than this. Other than this, I really can't figure out what would make the most sense.

Grateful for any ideas/perspectives/thoughts as I'm going down a rabbit hole and we haven't even been to see the house yet!!

Thanks xx

DSDs in one room, 6 year old in one, you two in biggest, keep baby in with you for a while and toddler in last one. Hopefully extend soon so baby gets one when old enough?

Your small children can share once the baby is out of your room?

I think 4 beds is fine and makes sense to me.

Your room,
Toddler and baby in a room
Dsds room
6yr olds room

6yr can have some space away from the little ones and stop her things getting messed up.
Dsds aren't there often enough to need 2 rooms.
Little ones bedtime will be easier once in toddler hood if they're together. And by the time they're bigger, the older ones will probably not be sleeping over so they can have their own room then.

Ooh this is trickier than it sounds because that final room is tiny. I’d do:

Toddler in very large room
You in medium room
DSDs in medium room
DD in tiny room

Sell toddler room as also the playroom, with DD to have her stuff in there (in a lockable cabinet / shelves), and baby to join when old enough.

4 beds is def doable and you should def buy the house if it ticks lots of boxes! Do 6 and 9 get on well? I’d do 12 in box room; 6 and 9 sharing biggest room (could divide room into 2 if need be, we’ve done this in our biggest bedroom); 1yo in large room to share with new baby when baby is big enough; adults in final large room. Job done

Give DD6 the small room , ask DSDs to share the largest room with a divider if possible , DDI and baby to share , your room being the smallest large room .

DD 6 box room, DSDs share, little ones share? Surely that's the only viable route?

I mean it doesn't sound ideal, but having 5 children was always going to mean things were tight.

Depending how well they get on I’d probably put 12 yo in box room (she is the eldest and has the least amount of stuff)

6&9 yo in the biggest room (you could maybe split the room in 2 - rather easily done, after all DSD is only there EOW so majority of the time your 6yo won’t have to share)

toddler and baby in one room and you and DH in the other 😊

Now:
DD 1 small
DD unborn & you Large (and in with you for the first year)
DD 6 large
DD 12 + 9 share very large - or split to make 2 small rooms

Later (when DD unborn grows too big to share with you)
You Large
DD 1 and DD unborn share large
DD 12 Small
DD 6+9 share very large - or have two small if it's split

How many rooms downstairs? Any way of making one of them into a bedroom?

I would say 12&9 in together, 6 yo in the small room, and 1 yo in the big room, to share when baby is old enough.

Could you buy the house you’re currently renting?

This is a good idea! Worth a try as the landlord would save on a rental gap and on estate agent's fees.

I'd keep largest room for you, small room your 6 year old, DSDs in medium room and your toddler in medium room with view to baby sharing when able

DSD's in one room
DD1 and Baby in other room [put a cot in there as a placeholder and the Moses basket in your room to head off the inevitable ???
DD6 - Box room

Does the house have a room you can use as a playroom with three still quite small people?

Do the double rooms realistically have space for 2 x 3ft singles or are you looking at a bunkbed room and a toddler/cot bed combo in the other? It doesn't sound like an amazing amount of space for 5 kids. Even less if you have to do building work at some point with them all underfoot so a previous suggestion of buying the house you are renting might be an option. The vendor could lose anywhere up to 6% of the sale to the estate agents depending on the local market so you could make life very easy for them.

The 9 & 6 yr olds could share conceivably but one being there FT and the other part time is bound to cause issues. Simpler to have a room you can close the door on to prevent small children playing with their stuff.

Sounds fine. I'd divide one of the large rooms for the DSDs.

Put the 2 smallest in together

Give the 6yo the little room

you have the remaining room

His dd's can share indefinitely.. My dd's shared until 17 and 18!!
It isn't a big deal imo.

Thanks so much everyone for taking the time to reply - some really good suggestions and lots of food for thought! To answer a few questions:

Yes, we could in theory buy our current house, but other than the bedrooms it really isn’t a suitable ‘forever home’ with small children - the gardens are landscaped and on multiple levels so very unsafe and not much scope to flatten or turn into something family friendly. Additionally the landlord has said he’d want to go through estate agents and would be looking to attract offers so as to get the most for the house he possibly could.

In terms of downstairs, there is a large living room, a large galley style kitchen and two separate sitting rooms, plus a shower room and utility. In theory one of the sitting rooms could be a bedroom, but I’d probably only feel comfortable putting the 12yo downstairs as the others often need one or other of us in the evening/night… definitely an option though & would give flexibility if we had to do work on the upstairs!

12 and 9 year old share
Toddler and baby share
6 year old gets own room

Largest room goes to your 6 yo and his 9 yo to share. They both have lots of stuff so need the space.
Eldest gets the box room - sold as the only way she can have privacy from her sister's.
Then one room for the nursery/ toddler and obviously your room.

Put a high bed in the box room so she's got storage/ desk space and if necessary a wardrobe in the babies room with a lock on it.

If you have a boy, the babies can share until eldest is 18 then you reconfigure

This, and perhaps rethink down the line which of the 3 younger DDs share based on how they all get along.

Alternatively, DSDs share, 6yo and toddler share, and baby has the little room - although this depends on whether they will share the room sensibly or just stay up all night 😄

Hi @SoManySquishmallows

Option 1

• You in biggest room with baby
• Toddler in smallest room (with toys downstairs)
• DD6 in large room
• DSDs in large room. Put a cot in their room that new baby can go in when they aren't there. When they are there you could whip the side off and it could be a little sofa for them and baby goes back in with you?
• Extend ASAP!
• Most importantly communicate openly with the kids what's going on. 7 of us had to live in a 3 bed rental for 6 months whilst we were renovating a few years ago. So SDs (7&10 at the time and with us EOW and one week night + hols) and a toddler shared the biggest room. We had baby in the 2nd room and DS (8at the time) had the box room. It wasn't ideal but we were honest in that it was all we could afford while we renovated our home and we thought that would be less stressful than living in a house where every room was renovated! We made the best of it...

Option 2

• You in biggest room
• SD 9 in smallest room
• DD6 in large room
• 2 little ones in large room
• SD 12 in lounge made into a bedroom