When Mr. H and I found out we were having twins, we immediately went into action to get out of the house we were in and into a home with a better set up for our (quickly!) growing family. Our space just did not lend itself to having three children under the age of three, and because we knew we’d have to move sooner rather than later, we didn’t want to try and move while our small house was cluttered with too much baby gear.

What we were dealing with in our current space was: no parking, no yard, and three bedrooms split between three levels of the home. Not exactly ideal for a lot of young children. The upside was that we were in a very desirable area of the city, near an awesome park with a great neighborhood full of family-friendly activities, in a good public school district.

 Miss H walking down the stairs at our old house. I thought we’d have pictures of her standing there for her first day of kindergarten!

But space for us trumped everything. So, right after we learned we were having twins, we got in touch with our real estate agent and shared with her our very aggressive time frame. Fortunately she is also very fast acting and aggressive so she got to work quickly.

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In just a few weeks we had our home de-cluttered, de-personalized, extra furniture moved out and stored, staged by a professional stager, photographed, and listed. Considering that less than a month before that we had no plans to sell or move, getting to this point was a lot of work! Once we were listed, we realized how tough it can be logistically to have house showings when you have a young child (everyone seems to want to come on Saturdays during naptime or weekday evenings during bedtime!), but fortunately we were under contract within a week. Whew!

On the flip side, we needed to find a new house, and fast! Over the course of about 3 weeks we saw over 20 prospective houses. Our criteria was as follows:

  • In a good public school district (top priority for us with 3 kids)
  • In a suburb that was somewhat close to the city (as Mr. H and I both work downtown), with somewhat close access to a train line (walkable to the train a bonus, but not a must)
  • At least 3 bedrooms and a basement
  • Decently updated/livable (i.e. we knew we wouldn’t have time for any major projects – we needed something that was move-in ready)
  • On a quiet street
  • A home with enough space that would allow us to stay at least 5-10 years (we hope)

As it turned out, many of the homes we initially looked at didn’t fit the bill. The first suburb we were looking at had a fantastic school system and we know many people moving to that area, but our budget didn’t stretch as far as we would have liked. Most of the homes we saw needed a fair amount of work to be livable for us – there was a lot of wood paneling, musty basements, bathrooms that had not been updated from their original 1960s finishes, destroyed floors, etc.

Once we expanded our search to a couple of other suburbs, we started to see more homes that were even better for our budget and were more updated. But we also started seeing something that we had to decide if it was a deal breaker for us or not: difficult floor plans!

Many of the homes we saw had two bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom on the main level. One thing we were trying to get away from was having stairs between us and our kids. When they’re confined to cribs, this isn’t as much of a problem (other than being a bit annoying), but when they’re old enough to start leaving their room in the middle of the night, the last thing I would want is for them to attempt to go up or down stairs on their own.

It was very hard to walk away from some homes that could have been wonderful but had floor plans that just didn’t accommodate so many young children. And while we know that won’t be a forever thing, it will still be enough of an issue for our first few years in the home that we didn’t want to have to deal with the separation on a regular basis.

What we were finding that could work for us were ranch-style homes. I had a very hard time being ok with these homes because I felt like “better” space meant you had an upstairs (for bedrooms) and a downstairs (for living/eating/cooking). With a ranch-style home everyone is on one level. Close together. I thought we would feel too cramped.

When we found what is now our new home it was everything we could have wanted: completely updated, large finished basement, nice backyard, two-car garage, good public schools, close to the city and the highway, and under our initial budget. The downside? You guessed it: it’s a ranch.

I immediately walked out of the house and told Mr. H it wasn’t for us. On the flip side, he wanted to make an offer on it immediately. After thinking through everything we’d seen and considering our time line (I was almost 27 weeks pregnant at that point and wanted to be moved ASAP), I decided that I could make myself like the home enough to want to buy it.

Miss H “cooking” in our new kitchen. She absolutely adores the new house!

And I’m happy to share now that we’ve been in the house for a little over a month, I am in love with it! Floor plan and all! It’s awesome having everything close together – Miss H’s toys can stay in her room so we don’t need to have a cluttered living room, the bathroom is always nearby which is great for potty training, and once we put the finishing touches on the basement, it’s going to be an awesome family room/play space for the kids.

When the twins are born, I’m so excited to have their nursery close to our bedroom. My hope is to be able to have them in their cribs early on because they’ll be so close by for late-night feedings. (When Miss H was a newborn I had to go down two flights of stairs just to get to her!) And over the next year as our soon-to-be-born twins grow and we have three kids on the move, I know I will appreciate more and more having everything be easily accessible and close together.

Have you recently been house hunting with young children in mind? Were there things that swayed you toward a home that previously would not have been appealing to you?