Tell me about your large family's house

[jjordan]

We live in a small "starter home" now, but will possibly move into our "forever home" within the next year or so. With that in mind... I'm wondering what we should be looking for. Right now we have two little kids, but we want more. I don't think we'll have enough to qualify as a "large family" when compared to some of you. :) But, probably 4 kids total.

So, how many kids do you have? How big is your house? How many kids in how many bedrooms? How many bathrooms?

What do you like and what would you change if you could?

Any other input you have would be wonderful. Thanks!

[TestifyToLove]

We have 8 kids in a 2600sqft 4bed/3ba house.

Things I love are the 3 full bathrooms, the large dining room that holds my dining room table, the acre of land and the spare room we use as a schoolroom.

What I don't like is 2 secondary bedrooms are tiny. The kitchen is small and closed off, especially for an open floor plan. The eat-in kitchen is worthless except we've turned it into our animal area. We really need a 5th bedroom and a rec room seperate from the school room.

Our house wold be perfect for a family with 4 kids, imo. But, we haven't been that size family in nearly 4 years now.

[Rollins4]

We have 4 kiddos and dh and I, and rent a 1200 sq foot, 3 bed 1 bath, large eat in kitchen and family room. We are on 4 acres,, 2 we actually use, and it is fine for us right now. Down the road I am sure we will need more space for the kids but it will at least need to be on 2 acres or more. We are outdoors people and that space we need:goodvibes:

ETA We need another bathroom, something awful!!

[mommyfrog]

3200 sf, 7 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, 7 kids, 3 adults. Me, dh, and baby share a room. Youngest dd and middle dd share a room. MIL has a room. Oldest dd and three older boys have their own rooms. I like that we have two living/family rooms, a big diningroom, and lots of bathrooms. What I would change if I could is our laundry room, or rather lack of. That was one thing I really wanted was a good size laundry room. We couldn't get everything we wanted and that's what I had to give up. Our washer and dryer are at the end of the kitchen. There is room in one of the bathrooms to put a second set, which is in our remodeling plans to be done someday. We didn't feel like each kid needed their own room. It just happened to be that we found a house in an area we liked with lots of bedrooms. We were looking for a 4-5 bedroom, or about two kids per room.

[Mom24Babes]

*sigh* We have 4 kids and live in a 3 bdrm/1 bath singlewide trailer. Hopefully in about 10 years or less we can get something bigger.

[jjordan]

Thanks for all your responses! It really helps!

I also read the "family closet" thread and that is intriguing!

Becca - bless you, I'm hoping for your sake that it's less than 10 years! That sounds kind of crowded!

[TwinsMake9]

We have 11 and soon to be 12 kids. We live in an old house that we are continuing to remodel and its now around 4000 sq ft.. We have 9 bedrooms which is soo great finally as we only had 5 before. The oldest 5 have their own rooms, the 6 and 8 year old girls share, 3 year old twins share, and also the 19 month old twins share a room. We will have the new baby in our room for well over a year and possibly 2, depends.

Our downstairs is big as we have a big eat in kitchen with a 10 ft countertop/ bar where most of the kids eat breakfast, a diningroom, a playroom, a livingroom, foyer, and computer room, plus a bathroom/ laundryroom.

I love the house but wish we had more than 1 closet downstairs. I also wish we had a searate laundry room and a bigger one at that. We also only have 1 full bathroom but hopefully we can change that in the future.

I love the big old houses as y favorite part is that we have 2 stairways going to our upstairs. Its the best part about a big old house as theres soo much character not to mention the great oak woodwork.

I hope you get the big house you want for your family!!

[BlsdMama]

2-3 bedrooms. Our bedroom is technically an office- teeny tiny closet and enough room for a dresser, a bed, and a night table off the living room. :thumbsup: The kids have two bedrooms upstairs. We have one bathroom. It's an old farmhouse and honestly? I'm pretty happy here. We owned a cute moderate sized ranch house with two bathrooms and four bedrooms in town. Now we're in the country. I'll trade OUTDOOR space for INDOOR space any day of the week!

And we're a family of nine.

[Jem*Jam Customs]

We currently have 5 children and one due this summer. We own a 4 bedroom, 1 bath, cape cod. We have a living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and bathroom on the first floor and 2 bedrooms on the second floor.

the oldest has her own room upstairs, the 2 boys share a room upstairs, the 2 little girls share a room downstairs and the baby will be in our room.

We hope to find and buy a 5-6 bedroom home next year.

I love our home, but wish the laundry room was on the first floor instead of in the basement. I also wish we were able to put a bathroom in on the second floor when we remodeled 2 years ago.

[jjordan]

Thanks all for your posts! I like reading about the variety of situations that you make work (or would rather change). It really helps as I try to think through some of these things! :)

[mamatoblessings]

We have 4 children in a 1000sq ft, 3br, 1 bath house. Our washer and dryer are in the garage. We have boys in 1 room, girls will share a room once the baby is out of our room. Our next house will DEFINATELY have more than 1 bathroom and the laundry room in the house. :giggle: Other than that it's great for us, it's not a large house by any means, but it's cozy for us and I always know what the children are doing cause they can't get too far away from me. :roflmbo:

[jjordan]

Thanks Elizabeth... that's a good point about a smaller house keeping the kids close... I guess that can be a good thing or a bad thing! :giggle:

[mrsarbogast]

We have 5 children in an approx. 2000 sq foot house. When I was pregnant dh closed off part of out LR downstairs (the "office" area) to form a BR for us . The baby sleeps with us. We have 4 BR upstairs and all of the older children have a room of their own. When the baby leaves our bed she will room with her older sister - who is the next youngest. We have 2 bathrooms and built on a laundry/mud room a few years ago. Ideally, we want to add on to our now existing BR and make it larger + add an office. I would also like to add a second washer and dryer to our laundry room - or put one upstairs in an alcove for the olders to use. Laundry with all of us is not fun,lol.

[jujusmommy]

At this time we have 2 kids and 2 adults and we are in a 2000 sq ft. 4 br 3 bath home. :blush: We are moving and so I am not sure what size house we will move into...it all depends on the military!!! However, my parents had six of us and they built a 3000 sq ft. home (5 br. 5 bath) after living in a 3 br. 2 bath home. My mom said the reason she wanted to move was because we were all really young but growing fast. When we moved the ages were girls 10, 10, boys 8, 7, 5, and nb girl. We lived in Ohio and my mom just couldn't send us outside in the winter and we drove her crazy! The new house provided us with more room to play. And then after a few years they furnished the basement and added another bedroom and bathroom. My mom made sure she had a w/d area, but always complained because in the second house, it was between the garage and kitchen...and she had to have everything out of the way to get through. Now my parents are still in the home with my 18 year old sister. The house is too big for all of them, but when we go to visit, it seems to shrink with all the siblings and grandkids. Good luck in your search! :goodvibes:

[Treighsie]

I have no idea, but I think our house is roughly 2500 sq. feet?
We have 4 kids. Right now, DH and I have the biggest room, DD has a room, 2 boys share a room, and the baby has a room. We also have a kitchen, 2 living rooms, and a bathroom upstairs. Downstairs is a big finished basement, another bathroom, a laundry room, and then a "workroom" and the garage.
DH and I are thinking of making one living room upstairs into a big bedroom for the 2 boys, putting the LO in the one room used by the boys now, and then making his room a bathroom connected to our room, which is was when we moved in here.

[ktmelody]

We have a 4000 sq. ft. 6 bedroom, 3 bath house. We have 5 kids (expecting #6 this fall) and 2 adults.
Right now my 3 and 5 year old share a room, the older girls have thier own rooms, one room is a school room, and one is an office, then of course our master bed and the youngest still sleeps with us.

We are hoping to stay here for a while, but do have plans to buy acreage in upstate New York in 2 years or so.

[jjordan]

Thanks all for your input! Very fun to read about your houses!

Katie - I am from upstate NY! :)

[squintz22]

Not sure how to describe...we have a full finished basement, but it's only partially used. And none of it for living space.

The main floor is 1400sq ft, 3br, 1 bath. A dining room and entryway were added on to the eat in kitchen before we bought it. The boys are in a room, the girls are in a room, and DH and I are in the master. The washer and dryer were moved to the kitchen by the previous owner who couldn't use the stairs well. (I actually love this!)

The basement is 1100 sq ft. 4 rooms, 2 of which we could use as bedrooms if we had to, but I'd prefer not to. We use one of them for storage, and the other is a 'guest' room and the toy room. It has a partial bath in it. Very small, but works in a pinch. The third room is the 'cat' room with litterboxes, the furnace and an extra fridge. The fourth room is a family room, and where I scrapbook - but we rarely use it because it's not well baby-proofed. The boys aren't allowed in the basement without major supervision but the girls play well down there.

The yard is SMALL. We have a 1 car attached garage, a 2 car detached, and 2 sheds, on 1.5 lots in town. (About .35 acres) But there's a 15x30 above ground pool in the backyard that takes up most of the space....

What would I change? Ummm - I hate that the builders used wall paneling on all the inside walls and want to drywall. I want to move the washer/dryer to the mudroom. I also want to add a half bath to the kitchen/DR/mudroom area. (Currently have to walk through entire house from backyard/pool to get to bathroom) I hate that the previous owners used wallpaper in every single room and did a crappy job putting it up so the kids have started peeling it. I would move the pool to the back of the yard so there was actual space to play in front of it.

And...I think that's it. We're hoping to move, not necessarily to a larger house, but one with more yard in about 10 years...

[jjordan]

Karen - sounds like you really dislike the wallpaper! :)

Thanks for your post!

[BabyLuvinMama]

we are a Family with 4 children and Plan to Foster at least 1 if not 2 more at at time infants. We were lucky to find an Old 2 story farm House for Rent out in the country
************************************************** ****
Office
Laundry Room/Mudd Room
Huge Kitchen with Breakfast nook(for kids to eat)
Formal Dining Room
5bdrms
2Full bath
Double car garage/playroom for rainy days
3.5acres of Field and trees
Full Basement that has been altered into 2 Rooms one for Storage one for "hanging out" lol

I think the total square footage is 3200sq ft
the master room has a Big walk in closet that I keep Baby Beds in when I don't have them plus 2 racks for clothes and 4 shelfs for shoes or whatever but I put Boxes of Baby clothes not in use in there.

I will be sad when we have to move :(

*We have the Downstairs room designated for Guests/Older Foster children over 1yr that need quiet room for sleep
*12yr old has her own room
*8 yr old has his own room
*5/7yr olds share a room
*My husband and Myself have our own room If you could call it that LOL its been over run with more baby fluff than I think he can handle :) and when we have Infants in care thats where they sleep RIGHT BY ME I'd keep em in my bed but he says No, so I got a co-sleeper on my side so he cant say anything

[sunnygirlmomof6]

We have 4 at home and one on the way. We live in a 2400 sq ft home with 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. Our room has a small "parents retreat" which we use for our nursery for the first year after baby is born. Right now, our girls share a room, and the boys share. The extra room is where the toys are, as there are no toys in bedrooms, only beds.....less cleaning that way!!!

[SimpleAtHeart]

We have 5 children, 2 adults in a 1800sq. ft. colonial style home. The house has an open flr. plan on the 1st level with laundry off the kitchen, and 3 bedrms on the 2nd flr. (would love 1 more) with 2 1/2 baths (1 for the kids, 1 in the laundry rm., and 1 in the master).

We have 3 boys (ages 12,9,5) in 1 rm. and 2 girls in another (ages 7 and 1).

We would love more space.......... but, I`ll tell ya... with homeschooling and laundry, etc.. I don`t know if I could keep more sq. ft. clean and tidy !!!!!
I always think that there is a stereotype about large families having messy houses...... and so I (with the help of the kids) always have our home presentable !!!!!!!!! It`s something we take alot of pride in !!

We have a small enclosed yard ...would LOVE more....but, since we live right down the street from the beach... it sort of makes up it !!!!!!!

[faiths13]

Right now we have 5 kids and one on the way in a 1500 sq ft rental house. We have 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms. The two oldest kids share a room, the two middle kids share a room, and our 1 year old has a room, but its tiny. He will be sharing a room with the new baby. I know the two oldest would like their own rooms, but I dont see that happening any time soon, lol. We have a tiny dining room and laundry area and no garage. But we live in a community and it has a park right behind our house and all the houses are spaced out so they arent right next to each other. I love the outdoor space here, so it really makes up for the indoor space. We have just enough space here, although I would love one more bathroom and a bigger laundry room and a garage. We do plan on moving this year, so hopefully we will get a little more sq footage and another bathroom!

[5IrishBabes]

We have 5 kids, 1 German Shepard and hubby and I. We own a 3 bdrm, 2 full bath house with a smallish eat in kitchen, living room and partially finished basement.
The basement is the playroom and I seriously keep ever toy down there.
The 3 girls in the bigger bedroom and the 2 boys in the smaller, although the baby is usually in my bed.
Laundry is in the basement.
For our next house I would looooove to have a dining room, bigger kitchen and living room, a mudroom or at least more space near one of the doors for jackets and shoes.
I would love an area for a family closet.
I could never deal with less than 2 full baths.
I would so love more room but, hopefully once some of the baby gear is gone and I clean out some clothes we will have a tiny bit more room.

[Macyllehub]

My husband used to design homes, and while we only have 3 children right now, we are planning 6+...... We have done many designs for custom homes with large families - Heres what WE are planning on doing:

KITCHEN- very important to us because we do not eat out often
-Designed with children in mind
-Have drawers and cabinets reachable to children. We have acutally seen this many many times. Tons of cabinetry done for plates, bowls, silverware, glasses, all on the bottom half of the kitchen. This is a huge bonus that is so often overlooked. It allows your young children to participate in "chores" of putting things away. We have a cabinet in our current home that is only for our kids. And ya know what? My 3 yr old LOVES to put her bowls and plates and such away.

Bathrooms - We typically design 1 bathroom for 1 bedroom (but thats whats demanded in our area) But we'll do probably at least 2 on each level of the house (basement, middle, upper)

Laundry room - Family closets are a nice idea, however I would recommend even if you dont do that, you provide an ample space for laundry. Counter space, cabinets, utility sink, and a big w & d :)

Depending on what the ages of your kids - the "separate" master from the other rooms is really popular right now. We have it, and hate it. Our kids are young, so at this age, it sucks. Our master is downstairs on the far east side of the house, and all the bedrooms are upstairs on the far west side. Its great for tween/teen stage! Gives them space for music, gossip, and also - when you split up the bedrooms like that - its pretty easy to centeralize a bathroom for those bedrooms, then rotate who cleans them. lol

Lofts - I really love a "great room" feel in a house. But, I would be lost without the loft/office/second living room space. It gives them somewhere to hang out if you have company without being confined to their rooms. Its a great way to centralize the computers so they are not in their rooms locked in there and shut out from the world....

Ummmm........ I'm sure I could come up with lots if I had more time. Sorry!

[Mamatoabunch]

We have a 3000sqf house w/ 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. We will be be turning a free space into a 5th bedroom. We have moved w/ 6 children from 1100sqf house to a 1700 and now this house 2 years ago. It is plenty big now even w/ our 10h on the way. We add another bath in the future. My two oldest will be off to college in 3 years so I am sure it will work just fine.

[fluff4five]

4 kids. 3 BRs, 1 Bath. It's tight, but it works...for now. I would like a bigger home...and 1 more baby. :)

[Jenifer]

we just went under contract on this:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z248/JenShultzie/151640275.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z248/JenShultzie/059-1.jpg
it is an old victorian in the town that we live in! a quaint little town where we walk to everything! its on .39 acre which is plenty of yard for me. its 4br 3ba and there is a finished attic that does have closets, and two rooms up there too. when the older two girls get bigger they will have that whole space to themselves.. huge kitchen, and a schoolroom with pocket doors so i dont have to look at the toys/school stuff.. bar for the kids to eat at, formal dining room and another dining room, two living rooms, nice sized wrap around porch and a deck! we are giddy excited! we got great deal on it, as it needs some cosmetic stuff.. the exterior shutters and porch need painting.. but the rest of it was updated in 2004, new windows included.. yay! we have 3 now, but are planning 5+

[Mommy2Six]

We have 6 children (aged 7 and under) and 2 adults in a 2100 sq ft, 4 bedroom 2 bath home. What I love: large master bedroom, 2 living areas (one of which is the kids' playroom) extra room for my office (though I am using it as a storage room right now) huge laundry room, and good sized bedrooms. I love my arched doorways and my bar between the kitchen ad dining room. What I do not like: I would like more cabinets in the kitchen because I have SOOO many dishes and utensils. I do not like that my laundry room is in the front of my home so everyone walks past it on their way in. I do not like that my master bath has only a glass standing shower instead of a shower and a tub, and one of the bedrooms is in the middle of the house so there are no windows. (weird, huh?) I also like that our house is set on two lots so there is plenty of room to run and play. I HATE that the house is wood and not brick. Can we say $1300 electric bill in the Texas summers? UGH.

[4boysforme]

Our house is a little over 3400 square feet (quad level)- 4 bedrooms/ 2 full baths on the upstairs floor, a guest bedroom on the ground floor and a 2 bedrooms in the finished basement- one of which is HUGE- we don't even use any of the space in the finished basement!
We have 3 full and 2 half baths- we use 3 of those.
We have a large living room and family room which doubles as our play room.
My older boys (9 & 6) share a room right now, my 4 year old has his own room, and my 20 month old is in the nursery. Our plan is to have the 9, 6, & 4 year old share a room, move my toddler to my 4 year old's room and the new baby will eventually go into the nursery. Thankfully all the bedrooms are quite large.
When my older boys are ready- they will move into the basement- there is a full bath down there and they will most likely share the large room- it's big enough for them each to have their own space plus a living area to share. Right now it's set up as an in-law suite.

Our washer and dryer are stacked in my foyer closet and I have another set in the basement- I really only use the dryer in the basement though.

Probably the only things I would change is to have a larger master bathroom and make the dining room (that we never use as a dining room) part of the eat in kitchen- our kitchen is already large though- we have a table that seats 8 in the eat in area.

I really like the fact that our house is a quad level so there is a half dozen steps between each level- it makes it easy to be in the living room and know what is going on upstairs in the bedrooms and downstairs in the family room all at the same time.
I love our house and we just refinanced it down to 15 years with over half the value in equity- I don't see us moving until the house is empty and becomes too much for us to care for.

[6 for Sarah]

We have 7 kids, 2 adults, 2 cats and a German Shepherd inside. We hve about 3000 square feet, 5 bedrooms-3 full baths with vanity's/sinks and mirrors in 2 of the upstairs bedrooms and a playroom. we have an acre of land. All the rooms ahve big walk in closets, which are a must for me, one room has 2 walk in closets, a regular closet and a playroom off of it.

DH and I have a room and we keep baby in with us for at least a year. My only ds has his own room, my 16 and 14yo dd's have their own rooms and my 9yo, 6yo and 4yo girls share the big room with 3 closets and the playroom off of it. That said, there is no guarantee where anyone will wake up. They all love to pile up and sleep together in each others rooms.

Our kitchen opens to the dining room. I would make my kitchen have more cabinet space and the laundry room bigger, those are my only changes I would make. We live in a rural area, have a fenced yard, big playset, and inground pool. We both joke that we are going to die in this house. It is perfect for us.

We have a double car garage with walk in attic plus another attic accessible inside the house. Lots of storage space.

[girlichick]

I love this thread, it is great to hear about everyone's different setups! We are planning for a large family too so I am trying to figure out how to best use our space :giggle:

Right now we own a 1550 sq ft 3br 2ba house. DD (2) and DS (almost 1) each have their own room right now and the new baby (due in May) will be in with us for the first 6 months or so. We are a little cramped because my DH works out of the house, so currently we have an "office/bedroom" in DS' room.

Pros:
We have a separate family room and living room
Good size bedrooms and bathrooms (nothing cramped)
Good sized kitchen
Our house is not very big but the space is all utilized very well.. feels bigger than it is.
230sq ft screened in patio and large fenced backyard.
House backs up to an easement so we will never have back neighbors :) woo hoo!

Cons:
No place other than a bedroom for DH to have an office
No laundry room - washer and dryer are in the garage
1 area for the dining room table - no eat in kitchen (room for a VERY small table, but would be pointless for us and just take up floor space).

Since DH works from home we are considering 2 options - either buying a converted office shed (basically a shed that is insulated and air conditioned and has electricity) to put in the backyard and replace our current shed, or converting the screened in patio into 2 separate 10x11 rooms. One would be an office for him and the other one would be a bedroom. We haven't decided what we're going to do yet!

[kimmiepie]

We have 4 kids, 2 adults, and a cat in a 4 bedroom 2 bath house on 2 acres. The house is roughly 1660 sq ft.
We actually just bought this house (our first!!!) and before that we were renting a 3 bdr 2 bath house with no acerage.

DD now has her own room, DS1 has his own room, and DS2 has his own but will share with DS3 when he gets out of our room. :) This is just the right size for us, as I can't clean a bigger house and keep up with all the kids, homeschooling etc. We will also be adding goats and chickens to our acerage soon so that will be an extra thing to take care of.

The only thing I wish we had is an extra bathroom. Yes we have 2, but I would love to have 3. With all the boys, I wish DD could have her own bathroom, as well as guests...because the boys are so messy. We've also talked about turning the garage into a homeschool room because my "dining room" where we do the school work is a very small kitchen nook. I feel cramped with all the kids there and there's not really a good place to store all the items so they wind up taking space in the living room/kitchen area. We'll see though. :)

Even if we had one more child, that child could share a room with one of the other kids as well. There's only one room that's too small for two kids to share so as long as we don't have 2 more kids we're good. :giggle: Although I'm not planning on having anymore...