Only one guest room and 3 Grandchildren
My husband and I will start our new retirement home build in about 4 months. We have been in the planning stage, with our Architect, for over a year. We have gone through many schematic drawings of different homes to build and we've finally decided on one that fits our present needs. This home will be 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms on one level. One bedroom will be used as an office/study until my husband retires. We do not want a Murphy bed in the office/study. He needs a space of his own to do work from home. One guest room (queen bed) with attached bath and the master bedroom/bathroom. The ceilings are 11'.
We have 3 Grandchildren, ages 12 (girl), 8 (boy) and an almost 8 year old girl. The 12 year old and 8 year old boy live in the same city as we do and we regularly have them for sleep overs. The almost 8 year old girl comes in from out of town about 4-5 times a year. They are all here together much of the time the out of towner granddaughter is here.
My dilemma is this:
I need the guest bedroom to function as an adult guest suite but also work double duty for when the Grands are here. The Grands would not be here if I have out of town guest. I've thought about getting a couple of those ottomans that can turn into a twin bed. The ottomans are on rollers and it seems easy enough to roll them into other areas of the house for two of the Grands while one Grand has the guest bed. They won't be slept on every night but maybe one ottoman would have a sleeper on it 3-4 times a month. I would keep the ottomans in the Guest room closet (big enough) when not in use. Has anyone ever had these type ottomans and if so did they work for you as intended?
I'm posting this because I keep thinking I'm not thinking outside the box. It seems there is a better solution.
So, I thought I'd post here and see what you talented Houzzers think. Not much room to do a queen bed over queen bed bunks. Besides, I can't make up the top bed. I'm trying to make my life easier! ;-)
The Guest Room will be 13'2" x 13'. It has 2 windows on the left of the room and two windows on either side of the bed. I'll attach some plans so you can see the layout. This is our final layout as we are going into construction drawings this week. We have altered and done as much changing as we are going to do. We love the plan as is.
Comments (18)
Sammy
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoRelated Discussions
Only room for one sun plant
Comments (5)Lady banks get enormous! LOL! OMG ONE sun plant???? Geezzzzz.... Ok you had lantana which is flat.... UM... Small area real spectacular....Egads this is as hard as "if you could only have ONE plant". Ok, I'm thinking vertical because your window is so small you want to maximize what you can do with it. If I only had one 3x3 square area of sun I'd but a giant *ss pillar rose that weeped nearly to the ground in a riot of repeating flowers and great smell. I would pick an old fashioned repeating rose that was durable and low maintenance. this is a standard rose ("rose tree") but it shows what a rose trained up a pole can do. I'd rap it around the pole(4x4 with supports all the way up) to get the rose to bloom better on a horizontal. Then I'd let it "weep" off the top like this rose standard. If not that, I'd bonsai a wisteria into a standard and have flowers cascading to the ground. I'd interplant it with something that bloomed all the time tho. Whatever it would be, it would definatly be the focal point of the garden! PJ Here is a link that might be useful:...See MoreAm I insane to sacrifice only guest BR for an office?
Comments (13)Wow! Lots of great responses. I'm sorry I didn't get back to the thread sooner, but I had some sort of wicked stomach bug yesterday and lay semi-conscious on the sofa most of the afternoon and evening. Much better today, thanks! Let me clarify the guest room use a bit. It will get used for 6-8 days over Christmas for dad and stepmom. The other stays would be a stepson who is stopping through, or my mom if she comes out for the weekend (she lives here, just on the other side of town and doesn't like to drive in the dark). In other words, no fancy guests! Several have mentioned that we need to make more use of the living room. I don't disagree. But having thought about it, there isn't really a good way to do so. Our living room is part of a large room that includes dining room, kitchen and a garden area, so it cannot be closed off in any way. Here is a shot of the room -- LR is at the far end: I really don't want all the flotsam and jetsam that computers and paperwork, etc. entail taking over the living room. I would say we are in the office 75% of the time we are home together (and awake). We hang out in the office because it is where the computers are (PCs rather than laptops), with desks, good chairs and good light. Then I saw the idea of DH getting his things together in one room so that could clear up the old music/workout room for me without losing the guest room. This is not altogether a bad idea. DH could have the current office as it is the biggest room. But I don't know that it would all fit very well. And then poor DH would have his office area in the industrial zone with the workout equipment and instrument storage. He really likes how we got the music/workout room set up, and I have to say I do, too. It keeps all the ugly stuff in one place. (Also, a lot of the instruments are mine, so it's not really fair for him to take the brunt of the ugly factor). Here is the room. so you can see the enormity of said horn rack (roughly 6+' x 6+' x 2' deep): Also, I'm not sure then where my personal PC would be. DH and I like to hang out together even if we are both on our PCs. This arrangement would have us in different rooms. I think the new Murphy beds are very cool. I saw an ad in the new Metropolitan Home and showed it to DH. But I'm not sure we want to invest that kind of money in the solution at this time (looks to be a minimum of $2,000, not including installation costs). Using the current set-up to include work in the current office: This would be the easiest solution and is what I am doing right now. But this is only my first week, so I am making do. It would mean two computers on the same desk. It would also mean that if DH is between contracts (He is an IT consultant) that he would be home in the same room with me while I am trying to work. And it wouldn't allow for that psychological separation of "work" space from "living" space. I think after all of that discussion it brings me back to sacrificing the guest room. That way I'll have a nice clean, distraction-free environment in which to work. I will look at sofa beds though, as an alternative to the aerobed. Or, now that I have a job again, I can use the income to put guests up in a hotel!...See MoreBad smell ONLY when the AC is on and ONLY in one room
Comments (15)I'm having the same issue except I live in an apartment building with central air. Depending on what, where, how, when, why --- your apartment could be surrounded by other apartments, with other people and their living habits. Typically an apartment is separated by a sheet rock wall... there could be small cracks or gaps at the base of those walls, thru flooring possibly and or other possibilities. (They are often built *cheap* for the lack of a better more beautiful word that someone won't be offended by... *usually the builder or the apt. owner*) I say this because we might draw a builder into this conversation. LOL. (fine dining, fine accommodations, contractual obligations don't spell anything good for apartment owners.) When AC / Heat turns on in your apt. as well as other apts near yours the rooms of such are blown up like balloons and in some cases sucked into a vacuum drawing air anywhere from whence it can get it. If one apt is blowing and another apt is sucking? GIGO. Garbage In / Garbage Out... the net result is more or less smells collide among other things like odd noises. This is yet another reason why apartment living isn't for everyone. Not to knock you, but to give you context as to WHY?...See MoreOne big room, 3 rug patterns? Yikes!
Comments (5)Your choices work well in the space. As long as the colors and styles are complimentary you really can't go wrong. I like the idea of smaller rugs in the pattern for the area by the bed, or if the rugs are large enough, you could layer the sheepskin rugs. Great space!...See More
doc5md
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoMrs Pete
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoSwitch out the current bed for twins ... your adult friends can sleep in twins, and then you're set when the two local grandchildren come to visit.
Your doors don't lend themselves to a traditional side-by-side twin set-up, but an L-shape layout would work -- and this would allow the grandchildren plenty of floor space for play. I like that this example pix includes a square night table shared by the two beds.
I like this one because of the baskets underneath the beds -- would be nice for kids' toys -- or each kid could have his/her own basket for PJs, etc.
You can glam-up twins so they look adult-appropriate too:
For the occasional visiting third grandchild, either get a fold-up roll-away bed (you should be able to store it in the closet or under one of the twins) OR a trundle that'll slide under one of the twin beds.I suggest you ask the grandchildren what they'd like to have in their room. As they grow into their teen years, will they want some privacy? How can you achieve that? Would they appreciate music, a bookcase, board games in their room? The more the room is designed for them, the more they'll want to visit (and everything you say makes me think that's your goal!).
Or, honestly, the first thing that came to mind was sleeping bags!
This is a perfectly acceptable option.
1) ditch the double pocket doors
Agree. Kids are especially likely to destroy those pocket doors.
3) ditch the walk-in closet
I don't know what's on the other side of the closet, but the walk-in space does seem to be more than a guest room needs.
Or, with all that closet space, you could divide the closet into three sections, one for each child, and paint them different colors ... giving each child a bit of hanging space plus a couple colorful baskets in which they can leave things at your house.
Or, you could expand the shower into the closet space, which would then allow you to enlarge the sink area ... it would make the bathroom more than minimal:
4) steal a little bathroom spaceNo, that bathroom's pretty minimal already ... unless you could lose this bathroom altogether and allow the third bathroom across the hall to serve both bedrooms.
5) build in twin bunks w the closet space and bathroom saved space
Since the guest room will serve adult guests too, I'm not sure I'd want built-in bunks ... and bunks are so hard to make up. Built-in bunks are pretty expensive too.
On the other hand, with 11' ceilings, you could put in a triple bunk (you'd probably have to have the grandchildren make up those beds) ... so each grandchild has his /her own dedicated bed, which would make them feel special ... and have one free-standing twin. This would allow your adult guests to sleep in the freestanding bed plus the lowest bunk.
mainenell
5 years ago
PROMark Bischak, Architect
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5 years agoMrs Pete
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