Picking Out a House That Is Right for Us

I have had all of the above... My first home was a ranch with all the bedrooms together - we only lived there until my baby was 7 weeks... my next 2 homes were both 2 story and had split master down, other bedrooms up -which had its pros and cons - the house had a very open floorplan - so even though the kids were up - it was noisey!! We also had a 2- story with all the bedrooms up - it was fine. Then we had a 2 story (actually 4 with full basement and walk up attic) - where the kids bedrooms were all up and again the master was down, and now we are in a ranch with split bedrooms.

This is my favorite house - it is 4,000 sf on one level - so the kids rooms (3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms) are all on the opposite side of the house from the master - which is great b/c they are all schoolage now. The kitchen is on the opposite side of the kids rooms - and this house is quiet - I don't hear the t.v. from the family room from my bedroom - it does have an intercom system as well... I don't miss the stairs!! I love the look of a 2 story - but after doing my last house - I am done with them!!

Find a house you love - ultimately it doesn't make that big a difference!! My kids can easily get to me in the night if they need me!

We live in a one story home. 4 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths. My bedroom is away from the kids, but the house is not very huge so it doesn't matter. If you happen to be out of earshot of the kids, just place a monitor in their bedrooms at night for better peace of mind.
We prefer one story. It just works best for us.

I've lived in all of these house types and made them all work with the children. We had babies in some and all ages in others. We are in a ranch now and because my husband had hip surgery I would vote for a ranch for long term. You never know about steps as you age and even if other people come to stay it's very nice to have one floor. We do have a finished basement and a bedroom down there so that works great if needed. My aunt and others who visited from England slept down there and had the whole basement to themselves. It has a small kitchen down there too which I would have for sure. Even if you just have teenagers down there a little kitchen area is great to make it an entertainment place. Or if the grand kids are playing down there, which they do, I have a refrigerator and sink and don't have to go up and down the steps. The bedrooms in our house are on opposite sides of the hearth room, master on one side and two on the other side. That has worked great for us. We did have a two story house with a finished attic, with two bedrooms and bath, that was great for our two daughters. I do think though that it was a lot of cleaning with the two story and steps were a lot after time.
As far as babies and steps, our kids that were little when we lived in houses with steps learned to go up and down safely much earlier than the babies who lived where there were no steps. You just have to teach safety and practice with them and they adjust to it fine. Put a baby gate up if they are too little to learn going up and down. I think children adjust to noise, lights, all other things if that's where they are. I think any of the styles are workable but I prefer the ranch myself. If not, as someone already said be sure you do have a bedroom down even if you don't use it for that in case you have a medical need for it. Steps are a pain in that case.

Hi, I would suggest a ranch, while our kids were young, we had a ranch and then we moved for more space into a 2 story. Now our kids are pretty much grown and now we have a lot space, but a lot to clean. We want to go back to a ranch. Unfortunately, kids grow up and move on and if looking to stay in the same home for a long term a ranch is the best. Good Luck!

It's really going to come down to personal choice. I've lived in both but chose to move from a 2 story to a ranch as soon as we started a family. To us it was all about convenience and safety. I didnt want to worry about my son falling downstairs, etc. The thought of having to run upstairs everytime I forgot anything was terrifying, lol! We love our ranch home and my son is fine with sleeping and not hearing us.. he's a good sleeper though. Our ranch home is split so the kitchen living areas are down the center of the home and separates the master from the other bedrooms so we still have our privacy. Best wishes!

We've been in our 2 story for about 12 years now and it is a PAIN in the BUTT! LOL My next house is going to be a side-to-side split.

Great question and great responses!
We went from a 2 story to a story and 1/2 and 9 years ago and love it! BUT our kids were 7 and 11 at the time. We had the luxury of time on our hands, and it sounds like you do too, for looking because we were not in a transfer situation. So we looked at houses for 2 years! We thought specifically of a teen friendly house knowing we probably would not move again. Our criteria was a story and 1/2, 3-car garage, kid friendly neighborhood AND basement/lower level. I also wanted a laundry room not a laundry closet. And we found it! Even though my kids were older, since it was new/different they slept in the loft area for a few weeks since it was closer to us. Now as teenagers, trust me, the least I see their rooms the better! ;)
Our lower level is extremely kid friendly with essentially a whole second kitchen down there. Again, as the kids got older and started having friends over they could cook pizzas, make smoothies, have the fridge full of soda etc. *Again, trust me on this too, you do want the kids to come to your house. Make it fun and a friendly place. That way you know where they are, who they are hanging with and what they are doing.
I love my laundry ROOM. It's so nice not to have clothes all over the floor in the kitchen as in our old house because of where the washer and dryer were. And for all practical purposes my husband and I have everything we need on the main floor.
So bottom line, yes your kids are small, but think ahead. We did not do that with our first house and it came back to bite us in the behind. I have friends who move just because they get tired of their house. Well maybe not so much any more with the housing market and economy. But I never understood that. Like I said, we took our time to find exactly what we wanted. We knew that unless something weird happened we wouldn't be moving again. This is a house that my husband and I can stay in once the kids are gone, yet comfortable enough that if/when our kids get married and have kids of their own, we've got the room.
Good Luck, Lori K

We live in a 2 story home with all the bedrooms upstairs. I am happy with this setup. My kids are 8 and 11.

We want a single story for our next house. We are currently in a 2 story with the master on the first floor. Its a great house for older kids but not for little ones. Our kids sleep through the night most of the time but when they wake up it's a pain. We also worry about not being able to get to the kids quickly if something is wrong.

We have done both. Currently have a ranch because when we were looking, my husband figured that he could side this one, but not the 2-story one he was looking at! yep, that was part of the decision, lol! I almost wish we had a 2-story so I could get the exercise going up and down the stairs.

The floor plan of the ranch will have a great deal to do with whether sleeping people hear the awake people. If all the bedrooms are at one end like the house I grew up in, it was only a problem for the one bedroom that shared a wall with the living room. Since my brother slept there and he was a heavy sleeper (once out of toddlerhood) it wasn't a problem. The one we have now has a bedroom right off the living room, but our kids are older and night-owls, and we don't entertain late anyway so it isn't a problem.

If you don't like stairs, don't go for a split level because you're always going up or down at least a short flight.

When mine were the ages you mention, I didn't want to be away from them either.

If I were house-shopping again I would look at other stuff like what kind of heating system it has (we really liked the hot water heat we had in our 2-story), insulation, location (location, location!), and yard size as being at least as important as 1 or 2 story.

Not sure if that helped--FWIW

K. Z.

We live in a small two bedroom home. The bedrooms are right next door. I can do anything I want downstairs when my son is sleeping but close to his room he hears everything! I even hate flusing the toliet! We will be looking for another house in the next few years. I would a master on the first floor and the kids upstairs (we have 1 one the way). It may be a pain to go up and down and a bit scary for them doing the stairs alone (put safety gates up) but the privacy is much better than waking your kid up every minute. If you need to use a monitor (we have a video one we love). That helps us feel closer if we are outside in the yard or the basement. Good luck with whatever type suites you and your family.

I don't like the thought of having the bedrooms either split between sides of the house, or floors, but you need to keep in mind what is on the other side of every wall with whatever you choose. Is the toilet going to flush against a bedroom, is your bed going to be right up against the guest room, is a bedroom against a garage, for the garage door noise, etc. I know that the next house we have, these things will be planned much more carefully than anything else. Otherwise, I think that everything else is a personal decision. If you aren't comfortable having the kids away now, don't worry too much about the long term, you will all grow into it.

We have a 2300 sq ft ranch style with split bedrooms. This is our 2nd house and the first was similar. The first house their bedrooms were closer to the kitchen and OURs was on the far side of the family room. This one, WE are closer to the kitchen, and THEY are on the far side of the family room.

In neither situation has the kitchen noise ever been a problem. I used to run the mixer after they went to bed when they were close to the kitchen and it never disturbed them. Now that they are a little older (11 & 8 yrs) they tend to wake up in the wee hours if there is louder noises.. for example: my husband is required to be up at 5:00 a.m. some mornings, and he will use the mixer to mix up a protein shake for his breakfast. Sometimes that will cause the kids to stir, but they usually go back to sleep. I think it must coincide with a lighter cycle of their sleep. Because once they go to sleep at night... we can sit up with guests and talk, play some music and play cards,etc... and they don't wake.
One thing I did make sure of though, is that we have solid core doors.. not hollow core. It makes a HUGE difference in soundproofness (and also should there ever be a fire).

Our neighbor has a 5 bed/3 bath with the master and 2 bedrooms on main (with kitchen, living room, laundry room). The lower level has 2 bedrooms and one bathroom with an additional living room. A style like that would be good because your boys could be upstairs with you at first. And, when they're a little older, they can have the whole downstairs to themselves:)

I have two kids - ages 6 months and 2.5 years old and we live in a small two bedroom house with our bedroom right next to our children's room. When we turn on the light in our bathroom (if our door is open), it shines right on our daughter's bed!! That being said, they now sleep with the door open (something new that daughter wanted) and we can turn on the hallway light, our bathroom / bedroom light, flush the toliet across the hall, have the kitchen light on, tv and even have had friends over sitting in the kitchen talking and they have slept through it. I would never have thought this was possible in the past!!

That being said, I often envision a larger house - whether it be a split master down and other bedrooms upstairs or just more bedrooms. We are adding onto our house in 2-3 years so I often try to visualize what would be best for us.

What we are going with (and I think I would ultimately choose if we had the chance or decided to move again is a larger 1 story house. Not only because I like everyone on one level but also because I like the feel of a ranch - I feel like the house is larger (because it is!). My children don't sleep through the night - well my 2.5 year old just started a few weeks ago...so I cannot imagine going up/down the stairs a few times a night. I know there are safety gates, but I would also worry about them falling down the stairs (as I do already with our basement stairs).

Kids will learn to sleep through pretty much anything I have learned! Once we add on, we will have 1 small bedroom and 1 large bedroom at the front of the house then it will be separated by the kitchen/den and there will be one large bedroom and our master bedroom/bath in the back. I almost hate the idea of being that far away from my kids since I'm literally a few steps away from them now!

Personally I think it depends on your lifestyle. However, I will add one very important bit of advise, you should have a sleeping area on the first floor, not necessarily a bedroom, but a place to use in an emergency. The reason I say this is you never know what will happen in the future. I had major surgery a few years ago and could barely walk for a week much less climb stairs, luckily my bedroom is on the first floor. My BFF had to have foot surgery and was on crutches for 3 months, her house has all the bedrooms upstairs and she had to sleep in the living room.

We moved to Texas from the Chicago area. Up there a master on the main level was rare but down here it's almost impossible to find a 2 story home where the master is not downstairs. We moved here with a 3 year old and a 1 year old and at first I was concerned about them being upstairs while we were down, but it has worked out just fine. We've even had another child while down here and dealt with all the nighttime feedings with him being upstairs while we were down. I think as long as the house has the space that you need and a lay out that is convenient for your lifestyle, I don't think it will matter to you in the end whether it's a ranch or a 2 story.

Good luck,
K.

Okay, I a m a worry wort. We were looking at houses and I started having nightmares about split bedrooms. I had nightmares that the house was on fire and I couldn't get to the other bedrooms without going outside and busting in windows, then I couldn't find the kids. I have dreamed they figured out how to open the front door and get out and wandered the neighborhood, got into traffic, and a semi comes along, ....I just can't do the seperate bedroom thing. So we selected a house that has all the bedrooms in one general area. I rest easier knowing I can hear them with my natural ears if they get up and move around the house.

If I had it to do all over again, we would NOT have purchased our current 2 story home. I would have gone with a ranch or 1 1/2 story, probably the ranch to avoid all the stairs. I would also have gone with more bedrooms and an open floor plan. For sure something with optional bedrooms in the basement so that when they get older, they could be further away with their own privacy. I would just advise to look at a lot of homes and don't jump on the very first one you get warm and fuzzy over.

I have two boys, ages 10 and 13. I have a two story with all bedrooms together on the upper floor, and I personally would not choose a house where the master bedroom is on a different level than the other bedrooms. Although my boys have been sleeping through the night for years (LOL), they have continued to need us at night for various reasons. My oldest has asthma and when he gets sick he gets an awful cough that gets worse at night. I like to be close enough to hear him. He has also had night terrors off and on over the years and it's good to be nearby and in hearing range when those strike. My younger son doesn't get night terrors, but he does have nightmares on a fairly regular basis. I also like being nearby when they are sick. My youngest had H1N1 in October and for a full week I had to attend to him at night with his fever, hallucinations, etc. As the other poster said, it comes down to a matter of personal preference, but I would always want the bedrooms on the same level. For most people, it works to have a finished basement as the kids get older. A place to send them when they have friends over, sleepovers, etc. and sometimes even a bedroom for the teenager. That is the next home improvement project on our list. Good luck!