About a year ago, we visited Florida from Ireland to look for what would become our new home when we moved back a few weeks later. Over 3 days, hubby and I visited close to 25 houses looking for one that would suit our family just right. I had very strict criteria, the biggest being location (I wanted to be walking distance to things we would need on a daily basis) but the next important being the floor plan. I did not want a house where my very young children would be completely separated from hubby and me. We found it nearly impossible to find a house where all bedrooms were together, in most houses (at least in our town) the master bedroom is on one side of the house and the other bedrooms are on the other.
We finally settled on our house, despite the split floor plan for two reasons. For one, despite being on the entirely other side of the house, I can see one of the bedroom doors from my bed (through the foyer, TV room and long hallway) which we’ve decided to designate at the baby nursery. The second reason was the fact that one of the bedrooms is HUGE, has its own bathroom and gigantic closet. Even though this bedroom is the farthest away from the master (through the foyer, TV room, kitchen and play room and past the door to the pool….opposite corner of the house), we decided to put Honeybun and Sugarplum in the giant room together.
I never expected to have my children sharing a room. I grew up with my own room and have always planned to have it this way for my children too. However, in a 4 bedroom house with 3 children, we would be left with no guest space meaning one of our children would have to relocate every time we had guests. Growing up, my sister always had to stay in my room when someone came to stay and we both hated it as we got older. It also makes me feel better having the girls together since they’re so far away. I know if something happens in the night to one of the girls, the other one can call for me.
Sharing a room has not been as tumultuous as I (or especially hubby) expected. I think at this point the girls really enjoy being together and I hope if we stay here they will appreciate all the space and privacy they have (from us, though not from each other) as they grow up. They have almost their own mini-suite that can be completely closed off from the rest of the house with a pocket door. Plus, what teenaged girl wouldn’t love a walk-in closet bigger than their mommy’s?
When we decided to do the room sharing, we made a few strategic decisions. First, we got bunk beds. The one we got is a sturdy, heavy-duty wood construction with stairs rather than a ladder. What we really like is that they don’t have to be stacked. Currently we have the beds unstacked and the stairs in the corner behind the door so we can use the under stair storage but the girls can’t use it as a launching pad onto the lower bed. We’ll leave it this way for at least another year, probably until Sugarplum starts Kindergarten. At this time we can stack the beds and use the extra space for a desk for each of the girls.
The other thing we’ve done to ensure safety with the distance is put a baby gate up in the door. This keeps them contained when they should be in bed (we don’t have a problem with wandering children who need water or to go potty). It also provides a sense of safety since they are only a few steps from the door out to the pool which both girls know how to open. If they do need us, the can call or when they are up we easily hear the gate rattling.
During nap time I do, however, separate the girls (yes, my almost 5 year old still takes a nap, EVERY DAY!). Honeybun sleeps in the guest room (unless we have guests then she naps in my room). This has worked out perfectly since they don’t usually sleep the same amount of time. Separating them allows each to sleep as long as she needs without disturbing the other or preventing each other from going to sleep.
At night time we used to have a problem with Sugarplum getting up and trying to play and then both girls not actually going to sleep for over an hour. We tried managing them, forcing them to lay back down, taking things away, etc. until I finally realized it didn’t really matter. They were in their room, they were not bother us and eventually they were falling asleep so we stopped worrying about it and after a few weeks they started going straight to sleep after just a few minutes of chit chat.
While this is not a set up I would have expected to choose for my family, it is working out for us amazingly well and at this point I don’t know that I would do it differently.
The girls’ room (clearly still needs some decor help…curtains are my next project, after having baby of course!)
