their rooms will be next to each other. i'm putting in a small window as well as child sized door through the adjoining wall.
i might do a swing (mounted to ceiling) in the play room as well as a loft space with slide. sounds fun, but i'll have to wait and actually "see" the space.

My son was really into tractors when he was smaller so we did a farm theme playroom. I painted kiddie style farm scenes on 3 walls. My husband built a real red barn inside the room that they could go into and play. Very cute! He's outgrown it but I can't bear to get rid of it.

We have 9 children still at home. I didn't want to make their rooms too young as I know how fast they grow up. But we did do neat built-ins in all their rooms. They either have a built-in bed and window seat, or built-in desks with window seats. They actually are looking forward to these things more than anything else.
The beds and window seats have nice big drawers for all their treasures & desks have bookshelves above for their other things.
I love their rooms and am really looking forward to nothing getting hidden under the bed.

We did similarly to acountryfarm. We had 8 children still at home when we moved in, which recently dropped to 7. We did builtins so that they didn't have to fit separate dressers in their rooms, and also have drawers under the beds to tame the 'shove it under the bed' habits. With the wall units and the beds, each child has 7 drawers of their own, plus some shelves and clothes hanging space. Eventually there will be built in desks in the younger kids' rooms. For the oldest boy and the oldest girl there are separate rooms with builtin desks...As the oldest of each gender vacates their room, the next can move up into it.

Also, since the kids always want to sew or bake/cook as soon as I start a project, we designed a kitchen and sewing space that had room for multiple workers. Getting a kitchen we could all work in at once was a big priority. We even put in a 48" rangetop so we could cook side-by-side.

a contract notice that at age 18 they are out the door.

Not at our house, 18 is much to young to be out on their own.

Our house will have a little secret space for each child. It is under some dormers. My builder usually finds some extra space for a hideaway like this in all the houses he does. Sometimes they are lofts into the attic space. Ours will be on the same floor. My daughter will have a little door with a doorbell into her space and my son will have a door through a hidden bookshelf. They are 13 and 10, but are still looking forward to this little space.

Also, in our basement, we will have a "video game room." This is just an enclave of the basement that we will wall off and put a door on. This kind of for us too b/c the video games drive me nuts!

Thank you all! These are great ideas! Kelleg- how big are their little secret spaces? I'm trying to find a place for one and am having trouble.

We might be the ones that you saw earlier as we put a secret passageway between the two children's rooms.

We also put a little child-sized door on the space under the stairs, so it becomes a little playhouse as well (and can later be used for storage).

We also have lofts above both children's rooms. A swing mounted from the ceiling is an interesting idea . . .

We also fitted out the bay window in the nursery/playroom with a built-in cabinet with drawers and rolling cabinet for art supplies and a pullout surface (kind of like you see with built-in cutting boards) for a drawing surface. I saw a similar set-up in a magazine and had the trim carpenters duplicate it.

But if anyone sucessfully does install a slide for their kids, I would be very interested in your supplier (or construction ideas) as I have searched high and low and eventually we gave up on that idea because of the ridiculous cost and the unwillingness of any supplier to help us because of liability issues.

We put a loft from our son's bedroom to what would have been a seperate attic space. We expected him to use it as a playroom and I used foam floor tiles and he picked red and black and silver paint and did graffiti on the walls. Once it was done he decided to take his mattress up there, get rid of his bed frame and use his bedroom as an office. What a 10 year old needs with an office I don't know but he's happy.

This is my daughters "secret room". It is attic space that is behind her bedroom wall. My husband finished it after we moved in.

It has internet access and cable. He installed 2 air vents. One blows in and one blows out to keep air circulating.

This is her secret access door and one of the vents...

She loves this room. When her friends come over they hang out in there. Her friends think that it's the coolest room ever. Heck, I like it in there. :)

18 is too young for them to be out on their own?

wow... i was seventeen when i left for college (i skipped a grade). i lived in a dorm in nyc and then then my own apartment. when i finished i had to get a job and keep my checks and balances in order and save for retirement and learn not to buy those fabulous stephan kelian shoes that were on sale at their annual event. it was an amazing experience. an education in itself, really.

Regarding the slide idea: In my elementary school which was newly built when I was there, the architect decided to include as a bit of whimsy slides going from the 3rd floor to the 2nd and from the 2nd floor to the 1st. Originally the idea was that students could at their option use the slide when going from one class to another, rather than the stairs.

Well right as the school was finished, the school board was touring it, and the wife of the school board president decided to try out the slide. She flew down the slide, got to the bottom and broke her tailbone. So with that a decree was passed stating that the slides were off-limits except while under direct supervision during a fire drill, and even then only if the preassigned evacuation route for your location designated that you should use the slide.

We have a just-turned 18 year old, who we hope is going away to university next year. But, just in case, a back yard camera focussed on the pool, spa & cabana that can be viewed from our laptops anywhere in the world :)

I really do hope she comes home from school next year with friends... just so she does it when we're home.

Our son, 15 going on 25 wanted a walk in shower like our in the master bath, but the cost of a tiled walk in was more than I wanted to spend. We opted for a nice 36" walk in shower unit. He loves it! It has benches on both sides to sit down on and rest while waking up in the morning...haha! Also, we enlarged the media room by takin out a no need closet so that he could have more space to hang with friends. :)

My oldest son has a vaulted ceiling that is 14ft high. He's 7 1/2 yrs old and wants a rock climbing wall. So, after we move in, my husband will construct one for him and we'll throw those gym pads on his floor and he can go to town climbing it!

Our two daughters and families will be building on properties adjoining ours, so we'll have grandkids in and out. The downstairs has a toy closet for the things I have for them at my house -- not terribly unique, but they're all excited about it. And there's a small room they can use for messy projects. The side entrance, which they'll use, has a key pad so they won't need keys.

I was in a Parade home once that had a slide from the front hall to the downstairs playroom . . . I thought how fun that would be!

The house our kids grew up in had bedroom lofts -- our son's ladder to the loft was a (new) telephone pole with hefty dowel rod pegs to climb on . . . his friends all thought that was way cool.

Where did you get the telephone pole?

Ummm, my son is now 36, so it was many moons ago!! I'm not sure, but I think our builder went to the local utility company and bought one. It was in a small midwest town, and he'd been around forever, so it may have been that he knew someone who knew someone. Or try a farm supply place . . . they might have big poles.