Downstairs bedroom-any negatives?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

The OH moved into a downstairs room when he was a teenager.

He liked it a lot, as he could watch TV or play guitar at silly oclock without disturbing the rest of the house. And his parents were still nearby for his sibling if there was a problem. As a parent myself, I'd rather be upstairs just in case there was an emergency, such as a fire, upstairs as I'd be more in a position to help the youngest.

Compared to the cost of a conversion, why not get yourself a tablet to keep in the kitchen for checking emails, quick surfing, music, that kind of thing?

Piggywiggy

The only downside I've found is having the window open in the night for security reasons, other than that it's really nice not having to go up and down the stairs, so easy to just nip into the bedroom and pick something up etc.

KiKi

sparkiemalarkie wrote: »

If my son moved downstairs I would be quite away from 'my things'. While I'm cooking or cleaning I'm used to popping into the back room to check my emails, make a phone call read a book and so on. I would need a complete lifestyle change to then plod upstairs to 'do my bits'.
sparkie

But surely you'd still be away from your 'things' - because you'd need to move a lot of it upstairs anyway? Otherwise you're talking about using that room as both a bedroom and a study / work room - would OH be okay with that? Would going upstairs really be that much of a 'lifestyle' change? I appreciate it'd be different, but it sounds almost like you'd need to change the whole of your life from the way you say it!!

Personally, I'd put the son downstairs, so then you're moving two rooms around instead of three, and if he wants to socialise later in the evening as he grows up, it's much less intrusion for you if you want to be in bed. As for popping upstairs to do emails - I'd just consider it more exercise, or use my phone / tablet.

onlyroz

Possible security issues when sleeping with the window open. More road noise, in particular intrusive foot traffic. Having to close the curtains if you want to get changed. General privacy issues with nosy parkers peering in the front, or from people in the back garden. Long trip to the toilet/shower if no downstairs bathroom. Noise from adjoining living room.

Brighton_belle

People get locked into very set views as to how to designate the use of rooms their home. Arrange it to suit your individual needs.
We have our sitting room upstairs (in what would be the master bedroom) because it's the largest room in the house and has lots of light and a view.
Sleeping downstairs (in what would be the sitting room conventionally) instead, is fine - we have window locks that allows the window to remain open but not enough for someone to get in.
Can't see the problem in having to go upstairs to the bathroom unless you're disabled.
Exactly the same noise at the front of the house whether you are upstairs or downstairs. And given our urban setting, curtains would have to be drawn if we had our bedroom upstairs too. So no difference.

missbiggles1

I've had a couple of ground floor flats and never gave a second thought to sleeping with the window open, although I suppose it could be a problem in a rough area. If the room gets hot in the summer, a reversible air conditioning unit isn't expensive to buy or to run.

apesxx

Our 8 year old DD is in the downstairs front room as her room. We only have a 2 bedroom house and the 2 children needed splitting up. Although she was happy to have the room, she was a bit unsettled the first couple of weeks but we solved that by putting DS in there for a couple of weeks with her whilst we decorated his room. The room was only ever used for dumping junk in so it made sense to make it a bedroom. Now she's really happy in there and it's the best thing we did. We just keep the front door locked once she goes to bed and we taught her how to open her window and climb out if she ever hears the smoke alarm at night. It is a separate private room tho off the hall, I wouldn't have turned it into a bedroom if the front door opened into the room if that makes sense. Also we decorated it so that only one wall needs to be re-papered to change it into a living space if we come to sell. We even left the fireplace in and made a decorative board to cover up the hole where the fire should go.

bouicca21

Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was but a lass, we were a large family in a very small house. It never occurred to me as in anyway odd that my parents used a downstairs room as a bedroom.

This was also the days before Window locks and we were indeed burgled one night. Is it an upside or a downside that the burglar chose to enter via what in other houses would have been the living room, and ended up getting chased down the street by my dad in his pyjamas?

PS I'm in a ground floor flat and always leave my one of my bedroom windows open ... But only an anorexic midget would be able to get through it.

Savvy_Sue

sparkiemalarkie wrote: »

Thanks for your thoughts,
The downstairs room is at the back of the house and looks over our south facing garden. It gets very hot in the summer.
I have thought about ventilation and not quite sure what to do about that at the moment.

If the garden's fairly private, then keeping a window open overnight shouldn't be a problem, should it? Otherwise close curtains before the heat of the day, and run a fan until bedtime.

sparkiemalarkie wrote: »

Also, my thoughts are that.... if it doesn't suit my husband then he may well be more open to an extension/loft conversion. :shhh:

We won't tell if you won't ...

The only other thing to think about with a loft conversion is that building regs these days may require you to make the entire staircase enclosed, from the ground floor up, complete with door. Depending on your current setup, that may or may not be a big deal.

bouicca21 wrote: »

Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was but a lass, we were a large family in a very small house. It never occurred to me as in anyway odd that my parents used a downstairs room as a bedroom.

We were in a three storey house in those days. Grandma and Granddad lived in the semi-basement but had their bedroom on the middle floor, where the front door was. We had our living area on the top floor, but 'our' bedroom was on the floor below. Very confusing when ALL books talked about going upstairs to bed, and I never had ...

I will give one other reason NOT to have the bedroom on the ground floor, especially at the front, and especially in some situations. DH and I used to have the front ground floor room as our bedroom in a shared house. One night, someone lobbed a brick at the window and broke it, while we were in bed. Fortunately with the curtains shut the flying glass was contained. It could have been very nasty: I think at that time we didn't have the headboard right under the window, but we had had that arrangement.

And this was in leafy Surrey.

There was a small garden between us and the pavement. I'd really struggle to have a downstairs bedroom in a house with no separation between windows and pavement.

Homeownertobe

In my previous bedroom I had a downstairs bedroom at the front of the house. It was fine to begin with but by the time I left I hated it. It was an old Victorian house so the ceiling heights were huge, and the bed was a futon so it was like sleeping in a hole. I was always half expecting someone to appear over the cornicing with a hose. The window was huge too and let loads of light in, but unfortunately it also let anyone look in, so the amount of times I accidentally flashed half the street became an issue. Seriously, by the time I'd moved out, most of the neighbours had seen my body more than I had. It doesn't matter what anyone says, dragging the curtains across before you get out of bed does NOT become second nature. But that's mainly because I can't sleep with the curtains closed. I need to see the sky. It makes 'entertaining' a challenge. You can't escape to bed if there's a party or someone else is using the living room. People walking passed your house talking loudly is a worry. People coming and going at all hours is a nightmare. But the worst thing about the entire thing is not being on the same floor as the bathroom. That drove me mad!