Hellobee Boards Topic: Pros/Cons of living in a split level home

Hellobee Boards Topic: Pros/Cons of living in a split level home https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 28 May 2026 11:41:19 +0000 LuLu Mom on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357872 Mon, 16 Nov 2015 10:35:10 +0000 LuLu Mom 2357872@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We live in a split-level, I have said I will never do it again. I think your kids are old enough that it's not that big of an issue. We used gates, so the stairs weren't a factor with that, my issue was carrying the car seat, bags, groceries, ect. up to the kitchen (2 flights of stairs.) It gets really annoying. And my dear grandma when she was alive could never come to visit, because it was too hard for her to get into our house. This was hard for me. Mrs. Jump Rope on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357866 Mon, 16 Nov 2015 10:34:05 +0000 Mrs. Jump Rope 2357866@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We live in a split. We've got a 3bed/2 bath and full finished basement (game room?). I love it for raising small kids. The cons are the bedrooms are small, and we need more space. We've outgrown our home and are putting ours on the market soon! Otherwise, I really do love our home. The layout is great, I love the one level living and I can see the kids no matter what room I'm in (as long as I'm not downstairs). I wish we had more storage, though! snowjewelz on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357813 Mon, 16 Nov 2015 10:13:54 +0000 snowjewelz 2357813@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We live in a split, and we love it! We specifically looked for one too when buying a house. These are the pros as I see - 1) Short stair cases. Yes, we have 3 sets of stairs between basement, that small split level, main floor and bedrooms. But all of them are so short that it's not a lot of work to go between the floors, and if LOs ever fall, it's just a few steps 2) I feel like we just get so much use out of our sqft. There's not a lot of extra space, but we pretty much use every inch and we like it that way! In our home we don't have to walk up the stairs into the main floor. We have our main floor, short flight up to bedrooms, short flight down to the split level where we use as a home-office. Door to garage and 1 full bath is also there. Then another short flight down to basement. Mama Ek on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357654 Mon, 16 Nov 2015 08:08:20 +0000 Mama Ek 2357654@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I've been living in my split for 5 years and I moved into it when I was pregnant. I kinda wish someone told me not to do it. There are so many stairs - the gates were hard to figure out. We made a playroom on the first floor but he never wanted to be there by himself so we all hang out on the floor with the kitchen. Most people use that living room on the main floor as a formal living room but ours is a family room. Our kitchen is in the middle floor so it is not convenient to throw out garbage or recycling. maybe when the kids are older and he can have the downstairs to himself it will be worth it. I think I rather have a colonial with a finished basement though. Also we only have 1 zone so in the summer downstairs is freezing and bedrooms still need ceiling fans. regberadaisy on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357651 Mon, 16 Nov 2015 08:02:02 +0000 regberadaisy 2357651@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @matador84: my girls are 3.5 and 14m and sometimes they're playing on a different level than I am. It doesn't really concern me any more than if I lived in a ranch. The family room is on the lowest level and that's where DH and I hang out when the girls go to bed up in the top level. We've never had an issue of not hearing them when one is crying for us. But our home is around 2,100 SF, so footprint wise it's not that big. looch on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357631 Mon, 16 Nov 2015 07:06:21 +0000 looch 2357631@https://boards.hellobee.com/ My son is 5 and we live in a raised ranch, the lower level is the garage and the playroom, the upper level is our living space. There is one set of stairs, split in two, in the center of the house. My son plays wherever, he has toys in all rooms of the house and we are comfortable letting him be alone without us. The playroom has a foscam, so when it is too quiet I can check up on him from our command center tablet. The stairs are a non issue, he manages them just fine now. LindsayLou on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357612 Mon, 16 Nov 2015 01:19:22 +0000 LindsayLou 2357612@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I grew up in a split level. You walk in the front door, and either go up 6 stairs to the main level or down 6 stairs to the daylight basement. The upstairs has living room, kitchen/dining, 2 baths and 3 bedrooms. Daylight basement, which is built into a hill, so most of it is totally ground level, has family room, 2 bedrooms, bathroom and garage. I'll be honest, when we were little (10 and under), we didn't use the downstairs much. My parents wanted our bedrooms close to theirs. We watched movies downstairs, but didn't really play alone down there. When we were older, my brothers had bedrooms down there. Stairs weren't an issue as I recall. My youngest brother was learning to walk when we moved and we just had a baby gate at the top of the stairs. pinkcupcake on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357596 Mon, 16 Nov 2015 00:08:14 +0000 pinkcupcake 2357596@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I grew up in a split level home - you walk up a flight of stairs to the main entrance and from there, you're automatically faced with a decision to go up a flight (to living room, kitchen, bedroom and master), or down a flight (to 2 more bedrooms, laundry room, family room). It worked well for us as kids - we had the entire downstairs to ourselves and never had to worry about tv being too loud or friends being loud. Parents could watch tv or entertain upstairs and it was relatively separate. Not sure how this would work with younger kids but it definitely worked well when we were all ages 6+. Mae on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357569 Sun, 15 Nov 2015 22:39:39 +0000 Mae 2357569@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @matador84: she doesn't play on another floor. I don't trust her out of my sight. Lol. We have a great room next to kitchen so I try to keep her entertained there while I cook. As far as sleeping goes, it does make me a bit nervous because I can't hear her crying from my bedroom unless she was like level 10 meltdown. So we have a video monitor and an audio monitor. We use both at night so if one breaks we have the other. But if the power is out that won't work. Hasn't happened yet but my thought is if power went out I'd just sleep I the guest bedroom next to los. matador84 on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357564 Sun, 15 Nov 2015 22:30:10 +0000 matador84 2357564@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @Mae: Does it ever make you nervous about your LO playing/sleeping/etc on a different floor than you are on? I guess I'm more concerned about my two getting into trouble together and I'm upstairs in the kitchen or other level in the bedroom. The layout of this house is amazing though if we can get past the multi-levels! Rockies11 on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357552 Sun, 15 Nov 2015 22:10:13 +0000 Rockies11 2357552@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We live in a 5 level split too. Mine are 2 and 6 months. It's a lot of stairs but I love love love the layout. I have really buff legs from hauling the kids up and down the stairs all the time. Mae on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357542 Sun, 15 Nov 2015 21:58:11 +0000 Mae 2357542@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We live in a "5 level split" where the levels from bottom to top are basement, large living room, kitchen/great room/dining room/half bath, master bed/bath, and top floor with 3 beds and a bath. Every level has half a flight of stairs between. I sort of love and hate it. I like it because it feels big and we basically have 2.5 complete stories (not counting basement) so we'll never grow out of it. I like that our bedroom doesn't feel very far away from the main level OR the top floor bedrooms bc it is only half a flight either way. But it also feels like we have a lot of privacy when we have guests because we're on our own level. I like that it's different. On the other hand... its a lot of stairs. Especially with our particular layout because our main living space is on level "2" and LO's bedroom is on level "5" so every time I have to change a diaper its up 3 half flights of stairs and its really annoying. And sound carries a lot everywhere because the layout feels very open. And we had to buy baby gates for 3 sets of stairs instead of 1. Synchronicity on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357487 Sun, 15 Nov 2015 21:03:15 +0000 Synchronicity 2357487@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We live in a side split. Main level entrance, with kitchen, large living room and dining room. Upper level has bedrooms and bathroom. Basement has finished den, another full bath, laundry room, and a huge crawlspace that is awesome for storage. I love the layout! There are only 6ish steps in each staircase so the stairs don't bother me. regberadaisy on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357462 Sun, 15 Nov 2015 20:44:43 +0000 regberadaisy 2357462@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We live in a multilevel and we have no issues with it. There's the basement, then family room, garage, "mud" room, half bath, up 6 steps to kitchen, living and dining then up another 6 to all the bedrooms and main bath. It hasn't been an issue at all with the kids. Our heating and cooling are also split into 3 zones which I really love. Cons are probably when we're older and if we ever have issues going up and Down stairs. :P regberadaisy on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357456 Sun, 15 Nov 2015 20:41:31 +0000 regberadaisy 2357456@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I'm an idiot. Wrong Bee. matador84 on "Pros/Cons of living in a split level home" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/proscons-of-living-in-a-split-level-home#post-2357449 Sun, 15 Nov 2015 20:38:52 +0000 matador84 2357449@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We looked at a split level house today. It's an entry story--ground level looking down into yard , one at yard level, and then a basement. I've never lived in a split level but dh has. We have a 3 year old and a 20 month old and stairs make me pretty nervous!!