Wonderful ideas - thank you! Love the Man Shed... maybe I can move James and his tv out to a Man Treehouse or a Man Shed? lol. Once he took his coke and pretzels and went and sat in his car when I had the girls over. No one knew where he went. He's a good boy :) It was terribly pathetic to see him sitting there all alone, but very loving :) He's not a sports fan, thankfully and there is already a fridge down there - we're more than halfway there :) I agree about lamps and fuzzy rugs. The fabric is a great idea - I wonder if I can drape it at the ceiling to create a softer ceiling than just floor joists and tons of pipes, wires, ducts etc. Luckily all the walls are either drywalled (not well, but it's something) or concrete bricks. you guys are the best - thanks for all your help!

I'm taking a different point of view. I was one of seven children--five boys, two girls. There are very few eight bedroom houses out there. We all shared rooms until the older kids started going off to college. When we were little, I shared a room with my older brothers. Once I got a baby sister--eight years younger--I shared a room with her. True, it was a pain in the neck sometimes, having to go to bed and get undressed in my room without turning the lights on because she went to bed earlier than I did, but it did not scar me for life. My take would be that in a few years, your daughter should get her own room. That could happen when your older son goes off to college, or the two boys could share a room, if there's someplace else for the older boy to do his homework, etc., after the little one goes to bed. But I would also look around the house and see if there was any other space that could be used for your office. Maybe 1/3 of the garage, leaving a two car garage? (I think a one car garage just wouldn't fly today.) Or the dining room, or your bedroom? And talk to your kids and see what they say. My cousin had three kids in five years and for a while they all slept in the same room. When she wanted to move the two girls into their own room, they were upset--they didn't want to leave their baby brother all alone at night. So the parents had to work out a schedule to transition them all to the new sleeping arrangement.

My husband and I have a TV den upstairs next to our bedroom (designated a small bedroom), and it's great. I absolutely did not want a TV in the living room because it would be in the way, we don't do TV as a social activity, and it would be unsightly and anachronistic in our Victorian AF main floor. We also did not want a TV in the bedroom because we've just never been into that and it's terrible for sleep hygiene. My aunt and uncle had a bedroom TV for ages but ditched it when they moved to their new house. Having the TV den upstairs near our bedroom has been great - you can retire to upstairs and watch TV/play video games before bed but not IN bed. And we'll stick with one TV. There are enough old coax cables on our house to put a TV in every room (previous owner was obsessed with TV, I guess?) but I couldn't imagine. I don't even like TV that much.

Thanks for the suggestions! The previous owners who built the house used it as an office. There is no window as it is in the middle of the house surrounded on all sides. I would love to use the bonus room upstairs as a playroom later on but not until I feel comfortable w our youngest going up and down stairs well. We are leaning towards using it as mainly a storage/pantry room. The kids rooms are so big I think they can share one and the other room will be the playroom. Then when they are older they can have their own rooms and use the upstairs as a hangout space.