I wouldn't have it any other way. I used to have the master on the 2nd floor. My morning went something like this: go down and let the dogs out to go potty. Go up to start getting ready for work. Go down to let the dogs back in. Go up to finish getting ready for work. go down to make coffee. go up to get something I forgot. Dang!! I was exausted before I even left for work!!! no thanks....master on the ground floor please!! lol!!

Amy you're too funny! I'm with Amy on this one. This is our forever house and I wanted to be able to still live in it when I can no longer manage the stairs.

Having the master on the first floor usually requires a bigger footprint which then usually requires a bigger second floor which then require more money. But in the end, and I mean the end of my life, it will be well worth it to be able to stay here.

When I first thought about building, I was adamant that i wanted a 2nd floor master. I loved the idea of keeping the sleeping areas away from the 1st fl. But I've completely changed my mind on that. I fell in love with a plan that had a Master Wing on the first floor and now wouldn't think of going with the 2nd fl master. What really changed my mind was breaking my ankle last year and having to either crawl up the steps in my current house or sleep downstairs on the couch.

As has already been said, it's important to think about the "what if's" of your life - getting older, having a difficult pregnancy requiring bedrest, caring for an aging relative, having an accident or illness that means you can't get up and down the steps.

If you don't plan to stay in your house forever, then none of these may matter; but if you do, it's worth some thought to have at least one full bedroom/bathroom on the main level, even if the master goes upstairs.

Our architect talked us into it. He said if we live there forever (which is our plan) we will be glad later on, and if we sell, we will likely get the money back in the value of the home. Having 1650 sq/ft down and 950 sq/ft up (vs 1300 sq/ft on both) cost us about $15,000.

I can't wait to have our MBR be on the main floor. We're living in our 2-story starter home right now with all bedrooms upstairs/living spaces on main floor. Hate it. We have children, so at some point, the stairs have had gates at the top and bottom. We do laundry downstairs and are constantly bickering over who gets to carry it all upstairs to be put away. The home that we're building is 2300 sq ft on the main floor...with a 300 sqft guest suite and office upstairs. Yay for us!

Yep....a realtor friend told us the same thing. Said that a 1st fl master is a big selling point, particularly with Move-up and Empty Nester buyers, while the 2nd fl master is generally only wanted by those with very young children who need to be close by. But I still I had to be convinced by a giant nasty ankle cast that it was a good thing. Now, I wouldn't think of doing it any other way.

The house we moved into in 1976 had the MB upstairs. We were 35 . . . stairs were no big deal. We were 60 when we tore it down -- and put the MB on the main floor. Because we're on a lake, our footprint was limited . . . we gave up a formal DR for MB on main floor. LOVE IT!!! Good decision!

Fast forward: We thought this would be our forever house and it turns out that it was our practice house. We're moving to a ridge in Tennessee and are about to break ground. One big non-negotiable point for the new one: MB on the main floor! And main-floor BR was one of the major selling points for the people who bought our not-forever house.

There are pros and cons to each. We went with a second floor master because we plan to have children and I wouldn't want them on a different floor from me. Aside from issues is there is an emergency (fire, etc.), I don't want to be hoofing it through the house and upstairs several times a night.

I'm not a Stepford wife and by the end of the day, I look like a donkey on his last leg from going up and down my stairs all day. The house that we are planning on building will have the master on the main and a smaller bedroom for our toddler. (DH and I already squabble over who will go up to retrieve anything from our bedroom.)Once DS gets older, he is going up stairs to have his own quarters.

As another posted, I did get pregnant and was placed on
bedrest and oxygen. Staying on the couch downstairs became my ultimate nightmare since I looked like a blowfish with greasy hair..... everyone that came by was greeted by the sight of me since the couch was in full view of the door.

Never Again....

I really didn't want the "master sleeping" part of the house on the same level as the living area......nor did I want it upstairs, so when I designed our house, I put the master bedroom up 3 stairs from the first floor, with the rest of the bedrooms on the second level. This seemed to solve the problem we shared with you.

I like a nice ranch with an open floor plan, tall ceilings and lots of windows. You need a decent size lot if you are a ranch lover too....especially if you want a side load garage.

I think a mainfloor bedroom and a full bath is essential for all the reasons mentioned, and more.

But it doesn't need to be the 'master', necessarily: if you are able bodied and like the idea of the full master suite upstairs [I do-- all the light, air and privacy!], thats fine: just have a backup space on the mainfloor in case its needed someday. Beats having to move a bed into the dining room if someone gets hurt or sick...

We are building a house with a first floor master. We did not want it to feel as if it is part of the living space though. We designed it so it is in it's own separate space (almost a wing, although that is not technically what it is). It would be almost impossible for someone to accidentally stumble into our room during a party, and I definitely don't have to worry about the bed always being made!!
We do plan on having children, and I shared all of the same concerns that sue36 mentioned above. We made the decision to do the first floor master anyway, but I can certainly validate that I am still a bit concerned about having my (future) children almost 100'and a staircase away...

For the gray haired set, for all the reasons above we went with a one story home. When kids were at home, especially when they were little, I didn't mind our bedroom upstaris and theirs down but not the other way around. Tom

We built a house with a Master & a Den on the first floor....well the Den has a closet-lol. We sneaked that one by our builder. We have 2 bedrooms upstairs with a third (not finished) bedroom/bonus Room over the garages. The house is approx 2500 sq ft finished & the unfinished part is approx 450 sq ft. We really didn't need the upstairs, but building a Master on the first floor is cost prohibitive in our area, so we ended up building a home for resale in mind. We had to add sqft upstairs to get our money back in the future. Because the "Den" is right next to our MB, you can have a baby downstairs, as well. Kids over the age of 5-7 can go upstairs & you have your privacy. I believe MB on the first floor IS a selling point.

My niece wanted all her bedrooms upstairs, UNTIL one of her children fell down the stairs. Then she hated the Colonial with all the bedrooms upstairs. She wished she had a couple of bedrooms downstairs until the children were old enough to live upstairs.

When you build the extra sqft on the main floor with a basement, the cost goes up tremendously. Around here, when you ask a builder for a Master on the first floor, they go into convulsions because of the cost-lol
This was a downsize for us. We have 2000 sqft on the first floor & LOVE IT!
I figure that we will be here for a looong time & eventually we can close off the upstairs.

The main reason we built instead of buying an already built was the difficulty of finding a home with a main floor master.
This is our retirement home. Even though we have multi levels, everything needed to live comfortably is on the main floor.

For a young family, if there were space, I'd think a main floor master (in addition to a second floor master) would be a wonderful guest space (especially for visiting, aging parents).

I can think it would only help resale value.

Another point: if your want a main floor MBR so that you don't have to do stairs when you are older, you best put the laundry on the main level as well. We did both. In fact the laundry room connects to our master closet, with a chute from the kids bathroom above. Very convenient!

We went with a main floor master for all of the reasons listed. Ours is right off the main living area, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. We insulated the interior MB wall, and it really cuts down on the noise from the other rooms.

Our original plan had the kids' rooms in the half storey, but we eliminated the second floor entirely, and put the kids' rooms in the basement. We have a full walkout with 9' ceilings, so their rooms don't feel "basementy" at all.

Carrie

Only two of our ten houses have had the master up, and I really regretted one when I had major surgery within months of moving there. The rest have been split between one-story and two-story with the master on the main level.
As Carrie mentioned, we insulated the bedroom walls and had no trouble with noise from the family room or living room.

In our area, it's tough to sell a house with the master up. It's interesting to read about how such things vary so much around the country.

i'm in the minority here. dh and i don't want the master suite area near the living areas. we will have five bedrooms, four (including master) on the second floor with one suite on the main floor away from garage/kitchen. our architect persuaded us to keep one downstairs since main floor masters are so popular now, not to mention necessary for some. -maybe even us one day! thankfully, we can handle stairs now but most of all we have two toddlers. i can't imagine not being on the same floor with them.

Our master is on the first floor and the other 4 bedrooms are upstairs. We have 2 young kids and while its not my favorite thing in the world to hoof it up and down the stairs at night if they wake up, I vastly prefer our bedroom downstairs.

The biggest reason we decided on a 1st floor master was that when our kids have moved out and no one is living upstairs anymore, we will basically "shut off" that part of the house with heating and cooling it. We have a 2nd floor dedicated HVAC system and we'll heat/cool to a minimum up there unless we have houseguests. We viewed it is a big energy saver to not have to heat/cool both floors years from now.

The master does not have to be "near the living areas" in a ranch or master down plan. It is pretty easy to design a plan where bedrooms are down a hallway where the doors are not even visible from the living areas.

well i guess i think differently. i built our master upstairs in our forever house. i figured going up and down the stairs is good exercise and will help us stay young. also you cannot get the same view downstairs. worst case scenario we have 2 stairs and the back one you could always add one of those motorized chairs.

The plans I love best have the master and one other bed down. I thought it would be so nice for all the reasons others had stated. If/when you dont need the extra for a bedroom anymore, it would be a great craft room/office. Grandmas here are getting older and the room downstairs would be perfect for them.

We built a 1st floor master for several of the already mentioned reasons... no stairs when we're older/sick/injured. The ability to shut off the upstairs of the house if we want to so no heating/cooling required. Also, our view from the 1st floor is great plus we'll have access to the patio where we'll someday have a hot tub which we wouldn't want on an elevated deck. We too are insulating the walls because the MBR is right next to the LR.

Once again we were looking for what wouldn't become "normal" until all those darn brats born after WWII started aging! Ah, the curse of being even slightly "pre-war".

We pre-war brats looked for several years for a smaller house with big rooms, all on one floor. There were old ranches (small rooms). There were houses with big rooms (two-story). Just about everything newer in our price range was way too big, in the boonies, AND two-story.

That's how we came to build: 2900 sq ft, 6-7 rooms, 3.5 baths, screened porch, terrace, one level. By doing a teardown we were able to get what we wanted WHERE we wanted it.

We went with a main floor master for the convenience and privacy. (Two teens, 14 and 18)

It works a little too well.

DW is due in December.

bungeeii -- CONGRATULATIONS! Are your teens giving you the evil eye, you rascal?

We have been living in our 2 story townhouse while our ranch style house is being built. We move in this weekend. We almost made it to the end, and on June 28 my college son stumbled down the stairs--8 days in ICU with a fractured skull. I hate stairs.Everyone in our family as taken some sort of fall on them over the course of my 28 year marriage. We had them in our last house as well, along with an elevator. The elevators (ours was called an 'Elevette') works great for knee surgery, etc. at least in theory. However, I was once home alone when it stalled. If course, it stalled exactly half way in between the 2 floors, so it made for a pretty good jump. There is a telephone in the elevators, as required by code. If stuck, you can wait on a repairman, but even in a city as large as Atlanta, there are not a lot of residential elevator repair companies, so you will sit in there for a while if you don't get out on your own. If you can afford it, get a master on the main, and get a large landing built in the stairs so you cannot fall all the way to the bottom.

Thanks, Sue.

Both kids said Eeww. (Or however you spell that sound that kids make when they've just been grossed out.)

We own a 4 bedroom center hall colonial now that has all bedrooms upstairs (13 stairs). It is a very popular style in our area.

We are retiring to another state. Our new home is currently in the design phase. We are planning a new 4 bedroom home with a master bedroom suite and another bedroom on the ground floor and two bedrooms upstairs. Our new home is being planned for wheelchair access (if it is ever needed)
The remaining two bedrooms upstairs will serve as guest rooms with a jack and jill bath between them.

The 2nd bedroom on the main floor will serve as an exercise room for now. (My husband uses all his equipment and wants to keep it even though we will have a full recreation center down the street from us). If we need to dismantle it someday for any reason (maybe even for resale if we want to go to a smaller place) the room will easily convert to a second bedroom on the first floor. In addition, the majority of our living space will be on the first floor.

Because or our age, if I were to build a two story home with master suite upstairs I would definitely plan for an elevator or consider a space for adding one at a later date.

We went with the master upstairs and the kids bedrooms downstairs. We wanted our space and our view from our master. We also like the idea of exercise.

Stuff like surgeries happen, when they do move a bed downstairs if needed.

As an aging and arthritic baby boomer, I went from a 2 story with an upstairs bath to a single story.

In general, I think it's good to have a downstairs masters, but not if I had little kids sleeping upstairs. In any event, I would certainly want at least one bedroom and bathroom (preferably together) on a first floor no matter what for visitors, etc. as well as for aging in place.