How Do Bedrooms and Baths Work in Your Home?

[Pegasus]

For housing guests, using an air mattress on floor v. Sofa bed depends on age and how well their knees work -- might be hard for anyone older or with bad knees to get up from a mattress on floor.

[ChrisLansing]

I wouldn't even consider the cost of adding on a room just for guests.   You can pay for their motel room thousands of times for the kind of money you are talking about.   

[galliver]

How do they work in our home?  Typically we sleep in the bedrooms and poop in the bathrooms.  This has become a little confused since the birth of our son, but hopefully we'll get back to that norm in a few years.

Hahaha. At least you're keeping a sense of humor. :)

[Zamboni]

I grew up in a house exactly like the one you currently live in.  To make it more interesting, my Mom taught piano lessons in our living room every weekday afternoon and all day Saturday.  So 4 people and 2 grand pianos in your house.  When family visited, my brother or I gave up our room (it helped that he had a bunkbed, so usually I gave up my room to visiting adults and slept on the bunk beds.)  The only time the single bathroom issue came up was when my brother waited too long to come in from playing, so sometimes an occupied bathroom caused him to panic.  This used to be considered a perfectly normal sized house; I never lamented "why oh why is our house soooo small!"

My brother and his wife and 6 children currently live in a house about the same size as your current home.  Theirs is 3 beds, 2 baths.  That's 8 people in a home the size of your home, so an average of 4 people per bathroom.  They have routines for showering/bathroom use that keep everyone happy as far as I can tell.  Guests stay in a hotel for obvious reasons.  They make plenty of money to move wherever they want, but they have absolutely no plans to "upsize."

Remember, some day your offspring might go to college, and at that point they will share a teeny tiny dorm room with another person and a bathroom with at least 3 other people (possibly more.)  They might as well learn to be considerate by sharing now, because nothing causes more drama than a freshman who has never had to share a bathroom in her life.

[Self-employed-swami]

How do they work in our home?  Typically we sleep in the bedrooms and poop in the bathrooms.  This has become a little confused since the birth of our son, but hopefully we'll get back to that norm in a few years.

*Snicker*

[dragoncar]

As far as I'm concerned, guests can sleep in the hay loft.  But my wife may provide a different opinion.

[teen persuasion]

I grew up in a house exactly like the one you currently live in.  To make it more interesting, my Mom taught piano lessons in our living room every weekday afternoon and all day Saturday.  So 4 people and 2 grand pianos in your house.  When family visited, my brother or I gave up our room (it helped that he had a bunkbed, so usually I gave up my room to visiting adults and slept on the bunk beds.)  The only time the single bathroom issue came up was when my brother waited too long to come in from playing, so sometimes an occupied bathroom caused him to panic.  This used to be considered a perfectly normal sized house; I never lamented "why oh why is our house soooo small!"

My brother and his wife and 6 children currently live in a house about the same size as your current home.  Theirs is 3 beds, 2 baths.  That's 8 people in a home the size of your home, so an average of 4 people per bathroom.  They have routines for showering/bathroom use that keep everyone happy as far as I can tell.  Guests stay in a hotel for obvious reasons.  They make plenty of money to move wherever they want, but they have absolutely no plans to "upsize."

Remember, some day your offspring might go to college, and at that point they will share a teeny tiny dorm room with another person and a bathroom with at least 3 other people (possibly more.)  They might as well learn to be considerate by sharing now, because nothing causes more drama than a freshman who has never had to share a bathroom in her life.

Yeah, I was thinking about some of the different dorm situations my kids have been in over the years:

• Two people in a small room with bathrooms in another wing
  Three single bedrooms sharing small kitchen and bathroom
  Seven loft bedrooms sharing tiny bathroom and nice living room, no kitchen
  Four person suite with separate bedroom and bath for each, common kitchen and living room
  Two bedroom apartment for four people
  Two bedroom suite for four people, one bathroom, no kitchen

The one that always had me scratching my head was the loft suite - the individual bedrooms with a sleeping loft were awesome, but no kitchen and seven coed college students sharing a tiny bathroom?  The clerestory windows in the sleeping lofts had a fabulous view of the city.

[seattlecyclone]

My current house: 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom. Just me and my wife. The second bedroom is nominally a guest room, but we rarely have guests in there. It will become a kid's room when the time comes, and the guest bed will go to the basement. If and when we have a second child, we may decide a third bedroom and second bathroom will be worth the money, or we may not. Hard to say at this point.

Going back a generation, my family never had a guest room growing up. My parents, my two sisters, and I were in a 3 bed/1.5 bath house for most of my childhood. When guests came to stay, one or more of us kids would have to get out our sleeping bags and sleep in the living room while the guests took our beds. Of course there was often some complaining on this point from the kids, but it worked out fine in the end.

Going back another generation, my mom grew up in a seven-person family in a house with one bathroom. All five siblings turned into well-adjusted adults, with stable careers, 2-4 children, and marriages that continue to this day.

Going back another generation, my grandpa grew up on a farm and didn't have indoor plumbing for much of his childhood. He also turned out fine.

Some perspective is clearly in order here. Realize that your house would likely seem very luxurious to your grandparents. Whether you feel like an even more luxurious house is worth the money is something you'll have to decide for yourself.

[Christiana]

Family of 6 in about 900 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom.

One bedroom has a king mattress and two twins.  This is where most of us sleep most of the time.
Second bedroom is my husband's office/Stuff pit.
Third bedroom has a twin bed and a loft bed.  This is the older kids' room for their stuff.
I also built a daybed-style couch for the living room, in case more sleeping space is needed.
Guests will sleep either in the kids' room, or in our tent set up in the yard, or in a motel.

Most of us are home all day, so the bathroom usage gets spread out.

Ideally everyone in the family would have a little space that is all their own; we are working toward that in the long term.

[DecD]

Our last house was similar to what you described - a 1500 sqft, 3 bedroom, 2 bath bungalow that we adored.  It was originally a 2-bedroom house, and the attic was finished at some point into a master suite.

Pre-baby, we used the rooms as our room, a guest room, and an office.  When we had our first son, we turned the office into the baby's room, and a large dormer in our room that had been the closet became our office, and we built a new (smaller) closet.  In the winter, we didn't bother to heat the upstairs, and we moved into the guest room.  In the summer, we'd sleep upstairs and the third bedroom was a proper guestroom.

We then moved across the country and rented a 3 bedroom house for a couple of years.  Our second son was born there, and it was less convenient in that house to not have a guest room, as our parents visit frequently and kicking small kids out of their rooms messed up everyone's sleep.   The layout of that house was just really weird, and that contributed to the inconvenience. It wasn't that big of a deal, but when we bought again, we did decide to go for a four bedroom house- a room for each kid, an office/guestroom, and our room.  Now that they're 7 and 3 years old, they prefer to sleep in the same room: it turns out we have more house that we really need. 

[imustachemystash]

Our family of 4 lives in a 1,300 sq ft 2 bed/2.5 bath home.  At first I thought it was going to be a breeze staying here, but now that my 2 sons are getting older and more active (age 3 and 5) I am worried it might not be enough space.  I think it depends on how high energy your kids are.  Mine wrestle all day, run everywhere and love to climb things. They leave messes everywhere and are loud (but I love them anyway). We are going to try giving them the master bedroom to see if that will help.  We rarely have guests stay with us, so that is never a problem.  We want to live here for 5 more years then reassess moving to a house with an extra bedroom.

[MelodysMustache]

I sometimes work from home, and I am planning a remodel of my office and will make it work as an occasional guest room.  I found this type of sofa bed and intend to get one.  It looks much more manageable than a hide-a-bed for a small space and hopefully more comfortable than a futon.  http://lofasofa.com/

[MsRichLife]

We have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms for two adults and a toddler. In all honesty, we really only use the one bathroom and could easily live with just two bedrooms if we got rid of our clutter. One bedroom for sleeping, one bedroom is set up as a study and the other is a guest bedroom which really is the drying room for washing in Winter.

We are in the process of serious de-cluttering because we want to RE in a few years time and I hope to downsize significantly.

MRL

[laterbloomer]

How do they work in our home?  Typically we sleep in the bedrooms and poop in the bathrooms.  This has become a little confused since the birth of our son, but hopefully we'll get back to that norm in a few years.

LOL

I have a 1000 sq/ft, 3/2 bedroom, 2 bathroom house for 3 (1 adult, 2 teen girls) of us. The basement is finished so really it is 2000 sq/ft of living space. 1 bedroom is an office, one is a guest room and then we each have our own rooms. Last week we went on vacation and I rented a 650 sq foot, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom condo. We were pretty seamless in establishing our routines so everyone got their showers and appropriate use of the bathroom. The girls shared the room and I used the sofa bed in the living room. Coming home felt like a castle lol

[Meggslynn]

We are two adults and a toddler son. We plan on staying a three person family too. We have three bedrooms and two bathrooms (even though one is sooooo small its barely useable). The third bedroom is the office slash crafting slash sewing room. The guests sleep in the partially finished basement. I wouldn't upsize unless you plan on having lots of kids. Guests can sleep on a futon, hidabed or at a hotel :)
Even if you do have a second kid they can share a bedroom. I know lots of people who still put there kids in the same bedroom even though some apparently consider it cruel.

[Zamboni]

We are going to try giving them the master bedroom to see if that will help. 

That is what I did when my children shared a room, mostly because it had more closet space for their clothes, sports equipment, etc.  It worked out really well. 

When we moved to a house that allowed them to have their own bedrooms, it turned out that they didn't want that.  They actually liked sharing the bedroom!  I have a boy and a girl, though, so I figured they'd want privacy eventually and just ignored their wishes and put their stuff in different rooms.  A friend of mine went through a similar thing with her twin boys:  after she went to extra effort to clear out space so they could each have separate rooms, they declined and continued to share a room all the way through high school.

[rocksinmyhead]

How do they work in our home?  Typically we sleep in the bedrooms and poop in the bathrooms.  This has become a little confused since the birth of our son, but hopefully we'll get back to that norm in a few years.

LOL!!!

I agree with whoever said this was a really inspiring thread. Also full of good ideas for the OP... love the ones about using the office as guest room, and/or refinishing part of basement!

I don't have anything super amazing to offer, but I will say I grew up in a family of four with 1.75 bathrooms (it's a 0.75 bathroom if it has a small shower in it, right?) My dad was the only one who used the 0.75, my mom and and sister and I shared the upstairs bathroom and it literally never occurred to me that that would be an inconveniently low number of bathrooms. I do agree that it's nice you have two toilets, having only one can definitely be a pain once you get upwards of 2 people. One living situation in college I shared one bathroom with 3 other girls... it was pretty annoying but really only because my one roommate was a really slow pooper. and I'm that person that always gets home and is like, "OMG I have to pee right now!!" Honestly, even now I only live with my boyfriend and I kinda wish we had two bathrooms for similar reasons :) At least ours is pretty big so it's really easy for 2 people to get ready at once.

[Cassie]

There were 5 of us in a 3 bed/1 bath/1600 sq ft home. When guests came they took our bedroom, we took 2 of the kids beds and kids slept on sleeping bags on floor.  We were all on different schedules so used the bathroom at different times. For instance, I showered at night before going to bed. My hubby was first one up in am so did his then. The boys did it at night too when little -as they got older & wanted to do it in am they were on different school schedules so it worked.  I think it would be really silly to spend a ton more $ for an extra bath/bed.

[BlueMR2]

I wouldn't even consider the cost of adding on a room just for guests.   You can pay for their motel room thousands of times for the kind of money you are talking about.

This.  2 of us in a similar size house.  1 bedroom.  We each have an office.  No guest room.  If they're really desperate, they can sleep on the couch.  :-)

[ambimammular]

Your young one will be awake a lot in those first months. I found it much easier to co-sleep, and eventually move kidlets into cribs in our bedroom. It's way easier to reach over to shush them or feed them than haul yourself to the next room over. Then you get all paranoid and think you hear them crying and jump out of bed over nothing.
Save your sanity for the day lit hours.

[MrsPete]

I think the most important thing to realize is that you don't have to make this decision NOW.  In fact, it's probably best that you don't make decisions just before a big life-changing event; you don't want to make decisions out of desperation, fear, or without full information. 

The house you describe will absolutely serve for the time being:  You can have a room for yourself and for the baby and still have ample room for guests.  The baby won't need a bathroom for quite some time.  If and when you decide to have another child, they can share a room at least as small children.  If that second child never materializes, the house you have will continue to serve -- and, depending upon your mindset, you might be fine with two children in your current house.  However, as the mother of two teens, I am glad that my girls each have their own room to which to retreat and a shared bath of their own.  When you reach the point that you determine more space is a NEED, you can move then -- hopefully you'll be earning more money by that point and you'll be more sure of your actual needs (i.e., you'll know that the second child didn't turn out to be twins!).  Also, life tends to happen, and work or other family needs may force you to move before you actually need more space, and you might take advantage of that "push" to upsize.  The moral:  Just wait.  You're fine for now and can always make this change later. 

As for guests, when I was a kid, it was always simple:  Grandparents are coming.  Kid #1, clean your room -- they're sleeping in it.  Kid #2 -- clean your room -- Kid #1 is sleeping on your floor.  No problem.  In my house now, we have a sofa in the office, and we have air mattresses.  My husband and I are in the process of putting together our thoughts for a home we plan to build, and we have a unique thought for guests:  We want to buy a teardrop camping trailer anyway.  It'll contain a queen mattress, an air conditioner, and a heated blanket.  If we have enough guests that they can't fit in our bedrooms, someone will sleep in the teardrop. 

[Thegoblinchief]

My aunt has a pretty large camper and she's used that as her guest room for years.

[SondraRose]

We used to think we "needed" a guest room. 

The truth is that we can deal with guests maybe three times a year for no more than 3 nights at a time--we like our privacy too much and are very sound sensitive.

So now we live in a 600 sq foot house that is perfect for us.  Our visitors stay in a B&B or hotel. 

Your house sounds plenty big for your needs.

[seanc0x0]

We have 2 adults and one 3yr old. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (only one operational shower, though), and one half-bath. It seems that everything ends up happening in the main bathroom, though, so that when I'm trying to enjoy a shower, I invariably get invaded by a tiny human or pregnant wife who only seem to be able to use the one bathroom with a working shower for some reason.