I much prefer a Master bedroom on the main floor to the opposite. We looked at several houses that had the master bedroom in the former attic and the kids rooms on the main floor and I was not down with that.

Anonymous wrote:OP here- does anyone have a ranch and really love or not love it?

I hate ranches. I want bedrooms on a separate floor.

We had a new master suite built on another floor when our twins were 5 years old. It was fine. They enjoyed having their own floor. And, we enjoyed our privacy away from the kids.

We have a main floor master and kids rooms upstairs. We moved when the youngest was about 2 and have never had any problems. They can still find their way into our room in the middle of the night in the pitch dark, thankyouverymuch.

It's not ideal for me, but it depends on how long you plan to be in the house - if it's just for a few years and you will have young kids the whole time, I'd probably pass on being on separate floors. BUT if it's the forever house and you love it otherwise, I would do it - the young kids stage is really quite short. My sister and I had our bedrooms on a separate floor from my parents growing up and it was no big deal.

re: Ranches, I really like the concept, so that would be my choice over a Cape style house.

We're in a cape with 2 bedrooms on the main floor, master and tiny room on the 2nd floor. We used the upper tiny room as a nursery until about age 1-2 and then moved the kids to the main level bedrooms. #1 started sleeping down there at about 14 mos. It was fine. We used a monitor to hear them, kept gates on the doors when they were toddlers to prevent wandering. Now that they are older (10 and 12), I like the added privacy DH and I have with them on a different level.

We have a ranch with a finished attic playroom or potential fifth bedroom. Three bedrooms on one side of house, master suite on the opposite side of the house. We've lived here for ten months and still haven't slept in the master. Maybe it sounds ridiculous, but it seems so far from our 3 and 1 year olds. We really like the set up now-- no running up and down stairs, laundry off kitchen-- but I do wonder how much I'll like it if we are here when the kids are bigger. Too close for comfort, perhaps?

We had a split foyer when the kids were little and for us it was an ideal set up. All the bedrooms on one level with easy access to kitchen/baths - no going up and downstairs.

And once they were sleeping through the night, dh and I could go downstairs and stay up listening to music, watching movies, whatever and we had the baby monitor with us so we could hear the kids if they woke up. When we did go to bed we were on the same level as the kids.

As they grew older, it was sometimes not as convenient to have the bedrooms all so close together, I will not lie. But the kids used the basement family room and had a playroom down there so when their friends came over they were not running all over the house. Usually.

We had a three year old and then had two more kids since moving into our house with a main floor master and it's really not that big a deal. Never even put a gate on the stairs.

OP here- does anyone have a ranch and really love or not love it?

Anonymous wrote:It shouldn't be a problem. We're in a DC row house and have always been on a different floor since DD was about 18mos. Her brother was always on the floor below us. We moved here when he was 3.

You compromised twice, first with the row house. I don't think it is wise to do that unless you put up with a lot of faults and the house is cheap enough

We do not sleep on the same floor as my 2 y/o. We are in a cape, so 2 beds up, 2 down. It's not ideal, but we make it work. We still use a monitor and will for the foreseeable future even though we wouldn't if we were on the same floor. Our house is fairly small and that's why I'm ok with this. I thought about it and I'm probably the same distance from my child as I was from my parents' room growing up in a much larger house. It's just that we are separated by a flight of stairs.

It's not what I would have wanted, but we are in a good house in the neighborhood we wanted. This is just one of our compromises.

It shouldn't be a problem. We're in a DC row house and have always been on a different floor since DD was about 18mos. Her brother was always on the floor below us. We moved here when he was 3.

No to both

A community that we are considering buying in has two models that we like. Both have a main floor master. Would you buy a house with a main floor master with a 4 year old being on a separate floor (with the possibility of another child/ baby upstairs, in the future, too?) Or would you buy a house with a main floor master that has the secondary bedrooms on the same floor as well (ranch style).