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Bridget
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We are just dreamin' here, but maybe someday...
I've been looking at house plans on the internet and there are thousands of big house plans but they are for small, upscale families. Small laundry room, small pantry, master bedroom miles away from the children's bedrooms. (How are you supposed to be available to your children at night, or know what your teens are doing? Maybe that's the point.  )
Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has come across practical house plans for the larger family.
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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teachingmyown
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Bridget,
You can buy software and design your own dream house. Then you could take it to an architect for "cleaning up". We have a program called Sierra Home Architect. It is alright, but it is several years old. I am sure there are better versions on the market now. The problem I have with it is that the view is too limited when you are doing a walk-through. I have such a hard time visualizing something in my head. I need a photograph.
My poor husband is so afraid of putting on an addition or building new because he thinks that I will look at it when it is done and decide that it isn't really what I wanted!
The new houses they are building around here are huge: huge bedrooms, pantries, kitchens. Some have the master bedroom separate, but many have them upstairs and with a large sitting room attached where half a dozen kids could camp out! 
Happy Dreaming! I am doing my own dreaming here. 
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Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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Bridget
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Who knew? Now designing your own would be fun!
I do this with each pregnancy. My house is a nice size but needs so much work and the laundry and pantry are just too small! I need to find space for a second pantry somewhere. My kids are growing (and eating more) so fast!
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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teachingmyown
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Do you have a storage area in the basement or garage that you could add shelves to? When we were in our townhouse I had no pantry so we put up shelves in the toy room in our basement, which was actually a rough-in for a bathroom. We kept a stock list of what was down there upstairs in the kitchen so I knew what I had and what I needed to buy. My oldest was in charge of keeping it up to date. It was a good system.
My pantry now is too small and we have nowhere else to put things. I won't even talk about my laundry room! 
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
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Bridget
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I would like to use our front entry coat closet for a pantry. It's right next to the kitchen. Most of our coats are on hooks down the hall further. I just have to convince Kevin. He hates to use rooms or areas for something other than their intended purpose. Poor man, he doesn't want to look stranger than we already do to people outside our circle of friends. 
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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dhbrug
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If you want to make sure your house plans are consistent with modern house design, ensure that the parent's bedroom is next to a parent's retreat, walk in robe, en-suite bigger than the main bathroom. And any other bedrooms/multi purpose rooms are on the other side of the house, separated by many doors, corners or other barriers.
One of my homeschooling Dad friends said to compare the garage space vs the bedroom space. If the garage space is more, there is not enough bedrooms space.
We'll show you our house plans when we visit. They are NOT consistent with the above principles. 
Cheers
David
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Elizabeth
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Bridget wrote:
Who knew? Now designing your own would be fun!
I do this with each pregnancy. My house is a nice size but needs so much work and the laundry and pantry are just too small! I need to find space for a second pantry somewhere. My kids are growing (and eating more) so fast! |
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Bridget,
I my last house, my laundry room was the mudroom off the kitchen and the pantry was a tall closet in the kitchen.
We made the tall closet the dish closet (kids could empty the dishwasher because the closet started on the floor and we used those low shelves for oft-used dishes). Then, we moved the laundry to the basement and converted the laundry room to a walk-in pantry. It worked beautifully. In this house, the laundry room and the pantry are too small but I can't figure out what to do because we can't move the laundry to the basement...
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Bridget
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My dream house will be a ranch. (For when we are old and decrepid, somedays that doesn't feel too far off. ) In a couple of years my parents and 2 handicapped sisters will come to live with us. That will make 13 people if we have no more babies. We hope we do have more though.
It will have a large living room next to a learning room with our computers and books and a couple of small table with chairs for school/ crafts.
The kitchen will have a huge walk in pantry for food and 'occasional use' dish storage. An industrial refridgerator, 6 burner cook top, double wall oven, 2 dishwashers and lots of cupboard and counter space, of course. Eating area would have to be huge, but doesn't need to be formal.
I think I would want all the flooring in the main living areas to be hardwood or the wood laminate with area rugs. No door walls anywhere. They don't seem to hold up well for the amount of traffic they would get. i would rather have french doors. Oh, and wall sconces for lighting. We are very hard on lamps for some reaon.
The laundry room would be large enough for 2 large capacity washers and dryers, out of season and off sized clothes storage, and a folding/ ironing/sewing area.
the bedrooms would have carpeting. Master bedroom and bath, large girl room with bathroom, large boy room with bathroom, guest room with bathroom. I would put bedrooms for my parents and my sisters with the handicapped bathroom on the opposite side of the house. (Then they might have a chance at some quiet.) Ideally they would have their own little sitting room too. We could put a workshop for my dad in the basement.
Ah, well enough dreamin', my real house and real children need some attention.
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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Bridget
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Elizabeth wrote:
We made the tall closet the dish closet (kids could empty the dishwasher because the closet started on the floor and we used those low shelves for oft-used dishes). Then, we moved the laundry to the basement and converted the laundry room to a walk-in pantry. |
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Oooh, now that would work in my current house! Oh my gosh, it's brilliant!  i can just see Kevin's face when I talk to him about it. He'll clap his hand on his head and call it 'extreme nesting.'
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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alicegunther
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My dream would be to have an upstairs laundry room with a large dressing room and bathroom attached to it. I could wash the clothes and put them directly in the drawers and hanging area of the common
dressing room without having to send the kids in every direction to put away their clothes. I have five girls, so they could use the dressing room and bathroom to get ready in the mornings and evenings.
Love, Alice, tired of lugging laundry up and down stairs : )
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Elizabeth
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Glad to help, Bridget! Please apologize to Kevin for me
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Erica Sanchez
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Bridget - loved, loved, loved, your dreaming!
These "dream" homes would be million dollar homes here in San Diego! (There are plenty of multi-million dollar homes as well!)
This reminds me of being in fifth grade - a small group of us gals used to spend hours drawing up plans of our future homes - weird, but funny now!
I absolutely can't imagine my kids' bedrooms being more that a few feet away (in our small house, that's about accurate), let alone downstairs or in a separate part of the house. I've seen this countless times in the new homes in Southern California. Call me paranoid, but I don't want my kids that far away at night. Now, when they are teenagers, I might be singing another tune, but I doubt it!!
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Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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kingvozzo
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Erica Sanchez wrote:
I absolutely can't imagine my kids' bedrooms being more that a few feet away (in our small house, that's about accurate), let alone downstairs or in a separate part of the house. |
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When we moved to Houston with our then 15 month old, I was horrifed that all the 2 story houses had the master BR down stairs, and the kids' rooms up. We had to make do, but it's so strange to me. Of course, we're weird , so we've got all 3 kids sharing one room (and it's the small one). But they love it!
I'd love to be able to build my own house one day, and get it just the way that's right for my family.
Thanks!
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Noreen
Wife to Ed
Mom to 4 great kids and 10 sweet ones in Our Lady's arms
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Erica Sanchez
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Noreen,
We've got three kids in one room, two in the other and they're both pretty small as well. But like you said, they love it!
This doubling or tripling-up, and even more, must be common for large families. How do all of your kids feel about it?
Recently, I've heard of the master "suite" being upstairs and the kids' bedrooms downstairs - and people think we're weird -
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Have a beautiful and fun day!
Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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dhbrug
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We have always had shared bedrooms. The only time I had my own room was before my brother was born.
Our children are in the boys room and girls room. Our current house only has two bedrooms on each floor. The only way we could work it initially was to have all the children in the open area downstairs and us in our room. That was better than one room upstairs. At one point with all 5 of them in the one room, James (8) woke up crying, "I'm lonely!" So we moved him to the middle bed and he was much happier!
Lonely! There are 4 other's sleeping in the same room with him! A room of their own is a threat not a reward.
Cheers
David
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Bridget
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My children have always been horrified at the idea of anyone being alone, ever. Recently my oldest asked if he could have his own room. Turns out he just wants to stay up later reading. We let him read downstairs now. I did tell the boys that priests get their own room.
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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momwise
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Bridget wrote:
| I would like to use our front entry coat closet for a pantry. snip I just have to convince Kevin. He hates to use rooms or areas for something other than their intended purpose. Poor man, he doesn't want to look stranger than we already do to people outside our circle of friends. |
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Oh Bridget <GGG> I just laughed and laughed when I read that. I'm the kind of person who tries to figure out what I can do with an old rusted washtub find at a flea market. My dh is mortified with my sense of style. I've had various ideas along those lines: turning a closet into a bedroom, using a large bathroom for book storage (o.k. I have to admit it doesn't look as great as I thought), and in the yard I'd love to try those crazy idea in Roots, shoots, buckets and boots. He is working is tail off to turn over a garden area for me and when I mention I may put in vegetables in other areas (just funky little patches of lettuce or herbs here and there), his eyes glaze over.....Oh well, I guess I'll survive.
On the topic of large houses, I haven't seen plans but I've heard geo-dome houses give more square footage for the area.
Come....Holy Spirit!!
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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teachingmom
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I have a question about pairing children for room-sharing. My oldest two are together and the next two are together right now. My oldest asks for her own room all the time. I think it comes mostly from the fact that she likes things neat and my 8yo is a natural "messie". To be honest, I would hate to share a room with my 2nd dd! 
Have any of you paired children by neatness, instead of by age? Right now each is paired with the sister with whom they are naturally friendlier. The move would most likely mean the end of those wonderful late night conversations between the older two. My biggest fear in making the switch, however, is that my 5yo seems to be following in the footsteps of her 8yo sister. If I put them together, I may never see the carpet of their room or their bedspreads again!
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Kelly
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We've never paired kids up by neatness, mostly because they're none of them very neat, alas. Maybe it IS infectious! Even though we have plenty of bedrooms, we basically have the 3 boys in one room, the little girls in another room, and Big Sister gets her own room (but not for long, we're about to re-shuffle). The other bedrooms, being separated from the main bedroom area, are for guests. Like everyone else on this thread, I'm horrified at the idea of "split plan" houses, though here in FL it seems to be THE thing. My niece was just waxing eloquent about their new home's split plan, and all I could think was "Yuck"!
Kelly in her politically-incorrect non-split-plan house in FL
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Kelly
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Oh, on the subject of house design, I meant to add that you don't even need one of those computer programs, you can draw out a plan by hand and take it to an architect. I've done this before and it worked fine (of course, they put the kabash on some of my brilliant ideas, but hey...) Spend a lot of time touring open houses and see what you like, take notes, clip articles. Even though we're not in the building mode right now, I've found that it's always good to keep a file of ideas you like!
Kelly in FL
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: House plans for big families
