need to rearrange bedrooms

[caedmyn]

We have 4 bedrooms.  One is currently a playroom/library, with a closet full of custom-built shelves for toys and a wall-to-wall built-in bookshelf crammed full of books.  It's supposed to have a climbing room, swing, and tumbling mat in it, if DH ever gets around to installing them (my crazy boys really need a space to move).  DH & I sleep in the master bedroom with the baby.  DS8 & DS6 share one bedroom.  DD11 & DS3 share the last one, which doubles as a guest room 2 weekends a month when my parents come visit (it has a queen bed which DD sleeps in).  I would like to give DD her own space, and I'd like the guest room space back so I can move the baby in there (or sleep in there myself at times...he is really a terrible nighttime sleeper and very restless and sometimes fussy even when he's not hungry).  I don't see any good way to do it.  I've thought about moving DD into the playroom, but it would still need to double as a playroom (bookshelves can't be moved and there's no other place for the toys--we have no toys in the bedrooms at all).  She slept in there on the floor the last two nights and I remembered why I had her move in with her brother a year ago...when it was her room (still with the toys and bookshelves) she was constantly complaining about the boys going in there, trying to keep them out and creating a lot of drama.  I've told her that if she moves back into the playroom it will be hers for sleeping only and the boys will be allowed in there during the day, but I can see already that it's going to be a lot of drama if she has a bed in there with her not wanting them in there at all ever and them not staying off the bed.  I've also thought of moving her into the boys' bedroom, which clearly wouldn't give her her own space but would make a space for the baby.  That bedroom is just for sleeping anyway.  Eventually all 4 boys will be in the same room but that is probably 2-3 years at least away, particularly since they all (except the baby) take an hour or more on average to fall asleep at night...just doesn't work to have any of them in the same room while they're falling asleep.  Right now the older 2 boys get split between our room and their room to fall asleep, 3 YO falls asleep in his room, and DD goes to bed an hour later than the others.  What would be the best arrangement?  Is there some alternative I'm just not thinking of?  At some point DD will really *need* her own space, but I don't think that point is now.  It'd be nice for her to have it, but it's not a necessity at this point.  She's probably still 2ish years away from puberty (or at least, start of menstruation), and I don't feel her own space is a need until then.  We don't have a family room or unfinished basement space to use as a playroom, so we can either use that bedroom as a playroom or we have no play space at all.

 

ETA: Ideally I'd convince DH to convert a small part of our oversized 2-car garage into a bedroom for her.  It'd be tiny, but the garage is insulated and has a heater (thought probably the heat would have to connect to the house's heat somehow and not the garage's) so I think it wouldn't be too difficult.  I'd be shocked if DH would go for that idea though.

Edited December 19, 2016 by caedmyn

[historically accurate]

How I would probably do it:

 

Playroom: I'd install a murphy bed so it could be the guest room if your normal guests don't mind kids in their space during the day. You could also put a pack and play in there for the baby to sleep in if you are wanting to move him out of your room.

 

Master: You can either keep this for yourselves. If the size works, you can put all of the boys in here together.

 

DD's room: I'd give her a lofted bed, and keep the boys off of it if you want her to continue to share. The loft might help make her space more defined. I would most likely move DS out of there as I found my girls wanting their own space (not all of them have it though) a couple years pre-menstruation. There's a whole lot of hormones ramping up there.

 

Second kids' bedrooms: I'd most likely take this for parents because my kids spend a lot more time in their rooms as they are getting older, whereas DH and I only use our bedroom at night. 

 

Edited because spelling.

Edited December 19, 2016 by beckyjo

[caedmyn]

The murphy bed would be a great idea for DD in the playroom.  Then she could have her own space once the boys are in bed, and couldn't complain about it being messed up during the day.  I wonder if DH would go for that.  I wanted to put a loft bed in there for her but it would have to go up against a small window with the way the room is laid out and DH apparently has issues with beds being up against windows, which makes no sense to me all, but whatever.

 

I can't put the baby in the playroom , unfortunately, because it's on the main floor, whereas the rest of the bedrooms are in our daylight basement.

[almondbutterandjelly]

It looks like you have 4 boys and one girl.  (I understand that the baby is with you at the moment, but that will change soon enough.)  What about putting all the boys in the largest bedroom (I assume the master)?  Then you and hubby and baby take the next biggest room.  Then dd gets the other room.  She's 11.  She needs to not be sharing a room with a brother.  Playroom could be guest room (assuming you haven't made it a bedroom because it's one of the larger rooms.)

[QueenCat]

If it were me........ I'd keep the master for the adults, no doubt about it. I feel that the adults should have the type of privacy one gets with a master bedroom w/bathroom. Boys in second biggest room, with two sets of bunk beds. Your two oldest boys are both old enough to be in the top bunk. Smallest bedroom for daughter. Playroom stays a playroom.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I'd put 3yo in with his brothers, if you have to separate them all to fall asleep, anyway (or what I did, in those days, was to sit in their room until they all fell asleep so they couldn't distract each other), and let dd have her same bedroom by herself, and invite the two-weekends-per-month grandparents to sleep on a fold-out couch if they don't want to get a hotel. Or put them in the playroom in a murphy bed, as beckyjo suggested?