Sleeping on the ground floor / living on the upper floor. Experiences?

Hello

We are taking over my parents-in-law's house and renovating it. We will demolish the upper floor and rebuild it. Now the idea came up that we would live on the upper floor and sleep on the ground floor (where the garden is).

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

Thanks for the inputs!

Has no advantages for me, only disadvantages:
- When I come home, I have to go upstairs, I don’t want to go to sleep right away
- In the morning, from downstairs to upstairs for breakfast and then down to the door to go out
- Garden access not possible from the living rooms
- Visitors always have to be led upstairs past the bedrooms
- ...

I don't quite understand what problems are supposed to arise? We do it like this (sleeping/working/children's room on the ground floor / living and kitchen upstairs). Sure, the longer way to the bathroom and toilet (our bathrooms are also on the ground floor) is no longer organized in a contemporary way in our house (built 1920). But the average Western European moves too little anyway, so they can also walk 10 meters and 13 seconds longer. I think you can do a lot in an existing property. But even more is dictated by the house. One should not struggle with that, but rather accept what the house "offers." Specific advantages that come to mind: Upstairs we have evening/western sun for much longer than on the ground floor, which is really great. It is overall brighter due to skylights. It is warmer than downstairs, which also corresponds to the living/sleeping habits.

I would place the kitchen + dining room downstairs and the bedroom upstairs. We also have it that way - the living room is on the first floor and thus a retreat space in the evening. During the day we only stay on the ground floor. Kitchen on the ground floor has quite a few advantages in my opinion: short distances for shopping, short distances during the day - especially in summer, when eating/grilling outside.

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

Why did the idea come up or how did the thought arise?

What do you think about it?

I don’t think much of it unless it is necessary due to structural measures. Reasons: From the kitchen/dining/living area you want to go directly into the garden. The kitchen is basically the center of life and hub, from which you constantly go out and in from March to October. Watering the garden, beautifying flowers, having coffee, firing up the grill. In between laundry, cooking and the daily routine... Sleeping feels subjectively and intuitively safer upstairs, definitely more secure. Leaving the bedroom in the morning is nice, but too short, since time doesn’t stand still. Better to have coffee and family on the terrace.

The house is unfortunately not ideally positioned on the property 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 much too large parking lot that we cannot use at all. We are now considering leaving the basement (in good condition) as it is and moving the new house about 2-3 meters downwards.

We will demolish the upper floor and rebuild it. Now the idea has come up that we then live on the upper floor and sleep on the ground floor (where the garden is).

Overall, this sounds on the one hand like a hillside location, and on the other like floors that do not align exactly on top of each other. Maybe you should "tell" more about it (this does not have to be only in text form).