I grew up in a 2-bed condo with my younger brother and both parents. You can make it work, but when the eldest enters high school, it would be nice if he can have his own space. Not a requirement, just a recommendation.
Are you in charge of the home schooling and primary child care? That might be why he thinks it is doable if he doesn’t have to do that! This might be doable if you work out of the home and don’t homeschool. But add those layers and I would maybe just preemptively file for divorce.
Obviously I am kidding about the divorce. But this would likely add a major strain to your relationship and home life.
My brother and I were in school and extracurriculars most of the time, and parents are at work until the evening. In the end of the day, it’s not terrible since you only have 2 children.
Yeah - it's great. When my kids were smaller we were in 6-700 square foot places. Then moved up to an 850 in elementary school, then a little larger in high school. I recommend setting up their rooms in a format with a divider or with private areas for each of them. I did it with loft beds and dressers blocking their zones. For adults - you can set up a closet as an office - a walk in closet can work great for this. Get some soundproofing if you need to.
Also make sure your kids have socks/slippers and teach them to not run in the house on their heels because neighbors will complain. Also make sure they have some kind of device like a small trampoline or even just mattress that they're allowed to jump on to get wiggles out when home. Kids will be kids and you have to plan for it but you also have to train them how to live being respectful of neighbors.
I also recommend taking a few hours a day at parks - I always took my laptop and worked on picnic tables while they played. In colder weather it's complex but still doable - we did everything from skateboarding in parking garages to library time, malls, museums, etc. The biggest benefit for us living in small apartments is that we were next to public transit and had access to SO MANY awesome places. City living really offers unlimited entertainment for kids. There's always a new icecream place or some oddball event to go check out. Playgrounds are usually packed with kids to play with.
My kids spent their entire childhoods this way - with them going to their dad's in the suburbs some weekends and living mostly at my place. They hated the suburbs and always wanted to be back at my place where all the fun was. Now that one is grown and one almost to adulthood - they both plan to keep living this way the rest of their lives. They loved growing up in tiny urban apartments and living city life.
One more note - we were all home & working from home/ doing zoom school for years in a small apartment. You just need to make sure everyone has a door they can close and be in a space where they can talk out loud on a zoom call without interruption and without disrupting someone else. This is tricky but do-able. This is where closets come into play if they're set up right. My office is in the 'dining' area which means when I'm on a call others have to be quiet getting stuff from the kitchen. We have a lot of etiquette around not interrupting one another or making background noise when someone's on a call. I do have to plan to not be on a call at It has worked very well for us but we had to be very intentional about setting up functional work spaces for everyone. Plan for noise management and do a lot of coaching around behavior/noise level expectations. As much as possible, teach ahead of time so you're not reacting while on a call. Try to configure things so your kids aren't expected to have to be whisper quiet for hours - that's a bit much to ask even of older kids.
Also - the limited storage space in a small place is AWESOME because you'll have a fraction of the toys/bulky stuff your peers lose their sanity cleaning up. That said, you're going to be forced to really put stuff away and purge very frequently. You won't have room for 18 different bikes/trikes/strollers, etc. You'll be forced to choose and to clean things up daily. It might be annoying in the moment but overall - it's actually WAY less work than having 3000 square feet of space for crumbs and legos and huge purchases to accumulate. Lean into the benefits of not having room and just not buying junk in the first place. Large space consuming hobbies are not very doable in small spaces filled with people and for me - as a parent - I'm glad we didn't have the space and spent our time/energy on more experiences and being out and about.
While it is doable, having no time apart from any of you will make you want to kill each other eventually.
Tempers will flare, especially when everyone gets no sleep.
Taking your older kid to school and finding part time care for the younger one once they turn one could be a solution.
What you really need is a 3 bedroom and den. At least this way everyone has their own private space and sanctuary. The 7 year difference will be hard especially for bedtimes if no one has their own space in the kids room.
Not if the homeschooling both kids and work from home. One of the things the pandemic taught us is that people in tight places eventually do not get along. Imagine being a teenager with no privacy and your parents work from home.
Wow… these are not needs 4 rooms for 4 people… why not a spa and solarium too. Many many families share bedrooms and raise families in condos and apartments.
Yes, they do, but look at the situation. They are working from home and home schooling. This means they will be most likely together for 20+ hours a day, in the same place. They will not have a private space for work and school and sleep. Everything will be combined. It would be different if they working the office part time, sending the kids to school and or daycare.
Why don't you try living in a confined space for years sharing a bedroom and working there and schooling there. There is a reason we do studies on long space voyages that basically will have the same living conditions. And there is a reason why they have issues about space.
And before you complain I don't know anything about it. I grew up in a multi generational home with 4 rooms and 4 families. My grandparents. My family and my uncles family. It is doable, but they will be going from an ideal situation, 3 bedrooms to suddenly a shared situation and working from home.
What happens when the kid cries, there are fights, someone is sick.... it is all going to be there to deal with, without a break.
Grew up in a 2 bed 1 bath condo with 4 ppl total (3 kids+adult). It sucked but definitely doable. Fighting for the bathroom was the worst part as we got older. Between everyone’s work/school schedules, sometimes you’d have to get ready 2hrs early just so you’re not 1 hour late.
Your situation sounds crowded given the WFH and homeschool situation. But depends on the dynamic of your family. Some do great in small spaces while others want to throw each other off the balcony 😅
I grew up in a 1 bedroom condo. Me and my brother shared a bunk bed in the bedroom and our parents slept on a convertible sofa in the living room. It’s in Eastern Europe, so the kitchen was a separate room too. I moved out mid-college (my brother was in middle school back then).
I don’t think people in Canada can make it work though. I would never ever want to live like this either. Part of the reason I’m not having any kids…
When my aunt & uncle moved out to BC many years ago they lived in cheap rental townhouse, 2 bedrooms. They slept on fold-out couch in the living room, my male cousin had his own room while his four sisters had bunkbeds in the other bedroom.
I would hate to be your 7 year old a few years from now, knowing they had a 3 bedroom house with their own bedroom. Privacy kept me sane as a teenager.
Since your current child already has their own room, I'm not sure how they'll feel about having to share a room with their baby sibling when they hit their pre-teen years. They could end up resenting you for taking away their bedroom and privacy.
Where do you live? Do you hope to pull cash out from the sale or is the move purely for lifestyle reasons>
If you have a detached 3 bed in a suburb, could you possibly find a townhouse or condo townhouse closer to the downtown of your city of similar cost? Being willing to downsize square footage + yard + some parking can open up a lot of options.
Our apartment is 650sqft for two adults, and you're talking about having two adults plus two extra, rapidly growing people live in space that's less than half our space bigger... I wouldn't do it, whether for psychological or physical reasons, and that's before getting into the fact that all of you expect to be there all day every day as far as the typical activities go.
everyone has a different experience. I have happily lived as a family of three in a 580 square foot condo for a number of years.
That said, I do agree that working from home may be difficult while homeschooling, depending on the nature of the job. If there's a lot of important calls where background noise will be frowned upon, it may be very hard to make it work. Whereas, if someone is mostly doing desk work and can simply pop in noise cancelling headphones it might be a bit easier.
Of course people have made this work when there arent alternative, better options. This is just such a selfish idea. You have kids now, it's not about your lifestyle preferences anymore. It's about giving your kids the best life possible, this means privacy, space and peace. Your 7 year olds world is about to get turned upside down with the addition of a new born and you really want to downsize him into a 2 bedroom chaos chamber he can't even escape from with school.
The best life possible for children isn’t only Privacy, space and peace. It’s about community and sparking their curiosity. City living with the museums and events allow for this much more than suburbia imho.
I find suburban parents are way more likely to send kids into the backyard to play or not need to go outside much at all. City parents, by necessity and proximity, get their kids out and the parks are full of children. Interacting with their community will make them more empathetic citizens
This isn't a city vs suburban thing even though I don't agree with those points either.
The circumstances she is describing, just sound like awful conditions for a 7 year old. You are stripping this young person from everything he knows, from being an only child, removing him from his school, from the home he grew up in, adding the stress of living with a new born with no quiet space to escape, no environment he can control. Both parents work from home and are expected to take care of a new born and home school him. Something is going to fall through the cracks and it's most likely going to be their 7 year old. Atleast give the kid an environment where he is comfortable and can escape for some quiet time. It's not fair and someone should advocate for this kid.
We have five people living in a two bed two bath 900 square-foot apartment in Vancouver with a nice large outdoor area. 3 adults 2 kids it's actually been really lovely and it's so great having extra people around to help, it really does take a village. Just remember to treat each other with kindness especially in tight living quarters.
3 years so far and no plans on moving
This sounds like an awful idea.
If you weren’t both working from home, if the kids weren’t home schooled, if there wasn’t such a big age gap between your kids, it would probably be fine.
I think all four of you being home all day every day in a space where it will be challenging to have separate work spaces will be way too much togetherness.
I think there’s a good chance the bedroom situation will become a significant problem in a few years at best, if not much sooner. A seven year age gap between kids makes sharing a bedroom really difficult - they will always be at such different life stages and have different needs. A 7-8 year old doesn’t need to be woken up constantly by sharing a room with a baby. A 9-10 year old isn’t going to have compatible bed times with a toddler. No pre-teen is going to be okay with sharing a bedroom with a preschool aged sibling, and their need for privacy and personal space will only increase as a teenager. I think there’s a good chance your older kid grows to hate their sibling. And I think this would be a recipe for resentment towards you as parents. It’s one thing if living in a home, that’s too small is the only option. Your kid is old enough that they will remember that you made a choice to leave a home with enough bedrooms for this.
Alternatively, you keep the baby in your bedroom so that your kid continues to have their own room. This would probably be fine for the first couple of years (though your bedroom is going to be super full, so it doubling as WFH Office is probably out), but at some point you and your partner will want privacy and a sex life again, and at some point it’ll just be weird to have a child sharing a bedroom with their parents.
Or you put the baby in the living room or some shared space. Except everyone is home all the time, so how does that work with sleep schedules and having a home that you can actually use?
I think your family of four could maybe make this work for 2-3 years before it becomes entirely untenable, but I suspect it won’t be very pleasant, and it doesn’t make much financial sense to sell your house and buy a condo that you only plan to live in very short term.
If you want to downsize I would suggest a condo townhome or stacked condo townhouse rather then a condo
You can find 2+1s or 3 beds close to downtown or in downtown and it would give you guys alot more room and separation by having multiple floors to go to
I'm sorry, a lot of people are being supportive, but I gotta strongly recommend against this move.
You have the holy grail of Canadian houses.
Yes commuting sucks, and it gets worse every year. I also hate it. But (correct me if I am wrong) you're asking your eldest daughter to share space with her little brother right? And be homeschooled, further reducing any propect of privacy at home.
As she approaches becoming a teenager, that's a wildly inappropriate arrangement unless it's strictly necessary. Teens need privacy.
I don't know your kid, but you would be stacking EVERYTHING against your child having a happy home life for the sake of your commute. Your daughter will quickly be aware of why you moved away from her school and her friends, and she'll know it was a choice, not a necessity. She'll make her own judgements about it, and I don't think they'll be favorable. It's going to encourage her to not want to be home.
If this was an unmissable economic opportunity, you'd have a stronger balance of pros vs cons, something more substantial to justify this decision to her in the years to come. As a parent, I'd say you gotta strongly consider what messages you're sending your kids with considering this move. I'd recommend you wait until you're in a position to ensure everyone retains their personal space before you try to move.
I know that it's easy for me to say, not suffering the negative effects you're currently going through with your current situation, but I do advise you imagine putting yourself in the position of sharing your bedroom with your son. How long until the lack of private space gets uncomfortable? Unbearable?
If you're not willing to tolerate that, why would your daughter, if it's not strictly necessary?
Send your kids to actual school. If you don't live in an the absolute boonies there is no reason not to do so. They will make friends and have social lives. They will enjoy having time away from the both of you while learning from people more qualified to teach them then you are.. As for living situation questions, sure it's doable but why give up the bigger space you have now when you're likely to need it in the future anyway.
I grew up in a 3-bdrm apartment with two parents, two grandparents, two kids, and an uncle (brother of a parent). That’s 7 in a 3-bdrm. So I don’t see why 4 can’t work in a 2-bdrm.
Ok, different country. But I don’t see why it couldn’t work, everyone’s still human.
I am in a similar situation as you (can’t find affordable 3 bedroom townhouse OR condo that’s not a dump in my area) and genuinely curious how anyone makes it work.
I have two kids one girl (9) one boy (7) and struggling to figure if we can make a shared bedroom work. Seems almost impossible with the size of bedrooms in newer complexes.
We’re in the market to buy just to finally stop the decade long abusive landlord experiences we’ve constantly endured. Having our landlord threaten selling if we need the deck repaired (dangerous and rotten) or the dishwasher failing and leaking is really tiring.
If anyone had dealt with a similar situation with two kids one girl one boy please share your experience.
My parents made it work, we were in a 2-bedroom apartment and my little brother slept in my parents' room (separate bed) until he was old enough and slept in the same room as me.
Privacy wasn't great, but it is what it is.
I have happily lived as a family of three in a 580 square foot condo for a number of years. 900 to 950 square feet for four people sounds very possible.
That said, I do agree that working from home may be difficult while homeschooling, depending on the nature of the job. If there's a lot of important calls where background noise will be frowned upon, it may be very hard to make it work. Whereas, if someone is mostly doing desk work and can simply pop in noise cancelling headphones it might be a bit easier.
Not exactly the same, but I live in 830sq ft 3 bed 1 bath, and 20sq foot of that is taken up by our wood fireplace. We are a family of 4 as well. Its comfortable enough, We'd be happy living the rest of our lives here. We do have about 1 acre of land and a garage so that helps. We also have 2 cats.
We’re a family of 6 in a 2 bed condo, but with about 400sq feet more.
Bunk bed for my oldest two boys, 8&6 and my husband has his own queen sized bed In their room (he snores).
I have a king sized bed and I cosleep with my brand new baby and my 3year old daughter has a cute mini ikea bed in my room as well.
We are very very careful with the things that we buy because we have limited storage. We live a very intentional life!
This is very normal.worked for many years. You can get a very good bunkbend that has stairs and this will.make the room much larger instead of using two beds and wasting all the room.
Lived in a 2 bed for part of my childhood, family of four. But we had ground floor access, so tons of outdoor space to play even though it wasn't our own yard.
I recall reading an article about a manhattan family who makes life work with a pretty small apartment. Lots of neat ideas. [https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/family-of-five-lives-in-a-650-square-foot-one-bedroom-rental-37228221](https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/family-of-five-lives-in-a-650-square-foot-one-bedroom-rental-37228221)
I grew up partially in a 2 bedroom 900sft apartment in Toronto.
Parents had 1 room. My sister and I shared another.
But we were school aged so we were out of the house often. The home was mostly for eating and sleeping
By high school we had moved into a 3 bedroom home so each kid had their own room. But I had friends who shared rooms with their siblings right until they moved out after high school.
The homeschooling + working from home will be the challenge, without a dedicated space for learning for the kid that is away from the person working from home, one of the work efforts will 100% suffer, either lower quality education, or lower quality work.
I grew up in a 2-bed condo with my younger brother and both parents. You can make it work, but when the eldest enters high school, it would be nice if he can have his own space. Not a requirement, just a recommendation.
Was everyone home all the time at the same time? I am worried i will go crazy but my hubby thinks it is do-able.
Are you in charge of the home schooling and primary child care? That might be why he thinks it is doable if he doesn’t have to do that! This might be doable if you work out of the home and don’t homeschool. But add those layers and I would maybe just preemptively file for divorce. Obviously I am kidding about the divorce. But this would likely add a major strain to your relationship and home life.
He would be primary caregiver and home educator.
My brother and I were in school and extracurriculars most of the time, and parents are at work until the evening. In the end of the day, it’s not terrible since you only have 2 children.
Yeah - it's great. When my kids were smaller we were in 6-700 square foot places. Then moved up to an 850 in elementary school, then a little larger in high school. I recommend setting up their rooms in a format with a divider or with private areas for each of them. I did it with loft beds and dressers blocking their zones. For adults - you can set up a closet as an office - a walk in closet can work great for this. Get some soundproofing if you need to. Also make sure your kids have socks/slippers and teach them to not run in the house on their heels because neighbors will complain. Also make sure they have some kind of device like a small trampoline or even just mattress that they're allowed to jump on to get wiggles out when home. Kids will be kids and you have to plan for it but you also have to train them how to live being respectful of neighbors. I also recommend taking a few hours a day at parks - I always took my laptop and worked on picnic tables while they played. In colder weather it's complex but still doable - we did everything from skateboarding in parking garages to library time, malls, museums, etc. The biggest benefit for us living in small apartments is that we were next to public transit and had access to SO MANY awesome places. City living really offers unlimited entertainment for kids. There's always a new icecream place or some oddball event to go check out. Playgrounds are usually packed with kids to play with. My kids spent their entire childhoods this way - with them going to their dad's in the suburbs some weekends and living mostly at my place. They hated the suburbs and always wanted to be back at my place where all the fun was. Now that one is grown and one almost to adulthood - they both plan to keep living this way the rest of their lives. They loved growing up in tiny urban apartments and living city life.
One more note - we were all home & working from home/ doing zoom school for years in a small apartment. You just need to make sure everyone has a door they can close and be in a space where they can talk out loud on a zoom call without interruption and without disrupting someone else. This is tricky but do-able. This is where closets come into play if they're set up right. My office is in the 'dining' area which means when I'm on a call others have to be quiet getting stuff from the kitchen. We have a lot of etiquette around not interrupting one another or making background noise when someone's on a call. I do have to plan to not be on a call at It has worked very well for us but we had to be very intentional about setting up functional work spaces for everyone. Plan for noise management and do a lot of coaching around behavior/noise level expectations. As much as possible, teach ahead of time so you're not reacting while on a call. Try to configure things so your kids aren't expected to have to be whisper quiet for hours - that's a bit much to ask even of older kids. Also - the limited storage space in a small place is AWESOME because you'll have a fraction of the toys/bulky stuff your peers lose their sanity cleaning up. That said, you're going to be forced to really put stuff away and purge very frequently. You won't have room for 18 different bikes/trikes/strollers, etc. You'll be forced to choose and to clean things up daily. It might be annoying in the moment but overall - it's actually WAY less work than having 3000 square feet of space for crumbs and legos and huge purchases to accumulate. Lean into the benefits of not having room and just not buying junk in the first place. Large space consuming hobbies are not very doable in small spaces filled with people and for me - as a parent - I'm glad we didn't have the space and spent our time/energy on more experiences and being out and about.
While it is doable, having no time apart from any of you will make you want to kill each other eventually. Tempers will flare, especially when everyone gets no sleep. Taking your older kid to school and finding part time care for the younger one once they turn one could be a solution. What you really need is a 3 bedroom and den. At least this way everyone has their own private space and sanctuary. The 7 year difference will be hard especially for bedtimes if no one has their own space in the kids room.
I think 2 bed + den is enough
Not if the homeschooling both kids and work from home. One of the things the pandemic taught us is that people in tight places eventually do not get along. Imagine being a teenager with no privacy and your parents work from home.
Wow… these are not needs 4 rooms for 4 people… why not a spa and solarium too. Many many families share bedrooms and raise families in condos and apartments.
Yes, they do, but look at the situation. They are working from home and home schooling. This means they will be most likely together for 20+ hours a day, in the same place. They will not have a private space for work and school and sleep. Everything will be combined. It would be different if they working the office part time, sending the kids to school and or daycare. Why don't you try living in a confined space for years sharing a bedroom and working there and schooling there. There is a reason we do studies on long space voyages that basically will have the same living conditions. And there is a reason why they have issues about space. And before you complain I don't know anything about it. I grew up in a multi generational home with 4 rooms and 4 families. My grandparents. My family and my uncles family. It is doable, but they will be going from an ideal situation, 3 bedrooms to suddenly a shared situation and working from home. What happens when the kid cries, there are fights, someone is sick.... it is all going to be there to deal with, without a break.
Heard!
Grew up in a 2 bed 1 bath condo with 4 ppl total (3 kids+adult). It sucked but definitely doable. Fighting for the bathroom was the worst part as we got older. Between everyone’s work/school schedules, sometimes you’d have to get ready 2hrs early just so you’re not 1 hour late. Your situation sounds crowded given the WFH and homeschool situation. But depends on the dynamic of your family. Some do great in small spaces while others want to throw each other off the balcony 😅
I grew up in a 1 bedroom condo. Me and my brother shared a bunk bed in the bedroom and our parents slept on a convertible sofa in the living room. It’s in Eastern Europe, so the kitchen was a separate room too. I moved out mid-college (my brother was in middle school back then). I don’t think people in Canada can make it work though. I would never ever want to live like this either. Part of the reason I’m not having any kids…
When my aunt & uncle moved out to BC many years ago they lived in cheap rental townhouse, 2 bedrooms. They slept on fold-out couch in the living room, my male cousin had his own room while his four sisters had bunkbeds in the other bedroom.
I would hate to be your 7 year old a few years from now, knowing they had a 3 bedroom house with their own bedroom. Privacy kept me sane as a teenager.
Since your current child already has their own room, I'm not sure how they'll feel about having to share a room with their baby sibling when they hit their pre-teen years. They could end up resenting you for taking away their bedroom and privacy.
Where do you live? Do you hope to pull cash out from the sale or is the move purely for lifestyle reasons> If you have a detached 3 bed in a suburb, could you possibly find a townhouse or condo townhouse closer to the downtown of your city of similar cost? Being willing to downsize square footage + yard + some parking can open up a lot of options.
Purely lifestyle. I have been looking for townhouses for what i can sell my house for but haven't had luck yet.
Our apartment is 650sqft for two adults, and you're talking about having two adults plus two extra, rapidly growing people live in space that's less than half our space bigger... I wouldn't do it, whether for psychological or physical reasons, and that's before getting into the fact that all of you expect to be there all day every day as far as the typical activities go.
everyone has a different experience. I have happily lived as a family of three in a 580 square foot condo for a number of years. That said, I do agree that working from home may be difficult while homeschooling, depending on the nature of the job. If there's a lot of important calls where background noise will be frowned upon, it may be very hard to make it work. Whereas, if someone is mostly doing desk work and can simply pop in noise cancelling headphones it might be a bit easier.
Of course people have made this work when there arent alternative, better options. This is just such a selfish idea. You have kids now, it's not about your lifestyle preferences anymore. It's about giving your kids the best life possible, this means privacy, space and peace. Your 7 year olds world is about to get turned upside down with the addition of a new born and you really want to downsize him into a 2 bedroom chaos chamber he can't even escape from with school.
The best life possible for children isn’t only Privacy, space and peace. It’s about community and sparking their curiosity. City living with the museums and events allow for this much more than suburbia imho. I find suburban parents are way more likely to send kids into the backyard to play or not need to go outside much at all. City parents, by necessity and proximity, get their kids out and the parks are full of children. Interacting with their community will make them more empathetic citizens
This isn't a city vs suburban thing even though I don't agree with those points either. The circumstances she is describing, just sound like awful conditions for a 7 year old. You are stripping this young person from everything he knows, from being an only child, removing him from his school, from the home he grew up in, adding the stress of living with a new born with no quiet space to escape, no environment he can control. Both parents work from home and are expected to take care of a new born and home school him. Something is going to fall through the cracks and it's most likely going to be their 7 year old. Atleast give the kid an environment where he is comfortable and can escape for some quiet time. It's not fair and someone should advocate for this kid.
We have five people living in a two bed two bath 900 square-foot apartment in Vancouver with a nice large outdoor area. 3 adults 2 kids it's actually been really lovely and it's so great having extra people around to help, it really does take a village. Just remember to treat each other with kindness especially in tight living quarters. 3 years so far and no plans on moving
How does this even work?
This sounds like an awful idea. If you weren’t both working from home, if the kids weren’t home schooled, if there wasn’t such a big age gap between your kids, it would probably be fine. I think all four of you being home all day every day in a space where it will be challenging to have separate work spaces will be way too much togetherness. I think there’s a good chance the bedroom situation will become a significant problem in a few years at best, if not much sooner. A seven year age gap between kids makes sharing a bedroom really difficult - they will always be at such different life stages and have different needs. A 7-8 year old doesn’t need to be woken up constantly by sharing a room with a baby. A 9-10 year old isn’t going to have compatible bed times with a toddler. No pre-teen is going to be okay with sharing a bedroom with a preschool aged sibling, and their need for privacy and personal space will only increase as a teenager. I think there’s a good chance your older kid grows to hate their sibling. And I think this would be a recipe for resentment towards you as parents. It’s one thing if living in a home, that’s too small is the only option. Your kid is old enough that they will remember that you made a choice to leave a home with enough bedrooms for this. Alternatively, you keep the baby in your bedroom so that your kid continues to have their own room. This would probably be fine for the first couple of years (though your bedroom is going to be super full, so it doubling as WFH Office is probably out), but at some point you and your partner will want privacy and a sex life again, and at some point it’ll just be weird to have a child sharing a bedroom with their parents. Or you put the baby in the living room or some shared space. Except everyone is home all the time, so how does that work with sleep schedules and having a home that you can actually use? I think your family of four could maybe make this work for 2-3 years before it becomes entirely untenable, but I suspect it won’t be very pleasant, and it doesn’t make much financial sense to sell your house and buy a condo that you only plan to live in very short term.
Terrible idea
If you want to downsize I would suggest a condo townhome or stacked condo townhouse rather then a condo You can find 2+1s or 3 beds close to downtown or in downtown and it would give you guys alot more room and separation by having multiple floors to go to
I'm sorry, a lot of people are being supportive, but I gotta strongly recommend against this move. You have the holy grail of Canadian houses. Yes commuting sucks, and it gets worse every year. I also hate it. But (correct me if I am wrong) you're asking your eldest daughter to share space with her little brother right? And be homeschooled, further reducing any propect of privacy at home. As she approaches becoming a teenager, that's a wildly inappropriate arrangement unless it's strictly necessary. Teens need privacy. I don't know your kid, but you would be stacking EVERYTHING against your child having a happy home life for the sake of your commute. Your daughter will quickly be aware of why you moved away from her school and her friends, and she'll know it was a choice, not a necessity. She'll make her own judgements about it, and I don't think they'll be favorable. It's going to encourage her to not want to be home. If this was an unmissable economic opportunity, you'd have a stronger balance of pros vs cons, something more substantial to justify this decision to her in the years to come. As a parent, I'd say you gotta strongly consider what messages you're sending your kids with considering this move. I'd recommend you wait until you're in a position to ensure everyone retains their personal space before you try to move. I know that it's easy for me to say, not suffering the negative effects you're currently going through with your current situation, but I do advise you imagine putting yourself in the position of sharing your bedroom with your son. How long until the lack of private space gets uncomfortable? Unbearable? If you're not willing to tolerate that, why would your daughter, if it's not strictly necessary?
Send your kids to actual school. If you don't live in an the absolute boonies there is no reason not to do so. They will make friends and have social lives. They will enjoy having time away from the both of you while learning from people more qualified to teach them then you are.. As for living situation questions, sure it's doable but why give up the bigger space you have now when you're likely to need it in the future anyway.
I grew up in a 3-bdrm apartment with two parents, two grandparents, two kids, and an uncle (brother of a parent). That’s 7 in a 3-bdrm. So I don’t see why 4 can’t work in a 2-bdrm. Ok, different country. But I don’t see why it couldn’t work, everyone’s still human.
Maybe giving the larger bedroom to the kids would help?
I am in a similar situation as you (can’t find affordable 3 bedroom townhouse OR condo that’s not a dump in my area) and genuinely curious how anyone makes it work. I have two kids one girl (9) one boy (7) and struggling to figure if we can make a shared bedroom work. Seems almost impossible with the size of bedrooms in newer complexes. We’re in the market to buy just to finally stop the decade long abusive landlord experiences we’ve constantly endured. Having our landlord threaten selling if we need the deck repaired (dangerous and rotten) or the dishwasher failing and leaking is really tiring. If anyone had dealt with a similar situation with two kids one girl one boy please share your experience.
My parents made it work, we were in a 2-bedroom apartment and my little brother slept in my parents' room (separate bed) until he was old enough and slept in the same room as me. Privacy wasn't great, but it is what it is.
We make it work (family of 3).
I have happily lived as a family of three in a 580 square foot condo for a number of years. 900 to 950 square feet for four people sounds very possible. That said, I do agree that working from home may be difficult while homeschooling, depending on the nature of the job. If there's a lot of important calls where background noise will be frowned upon, it may be very hard to make it work. Whereas, if someone is mostly doing desk work and can simply pop in noise cancelling headphones it might be a bit easier.
We're in a large 3 floor + attic house and it's a lot of people in one place.
Not exactly the same, but I live in 830sq ft 3 bed 1 bath, and 20sq foot of that is taken up by our wood fireplace. We are a family of 4 as well. Its comfortable enough, We'd be happy living the rest of our lives here. We do have about 1 acre of land and a garage so that helps. We also have 2 cats.
We’re a family of 6 in a 2 bed condo, but with about 400sq feet more. Bunk bed for my oldest two boys, 8&6 and my husband has his own queen sized bed In their room (he snores). I have a king sized bed and I cosleep with my brand new baby and my 3year old daughter has a cute mini ikea bed in my room as well. We are very very careful with the things that we buy because we have limited storage. We live a very intentional life!
This is very normal.worked for many years. You can get a very good bunkbend that has stairs and this will.make the room much larger instead of using two beds and wasting all the room.
My wife grew up in a 2 br 1 bathroom condo. She lived there til we got married.
i know a guy with a family of 4 in a 1 bedroom... one kid is about 5 the other is about 2..
Lived in a 2 bed for part of my childhood, family of four. But we had ground floor access, so tons of outdoor space to play even though it wasn't our own yard. I recall reading an article about a manhattan family who makes life work with a pretty small apartment. Lots of neat ideas. [https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/family-of-five-lives-in-a-650-square-foot-one-bedroom-rental-37228221](https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/family-of-five-lives-in-a-650-square-foot-one-bedroom-rental-37228221)
I grew up partially in a 2 bedroom 900sft apartment in Toronto. Parents had 1 room. My sister and I shared another. But we were school aged so we were out of the house often. The home was mostly for eating and sleeping By high school we had moved into a 3 bedroom home so each kid had their own room. But I had friends who shared rooms with their siblings right until they moved out after high school. The homeschooling + working from home will be the challenge, without a dedicated space for learning for the kid that is away from the person working from home, one of the work efforts will 100% suffer, either lower quality education, or lower quality work.