Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 08, 2008 8:54 am There are those of us here who have children, and those who do not.
We have built both without kid and with and, according to my dh, the experience is completely different (as with most things in life). With children it's harder to just drop everything and go out to your block to "have a quick check-up". With children you are probably more restricted in where you're building. Or are you? Does having children actually change what you build, where you build and why you build? So many questions - so little time coz the kids are wanting feeding.... Fiona Re: Building and Kids 2Jan 08, 2008 9:05 am we dont have kids....but tried to plan a little for the future in selecting the house plan and location.
ie - having a good sized block with outside space, making the minor bedrooms bigger, and having them well away from the master bedroom!!! (possibly not so great when they are little - but a must when they are bigger!!) and stuff like that...... and for the time being, we just freak out when other peoples ferals run wild through our new house!!! Built Porter Davis "Dromana" 2007. Depends on the age 3Jan 08, 2008 9:06 am Hi nzfiona
I have found that many people choose designs where the childrens bedrooms are either close, or far away, from parents room depending on the age of the children! ie Young children are close by, older ones 'as far away as possible'. Best regards Re: Building and Kids 4Jan 08, 2008 9:20 am LOL, yes and no, we have changed out lounge/living room to the kid's play room....The rooms are standard size in our house, but are at the other end of the house.... We soundproofed a lot of it, but not sure if that is to protect their ears from us or us from them???
Our kids are 10 & 3.5 so walking to their rooms or vice versa isn't a problem.... I think that there needs to be a compromise.... Re: Building and Kids 5Jan 08, 2008 9:42 am I am sure the existence or otherwise of children now or in the future, size of family, ages of children etc is one of the factors which infuence the size and style of home for most people, whether building a new house or buying an existing one.
There must be umpteen variations on this. For example, my parents built a new house 7 years ago, only 2 of them live there but it is quite large and has a section with guest bedrooms, bathroom and small lounge, which they rarely use but is specifically for when their children, all married with kids, come to stay. In our own case, the house in which we have lived for 20 years and brought up 3 children, is no longer suitable now that they are not littlies, 2 out of 3 left home and we ourselves not as young as we once were. Our new house is a plan to reflect that, eg we won't need 4 bedrooms. Having said that, I know a couple who are building a huge 2 story house, 6 bedrooms and study, only 2 of them, 2 adult children who have both left home, no grandchildren likely in near future. Who knows why??? Re: Building and Kids 6Jan 08, 2008 9:53 am I wouldn't do it with young kids again, well, we won't have to anyway
The main drama for us has been not having landscaping and when it rains the backyard is a mud pool and the boys go feral not being able to get outside. We also stressed over the first couple of hundred finger marks on the walls, now we are over it Re: Building and Kids 7Jan 08, 2008 10:04 am rellie I We also stressed over the first couple of hundred finger marks on the walls, now we are over it Wouldnt have thought you'd have noticed with the PD paintwork anyway!! Built Porter Davis "Dromana" 2007. Re: Building and Kids 9Jan 08, 2008 10:35 am We soundproofed the theatre, living, bathrooms, toilets, laundry, and bedrooms.... so plenty of ssssshhhhh at our place.....NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Re: Building and Kids 10Jan 08, 2008 10:36 am nzfiona My dh said we ought to sound-proof our son's room - I was horrified! I want to be able to hear what he and his friends are up to! Fiona You wont want to hear what he and his girlfriend are up to in a few years!! Built Porter Davis "Dromana" 2007. Re: Building and Kids 11Jan 08, 2008 10:53 am vanderlay nzfiona My dh said we ought to sound-proof our son's room - I was horrified! I want to be able to hear what he and his friends are up to! Fiona You wont want to hear what he and his girlfriend are up to in a few years!! SHOCK HORROR!!!!!!!!!! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Building and Kids 12Jan 08, 2008 12:36 pm We have two under four and definately planed the house to work for us and the kids. We made sure you could see access to the backyard from the main living areas and that the kids were down the hall with their own bathroom.
We sold our old house and decided to build because of having kids. We were on a 600m2 block and didn't have much backyard. We now are building on 1.5 acres (won't have the space problem ) We also chose the area because of good close schools and friends with young children in the area. My biggest concern is after they finish building and we move in, all the crap that gets left behind like screws and metal. Going out to check won't be a problem as long as they are in daycare that day!! Jet Jet Re: Building and Kids 13Jan 08, 2008 1:54 pm Absolutely .. the location and house itself was built with our all our needs in mind.
Where we bought ... heaps of kids around for our one and only to play with. What we bought ... she lives upstairs ... we live downstairs. I DEFINITELY don't want to know what she is up to when she is a teen Why we built had nothing to do with our 5 yo ... it has always been a dream of ours. Re: Building and Kids 14Jan 08, 2008 5:23 pm vanderlay nzfiona My dh said we ought to sound-proof our son's room - I was horrified! I want to be able to hear what he and his friends are up to! Fiona You wont want to hear what he and his girlfriend are up to in a few years!! Eeeewwww!! Fiona Re: Building and Kids 15Jan 08, 2008 5:35 pm As our son is AS, he is still fairly clingy and wants to know we are close by, so his bedroom is usually the closest bedroom to the master (he checked out all the plans and picked 'his' room each time as Bed 2 or whatever was nearest the master bedroom LOL).
Mostly we have designed our home (it's a custom-build) so it's adult- and kid-friendly, but we're not allowing our only chick to dictate how our house is planned. We sort of did that with the last home we built and it wasn't as practical as we thought it would be. We had to make sure there was plenty of open space in the family room for his ballet practice, though! Fiona Re: Building and Kids 16Jan 08, 2008 6:21 pm We sold our beautiful home and are building again because we had our 3rd child. The house is definately designed with our children in mind. We wanted great spaces that our teenage to be children can entertain their friends. We also upgraded our block to a riverside location...that was for us.
As for kids bedrooms, we are all together upstairs. Mrs B Re: Building and Kids 17Jan 08, 2008 8:13 pm Our kids were definitely one of the reasons why we chose that block and house design.
Our 1st consideration was the location - has to be near schools (primary and secondary), parks, commercial centres, transport facilities, childcare facilities, etc. Also, the size should be decent enough to accommodate growing kids. We have 3.5 and 8-year old kids. For the house design, we've always wanted a double-storey house so all of the bedrooms are upstairs. That way, if we have guests dowstairs, we can keep the kids upstairs . Also, this would enable us to have a bigger backyard. But one of my friends at work commented... 'so what's the park for if you're going to have a big backyard?' ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Building and Kids 18Jan 09, 2008 6:53 am Yeah, we got a large block almost if not 100% because of our 2 kids over 3 years ago (girl now nearly 8 and boy just turned 5). That said, having a big backyard also gives us some room if we want to put in something like a pool - that will be for all 4 of us (depends on how long we want to stay here ).
The house itself was designed with thought given to all 4 of us, in fact more consideration was given to my and my wife's needs (wants). All of the bedrooms are upstairs because we liked the idea of the kids going to bed up there, up away from the 'operational' lower level of the house where we and any guests can still be happily going about out business. We also liked the idea of having our own bedroom upstairs because at least we're all sleeping on the same level so we can hear and attend to any cries in the night (it also works when the kids wake up in their usual early timeslot on weekends and go downstairs to play while we get another hour or so's sleep because we can barely hear them). My wife put A LOT of work into how our kitchen ended up, and of course I had A LOT of input into how the theatre was built. Careful considerations and changes were also made to the formal lounge (provision for a gas-log fireplace), study (added a BIR for storage of my DVD collection and other junk) and garage to suit us. One of the key reasons we added the pergola was so that there was at least some shade provided outside so the kids could play out there and have an area where they could stay out and not be getting blasted by the sun. Re: Building and Kids 19Jan 09, 2008 7:25 am Answer to the "what's the park for?" question (I love this one):
I know that my wife and I are completely comfortable with the idea of our 5 and 2 year old kids (when they were that old not long after we moved in) playing in our backyard whenever they want and we are still able to get some chores done (or whatever) inside the house - ie, we don't have to sit outside in the backyard with them the whole time to monitor them. They are safely contained in our backyard that we have ensured is safe for them. Even if you live right next door to the park, unless your kids are at an age where it's OK for them to go down the street by themselves (ie head off out of sight and contact), I know there's no way either my wife and I would be able to let our kids play at the park without us going there with them. If you say that you don't need a backyard because there's a park only a couple of doors down, I say that you are either willing to stop whatever you're doing and head to the park with your kids every time they ask or your kids will not get anywhere near as much time playing outside as they want. My kids can go out and play in the backyard whenever they want and there's heaps of room out there for them to run around, ride their bikes, play ball games, plus their trampoline, swing set and cubby house. That's what our backyard is for. That's why we bought a block that was big enough that we'd have a large backyard. P.S. We still go for bike rides to the park every now and then (went last night when I got home - I got a bike for Christmas ). Re: Building and Kids 20Jan 09, 2008 3:31 pm What?? We have a child?!?
I guess it's hard to detemine the answer for us as this is our first time entering the property market, and we have a child. I dont' know that having her has made a difference... I would have built 3 bedrooms if we were only a couple - simply for resale value. If we end up with more than one child then either they share one bedroom and the other is a hobby room, or they get one each and I give up scrapbooking (or build in an attic). Our first and foremost consideration was cost, hence our small-ish (I've seen some locally that are 300m2 - ours is 451m2) block. Then it was a matter of finding a design to fit. It had to be 3 bedroom, and had to have a seperate formal lounge for guests (which could become a hobby room ) and be within budget. So to answer - while we would have considered the fact we would likely have kids some day, I don't think we would have done anything differently had we been childless. Second Time 'Round Bathroom renovation will likely include a back-to-corner bath and we’re considering a freestanding tap with hand-held shower such as the picture included. My hesitation… 0 24692 After some ideas on making our patio kid friendly . Currently we have exposed aggregate. The patio faces west and is always in sun even though it has a shade directly… 0 3592 You should be able to encase the sewer but you will need it designed and approved and access to lot 580 to do the work 2 17154 |