If you live in a bi-level house...

[melissel]

In case you're not sure what that is: http://www.housemaster.com/index.asp?p=buyers&s=styles&t=details&id_style=6

 

Can you tell me how you have it laid out? DH really wants to make the downstairs room the family room, but I cannot see how there's enough space for all the toys and couch and entertainment center etc. down there! And that means the upstairs living area, which is our main living area, is (IMO) wasted space. Yes, it will look nice and fancy and formal, but it will be pointless, functionally.

 

The other option is to remove any and all toys to the downstairs room, but that means the kids will be relegated downstairs while I'm upstairs cooking, cleaning, etc. That doesn't seem ideal either.

 

Can you tell me how you've arranged your floors and how that works for you? If you happened to have pictures you want to share, I would looooove to see those too.

 

TIA!

[Prairie~Phlox]

Our upstairs is the living room, kitchen, dining & three bedrooms, 2 full baths, the downstairs is a little less than half garage, then a half bath when you walk down the steps, you turn to the right and it's our family room/school room, the family room has a flat screen t.v. and sitting area, the school room has 2 larger desks along the wall, bookshelves and a table. We also have an exercise bike behind the couch so you can watch t.v. while riding the bike. (the laundry room is also in the back corner(behind the bathroom and between the garage & family room) Really, we spend a lot of time downstairs, that's where our computer is. But my kids spend a lot of time in our family room upstairs as well. Their toys are all in their rooms, but my kids are getting older, with dd being 12 & the boys being 8 & 10, they mainly have Legos. There are board games downstairs, but that's about it. I love our house, it is like having a basement but with the function of similar to a ranch upstairs. I used to hate going up and down stairs in our two story, but to me, this is just different.

[Mandamom]

We are currently struggling with decorating/organizing our bi-level so I'll be reading with interest.

 

We have an upstairs 2 bedrooms (a master and one large bedroom that could probably be divided if we wanted to) a living room, dining room and kitchen. Downstairs we have 1 large bedroom, laundry room and a tv room. It has a seating area along with a woodstove area. The kids toys are in their rooms for the most part although they don't own a lot so it isn't a big deal.

 

When my older kids (17, 14) were younger they spent a lot of time downstairs playing while I was upstairs. With the open stairs I always knew what was going on -- whether I wanted to or not. Currently the downstairs is in a state of renovation so I'm not sure what it will look like when it is done.

[melissel]

Our upstairs is the living room, kitchen, dining & three bedrooms, 2 full baths, the downstairs is a little less than half garage, then a half bath when you walk down the steps, you turn to the right and it's our family room/school room, the family room has a flat screen t.v. and sitting area, the school room has 2 larger desks along the wall, bookshelves and a table. We also have an exercise bike behind the couch so you can watch t.v. while riding the bike. (the laundry room is also in the back corner(behind the bathroom and between the garage & family room) Really, we spend a lot of time downstairs, that's where our computer is. But my kids spend a lot of time in our family room upstairs as well. Their toys are all in their rooms, but my kids are getting older, with dd being 12 & the boys being 8 & 10, they mainly have Legos. There are board games downstairs, but that's about it. I love our house, it is like having a basement but with the function of similar to a ranch upstairs. I used to hate going up and down stairs in our two story, but to me, this is just different.

 

Thanks for that! Do you have just the laundry room downstairs, or do you have an extra room as well? We have extra room partitioned off, and that's where our two desks, computers, filing cabinets, and treadmill are. What's left doesn't seem to be quite enough space for what DH wants to put in there--although to be fair, we also have a "game table" that's the size of a good-sized pedestal table that DH won't part with (it seats six around). He says if we make the downstairs a family room, then he'll find someplace upstairs for the game table instead :ack2:

[Lara in Colo]

Before HS we had the downstairs just for storage and other things we try to forget. When the playroom/family room was downstairs there was a lot of water issues, wet things everywhere. I was always trudging up and down the stairs to "fix' the dvd that skipped, and I couldn't keep them in their rooms at night and watch tv (I was in front of the tv; they were....every else but in bed). When we started to HS, I converted the smallest bedroom to a classroom, made the master suit a childs bedroom (they share--2 rooms, 2children each) and moved our bedroom to the downstairs. We live in Colo, so HS in the coldest part of the house all winter just isn't affordable. The other room downstairs is our "room of requirement"--closet, sewing, hidden presents-whatever.

 

Lara

 

Can the game table be converted to a HS table? Where you put a topper on it with hooks and ropes to lift it when you want a game table?

Edited April 14, 2010 by Lara in Colo

[Brenda in FL]

Our family room, TV, fireplace was in the lower level. The living room, dining room and kitchen were on the main level. We used the formal dining room for our school room because it was out of sight and didn't matter what it looked like! The living room was used jointly as a library and a former dining room and also housed the piano and dh's guitar. This room at times did get played in because there was was a lot of open floor space - but the toys were not kept there.

 

At the ages of your kids - I personally wouldn't have any problems with them playing downstairs while I was busy in other areas of the house.

 

My kids also have toys in their bedrooms and will play there as well.

[Guest CLMomto6]

We took out the wall between the kitchen, dining room and living room so it is one big open area. We have 2 full bathrooms upstairs and 3 bedrooms. We also took down the wall between the two smaller bedrooms and turned that into a family room/computer room/school area. The master bedroom is now a guest bedroom. Downstairs we made 3 very large bedrooms and there is 1 bathroom. The laundry room is also down there, which is helpful.

[EKS]

We lived in a bi-level house for two years. In this house, you entered between floors and upstairs was the kitchen, dining room, living room, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms. Downstairs was a large room and a smaller room accessed from the larger room with washer and dryer in a closet as well as a bathroom.

 

If I were to live in this house again as a homeschooler, I would have the school area in the downstairs rooms and everything else upstairs. I would have the school room double as a guest room and maybe a play room.

[melissel]

Can the game table be converted to a HS table? Where you put a topper on it with hooks and ropes to lift it when you want a game table?

 

Hmmm, I don't know! The problem with the table, besides DH feeling like he doesn't want anyone touching it because it's his special thing (even though no one ever uses it), is that it has this big, weird topper already on it. The topper makes it a few inches higher than your average table, so it might be hard to write/work on. Also, the topper has these nubs that are supposed to keep it from scratching the table below, but they're made of hard plastic, not rubber, so the topper slides around and bumps off the table rim, etc. It was free, and DH loves it so much, but it really is the most impractical thing for this house. I'll talk to him about his parameters for it. I would love to be able to spend more time down there in the summer, when it's so much hotter upstairs.

 

At the ages of your kids - I personally wouldn't have any problems with them playing downstairs while I was busy in other areas of the house.

 

I'm not worried about them at all, actually. It's more that I like us to be around each other, you know? It feels...closer, I guess? I don't know, it's hard to describe what I mean. I like knowing we're in and out of the same rooms, talking and asking questions, etc.

 

Thanks for the input everyone, keep it coming if you can. This is helping me think through the resources that I have and how to use them differently. I so wish there was somewhere I could to look at pictures of how people are using their space. Does anyone know of anything like that?

[Night Elf]

Our home has a 2 rooms downstairs. One is built to be a storage room with the concrete walls and floor showing, and no ceiling. The other room was likely to be a bonus room but since it has a closet, it was listed as a 4th bedroom, which is what we use it for. It's dd17's room and it's larger than my master bedroom.

 

Our upstairs is a master BR, 2 small bedrooms, and the kitchen/dining area/living room combination in a large L-shape.

 

We haven't had toys out of the bedrooms in many years, but I remember using organizational containers that were pretty and functional in our last home.

 

Dd17 is thinking about going away to school next January. I've already told her my vision for that room is a large library with a couple of oversized recliners and lots of soft lighting. I can't wait! It's my dream room. But no, it will not be a school room at all. Just a lovely place to read.

[Pippen]

Can you tell me how you have it laid out? DH really wants to make the downstairs room the family room, but I cannot see how there's enough space for all the toys and couch and entertainment center etc. down there! And that means the upstairs living area, which is our main living area, is (IMO) wasted space. Yes, it will look nice and fancy and formal, but it will be pointless, functionally. !

 

We made both into usable spaces, with neither fancy or formal. We don't have a formal dining area and I've wished for that, especially when we have company.

 

We had the tv/family room downstairs with sofa and chairs grouped around it. Behind it was a play/mini gym area. They did more active playing there. Laundry room and bedroom down there as well.

 

Our upstairs had a small living room area adjacent to the kitchen. We kept books we were currently reading and their most used toys (like Playmobil, the play kitchen) there when they were little. Other toys went downstairs or in their bedrooms.

 

The tv downstairs was a six of one half a dozen of the other situation. On one hand I didn't have to sit through the same Barney video six hundred times. On the other hand, supervising television watching was a pain. Eventually we got a small portable tv for upstairs and that helped.

[Peela]

We rent a very interestngly designed house. Upstairs is a kitchen, dining room and living area, and a 3 bedroom wing with 2 bathrooms. We turned this living area into the schoolroom but its also teh day to day TV, piano, office, and living area- very multifunctional and central and well used. We have 3 large desks- one for me, one for the kids.

 

Downstairs is a large entrance way (marble) with the marble staircase coming from it, a ginormous laundry(the size of a bedroom- how did I ever survive with a tiny laundry? I love it!), another large living area, a kind of library room, a large den that has opaque windows, and a spare bedroom.

Dh works from the downstairs living area. Both the kids live downstairs now- one has teh spare room, the other had the den.

The spare room upstairs is now my art room.

 

I love the design of our house.