Master BR - 2nd floor? (El Paso, Katy: big house, live in, basements)

[gwarnecke]

My brother's 1980s house in Sugar Mill has all three bedrooms upstairs. IMO it's not an ideal setup for families with teenagers due to the lack of privacy, but it works for his situation. A benefit is that the house footprint is reduced, and he has a much larger backyard than neighbors with one-story homes on similarly-sized lots.

[swopoe]

Our sugar land house has 2 bedrooms downstairs (1 is master) and 3 bedrooms upstairs. I love the set up with our kids all being older- preteen and teens. We use the second bedroom downstairs as a guest bedroom. If I had a newborn, that second bedroom downstairs could be a nursery.

Even our last house had 3 bedrooms up and the master down. Our newborns and toddlers were upstairs. That is what baby monitors are for. And when the babies were really little, they slept in our master anyway in a bassinet.

[NTexas2010]

Originally Posted by mkwensky

I would say most new constructions have the master bed upstairs. Maybe only 1 out of 5 houses we looked at have masters down. I was looking in mostly Spring Branch and Katy.

Not to pile on or be a contrarian, but I don't find this to be true either. Looking in every new development in Fort Bend county and the floorplans for the builders in those developments you will find the vast majority of them have the master (and often times a second bedroom "in-law suite") downstairs and, if it is a 1.5 or 2 story home, the other bedrooms upstairs. This is true in new and newish developments in Richmond, Rosenberg, Fulshear, etc.

The upstairs master seemed to disappear in most MPCs in this part of Texas sometime in the 1980s to early 90s. I remember there were a handful of floorplans in homes in Greatwood that still had the master up, but those were few and far between.

[TallGreengrass]

Originally Posted by fnh

We moved to NW Houston with a new baby and encountered the same issue. We ended up buying a home with two bedrooms/two baths down and used the second bedroom as a nursery suite for the first three years or so. Once the kid(s) moved upstairs the room became our TV den.

That floor plan sounds perfect. I will never buy a house with an upstairs master. I remember a friends mom broke her leg and it was a challenging recovery period in their 3 story townhome. I also had a friend who had an older relative living with them for a time. Grandma slept in the dining room and had to climb the stairs to shower. Floor plans sure have come a long way to accommodate family needs and add convenience.

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by lhafer

Actually builders don't really build basements because: In some parts of the state the water table is too near the surface of the ground, making leaking and flooding an issue. In other areas the bedrock is too near the surface, making digging a basement difficult and costly. In still other areas, what’s known as “expansive” soils—clay and/or shale that shifts around in excessively wet and excessively dry conditions, which is to say normal conditions in Texas—make a basement unworkable. And then there’s the matter of the frost line, the depth at which water in the ground freezes in wintertime, which is pretty much nonexistent here in largely subtropical Texas but is a big deal in the frosty north. See, a foundation set in ground that freezes and thaws can move around, which is not a good thing.

As for the main bedroom being on the second floor - it's just a preference here. Instead of having basements, we have "Texas Basements" which are basically just big open gamerooms upstairs. This would be in place of a master bedroom upstairs. Most homes up north do not have those - they have they typical basements, which leaves room to put all the bedrooms upstairs.

A single story would solve your issue of having all bedrooms on the same floor. Most people who buy homes here prefer the master on the bottom floor, unless the buyer is from a different state which are used to masters upstairs. But there are some homes that have all the bedrooms up. They do exist.

Good to know regarding why we don't have basements in Texas, thx.

[Oskar_Z28]

My house is from the 1970 and it has MB downstairs. I would not have it any other way. Keep shopping for the right home.

[sonic0boom]

We lucked out with a 90s home in Katy where the master was downstairs but the upstairs had 2 bedrooms with a shared bathroom and one larger bedroom with an en suite bathroom. With our newborn at the time, we took the upstairs bedroom with its own bathroom. In fact, 8 years later, we still use that bedroom and the downstairs master is our TV/game room with a really big bathroom. Having more privacy would be nice, i but i like having a TV room better.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by hbcu

Break a leg and see how a second floor master holds up lol

They may be trying to appeal to retirees who don't want to do stairs.

[hbcu]

in some new builds in a jewish area, they told me bedrooms are up due to religious purposes but some started to add flex rooms to provide something of an option

where I grew up those homes were built in the early 70s and Master's were down

[dd1153]

Cheaper new homes have master bedroom upstairs. Huge issue on re sale. Most people pass on master bedroom up unless they are from the east coast.