A lot of times it works out well to group the private areas (bedrooms) so they can more easily relate to the private areas of the site. Mixing up the public, semi-public, semi-private, and private areas sometime create conflicts in the way the space are used and their efficiencies. Laundry rooms sometimes make too much noise to be located next to a bedroom. Powder rooms can offend three of the senses if places too close to a dining room. Perhaps grouping the bedrooms can work metaphorically in keeping families together.

I've always lived in one-story houses -- both as a child and as a mother. My thoughts:

- Whether your bedrooms are clumped together or whether you have split bedrooms, your children are not going to be "far away". You'll hear them down the hall. You could get out of bed and walk the distance in perhaps 10-15 seconds. Your children will be able to walk from their bedrooms to yours somewhere around 18 months. Don't overthink this -- it is not a huge issue.

- On the rare occasion that your kids are sick, you can put a pallet on your own bedroom floor for them -- or you can sleep in their rooms. But don't let these rare occasions be the deciding factor in your bedroom layout.

- If go with a "split bedroom" arrangement, put the parents' bedroom nearer the garage (which typically places the parents' bedroom nearer the laundry room too). This won't matter when they're small ... but eventually they'll be teens, and this arrangement means they'll have to walk past your bedroom if they come in late.

- A "split bedroom" arrangement often pushes the main living areas (living room, kitchen, dining room) to the middle of the house /means these areas lack in natural light. Regardless of what you do with bedrooms, you don't want to create lackluster main areas.

- If you're going with clumped bedrooms, an L-shape works well ... this allows you to push the kids' bedrooms to the front /keep the parents' bedroom towards the back, and still have the main living areas all to the side. With this arrangement, you can have the bedrooms all connected with a hallway ... or you can arrange things so that you enter the parents' bedroom through one area and the kids' bedrooms through another.

Having lived in residences with grouped bedrooms and separated bedrooms with two sons, we found little difference. However, in all those places, the gathering rooms(living/dining/kitchen/family rooms were somewhat isolated from the bedrooms, no matter what the bedroom arrangements were.

Noise was a bigger problem for us(in the 70's, 80's, and the 90's when radio's/TV's/stereos were not earphone friendly. Now, with music/etc. being phone/tablet based, noise is not nearly the problem it used to be. Having said that, hearing problems may be as bad or worse with earphones.

When the boys were young, bedroom doors stayed open. As they grew older and more independent, they could keep the doors shut, giving them more privacy---and responsibility.

You can also build the bedrooms close by and as the kids are young they can be near, and build a couple bedrooms in walk out basement. The latter can be used for guest rooms now. When the kids are older, they can move downstairs if you wish, and they can have their own private area, and their old rooms can become guest rooms (or hobby rooms or whatever else). If you are building a walk out basement, you really aren’t limited to one floor “always and forever”. I moved into a basement bedroom when I was about 12/13 - stayed my room until I moved out - and loved it!

I don’t have kids but I have lived in both one and two story homes as a kid, all with full basements. I admit a preference for a two story with the private areas/bedrooms up, in large part due to confines of lots here, but you can also do a lot with a one story and if I had unlimited land and budget, I would do a one story and make a separate bedroom “wing”, so that the living areas weren’t all clumped in middle between bedrooms, did not have to walk across them for laundry from other rooms (or would do two laundry rooms), etc.

First 2 houses were 2 story. The first house had the bedrooms close to each other and the kids were really little and this worked out well. 2nd house had the kids bedrooms at opposite end of the house to the master bedroom. They were 5 and 7 at time of moving in and we lived there 14/15 years and it worked out well especially when they became teens. We were in a rental house last year that was a ranch with the bedrooms and a bathroom all together in one area. When the kids were home on college breaks it drove me absolutely insane. Every time one of them came out of their room either to take a shower, use toilet, go to the kitchen I heard them. DS would sometimes play video games and I could hear that as well. We went to bed at 10pm they of course were up to all hours.

I have a one story ranch, modern style, and we have the bedroom wing, all all one side of the house. I love it and would not like my bedroom on the other side. My oldest is a junior in high school, my youngest a 2nd grader, 3 kids total. My laundry room is on that side too.

We treat that side of the house as a quiet zone most of the time, my children are respectful of the others (the little one needs to work on it a little bit), and it works wonderfully for us.

We have a door that leads to the bedroom wing that we can shut, I like that no one really goes back there. Its def a private area.

One thing I would've liked to do, but my husband wasn't mentally in the same place at the time, would've been to have a small study that was included in the bedroom wing that serves as the entry point, a buffer room before entering the main public rooms of the house.

so much is personal taste, and how you live. And of course, budget. Good luck and have fun.,

Our current house is a one-story bungalow with a finished basement, built in the 1950s. We've been here for 24 years and raised all three kids, between the ages of 17 and 21, here. There's a small entry area, on the left is the living room and on the right is the kitchen, and at the back of the house are the bathroom and three bedrooms, one of which is the "master". When the kids were little, our daughter had one room and two sons shared the other. After a few years, when she wanted to be able to set up puzzles, doll house, toy farms etc. without the destruction from marauding brothers, she moved to one of the basement bedrooms. The boys preferred to share a bedroom for quite a few years until the neat one finally couldn't live with the messy one anymore and moved into the empty BR across the hall; even then you could hear the two of the them talking across the hall to each other just before they fell asleep. When the kids got old enough to shower on their own etc., they started using the bathroom downstairs.

I've enjoyed the literal and figurative closeness, especially on weekends with the boys, now late teens, flopping on my bed first thing in the morning just to chat : ) .

I may be out of step with parenting, but I've always thought that you need to spend a good amount of time with adolescents. A lot of that is just spending time together in the same place, whether it's the vehicle or the kitchen, so that if they want to talk to a parent, they can. And teens often need supervision -- making sure they're doing their homework, that they're not on the phone or the computer or playing video games, or even generally fretting about friends or schoolmates.

I know many parents who prefer to have privacy from their kids as they hit the teen years, but I think a measure of benevolent supervision for teens, while at the same time giving them more independence and responsibility, is helpful for the entire family...

I have raised 4 kids in the past 8 years (ages 8, 6, 4, and 2) in either two story or split plan homes, where kids rooms were on separate floors or across the house from the master.

Zero problems. Love it. I personally bedshare for the first 8 months because that is how I get the most sleep. I night wean at 8 months and move baby in their own room at that time. Do I sometimes have to trek across the house when night issues arise? Yes. Is it worth it not to have the kids right by my room 24/7? Absolutely. In our current house, our bedroom is off the downstairs family room so our kids are always bugging us in our room anyway! lol

We moved into this house, which was newly built (but not by us-we just found it) in 1980, when my kids were 5 and 9. It's a daylight rancher, with all the bedrooms sequestered in one area. The basement bedrooms weren't finished, but we had that done because we thought my mother would be coming to stay with us for extended periods of time.

DD1 wanted to move downstairs when she was ~ 12 or 13, so she first took the bedroom closest to the open stairwell and the upstairs, then, a few years later she moved into the other one so she could paint/decorate it herself. (The first one was wallpapered and not easily changed.) And as far as being farther away when they're older, I remember a time DD1 had a stomach flu and I could hear her trying to make it to the bathroom before throwing up (and not quite making it, the poor thing.) Even as teenagers kids sometimes needed help at night, and I could still hear her fine (I think.)

It's nice when you can have some flexibility built in to the house design so your home can change with the family, if necessary. Of course this is assuming you'll be in the house for a long time too.

The reason you don't see many single-level homes is the cost. Foundations are expensive, roofs are expensive. But, they are really versatile. Single-level homes are easier to maintain. It makes it easy to get to the roof.

Most projects are constricted by small lot size. That won't be an issue for you.

I, T, L, U, and H. Any combination works.

Thanks, everyone. Very helpful! I do have some concerns over everyone being on the same floor and how that can impact each other at various stages of life. For instance, when they're younger, and we have guests over, or when the shoe is on the other foot when they're older and may stay up with friends during a sleepover, but the latter can be solved by finishing some of the basement which we would do.

I just know I'm not going to sell a house on family land (it's on 150 acres that borders the 90 I grew up on and my parents still own). Even if I would have to move for work (which is 99% unlikely, I still wouldn't sell it). I may someday have to move if I need to go to a nursing home, but this house, truly needs to be a livable option for us for a long time.

It just seems like if you have the horizontal space for it (and I do), a single level home makes more sense. Am I wrong?

It just seems like if you have the horizontal space for it (and I do), a single level home makes more sense. Am I wrong?

The main argument against it is what homechef wrote, the cost --

Foundations are expensive, roofs are expensive. But, they are really versatile. Single-level homes are easier to maintain. It makes it easy to get to the roof.

Very good for aging in place too.

One story houses have been very popular in Alberta, but then most one-stories here also have basements.

For instance, when they're younger, and we have guests over

I'll play devil's advocate here -- you want kids who can sleep through chatter and don't require blackout curtains and total silence.

or when the shoe is on the other foot when they're older and may stay up with friends during a sleepover

Not worth building a house around : )

Becky, good points all around.

To plan perfectly for a family that you don't have the personalities well defined yet is hard. For example, Becky assumes that parents watch over their teen the same as they do their toddlers. You may not know your parenting styles yet, but with having a 2.5 year old, you probably have some idea. I consider myself more of a free-range parent. I want our kids to go out an explore our land. My 10 year old son can be trusted to go out by himself to shoot. We aren't hippies, and my kids get educational instruction at home if needed...I keep them at least at the top 5% academically. I haul them to sports and private training, etc. BUT, when it comes to free time, I don't want to be their entertainment. I can see what they do on their phones/computers with monitoring programs.

As you know from your previous thread, my kids will be in our walkout basement. Knowing what I know now, if I were to build 10 years ago:

I would have either still put them in the basement. Not much different than main floor master and 2nd story kids rooms. I would've kept the baby crib/changing table/etc in my bedroom through the 1st year. Babies don't play in their bedroom anyway. Also, I would've had an office room temporarily used as a main floor bedroom. Put a 1.5 person couch their for the toddler to fall asleep if needed or read books. Use a future basement bedroom as temporary office.

OR:

Put all the bedrooms on the main floor. I don't think it would matter if little kids rooms are on the opposite side of the house. Think about how long it would really take to get to the other side of the house...probably not long!

I really think the answer depends more on your parenting style and the kids you are blessed with.

Becky assumes that parents watch over their teen the same as they do their toddlers.

Um, no, lol.

I've lived in both. I don't particularly like all one story - it's very hard to get the quiet in the bedrooms that one does in a 2 story house. And I found that when my children were younger, toys and "stuff" just seemed to "walk" from the bedrooms to, well EVERYWHERE. If it was on the 2nd story, it stayed there.

I'm not a fan of the MBR being on the other side of the house than the children's rooms. I wanted my children sleeping in their own rooms and me, in mine, not on pallets on the floor if sick. I wanted to know if they got up during the night and were sick. I wanted to know if they were actually doing their homework, had actually gone to bed, we actually still IN their room. DD's boys are now almost 16 and just turned 18. She says she very much wants to have them nearby - if she gets up to go to the bathroom and it's 2AM and their light is still on, she wants to know this - they need to go to bed.

I think a one story house can be designed with "wings" that might give some separation of family/public space and private, but it is more costly - larger foundation, much larger roof. It's why one rarely sees such built anymore.

What I rarely see in any house plans posted on GW is a designated play space for young children. I did not want toys in my LR when my children were young. Toys were kept in their bedrooms and in the basement play room. It was a safe place where I did NOT always have to have them in my sight and that worked for me when cooking dinner etc. Parents today appear to believe that they must see their toddlers and young children at all times. They really don't need to do that. I think that a lot of this is "working mother guilt".

That basement (or wherever) play room becomes a teen hangout as they get older. One really does not want teens with soft drinks and pizza in one LR!!!! One does not want to hear video games being played and the loud voices of boys whose voices have changed.

I'm one of the few on GW that believes one CAN build a house that is a "forever" home - one need not move at each stage of a child's life. Geeze, who wants the bother, to say nothing of the expense! A good floorpan with rooms that can serve multiple purposes over time will age well. Good planning will be well rewarded, and believe me, there are NO plans out there on the internet that do this - they're all pretty interchangeable.

Anglophilia, we had a playroom in our first set of plans but many on here said it was unnecessary.

***Disclaimer: I haven't raised kids through adolescence yet; my oldest will be a teen next year. But I'm hopelessly extroverted and I especially like talking about families, so here I am.***

I loooove one-story living.

Perhaps grouping the bedrooms can work metaphorically in keeping families together.

Love this sentiment. <3

I strongly prefer clustered bedrooms, as well as *all* bedrooms in back. No way do I want a child sleeping in a room near the street or the front of the house. I grew up in 1- and 2-story houses where the bedrooms were together, with the exception of one, and I enjoyed the togetherness of a shared sleeping wing, even in high school. In college, I "moved" to a room on the other side of the house, and felt isolated. Didn't care for it at all.

Anglophilia, we had a playroom in our first set of plans but many on here said it was unnecessary.

Yeah, I don't know why playrooms aren't adored on this site. *shrug* I have myself a small army of offspring (6 so far), and my sanity couldn't even pretend to still live here if we didn't have a playroom! :-D

I like to keep bedrooms free of toys and full of beds and books, so the toys have to live *somewhere* that isn't my family room. True, they'll migrate, but you can deport them easily enough. For my kids, they didn't let a flight of stairs keep them from littering the house with various assortments of playthings... Clean-up time is seriously shorter with a one story house, and we all seem to be blessed with natural thinness, so making several trips up and down stairs only served to tire us all out (which is great for toddlers, but they're less efficient when they're sleepy, leaving Mom to finish up). ;-)

Our rule was if the toy is in ones bedroom, it must be picked up daily and put away; if in the playroom, it need not be. About once a week I'd go down there and we'd have a big clean-up, but in the meantime, out of sight, out of mind! I would NOT have enjoyed parenthood without a playroom! I need my uncluttered "adult space". I wanted to be able to answer the door without having to kick the toys out of the way to get to it. That would have driven me over the edge. Playrooms are wonderful! My DD has always called hers a "no-police zone". It wasn't when they were toddlers, and no isn't with them in their teens!