Raising 2 children in a relatively small 2 bedroom house

JadeHighland

Hi all

I'm curious if anyone here is raising two or more children in 2 bedroom house. Just looking to get others perspective.

My husband and I have a 4 year old girl and 7 years old boy who currently share a room. By the same they may need separate rooms (thinking in 3 years time), we should have enough money to do a loft extension. However, it's been pointed out that we may need more ground floor space. At the moment, it's just an okay size living room (3x3m) and slightly bigger kitchen that comfortably fits a dining table.

Though we earn a decent amount, jobs haven't been stable which has led us to be quite over cautious with money. We have 10 years left in our mortgage and ideally trying not to borrow more in case one of us end up losing our jobs or salary. 

Just curious to see how other people have coped and how much of an issue or non issue it is having a small space downstairs. 

FlorayG

Not me but my tenant in a very small house is raising two girls. While they were small it was OK but now they are young teens the house is chaos when I visit (we get on very well). The girls both have their friends round and 4-5 twelve/thirteen year olds and two adults in a tiny living room is pretty crammed - the bedrooms are also small, just large enough for the furniture really. She would like to move to a bigger place but can't afford to. The house is always massively untidy because there's just nowhere to put everything. So you may be OK while they are small but you need to make provision for them as teens somehow

elsien

Aunt raised five kids in a small three bedroom terrace with the only downstairs space being a living room and the kitchen which was a similar size to yours.
I’m sure they would all have preferred more space because there weren’t enough chairs for everyone to sit down at once in the living room so there were always body sprawled around the floor but they coped.

It was their normal.  Need vs want. 

And at least your children would have their own room to go to for space to themselves. 

Flugelhorn

in 3 years time the 7 year old will disappear to their room (maybe the loft room) and reappear about 7 years years later 

silvercar

Over the long term, house prices tend to rise. I'd be looking to move sooner rather than later. Could you cope with the mess of a loft extension while living in the property? The lack of downstairs space would concern, a loft extension won't solve that. I would either plan for a loft extension or a move. Possibly look at cheaper areas, if you are on a tight budget. I'd also be looking at secondary schools, but I like to plan ahead - so much so that I delayed having child 2 until I was in the house size I wanted.

otb666

When they are teenagers they disappear into their bedrooms only to reappear in their twenties.  The downstairs space is fine as they spent all the time in their bedrooms when teenagers.

bouicca21

Back in the day …. My parents raised 4 children in a 2 bed house.  I had the small bedroom, my brothers shared the main one and my parents turned the living room into a bedroom.  The dining table could be extended when necessary but the number of times all 6 of us were together for a meal diminished as we got older.

A loft conversion, if it can be done according to building regs, will add value to the house, and relieve the pressure on space.  As others have said, once they are older the kids will disappear - to their rooms, to friends’ houses, to various activities.  Another option is to spend the loft conversion money on moving to a bigger place.  

RAS

Based on the size of the sitting room, I suspect that any loft room would entail a not insubstantial loss of room on the first floor to accommodate the new stair well and fire doors? 

At the very least look at any other houses of the same design that have been extended. 

I'd be checking out the local secondary schools, avoiding areas with the catchment of poor schools and looking at 3 bedrooms that don't cost a lot more. It'll probably be no more that the cost of the loft extension and you'll get more ground floor space. If you can rework it to add either an ensuite or a downstairs loo, go for it.

Meantime, do your SOA and set up an emergency fund into which you contribute monthly. Not for housing but self-insurance in case of redundancy.

sheramber

My DIL friend has 9nchildren in a three bedroom council flat. No 10 is on the way.

The council have no bigger properties to give them.

Yes, I have been told the house is chaos. 

Spendless

How big is your garden? When mine were 4 and 7 we had a summer house built in our garden. Initially it was a playhouse for our youngest. Later it became somewhere where the eldest did his computer gaming. After he went to Uni and the pandemic hit it became WFH space. 

JadeHighland

Spendless said:

How big is your garden? When mine were 4 and 7 we had a summer house built in our garden. Initially it was a playhouse for our youngest. Later it became somewhere where the eldest did his computer gaming. After he went to Uni and the pandemic hit it became WFH space. 

Medium sized. We have quite a lot of room at the back to get a summer house installed.