Houses

How many rooms do you have? Do your kids share a room? How do they find it? My gf has 3 kids and her two girls share a room and I think its great, they are definitely more close because of it IMO. I think if we have 3 (maybe even if we had 2 girls) I would let them share a room.

*hugs*
Cailin

We have a 3 bedroom house, although one of them is tiny and we use it as a study. If we were to have another boy, then we would put him in to share with Aidyn. If it is a girl though, we might give her the study as her own room... not sure on that yet. And if we have more than 2, then there will definately be some sharing going on!

Growing up in my family of seven - (5 girls and 2 parents), We moved into a 3 bedroom house, my parents had one room, the 2 eldest girls shared one, and the 3 youngest shared another.
Then a few years later my parents built in under the house another bedroom, bathroom and rumpus, and moved down there, so us girls had a bit more space to spread out.
I didn't really mind sharing (though I was always jealous when one of my older sisters got her own room) and I think we were all really close as a result.

We are in the process of moving to another 3 bedroomed house, but even just if we stick at 2 kids, I'd like to be greedy & have 4 bedrooms when we buy in Adelaide.....one for us, one for each child, one study/spare-room.

Having said that, like Ambah, I am from a family of 7 (2 parents, 5 kids (3 boys, 2 girls) and we always managed werever we lived. We once livied in a 2 bedroomed beach holiday shack thing (in the middle of winter as a short term rental!) with the 3 boys in bunk beds/camp beds in the sleepout, me and my sister in bunk beds in the tiny second bedroom & my parents in the main bedroom. Chaos, but as kids we thought it was great!

I remember being SO excited though, when I finally got my own room when I was about 10 (when my older brothers and sister left home for uni etc).........I just thought it was heaven!

We have 3 bedrooms. If we gone on to have another baby after this one then the kids would have to share.

We are looking in to one day building a unit in the garden for guest and the kids to use when they get older unless we could afford to move to a bigger house.

We have 2 very large bedrooms at the moment, Mark and I in one and Marks two boys in the other when we have them so it doesn`t leave any room for bubs, so he`ll have to be in our room for a while.

We are extending onto our house and our plans have been approved, we`re adding another 4 more bedrooms making a total of 6 bedrooms.

At this stage I`m thinking of having 4 children of my own so with Mark`s two boys we`re going to need all the bedrooms we can get.

Take Care

Deeanne

Well hopefully I can get this baby-making business hapening soon. The home we have designed to start building in the next few years is a 5 bedroom (+ study), 3 bathroom home, so really hope we get some chickadees to fill it - otherwise we will have an empty house and I cant think of anything worse!



Keen

We have 5 children 14 year old boy in his own room, 12 year old girl in her own room, 3 and 2 year old boys sharing room girl 10months own room. DH and I own room. plus a rumpus for all toys and 2 bathrooms. I love this house. Problem is it is a rental and now for sale. We are not in the position to buy and I hope no one else is either as I don't want to move into something too small again. We were in a three bedroom house with 2 teenagers in own rooms, dh, me and 3 children in one room. (not fun!!!!). so we need to win a lot of money or hope no one wants to but this one.

We have a six bedroom house, although one of them is being used as a study at present (hopefully will be a nursery one day).
Each of the girls have their own room and the two boys that I foster room in together. It still feels squeezy to me, I am trying to talk DH into extensions!

I am from a family of 6. My older brother and sister both had a room of their own and both myself and my younger sister shared a room. We loved it. When my brother moved out we could have gone into our own rooms but it was about a year after that we finally decided to have our own rooms. By that stage I was 11/12 and my sister was 9/10.

Clare

I would really love a house with 5 bedrooms and a study. 3 bathrooms would be great but we could live with 2. I would love a games room, a lounge room, a media room and a meals area (no dining room!!) I also need a storage room inside (when we had plans to build a long time ago we looked at converting the dining room in the plans to a storage room) but we also only had 2 kids living with us then.

My kids all have their own rooms and that is how I plan to keep it. So 5 bedrooms would be like this ...

Bed 1 Me & Ryan
Bed 2 Em
Bed 3 Jack
Bed 4 Asha
Bed 5 Guest room (Sian or Bree)
Study (with sofa bed for Sian or Bree)

Cheers

we currently own a 3 b'room house, but with # 4 coming would like to build something bigger. The twins are in bunks together, but being identical they have a lot of :"issues" with identity ao I would love to be able to offer them their own rooms by the time they are teenragers!!!, DD#3 currently has own room but #4 will be joining her when born. #4 is a boy to be so we figure we have 5 years approx to get ourselves sorted out, and either extend or build. Would ideally like a room for each child (of course ) but will survive with what we have. when twins were born we were renting a 2 b'room 9 square "shed" n all survived!!!!
ATM the twins would not seperate anyway, (thats a threat if they are misbehaving) and most of the time end up in bed together anyway!!!

We own a 4 bedroom house, which has 2 bathrooms (one is also a laundry), a living/dining room and large lounge room. The lounge room was originally 2 separate rooms. One of the bedrooms is also used as a study. We are only planning on having 2 children, so they will each have their own room. If we change our minds, we can always relocate the computer etc into the living area which is quite spacious, so that there is a third room available for another child, or we could always turn the lounge room back into 2 separate rooms!! Or we could simply build on as there is definitely potential for that here.......

Well we extended a rumpus on first as we had 3 br and only 2 kids, then we decided we needed the extra br for no.3 so we lost 1 br to gain 2, then with no.4 on the way we made the rumpus bigger and put 2 br in the front. So now we have 6 br and a walkthrough study plus a rumpus.

I shared with my sis until I was 13, finally got my own room and my parents moved, so back to sharing. DH shared with his brother his whole life, and he was adament that all kids have their own rooms, secretly I think he just likes renovating!LOL.

Reading this it seems there are a few 6 br houses, our prob of course is if we did want to move we wouldn't buy something smaller, so it makes it hard to find something suitable.

Cheers Michelle

We are currently in a 4 bedroom house with LOTS of living area and I don't think I could handle going down LOL! I would want to go up. But having said that I think there's plenty of room for 3 kids so far. I just have to cook 2 more ;)

*hugs*
Cailin

I was interested to see how many houses were around with 5 bedrooms or more (for sale) and did a search at domain and there were 137 scattered around melb/vic for sale right now. The biggest problem is once you have a big house going small is very hard. As a kid my dad extended our house to 25sqs then sold and we moved into a 10.5sq house, not good, but the reason for the move was the 5acres of land the house was on. Eventaully dad extended that house too to be 4 bedrroms but by then I had Jordan and had to share a room with her. lOL I never did get a room of my own for very long. And now I have to share with Arron... HMm, was my sister as bad as him I wonder.
Cheers Michelle

We're currently renting a 4 bedroom house. The two eldest girls have their own rooms, but one of them is tiny, and Angus is in his own room now, but will have to share it with the twin girls when they're about 5-6 months old & we kick them out of our room. Our lease runs out next April anyway, so from here we'll be looking for a 5 bedroom to rent, & have the twins keep sharing for a while.
I had the girls sharing a room when Ruth was a baby and again about 3 years ago, and they were fine with it (4 year age difference). They do argue, but sharing a room didn't make any difference. I don't think we'd go too well with them sharing now though, with the eldest being 12.

If we ever get to have our own place we'd prolly have to go 2 story to fit enough bedrooms on the small blocks you get these days.

Yvette- just a question about rental prices, I don't need exact, just wondering on round figures approx for rent on 4 bdr and 5 bdr houses?
Thanks Michelle

We pay $250 pw for this dog box Michelle, but prices around here are about $280 to $350 for 4-5 bedrooms, depending on how grotty the house is. There are some nice new places $400 & up. To buy here is $400,000 plus for an old house that needs work. We're considering going to Pakenham to afford a new place of our own, but I'd have to get my head around going back on my decision to stay here, & make sure the schools are good enough.

Thanks Yvette for that! Just interested as we are miles from the city and if we ever do move we would rent our place out and buy/rent something else. Just wanted a comparison on rents. I think we could prob get $400 pw for ours, 6 bdr and a study, rumpus, ensuite, entertainment area.

Not that we will be doing that for about 8yrs. i need to be working and Jordan needs to finish yr 11-12 bf we would consider it. Which is fine cos we can keep pluggin away at the mortgage then.

Cheers Michelle

Yvette just a little heads up, pakenham ( which of course I live in) has quite decent schools, coz we are on the "outer" we are still a bit country, shopping and everything is fine, but our attitudes, are fairly country, despite the fact that we are growing, nearly everyone is friendly and laid back. There is a private school here (beaconhills) its not a drop dead expensive one, but there is also a decent high school, and 3 primary schools, all of which I haven't heard anything bad about. If you ever want to come out for a gander let me know, we can show you around!!

Thanks Vanita, I've been going to ask you about the area. We haven't mentioned what we're thinking to the kids incase we can't do it, or decide not to, so we want to go start looking as soon as they're back at school. We'd absolutely love it if you showed us around & it would be lovely to meet you. Will PM you.

Michelle, your place sounds like a mansion, lol. The advantage of space being out of town. Where are you thinking of moving to?

Yvette- lol at the amnsion. It is only about 25sqs, we have a tiny annoying lounge and 3 of the bedrooms are small as is the study. But it is way too big to keep clean.LOL Or that's my excuse. I guess I am thinking down the track of just moving somewhere else, just to experience something different. I don't really like suburbia,. hate the neighbours either side. We do have neighbours but the way we are situated we can only see one neighbours byard and visa versa. So we wouldn't really want to move to suburbia! I have been in Kilmore for the last16yrs and at some stage I would like a change I guess. Maybe even interstate for awhile! Now that's a daunting thought.
Cheers mcihelle

Interstate! We'd nick off to Qld in a flash if we didn't have the kids to consider. If nothing else, the XHs would have me in court in a flash (well one of them would, the other might consider bringing his family up there too, hmmm.....) I'd love to live somewhere warm with a little land around me and lots of animals & water.....

But even if we went when the kids are grown up, I'd have to make sure they all visited us several times a year (all of them!) and we'd have to come to Melb several times a year also for sanity reasons (I picture myself going to the opera, a restaurant binge, shopping)...

Lotto ticket soon...?

I am not sure i could live in QLD, with the heat and humidity. I like summer but it always seems too long. And kilmore is actually one cold place in winter. Maybe when I get old and my heat receptors don't work anymore I won't mind, but the hardest thing is not being near the family. that is what keeps us here, so saying, living in the same town as both sets of parents can have it's disadvantages, but as they are our babysitters it is convenient too.

Cheers Michelle

Yeah QLD and its heat are not for me either, we live 5 mins from my family, and 45 mins from his (still too close LOL) and don't know if I could move tooo far away, they are great for support hey!!!

Keen, if you're there, yoo hoo, Keen.....

I was just reading this again & noticed you talking about a 5 bedroom house. We've been looking at display homes & it seems like a difficult & expensive thing to get that extra bedroom, & we've been wondering, is it a lot more expensive to get a builder to use your own plans rather than the standard ones they have for mass producing?

i come from a very large family
6 brothers and 3 sisters myself and our parents (so 12 all up).

mum and dad had a dormetary type place out the back that 5 of the boys slept in in beds in a row - it was very long (fun to jump on though from bed to bed!). then two sisters and I shared a room, another sister had a room to herself as did eldest brother and of course mum and dad had their room. our house was enourmous and VERY LOUD!!!!!!

my house now has four bedrooms and a study just enough for the boys to have a room each and plenty of space for playing and entertaining, it is really quite big too but only has a almost half the people!

love beckles

Yvette,

Unfortunately it is a fair bit more expensive to have a builder and use your own plans. Sometimes if you can find one with a study in a good spot, you can simply enlargen that room and make it into another bedroom. Hope that helps.


Keen

Wow Beckles, that's more than my mum's family of 9. I only have one brother. I bet Christmas & birthdays are big with your family.

Thanks Keen. Looks like we'll be renting til we win lotto. Someone's just sent us one of those dodgy 'you're a winner' emails again. If only. I'll keep drawing up my dream house plans and dreaming.

Well i am currently renting a 3 bedroom house that just isnt big enough for all of us!!! I am having problems with my 6yr old and the lady i seeat the parenting centre suggested that it might be partly because we are all on top of one another basically....
I have the two older girls in the one room,with a single bed and a set of bunks in there and i have the 3 year old in her own room still in her cot...
Dominic is still in Dh and i's room as he is still waking 2-4 times a night....
I have a friend of mine who is waiting for her hubby to find out if he has got a job in the NT or somewhere like that,and if he gets it (he goes for the interview on Monday) they will be renting out their house here,so i have asked for first chance at it....
It will be a double edged sword with her moving that far away and all,but the house is great...They have only just laid carpet and it has the choice of a fire or a heatpump that they will install before they leave...It has three big bedrooms and a little bedroom /study off the main one,that would be great for Dommie....
They have just put a new kitchen in it and the bathroom has a seperate shower and bath and the whole house is just so much more spacier than mine....
Sooo,anyway i see i have gone on a bit about it,but last night i was sending in a competition entry that i got off a locally baked loaf of bread,and the message came back that i have won a Kodak $300 camera,so i have to hope my luck is changing a bit and that i wont have to live so cramped forever....
anyhow....Sorry for the epic!!!

Susie it must be hard all cramped up, but in the old days LOL they used to have like 6 kids in 1 room. How would that have been? I know I wouldn't have coped. Arron says that all our kids have to have their own room, so I guess we won't be moving cos not many places have 5 brooms and a study and a rumpus LOL. Hope the friends house works out for you and great news on the camera. Don't they come in 3's?

Cheers Michelle

My older girls were happy sharing a room when they were younger, they actually preferred it, but I think I'd have problems getting them to share now, and it would have to be a big room. They each have a desk, a computer, 2 sets of drawers & a bookcase. The twins will definately be sharing, but we still need a 5 bedroom house. I'm a bit worried, because the few I've seen around here are pretty expensive. I had the girls in bunks once, but I found it such a pain to change the sheets, and there's no bedside table up the top. We do have way too much stuff though. I think with big families living space is probably more important than everyone having their own room, but the kids do like having their own desk & shelves. We could save space though if there were shelves above their desk, like a hutch sort of thing. Waffle waffle waffle.....

With me,as you know the twins wouldnt be separated even if we had the rooms ( I'd just have a craft room,LOL) But I was looking in a real estates window this morning and it was $520,000 for a 6 B'room and study in Berwick and I said to DH , well why dont we go buy that one??? LOL Geeze do I wish!! yeah we need a 5 Broom, but would loooove a stduy too!!!! Dream on McDuff.

Yeah well they are anywhere from $250,000 over here to buy a nice 4-5 bedroom letalone a 5-6 bedroom with a study!!! I can only dream about having a large enough house to maybe have one more child!!!
I know!!! Michelle,my next door neighbor has four kids,and now he is with a woman who has 2 kids herself,and they have all moved into a three bedroom house together,so i dont know how they are coping!!!!
i couldnt do it with 6 kids in one room either....
Really i am happy that we have a house at all,because there are a lot of families here on the waiting list for housing comission and stuff like that,and i know that they are really wanting somewhere to live...
Our living room and kitchen are so tiny,and i think that is what gets me so much,because i cant even move without tripping over one of the kids half the time....
i have enough trouble with two older girls sharing a room at the moment without any more in the same room....

If only money wasn't an option in the list of worries!

In Kilmore we could prob get a almost big enough house for 450,000, but we couldn't afford that on 1 wage. That's why we are lucky we got the house we did and extended it cos now we are set to make at least 4 times what we paid originally. We got this place for less than the people pd to build it cos they just couldn't sell.

Yvette- bunks are the pits to make, I slept in bunks as a kid and hated trying to make the bed and also changing sheets.

Susie- how funny at your neighbour, a nuclear family would fight enough being so cramped, but imagine how a blended family go, mine fight enough and they are blood relo's IYKWIM!

The most improtant thing is to have a roof over your head though, esp in this crappy weather so we all have to be satisfied with what we can sfford I guess. I like my house, of course there are always things that could be changed but....takes time, we'll get there.
Cheers Michelle

we are planning on extending our house( at least double) its a 3/4 bedroom house with 1 bathroom,
But we want our future bubs to have there own rooms so it will have to be at least 5 b/r plus a study and a sewing room plus another 2 bathrooms
we were thinking about knocking our house down and rebuilding but have realised we could do more budget wise if we extend.

Atm we are a 80 yr old 5 br house, but it has recently been sold to a person who only wants the property for the inground pool and the shed out the back.
So all 7 of us will be moving into my aunts place. A four B/R the kids have their rooms, but DH and I will be in a caravan out the back.

I've just downloaded an application for public housing - got to get us on that never ending waiting list, lol. You never know.

We are in the process of looking at house plans and have altered a few to have everything we want I want 5 b/rooms and a study rumpus, large laundry outdoor entertainment area we are looking at 420 for ours at coomera on the gold coast. But I now want to move to Calamvale in Brisbane (South side) only because the school there is excellent it is a P to 12 it has about 2250 students but....... it is all on one campus, it is sub divided into mini schools of Pre, junior Primary (1-3), upper primary(4-6), middle school (7-9) and senior (10-12). I mean gosh 5 children one drop off and pick up point, I can't wait. It is a state school, ( With a day care centre practically next door) it was opened in 2002 and started with the new curiculum and set up that all Qld schools will soon come into line with. But to go there you have to live in the catchment, so we may have to buy an established house and for what we want we are looking at 380 to 550 ouch. The market has dropped alot and is expected to drop even more by the end of the year which is when we are going to buy so fingers crossed

Dee- it all sounds very good. Hope it all works out for you guys. It is so hard to know when to buy or sell, and then you need to hope you sell in time to do what you want. FIngers crossed it is all good. Hope your pg is going well too and welcome to bb
cheers michelle