We are considering putting an offer in on a home. Right now we are in 4000 sq ft + unfinished basement; we built this house in 2012. We have 4 beds, 3.5 baths. Extra rooms include upstairs loft, sun room, play room, and office. We are looking at a house built in 1925 (upstairs addition in the 70s). It’s listed as a 4/2 but it’s really 3/2. There is a small sunroom, partially finished basement, and a hallway “room” (the 4th bedroom) that could be a small playroom. Bedroom 3 can only be accessed by going through the hallway “bedroom” and the hallway “bedroom” isn’t big enough for a bed. Size wise the house is great. The first two beds would be for a master and our son (4). The sticking point is that the 3 bedroom would to be an office. I WFH FT and have a double monitor set up. Unless I wanted a desk in our master, it’s really the only place for it. I’m a little nervous about going to essentially a 3/2 without an extra room to be an office. DS could sleep on our floor or in the hallway “bedroom” floor when we have guests, or we could look at using the basement with a pull out couch as a guest room (but would need to put in at least a half bath down there to make it comfortable/functional). If we had a second kid, I guess they would have to share a room? Or a basement office? How important to you are extra bedrooms for things like this? Any feedback appreciated!
Post by redpenmama on Feb 19, 2020 20:38:50 GMT -5
We have 4 bedrooms and 3 kids, so we are maxed out -- everyone has their own bedroom. When we have guests (probably 5-6 times a year), one kid moves in with us or with another kid to free up one of their rooms as the guest room. 2/3 kids' rooms have queen beds, so they work fine as short-term guest rooms.
How often do you have guests? Could you configure the sun room or part of the basement as a guest space with a sleeper sofa? I wouldn't let the guest room issue be the deciding factor unless your guests are frequent and/or long term. My bigger hesitation would be what you would do if you had another kid, but if the basement office is doable, it sounds like a good solution if you need to free up the third bedroom.
Post by icedcoffee on Feb 19, 2020 20:40:18 GMT -5
I don’t know. Having enough bedrooms so that my kids don’t have to share and we have a guest bedroom is pretty important to me. Like obviously kids share all the time and are fine and guests are only temporary, but the new place would have to have some pretty amazing features for me to drop a bedroom. I think this will really come down to personal preference. For me it would be a hard no to have my kids share or have to move a kid when we have guests.
It goes without saying that we’re very fortunate to choose to have so many bedrooms though.
We have 4 bedrooms and 3 kids, so we are maxed out -- everyone has their own bedroom. When we have guests (probably 5-6 times a year), one kid moves in with us or with another kid to free up one of their rooms as the guest room. 2/3 kids' rooms have queen beds, so they work fine as short-term guest rooms.
How often do you have guests? Could you configure the sun room or part of the basement as a guest space with a sleeper sofa? I wouldn't let the guest room issue be the deciding factor unless your guests are frequent and/or long term. My bigger hesitation would be what you would do if you had another kid, but if the basement office is doable, it sounds like a good solution if you need to free up the third bedroom.
The last 3X we’ve had guest they were our friends who all live within walking distance of the new house! The sunroom couldn’t fit a sleeper sofa but the basement could. There is just isn’t a toilet in the basement and all the showers are on the second floor. I did just look up and there are multiple AirBnbs within a couple of miles for $50-80/night (entire house/apt). My parents live 15-20 min away and have 3 guest rooms. I think it’s more of the idea of not having a guest room than actually not having one because I’m sure it would be fine. Having a second kid would be a different story.
Post by wizardressofoz on Feb 19, 2020 20:47:30 GMT -5
Can the 3rd bedroom double duty as an office and guest rooms? I have a 4 bedroom house: DS room, master, DD room, guest room/office. I gave up my office when DD was born. I also WFH full time, and have 3 monitors lol. I built an Elfa desk (Container store) in the corner of my guest room. I have a regular guest for 2 nights every 3 weeks, but otherwise, I don’t regularly have anyone in there. Even when I have guests, it’s been basically fine bc I haven’t had to work while anyone is sleeping (except one time when I had a support call at 11pm when my guest was asleep).
My husband has his office in the basement (he only WFH 1x week on the regular). He also previously converted a wall closet to a office/desk nook but that didn’t work very well as he’s also a hoarder. I think others could do it.
I don’t know if this helps, but I have no issue with my office doubling as the guest room. I also am not big on worrying about being organized for guests so, your mileage may vary.
I’d be more concerned about where to put kid 2, but honestly, you’ll figure out something, either they share or you end up with your office in a different area of the house. Good luck.
Can the 3rd bedroom double duty as an office and guest rooms? I have a 4 bedroom house: DS room, master, DD room, guest room/office. I gave up my office when DD was born. I also WFH full time, and have 3 monitors lol. I built an Elfa desk (Container store) in the corner of my guest room. I have a regular guest for 2 nights every 3 weeks, but otherwise, I don’t regularly have anyone in there. Even when I have guests, it’s been basically fine bc I haven’t had to work while anyone is sleeping (except one time when I had a support call at 11pm when my guest was asleep).
My husband has his office in the basement (he only WFH 1x week on the regular). He also previously converted a wall closet to a office/desk nook but that didn’t work very well as he’s also a hoarder. I think others could do it.
I don’t know if this helps, but I have no issue with my office doubling as the guest room. I also am not big on worrying about being organized for guests so, your mileage may vary.
I’d be more concerned about where to put kid 2, but honestly, you’ll figure out something, either they share or you end up with your office in a different area of the house. Good luck.
This is what I did in our first house and worked well! I had a pull out couch. With the way this room is configured it would be really hard to fit a sleeper sofa. Maybe a futon but probably not.
Post by steamboat185 on Feb 19, 2020 21:00:41 GMT -5
We purchased bunk beds as a Christmas present and since then my kids have slept in the same room 98% of the time. We also have guests maybe 2-3 weeks a year. If it works in every other way I wouldn’t worry about something that isn’t a problem yet. We were just talking that instead of a 4 bedroom house we could totally handle something much smaller.
One of my friends just suggested that if we had a second kid, we could switch bedroom 2 to my office and then bedroom + the hallway “room” could be shared. The kids would have a sleeping space and then a little extra sitting / play room space.
We have 3 bedrooms and 2 kids. Kids share a room. Spare room is a playroom, there is a couch that pulls out to a bed in there for the 2 times a year my mom comes.
If I needed an office I’d reconfigure the playroom to make it work in there.
If you have a second kid could your office be the hallway bedroom? That way there is at least the option for everyone to have a private room. Sharing the hallway and 3rd bedroom as a kids suite sounds like a good idea when they are the right age for it but I would probably try to keep them a little more spearated when super young, and there is always the possibility they will be opposite sex and want more privacy when they are older. Obviously, as you mentioned, plenty of kids share, but it would be important to me to have the option for everyone to have their own room with private entrance if it we're at all possible.
I would definitely just stick a pull out couch in the basement and call that a guest room since it sounds like your guests are quite infrequent.
What’s the motivation for the downsize? Neighborhood, older house with more character, desire to have less space, something else?
We have 4 beds/1.5 baths/1864 sf for a family of 4 + my dad, who comes for regular extended visits. That maxes out our bedrooms at us, DD, DS, and guest/dad. We lost our office when we had DS, so now my desk is in the living room. I don’t WFH much, because it wouldn’t work well, although I can say a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones helps a lot when I do. We decided it was more important for my dad to have a space than the office.
I’m hoping to add a master suite over the garage in the future, turning the house into a 5/2.5. But I’m not sure when we’ll be able to make it happen.
We just bought a 3/2 and if we ever have a second kid, I've considered having the two kids share the master (largest) bedroom. Despite it being a non-traditional arrangement, sometimes it seems like two smaller bedrooms might be more useful to us adults (one for sleeping in, one that can be a permanent office / guest room / yoga room / whatever) than the one larger bedroom.
Post by SusanBAnthony on Feb 19, 2020 21:43:49 GMT -5
Depending on the size of the master bedroom, I'd consider using that as an office. I worked from home FT for 6 months and did it from our master bedroom and liked it because it had a great view with natural light. I could have used a 4th bedroom but chose not to.
For this house, I would be fine with that, but we are small house people.
For us, it would depend on how often we used the guest bedrooms. Both of our families live out of state, so we have overnight guests on a fairly regular basis. I would really miss having one, but if we were moving to a HCOL, I wouldn’t mind dropping it if it meant everything else was really close to ideal. My kids think it’s a huge treat to get to sleep in our bedroom when we have lots of company over, and it doesn’t bother us (they sleep on the floor). By the time they think that’s not cool, they’ll think it’s cool to sleep in the basement living room when we have lots of company. They also have sleepovers every single non-school night. They’d love to share a room, but we didn’t want to purchase bunk beds when they both already have twin beds (the rooms aren’t big enough for two twins).
Post by Patsy Baloney on Feb 19, 2020 21:56:51 GMT -5
We live in a 3/2 ranch with 2 kids, and we have each kid in their own room. No guest room, and it’s nbd. We boot our oldest onto an air mattress in our room when grandparents come to visit (mobility issues) and for able-bodied/younger folks, we set up a couch or put the air mattress in our family room (it’s our second “nobody better leave their shit in that room and it better always be vacuumed” living space).
It’s fine! It’s not important to me to have a guest room. We have room for people to visit, and my feelings are not hurt if they’d rather get a hotel room. We got our house because I really think we can live here comfortably until I croak or need a nursing home. Eventually, we will have guest rooms when the kids move on. People can visit in 18 years if they want their own room, lol.
ETA: our computer/desk setup is in our master. Nbd!
Post by SusanBAnthony on Feb 19, 2020 22:16:39 GMT -5
Also we have large groups of family visit, and we kick the kids out of their rooms and use them for guests. The kids sleep on the floor of our room, etc. Wherever we stick them. They also each have a twin bed + trundle, so we can combine the kids into one room and have guests in the other.
We never have overnight guests. We’ve been here 12+ years and my cousin stayed with us a few weeks ago and that was literally the only time! She slept on the couch (not even a pull out!) in our basement and had to come upstairs to use the bathroom. So, it’s obviously not important for us to have the extra room and it sounds like you don’t have too many either.
It sounds like the fake “bedroom” might work if the kids had to share. Is it possible to open that up to one bigger room in that case?
We never have overnight guests. We’ve been here 12+ years and my cousin stayed with us a few weeks ago and that was literally the only time! She slept on the couch (not even a pull out!) in our basement and had to come upstairs to use the bathroom. So, it’s obviously not important for us to have the extra room and it sounds like you don’t have too many either.
It sounds like the fake “bedroom” might work if the kids had to share. Is it possible to open that up to one bigger room in that case?
Post by penguingrrl on Feb 19, 2020 22:41:52 GMT -5
I guess this is a product of living in a HCOL area, but I’ve never known of someone to have kids and a dedicated guest room. I have three kids and my adult brother living with us in a 3 bed/2 bath and it feels spacious (my brother is in the finished basement). When we have guests (6-8x a year) they sleep in the family room. Christmas Eve we have a lot of overnight guests, so my sister and BIL get the family room, SIL gets my husband’s office (a sunroom off the living room) and my elderly aunt gets my son’s room while the kids all camp out in the room my two girls share. Oddly even that doesn’t feel tight to us, because it’s only one night and the kids would all sleep together if my nieces are here even if we had 10 bedrooms.
Before my cousins were grown, when we visited my family in SD for holidays the kids always combined. They had three kids and each had their own room normally (4/2.5 house, no dedicated guest room) but each had either a bunk or trundle bed and at least one of their rooms became guest rooms when needed.
As often as it sounds like you get guests I’d make the basement up and let them walk upstairs for the bathroom (or throw a futon or daybed in your office).
My only concern would be a second kid depending on your timeline- sharing isn’t a big deal while they’re young but if opposite genders I personally would want them to have their own room before puberty. If it’s not a forever home (or a forever job, since the office would be available at that point) then that’s not really an issue. Even then you could always put a bathroom in the basement and create a kid room or your office down there, it’s just a matter of if you would be ok with that.
We have 3BR upstairs and a fourth “bedroom” in the basement that is really unbedroom-like, so we made it an office. Our kids are going to share a room starting next month, but we made the extra room a playroom instead of a guest room. We might have three nights a year where someone wants to stay over. I’d rather pay the $300 for their hotel room than give up the use of a room for 99% of the year.
We have four bedrooms and are about to have 4 kids. Right now we have a guest bedroom because two kids share a room.
Starting after baby arrives, my oldest will move to current guest room and have a bunk bed. We got a queen Murphy bed as our guest bed that’s a desk when not in use. When we have guests she’ll move in with the two middle kids (we have bunk beds and a futon - that’s normally set up as a couch - in their room). Baby will have his own room.
It sounds like you’re prioritizing location with the potential new house. That’s always been my preference, with a focus on lifestyle. We could afford a bigger house but plan to have 6 people in 2,000 square feet because of location/convenience.
We have a lot of overnight houseguests and have made it work in all the places we’ve lived including a 2 bedroom/2bath with 2 kids. For that, the kids shared a room with bunk beds and we had a sofa that turned into a sleeper sofa (and the kids like sleeping in our room if we needed to use their beds). For a 3 bedroom, I’d have the kids in separate rooms but plan to have them share the room with the bunk bed when we have guests. If we had a sunroom big enough, I’d put some sort of daybed/trundle, sleeper sofas or lounge outdoor furniture there so kids could camp out there (we are in a warm climate). For your case, can you make the hallway room an office, even if it means adding doors? We had a similar situation where we turned a formal dining room into a guest room and just blocked off the doors with curtains. You could make 1 bedroom an office and use some creative bed options for guests in other areas. There are Murphy bed systems you can buy that look like cabinets.
The hallway bedroom I don’t think would work as an office. The only spot where a desk could is the walkway/doorway to bedroom 3. There is a small corner where maybe we could do a custom build for a desk but there is a bump out into the corner that really limits the use of it. It would probably be a call if a very cramped or basement would be a better. The hallway does have 2 doors, so the room could fit a crib / toddler bed so it would at least work as a nursery (although would have to walk through it to get to my office or go through bedroom 2 to get there).
Post by thoseareradishes on Feb 20, 2020 7:59:08 GMT -5
Is this house somewhere you are planning to stay long-term? I ask because if you have another child, it may not be practical for them to share - if you have a girl, or have a teen sharing with a pre-teen.
We are in a 3 bedroom and will have 2 kids. We put a double bed in DS's room and whenever we have guests they will sleep in DS's room and he will sleep with us or in DD's room (we will probably get one of those travel cots). We only have guests a few times a year and only a few nights at a time. Most of our over night guests are people who want to crash at our place after going out (since we live in a major city) and are going to start declining those requests.
Post by expectantsteelerfan on Feb 20, 2020 8:13:50 GMT -5
I was also going to ask if this was likely going to be your 'forever' home. I'd be really hesitant to buy a house that might not have enough bedrooms for every kid we planned to have if it was going to be long-term. My kids have never shared a room and I wouldn't want them to at this point. I was going to say we wouldn't care about moving to a house that didn't have a guest room because we only have guests who stay maybe once or twice a year, and for that we could rearrange kids in some way to make a room available for guests, but then I remembered that my dh sleeps in our guest room when he works nights (which he does one week a month), so we would need a dedicated extra sleeping space. I am fine with rearranging other spaces to make room for guests though. Like when my brother, SIL and niece stay with us, my brother and SIL get the guest room, and niece either shares with my dd, or dd and ds share and niece has the other room. Same with when my friends with 3 kids visit...usually parents and youngest kid get the guest room, and then other kids bunk with mine in some way, sometimes all bunking in the finished basement. Dh also works from home 1 week a month so we would need a dedicated office space, and I would worry about putting guests in his office space because his schedule is inflexible, so when we do have our infrequent guests, he'd have a high probability of needing to be in that room at some point, which would be awkward.
It kind of sounds like a downgrade from house 1 to 2 by your description. But makes sense if it comes with a better quality of life due to the location.
Honestly I didn’t follow the lay out, but I would skip a guest room. I would’ve set up an office and 2 bedrooms for the potential second kid. The potential second kid can share with their sibling when a guest comes over (bunk beds). I wouldn’t plan on them sharing rooms though because you could have one of each gender or they could fight a lot and you want them separated.
Post by bookqueen15 on Feb 20, 2020 9:02:47 GMT -5
I guess for us, extra bedrooms became pretty important after having our second kid because we just completed an addition on our house to bring it from a 3/1 to a 5/2. After having kid #2, we really needed at least one more bedroom because one of the original 3 bedrooms was really small and was being used as my husbands office. Our kids are 4 years apart, so them sharing a room wouldn't have worked well and the other bedrooms weren't really big enough to share (house was built in 1948).
We now have a master bedroom, a room for each kid, an office room for DH and a guest room that I also have a desk in. We do have some family (including my step-dad who now lives oversees) that come to visit once a year and it will be nice to have them stay with us verses a hotel, especially since they don't have a car when they visit. But we managed for the past 6 years without a guest room, so it's not completely necessary. And we've had the bed in there for 2 months and it hasn't been slept in yet!
I agree with a few PPs that I think you could make it work with 1 kid but it would be difficult with 2.
My kids share, but they are 2 girls 2 years apart. If I remember correctly, your DS is 4 or 5, so if you have a second they will have a 5+ year age difference, which I think would make sharing difficult long-term, especially if the second is a girl.
(Yes, I know there are families who don't have any other choice and they make it work - that was my family growing up - but that is clearly not OP's situation).
ETA: is finishing the rest of the basement an option?