Surprise pregnancy and house advice

mylifemyrules

Thank you all so much. We are all super excited! You have given me much to think about. I think we'll try and split one of the rooms but it we can't I think sleeping in the conservatory would be fine for us as I do think it's nice for children to have their own rooms we have a playroom in a insulated summerhouse anyway. 

NBLondon

mylifemyrules said:

Hi, I agree with you, at the moment the largest bedroom has a large window and ideally I would love to have that removed to have 2 smaller windows then split the room only problem I see is where would the second door go? Would I be able to send you some pics? 

Depends on the current layout.  Doesn't have to be a new doorway to the landing - you might be able to add partition and concertina doors to save space and leave the existing doorway (removing the door).

london21

2 siblings sharing a room can be fun especially in the early years.

I shared a room with my sister growing up and loved it.

She was 3 years 3 months older than me.

pinkshoes

mylifemyrules said:

Hi, I agree with you, at the moment the largest bedroom has a large window and ideally I would love to have that removed to have 2 smaller windows then split the room only problem I see is where would the second door go? Would I be able to send you some pics? 

Try sketching out the layout with some approximate dimensions, then perhaps people can take a look and see what can be done? 

Or ask a builder or handyperson to come round and quote. 

If you have a large window on a wide wall, you can perhaps just get some sort of barrier build half way down it. A friend did this in a rental years ago as a temporary thing to give the kids their own rooms! They had the same doorway so it wasn't total privacy, but the room was then completely split from floor to ceiling, with a curtain across the "room" you walked through first.. 

We have my parents stay so really need 5 bedrooms. I had a long rectangle study downstairs which we have split in two (wall built in the middle) then we knocked a hole to what will be the 5th bedroom through another room. Other than the plastering we did all the work ourselves. We will have a sofa bed in there so it will be used as a normal room then a bedroom when needed.

onomatopoeia99

pinkshoes said:

I know many will disagree with me, but I think kids should have their own space/bedrooms and I think this is really important. 

I completely agree with you.  Some people (children are in the set 'people') need more privacy than others, some sleep really lightly, some go to bed at different times, particularly children of different ages, some need a light on at night, some can't sleep with a light on, and some will bitterly resent being treated differently from a sibling that has their own room.

I know there will be the "in my day we lived under a bridge and were grateful" crowd, but times have changed.

Savvy_Sue

onomatopoeia99 said:

I completely agree with you.  Some people (children are in the set 'people') need more privacy than others, some sleep really lightly, some go to bed at different times, particularly children of different ages, some need a light on at night, some can't sleep with a light on, and some will bitterly resent being treated differently from a sibling that has their own room.

And then you have one child who really needs their own space, and a sibling who really really 'needs' not to be alone ... 

onomatopoeia99 said:

I know there will be the "in my day we lived under a bridge and were grateful" crowd, but times have changed.

indeed. For a short while, all 5 of us were in one room: 2 boys in one bunk bed along one wall, 2 girls in a bunk bed along another wall, eldest girl in a single bed is what I remember although it could have been a different configuration. I don't remember it fondly, and I have no idea why it was necessary because we were usually split into 2 and 3!

When we moved, our boys were 7, 9 and 12. We were gazumped, and ended up moving in with a friend while we looked for another property. 6 of us in a 3 bed house: friend in one room, us in another, the boys in the 3rd, with one of them on a mattress on the floor, because we had no other option. The older two coped OK, but the youngest would NOT go to sleep before his brothers came up, and was then woken up at silly o'clock because the eldest had to get a bus to school, which started quite early. Consequently he was really tired and grumpy all the time. That's another time I don't remember fondly ... 

Once we've moved, the older one had his own room: I knew he needed space before I knew why (Aspie). The older two shared happily enough until the youngest had a French exchange student to stay. We moved middle one into the spare room, and he never moved back ... despite the youngest being that needy child mentioned above. 

I think the thing is that as parents, you just have to do your best, and do your best according to the situation you're in. Yes, it's lovely if each child can have their own room, but if they can't, you work out the next best solution. 

Also there's no reason boys and girls can't share a room when they're small, up until the age of 10 it wouldn't be considered necessary to separate them if you were applying for council house, see NSPCC advice. 

KxMx

I'm in my 30's and shared with my brother from age 8-10 &  Mum from 10-13, and am a little insulted by suggestions that it's no longer acceptable/ standards change.

I also have a neighbour in a 1 bed flat who has their three children to stay around 6 nights a month (as NRP), ages 12/13 upwards all 1 gender.
To be fair the bedroom & living room are generously sized. 

I think some have the trouble of differentiating between what's nice to do/have and what is actually necessary. 

As SavvySue says above,  in social housing the expectation is under 10`s share regardless of gender and siblings of the same gender are not entitled to individual bedrooms unless over 16.

Scorpio33

I have a 10 year old, 7 year old and 6 year old. The 10 & 7 year old (both girls) currently share a room and it works ok. We are looking at the loft to get 4 bedrooms and have been told we'll need to drop the ceilings. So even with a roof space that makes it hard for a conversion, its still possible, it just comes down to money. But I agree that ideally kids have separate rooms, but it all comes down to practicalities.

turnitround

I was one of 4 girls  and we had a 2 bed flat above parents shop. Parents in one bedroom and 2 sets of bunks in the other. It was like that till I married at 20..
We still wonder how we managed but we did.

mylifemyrules

Hi, here is a link to the house with floorplan. It's the biggest bedroom I'm hoping to split. Do you think it could be done? Any ideas would be wonderful. Thank you 

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-95244044-12140203?s=aaf763ebbb1cda31f307d5794c97f8c7bf79c2b6e2c0fb8317ea7d49efb0d6d2#/floorplan