ᐅ Sleeping on the ground floor / living on the upper floor. Any experiences?

Hello

We are taking over my parents-in-law’s house and renovating it. We will demolish and rebuild the upper floor. Now the idea came up to live upstairs and use the ground floor (where the garden is) as the sleeping area.

What do you think about that? Does anyone live with a similar layout and can share their experience?

Thanks for your input!

No advantages for me, only disadvantages:
- When I get home, I have to go upstairs; I don’t want to go straight to bed
- In the morning, I go down from upstairs to have breakfast, then back down to the front door
- No garden access from the living areas
- Visitors always have to pass the bedrooms to get upstairs
- …

I don’t quite understand what issues are supposed to arise? This is how we do it (bedrooms/workroom/kids’ rooms on the ground floor / living room and kitchen upstairs). Obviously, the longer distance to the bathroom and toilet (our bathrooms are also on the ground floor) is no longer a modern layout in our house (built in 1920). But the average Western European doesn’t move enough anyway, so walking an extra 10 meters (33 feet) and 13 seconds more is not a big deal. I think you can do a lot with an existing property. But even more, the house itself sets the framework. You shouldn’t resist that, but rather take what the house “offers.” Specific advantages I can think of: upstairs we have much longer evening/western sunshine than on the ground floor, which is really great. It’s generally brighter due to skylights. It’s warmer than downstairs, which also fits usual living and sleeping habits.

I would place the kitchen and dining room on the ground floor and the bedroom upstairs. We have it this way too – the living room is on the first floor, serving as a retreat in the evening. During the day, we mainly stay on the ground floor.
Having the kitchen on the ground floor has several advantages in my opinion: short distances for grocery shopping, and short daily routes – especially in summer, when eating or grilling outside.

NicolettaZ schrieb:

The idea came up that we could live on the upper floor and sleep on the ground floor (where the garden is).

Why did this idea come up, or how did the thought develop?

NicolettaZ schrieb:

What do you think about it?

I’m not in favor of it unless it’s necessary due to construction reasons.
Reasons:
From the kitchen/dining/living area, you want direct access to the garden.
The kitchen is basically the heart and center of the home, where you go in and out constantly from March to October. Watering the garden, tending flowers, having coffee, lighting the grill. In between, laundry, cooking, and daily routines.
Sleeping upstairs feels subjectively safer and definitely more secure. Getting up in the morning from the bedroom is nice but too brief, since time doesn’t stand still. Better to spend that time with coffee and family on the terrace.

NicolettaZ schrieb:

Unfortunately, the house is not ideally positioned on the plot at the moment. At the top, there is very little—a very narrow strip of garden—while at the bottom next to the house, there is a far too large parking area that we don’t really need.
We are now considering keeping the basement (which is in good condition) and moving the new house about 2–3 meters (6.5–10 feet) downhill.

NicolettaZ schrieb:

We plan to demolish the upper floor and rebuild it. Now the idea came up that we could live on the upper floor and sleep on the ground floor, where the garden is.

This sounds like, on one hand, a sloped site, and on the other, floors that don’t exactly align above each other. Maybe you should explain more about this (it doesn’t have to be only in text form).

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