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lyfia

Kids upstairs vs. 1st floor

lyfia
5 years ago

I'm trying to think through issues with having kids upstairs vs. a separate side of the house on a single floor house. We currently have the latter, but our DD wants an upstairs with a hangout room although she said as long as she has the play/hangout room and bedrooms in a kids "wing" she'll be happy. We only have one kid currently, but I wouldn't mind fostering/adopting, but it is not a for sure as DH isn't fully on board with our DD and me there.


I'm curious to hear your thoughts on pros/cons to either arrangement. I'm working on our wish list for bringing to an architect.


Either way we'd have master down and another bedroom down that we'd be using as a home gym for the moment, but could use as an extra bedroom if need be for someone who can't do stairs.


Finishes etc. would be same no matter what ie same flooring as downstairs etc.


Upstairs - 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, playroom/hangout space

Pros:

- Great views in many directions except where blocked by tree canopy (live oaks so green year around)

- Sort of out of sight out of mind and can close off when kid moves out

- Kid gets her wish

- More exercise due to stairs

- Harder to sneak out as a teen

- could have "walk-in" attic access

- potential for more windows downstairs


Cons:

- Feel less supervision options with having to go up stairs to supervise - ie less sneak up on teenagers (guess we could use video monitoring)

- Noise through floors to downstairs - kids are not quiet when they move

- Laundry needs to go up and down (We could put a stackable set upstairs, but more cost)


Downstairs opposite of master side - 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, playroom/hangout space

Pros:

- Easier to monitor and sneak up as I'm envisioning the playroom/hangout space to be closer to main living areas)

- Can use hangout space as separate living even after kid is moved out (can do upstairs too, but considering aging in place, its not as convenient)

- Laundry not much different than we currently have and works well.

- Easy to access to clean even after kid moves out and if we have some mobility issues with stairs

- Can add doors to close off if not used


Cons:

- More impervious coverage on the ground and may make it harder to design around as we don't want to remove the large oaks

- House will seem bigger - less out of sight - out of mind, and I'd feel the need to clean it more often.

- Easy to sneak out - although we could have cameras monitoring near the house


So did I miss anything and curious to hear other thoughts as I'd like to think this through fully before we actually bite the bullet and pick a preference.







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