Kids Sharing Bedroom or New Addition

The wife and I have been trying to decide what to do; we have a baby on the way which will make for our fourth child in a four bedroom home. This is not good!

Right now our three girls, ages 5,6 and 8 each have a 12 x 16 bedroom of their own, and we are happy with that arrangement. The 5 year old, and 8 year old are biological sisters, where as the middle child...age 6...is a step-sister. We have a rule here that states when the girl is not home and at their biological parents house, the others cannot go into her room and that rule works out well. They have their own space, their own toys and get along well.

Oh we hate to lose that individuality...but with a baby on the way, our choices are to either build a new bedroom onto our house, or double up the kids.

We like the thought of having our own private master bedroom suite, and giving our current master bedroom to the baby as a nursery, but that means adding on to the house with an estimated cost of 4 grand. It also means more of everything; property taxes, winter heating, and maintenance and upkeep. (Keeping this home clean is already a chore). It would be a lot cheaper to double up the two biological sisters (5 and 8) and use the 5 year old's bedroom for the new nursery if it is a baby boy; but if it is a baby girl, we could double up all the kids (5 and 8) and (6 and baby) and then use the 5 year olds bedroom into a bigger living room by taking out a wall. That would be nice as our living room is a tad small but we do not know if it is going to be a girl or a boy yet!

If we took out all the walls dividing the bedrooms, along with their closets and divide the 3 bedrooms into 4, we would end up with 12 x 13 bedrooms...each one having their own bedroom, but that is pretty darn small and no closets! (No good I'm thinking). Yet dividing up a 12 x 16 bedroom for two kids is going to make for a cramped space as well not to mention the lack of individuality and privacy culminating in more discord. It works out nice now because when they get squabbling, we just send each one to their room, but you cannot do that with doubled up kids.

What would you guys (and gals) do? Double up the kids or just bite the financial bullet and build on?

NS, to make a long story short, my 5 kids-- 3 girls, all w/ different fathers (oh yeah, my ex got around) , 22--30 & 40 now, shared a large bedroom ( took a partial (archway)wall out to make a 24X30 room (bunk beds & single bed) the boys, 36 & 40 now< shared a 12X16. They were---BEDROOMS-- it all, believe it or not,--worked out well--the kids all got along & I think--helped them with social skills starting in the home. We had to do some scheduling as far as homework & the like. They all learned to help one another. As they got older, we went to plan B which is a whole different chapter. The biggest concern back when, like you was the heating aspect--I do think the kids benefited from the early yrs as, today they are still close then most to one another--PS--we always spent a lot of family time together, unlike so many families that I see today, where individual kids just stay in thier rooms & are permitted to do so, & don't have a clue about the family aspect--we also ate all meals at our country style kitchen table as a FAMILY

My $0.02 - Bunk the two sisters in a single room, and put the baby in the other. Leave the living room alone and save your money for the added expense of another mouth to feed. 12x16' feet is a decent size bedroom, lots of people have managed with considerably less.

You can always expand the living room later on, that way you have room for all the grandkids.

Our house has a large living room addition that is great for this time of year, 16x25' I think. I can seat 12 people in that room, not counting kids and dogs.

Our experience:
We raised two girls and a boy in a three bedroom home. Our son's bedroom was really small, 9x10.5 and the girls shared a 13.5x10.5 with two single beds. It was tight, but today the kids are all in their 40s and are very close to each other. Growing up they learned to get along, to share and appreciate what they have.
You may want to double up in the two bedrooms and give them a playroom in the fourth.
Just a thought...

Interesting ideas.

I like the idea of a master suite addition only because its position would give us an out of the way location bedroom away from the kids!! But also give us light from sun up until sun down. It would be a great retreat and with 4 kids we may need it. (Did I mention 3 were girls, that means 15, 16, 18!!)

I guess we need to wait another month or so to find out what flavor this one will be. We have been discussing all our options and just cannot seem to get a real good direction to go. So many options...

First off congratulations. Time will tell you what to do, things have a way of figuring themselves out.

I say bunk up the kids and give yourself the retreat...
4k for an addition...
Down here just the permits and fees would run over1k for any addition...
I'm in a similar situation...
6 month twins mixed set in a 2 bed 1 bath cottage...
Can not add any bedrooms due to zoning...
could build an addition but that would be expensive...
The thought was build a dorm style big bedroom FF style...
But now Irish triplets are in the picture...
The single bath just will not do...
The house is small...
So the plan is to rent out what we are in now...
And buy somthing bigger...
More beds, more baths, more sq ft, more yard...
Good thing is the property I am in now will pay its own way as a rental...
The bad thing is we gotta deal with the tight lending market...

When growing up I shared a 12X16 room with 2 other brothers...my sister had her own 10X10 room...we had our differences, but lived with what we had and came out just fine! Do with what you have in my humble opinion...the economics will be much better for the family in the long haul! Good luck!

CoaLen wrote:You may want to double up in the two bedrooms and give them a playroom in the fourth.
Just a thought...

This is a great idea!

I'd add on.... it'll give the grand kids some room!