buying house, master on first floor and nursery on second floor

[Anonymous]

It doesn't sound like a deal breaker to me, OP. There will certainly be times where you wished you had a different setup, but I can't imagine that wouldn't be the case under any circumstance. For most of us there are tradeoffs in real estate and this would be one I'd be willing to make. As it stands, I made a completely different tradeoff (living in a 4th floor walkup apartment with a toddler and I'm 30 weeks pregnant). People think that's nuts, but it was within our budget and checked all of our other boxes. Yeah, I curse those stairs some days but we deal and we're fine.

[Anonymous]

I think it would be fine. We bought a floor mat for DS1's room, with the intention that when he gets sick in the middle of the night one of us could sleep in the same room as him and check on him. We've never had to use that mat. Not that he hasn't gotten sick, but that once he turned 2 the middle of the night needs drastically drop and it's ok for him to be on a different floor.

From a resale value point of view, I think a lot of empty nesters would prefer having the master suite on the ground floor.

[Anonymous]

OP here thank you for the feedback all - we considered the prospect of still being in our little apt and not saving or paying a mortgage and we’ll likely put in an offer (I showed my husband this thread too). For the poster that mentioned the anxiety, yes, I medicate the anxiety and there are other issues related to the actual move not the house that make the stairs seem like a big deal. Thank you for the continued anecdotes and experiences.

[Anonymous]

No, never. I’d be afraid of being on a different floor in case of fire, or other event.

[Anonymous]

Half of the houses in my neighborhood have the opposite of this situation - master upstairs, one or two bedrooms downstairs - and it doesn't seem to deter anyone. Tons of little kids in the neighborhood. Parents sleep upstairs, no big deal. In some ways it sounds nicer to me than our current set up (3 BR up, kitchen/LR/DR on main level, rec room and laundry in basement) because I feel like i'm schlepping from my bedroom upstairs down to the basement all the time. That's a lot of stairs.

Also, I love the random "unless you don't sleep train like a dummy, all babies sttn at 3 months old" troll. hahahahaha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sister in law (Husband's sister) and her husband bought a house like this when their oldest was 3 and she was pregnant with their 2nd.
They used the "master bedroom" as a guest suite and slept on the same floor as their children for many years.
Why can't you and your husband do that?

Everyone I know with this set up did the same thing.

When kids are little you have to be in the same part of the house. When kids are older you can move into the master bedroom.

OP again....there are only two bedrooms each on a different floor. I shouldn’t have said master because it makes the house sound mcmansiony ha

Didn't read all the other comments so forgive me if this was asked and answered. Is there another room on the 1st floor (tv room, office, family room) that you could turn into a kids' bedroom for the next few years for your child? You could then have the office/guest room upstairs. Or a 2nd tv room upstairs if you wish (where you could entertain your guests after baby goes to bed because loud laughing in livingroom/kitchen will be hard for baby to sleep).

Of course, if 1st floor is living room, kitchen, diningroom (without doors on it) and bedroom, you are screwed.

[Anonymous]

We have 3 bedrooms, two up and one down. The kids sleep upstairs, we sleep downstairs. There has never been a problem with this, not once. When they were babies we room-shared for a while then they moved to their rooms upstairs. It allows us to not have to be so quiet after they go to bed and we are in our room or when we get up and get ready in the morning-no sneaking quietly up or down steps. I really like the mental separation as well, and not having to see their mess as often!

[Anonymous]

Wow so many debbie downers here! OP I had two c's. For the first I guess we had the ideal nursery off the master situation. It was great. Baby never slept in our room because nursery was close enough to hear her.

For baby #2, we had moved into a larger apartment where 18 month old was upstairs in her bedroom. She was fine, we had a monitor, she became very good at stairs! Baby was in our room until we moved into our current house when he was almost 1.

Now we have the master on the third floor (its the only thing on the third), bedrooms on the 2nd floor! So the opposite direction. Once again, totally fine, we have monitors. Kids are happy we are happy and planning on #3 who will be in a nursery down there on the 2nd floor.

I don't really understand what is difficult about the situation. Getting out of bed blows no matter where you're going to deal with the situation. Last night the 18 month old woke up, I stumbled out of bed, ran down and rocked him, put him back in his bed, went back to my bed. I don't see how it would be that different to have gone down the hall.

Buy your house, congrats on the opportunity!

[Anonymous]

I would just make sure that the floors don't have separate HVAC systems and/or that you have a way to check the temperature of their room and get notified if it gets too hot/cold.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t buy it. Two bedrooms are bad for resale, bedrooms on different floors are bad for resale. I’d keep saving or look in a different area.

(My dh also has anxiety so ranches were never a consideration for us—we waited to buy until we could afford a two story home with all bedrooms upstairs.)

[Anonymous]

My 4 year old still wakes up in the middle of the night and comes to our room. We don’t use a monitor anymore so we don’t hear her. We don’t even rent vacation homes where the bedrooms are on different floors.

[Anonymous]

This is a big no for me. I do not want to be walking stairs in the middle the night either up or down to get to my kid.

[Anonymous]

Dealbreaker for me. I have elementary kids who have still come to me at night, with a nightmare or diarrhea or what have you. I wouldn't want to worry about reaching them at night in an emergency like a fire, and I'd be worried about resale value with other parents like me who would say no to a layout like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow so many debbie downers here! OP I had two c's. For the first I guess we had the ideal nursery off the master situation. It was great. Baby never slept in our room because nursery was close enough to hear her.

For baby #2, we had moved into a larger apartment where 18 month old was upstairs in her bedroom. She was fine, we had a monitor, she became very good at stairs! Baby was in our room until we moved into our current house when he was almost 1.

Now we have the master on the third floor (its the only thing on the third), bedrooms on the 2nd floor! So the opposite direction. Once again, totally fine, we have monitors. Kids are happy we are happy and planning on #3 who will be in a nursery down there on the 2nd floor.

I don't really understand what is difficult about the situation. Getting out of bed blows no matter where you're going to deal with the situation. Last night the 18 month old woke up, I stumbled out of bed, ran down and rocked him, put him back in his bed, went back to my bed. I don't see how it would be that different to have gone down the hall.

Buy your house, congrats on the opportunity!

Your child is in a crib so it's you making the effort to get to him right now. But eventually he will be older and you won't want him coming to find you, groggy and heading down a flight of stairs in the dark.

[Anonymous]

OP here thank all, all things i worry about and continue to be worried about. unfortunately we have put in an offer on the house and are proceeding, mixed feelings about it mostly anxious but my husband and family are excited.