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SusanJ
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| Posted: Nov 13 2009 at 1:31pm | IP Logged
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The small homes thread inspired me to rethink our house a bit. It's plenty big for us right now and we're only renting it. But we would like to buy this house. We assumed we'd have to add on to it (and that ability in an urban neighborhood is one of the attractions) but I'm wondering how many people we could actually cram into here.
So, two questions to help with my thought experiments in this direction.l
1. Someone in the other thread mentioned that everyone in the family sleeps in the same room. Does anyone else do this? Anyone try it and go back? We are family-bed types anyway but I wonder if separate rooms is nicer than we realize.
2. Does anyone keep all their books in one room? I kind of like having them all over the house for browsing and such but sometimes I feel overwhelmed looking at them all. Then we had this scary incident a couple weeks ago. Our 5yo is in a wheelchair and we really need to keep the ground floor as open as possible for him.
I also hate having the computer in the main living space and I'm wondering how much nicer our life would be if we moved us all into one bedroom, turned the second bedroom into a library/computer room, and then had a living room and dining room in the two downstairs rooms.
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Mom to Joseph-8, Margaret-6, William-4, Gregory-2, and new little one due 11/1
Life Together
[URL=http://thejohnstonkids.blogspot.com]The Kids' Blog[/UR
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Lisbet
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| Posted: Nov 13 2009 at 1:47pm | IP Logged
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just one quick thought...as your kids get older you will not want the computer in a secluded part of the house. out in the open is good, maybe an amoire that can shut?
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Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Nov 13 2009 at 1:53pm | IP Logged
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As far as the family all in one room.. I wouldn't be concerned if it was the norm.. but in an area that people will think it's highly weird and "abusive" I'm not sure I'd want to take the risk.
I don't keep all the books in one room because I like living around books and not segregating them. Plus my cook books are near the kitchen and the kids books are in their room plus a couple shelves in the living room and adult books (like Tom Clancy) that I don't want kids reading yet are in my room etc.
We have a girls room (two sets of bunkbeds) and a boys room (a loft bed over a full bed) and the baby in our room. They have toys in their rooms because that's where we have room.. the baby toys are in a corner of the living room. We have a dining area at one end of hte living room (bench on the wall push table to wall when not needing that space).. the office is in the small area for a dining table in the kitchen area.
There is room in the masterbedroom for soemthing more than the necessary things.. at the moment I have a table for sewing stuff in there.. but we could make it a sitting area with a tv (I could fit the tv and a comfy chair or loveseat I think.. plus being able to flop on the bed) or we could put additional bookshelves in there and make it a corner library.. some options though.
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SusanJ
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| Posted: Nov 13 2009 at 1:55pm | IP Logged
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Good point, Lisa. Dh actually prefers it to be out in the open for accountability reasons, too. Not because he's afraid of bad sites but because we both tend to spend too much time on it!
If we got all the books upstairs I could potentially get some kind of closing computer station for what could turn into the dining room. We spend ALL DAY in the kitchen right now because it's the only table and where the computer is. It's a good size kitchen but not that big and it's making me crazy (and we've only lived with it three months!). I'm thinking a two-person table in the kitchen and then the big table and the computer out in the dining room might be a better bet.
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Mom to Joseph-8, Margaret-6, William-4, Gregory-2, and new little one due 11/1
Life Together
[URL=http://thejohnstonkids.blogspot.com]The Kids' Blog[/UR
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ekbell
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| Posted: Nov 13 2009 at 4:56pm | IP Logged
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Books with a purpose are kept where they are used Homeschool books in the dining/schooling/computer half of our main room, cooking books by the kitchen area of our main room, Religious books in our altar/storage unit and children's books all over the place!
In our previous house I had a 'library room' for the books that belong to my husband and myself (the adult books and books from our childhood that we want treated with care) but when we moved we put those books in an open space.
I'm missing the accountablility built into our 'library' and the fact that it made a good 'quiet room' for adults or children wanting to retreat from the madness.
My three oldest dd's all sleep together regardless of offical rooms so I'm thinking of moving them our basement and moving our books upstairs into what is currently their bedroom.
I rather like the idea of grouping boys, girls and parents&infants for sleeping purposes. I don't think that the room where someone sleeps need be a offical 'bedroom' however. There's nothing stopping you from having a dual purpose for a room (day beds, sofa beds or futons which can be rolled up can help with this). The only thing to watch out for is making sure that the use of the rooms fit everyone's sleeping pattern (ie making sure that craft material isn't stored in a child's sleeping area if someone else will want to use it after that child is asleep)
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AndieF
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| Posted: Nov 13 2009 at 5:29pm | IP Logged
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1. Well, our plan, back when we hoped that we would have more children on earth, was that we would have a girls room and a boys room and we would do bunk beds, so we could have at least 4 in each room. And the parents and infants would be in a 3rd bedroom.
And in actuality, this is the way that we do have our rooms set up. However, we were blessed with two girls and one boy here on earth, and so our little boy is the only one that sleeps in that room. Well, sort of. I watch an 18 month old little boy, and he naps in there in a pack and play. I kept my children in our bedroom until they were at least a year.
Our rooms are not overly large (master is 14 x 12) and my girls are 10 and almost 8, and we have a dog who just will not learn to sleep anywhere but the bed, so at this point, NO, I just can't imagine have a 2 bedroom house and having us all sleep in there.
2. I sort of like the idea of having all the books in one place, but we would have to have an awfully big room. We currently have 4 five shelf bookcases and 5 three shelf bookcases plus 5-6 baskets full of books.
I went to the baskets a few years ago, and I do like this alot. It makes it so that I can switch books out easily or transport them to different rooms, and we can read books that have been overlooked when they are up on the shelves.
Our living room has a couch, a loveseat, a play table, bookcases with books and toys for the children and cubbies for the children's coats, etc.
Our family room is downstairs and has Montessori-type learning activities on shelves on 2/3 of the room, a couple of small tables/chairs, That way, I can work on the computer and still see the children when they are working or I can supervise anything that they are watching on TV. It works out well for us.
Our floor plan has a living room, a dining room, a very small kitchen, a bathroom, and two bedrooms upstairs (Master bedroom and boy's room). Downstairs, there is a family room, a bathroom and two bedrooms (Girls room, and a learning room.)
It is adequate. We could, if we had to, live without the learning room. But I don't think that we could go down to less than 3 bedrooms.
Andie
Mother to 3 on earth (dd 10, dd almost 8, and ds 5) and 4 in heaven, including Christopher (on 03/28/08)
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: Nov 13 2009 at 8:55pm | IP Logged
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We are renting right now but looking to buy in the next couple years, so I've been thinking about floor plans and whatnot. My ideal definitely includes a library/chapel (a downstairs bedroom/den/formal living room turned into a bookshelf-lined quiet room). My organized mind loves the thought of having most of the books in our home together. Toddler books and current school books would probably be kept in the dining area for easier use, but I would love to have everything else together. And having that room double as a chapel, with our family altar there, would really be a nice retreat, I think. It would also free up room in the dining area (to school in) and in the family room (to play in), since most of our books right now are scattered in those two areas. I would rather use an extra room as a library than as a playroom--I don't like having the kids segregated in their own room to play during the day (I'd prefer to have them in the family room/kitchen where I'm busy working).
Bedroom-wise, I agree with the other ladies about three bedrooms: parents and infants in one, boys in the second, girls in the third. Right now our 3yo "twin" boy and girl share a bedroom (and a bed, for that matter), but in a few years, we'll probably switch that around. Or maybe we'll have all the kids in one bedroom until they don't fit anymore? Who knows. 
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Nov 14 2009 at 7:34am | IP Logged
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We had a "bed room" until just a couple of months ago. I do like having the boys in a separate room, but it wasn't bad having them in ours. They just outgrew the trundle toddler bed we had them on and moved both boys to the twin daybed window seat in the teeny bedroom. (I do plan to do a post on window seats, just for you Susan  ).
For what its worth, we've tried each of the three bedrooms as playrooms, and the smallest one has been the most successful. We thought that the biggest one would be best and gave up our master bedroom, but even though it really isn't that big a room, it felt more overwhelming to them to pick it up than the little room. Go figure. So, they pick up their own toys much better now that they are in the tiny room (which is now also their bedroom).
I have toys segregated. Lego and playmobile stay up on the daybed so the baby isn't as likely to find them. Duplo is in a bin in the room as well as the cardboard brick and matchbox and some other random toys. Puzzles, games, and wooden trains are in the front room.
Really, how I segregate them is according to my aesthetic preferences. I would rather see lovely wooden trains strewn across my living room than ugly plastic bricks. Duplo is a great toy, but I love that when I find pieces downstairs, I can send it back to its home "far" away from my eyes (and feet, ouch).
Also, puzzles are quiet. Its nice to have quiet toys downstairs and "clinky" ones upstairs.
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Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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LucyP
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| Posted: Nov 16 2009 at 4:50am | IP Logged
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We all sleep together (mama, dada, almost 6yo DS and 2yo DD). DH just built us an enormous bed which makes it easier. For us it is because our kids cannot relax when they sleep alone - nightmares, night terrors, self-comforting that we do not approve of, hours awake in bed etc - but actually we do prefer to have our own room. It's about 51% in favour of our own room though, as we do love snuggling together, and if you are alone at night sometimes, the security of all being in a room together helps.
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LeeAnn
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We have four small bedrooms and six in our family; three girls and one boy. We've had a girls' room (3 girls in it) and a boy's room (our 1 little boy) and used the third bedroom as a playroom--but it got terribly messy and since no one really owned it but everybody made it messy, it was a disaster. Plus the girls' bedroom was just too small to have three in there--the windows fogged up at night and they outgrew their small bunkbed.
Right now our oldest have their own rooms (ages 12 & 9) and the two younger share a room (ages 6 & 3). I am planning to move things around again though so that it will be:
MBed: DH & I
Bed #2: my office/sewing/family projects & crafts room
Bed #3: DD 6yo & DS 3yo
Bed #4: DD 9yo & DD 12yo
Den (potential Bed #5, no closet): DH's office/computer room
Because the rooms are small, I am hoping to get captains beds or at least loft up the current beds high enough to get some good storage under them.
Having our son and youngest daughter share a room right now is great--as they get older we will have to evaluate how it's working. A family across the street from us with four teen/adult children raised them in a 3BD house with their son and one daughter sharing a room. So you can survive it! LOL Plus, as much as it saddens me to think of this, my 12yo could possibly be leaving the nest in as little as 6.5 years at which point the two remaining girls could move in together. Or we could convert part of the garage into another room. So we'll see...
Having spent a few nights with the whole family in two full-size beds in hotel rooms this year, I can say, it's not so bad. (We are actually thinking of downsizing from our current king-size mattress to a full-sized one when the current one poops out. It would give us a lot more room in our bedroom!)
Although obviously you lack privacy and reading or watching tv in bed is nearly impossible when you are trying to get young children to bed on time (not a problem when you have more than one room), it isn't un-doable.
Were I to try a long-term family bed on a permanent basis I would probably have two or more beds in one room. Having just one bed for the whole household might ring alarm bells in well meaning acquaintances. Were our bedrooms larger I might have been tempted to try this as well--or at least have all four children in one bedroom and use the other rooms for various functions--family closet, sewing room, toy room, etc.
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SusanJ
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| Posted: Nov 16 2009 at 6:26pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for all the feedback.
We wouldn't think of doing all one bed. We are blessed with two fairly big rooms. The current kids' room, especially, has no closets so the walls are very usable. Our bedrooms are "railroad" style. You pass through ours to get to the kids and otherwise the only "upstairs" is the small landing at the top of the stairs.
But we can't figure out how we'd do naps all in one room. My 3yo and my 9mo both still nap every day and not quite on the same schedule. And, eventually, we'll need another bedroom.
So I think we're going to go back to planning to one day add a ground-floor addition. As our wheelchair-bound son grows he'll need everything on the main floor, anyway.
Thanks for playing along, everyone. Talking this through with dh has opened up our thinking about how to set up our house, at least.
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Mom to Joseph-8, Margaret-6, William-4, Gregory-2, and new little one due 11/1
Life Together
[URL=http://thejohnstonkids.blogspot.com]The Kids' Blog[/UR
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: more specific small homes questions
