Help Me Figure Out What to Do With New Rooms

[Anonymous]

I am adding onto a small 2BR rowhouse (3 total levels). Right now, kids happily share a bedroom but they are girl/boy and the addition is to, in part, be ready for the time when they want their own rooms. Their small bedroom has room for 2 twin beds and one dresser, only; there are no toys in their room. Their bookshelf and a few toys are in a nook area at the top of the stairs, between their BR and the MBR. The kids' main toy/play area is in the living room. While the basement is finished and is where we watch TV, neither kid is especially happy playing down there without an adult. They are OK reading or playing on the landing upstairs without me, but the basement must feel too far away for them. Kids are 4 & 6.

The addition is going to add another bedroom upstairs (nook going away), and is also adding a separate living space and a powder room to the tiny main level (separated from the living room by the eat-in kitchen) and more useable space and a laundry room to the finished basement.

Long-term, I envision the basement being the kids' domain, the living room a TV-free zone, the new living area the TV-space & my office area, and everyone having their own bedroom.

With all that in mind, my questions are...how would you rearrange the toy/play space within the addition for when the kids are small? Designate the new BR as the playroom until they want their own rooms? Keep the new BR as a guestroom for my mom who frequently stays for a week? Carve out the new LR space as the kid play/craft area? And at what age can one hypothetically lock the kids in the basement to play with all their junk down there so I no longer step on the d@mn Calico Critter pieces? OK, that last one was a joke. But you get what I mean.

[Anonymous]

Based on our experience with a similar situation, I'd keep the living room as a play space until the kids are older and want to have their own hangout with their friends, for which the basement would be perfect. Right now they want to be near you and in a familiar place where the household activity is. I assume the living room is off the kitchen? Let the new upstairs room be the guest room for now and the extra downstairs space be your office/adult space.