trilevel homes and kids

[newdad]

So I have been to a couple of tri-level homes recently. You enter into the middle floor (typically by climbing up a stair of flights) which has the kitchen and living areas. The top floor has the master bedroom and the bottom floor has more bedrooms.

Am wondering how this would work out with a kid as he would be sleeping 2 floors removed from parents.

I am not really worried about security (well I am, but I can get burglar alarms) I am more worried about if he will just be too scared to sleep alone so far away from parents. Or if he wont find it to be much different than sleeping in a room next to his parents.

I can imagine that once he gets to say middle school and up, this will likely not be an issue and might also be preferable (parents get some real privacy)

[spdrun]

You mean a split-level, not a trilevel (which would be three floors).

[BoomerAang]

It doesn’t work out. Especially if you have a wife that dotes on the kid. We had a trilevel condo with that same scenario that we had bought before kids. After the initial baby, changes were made. We have since sold it for a more traditional layout.

It can only work out if the child is independent and older. We knew going into the condo that it was not ideal for smaller kids, but we bought it anyways since we didn’t have babies for about 4 years.

[newdad]

Replying to spdrun:

>You mean a split-level, not a trilevel (which would be three floors).

These do have three floors. You climb up some stairs from the road outside and enter into the “middle” floor. The master bedroom is one flight of stairs further up. You descend a level to get to the bottom floor that has more bedrooms and the garage.

[spdrun]

Silly-ass design. Why would you want to climb a flight of stairs, with groceries, to the kitchen or sleep on the garage level? What’s the advantage over a straight 2-story with the bedrooms upstairs and one on the ground floor?

[newdad]

Well, you do get more sq ft of home on a smaller lot that way. Don’t have hard stats about how common these are but looks like that’s where houses in San Diego are headed to in the future 🙂

Though I wish the ground floor had the kitchen and the top two floors had the bedrooms.

[spdrun]

No: you get less sq feet than a 2-story house per area of footprint.

With a 2-story, the area is roughly 2x the footprint (minus things like stairs and open areas). With a silly split, the area is only 2x where the kitchen, bath, and bottom bedrooms are. The rest is a ranch.

So area ~= 1.5x coverage.

[njtosd]

This sounds like a very bad idea unless you want to have the child(ren) sleep in your room. I’m not sure how new a dad you are, but be prepared for frequent visits in the middle of the night (even in middle school), whether out of nerves, illness, worries about finals etc.

Remember the laws of supply and demand – the reason you are looking at these homes probably means they are a good price. The reason that they are well priced is because people with kids don’t want them. Never forget that you will want to sell it someday.

And privacy? HA! Good luck with that. (I have one in middle school, one in high school and one about to leave for college….). The youngest walks through my room every morning to get to our bathroom so she can use my makeup.

[FlyerInHi]

I don’t see the difference between those tri level houses and a larger house where the bedrooms are in opposite sides. The number of steps are the same. The stairs are good exercise, haha

Those houses may not good for parents who dote on their kids, but great for people who are roommates or are cohabitating co-owners. That’s a trend in expensive housing markets.

[njtosd]

[quote=FlyerInHi]I don’t see the difference between those tri level houses and a larger house where the bedrooms are in opposite sides. The number of steps are the same. The stairs are good exercise, haha

Those houses may not good for parents who dote on their kids. ……[/quote]

Spoken like someone who has no kids. It’s not a matter of doting – it’s self defense. You are desperate for sleep and they will not leave you alone. You don’t have to look far to find pictures on the internet of people who’ve finally crawled into the crib with their infant not out of doting but simply so they (the parents) can get some sleep. Children will break the spirit of even the most determined parents. It’s really a matter of instinct, which overwhelms most efforts at resistance. FYI: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/15/oxytocin-makes-new-mouse-mothers-focus-on-cries-of-lost-pups/

[spdrun]

Why is the infant in a separate room, not in proximity to mom as nature intended?

Most cultures outside the US/Western Europe would see this as barbaric.

[njtosd]

[quote=spdrun]Why is the infant in a separate room, not in proximity to mom as nature intended?

Most cultures outside the US/Western Europe would see this as barbaric.[/quote]

If that’s what you want to do when you have kids – fine and dandy. It’s a personal decision. Plus, I think it is dependent on the availability of a separate room for the child.

[spdrun]

No, I mean it’s literally inhumane. Newborns come out programmed to want to be close to their parents.

[njtosd]

[quote=spdrun]No, I mean it’s literally inhumane. Newborns come out programmed to want to be close to their parents.[/quote]

Again, spoken like someone who has no kids. One of ours would awaken at the slightest sound – we even figured out where the slightly squeaky subfloor was so we could avoid it. A cough or sneeze meant he was awake for a minimum of two hours. Have that happen to you night after night and you will change your tune. He slept in our room for a while but everyone slept better when he moved to the room next door.

New parents have enough to worry about without armchair quarterbacks like you and Brian pontificating.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=njtosd] FYI: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/15/oxytocin-makes-new-mouse-mothers-focus-on-cries-of-lost-pups/
[/quote]

Very interesting. Are pharmas working on a pill to neutralize Oxytocin so humans can be more rational?

[Author]

Posts