Hellobee Boards

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.

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.

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+.

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.

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.

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!