It's so the screaming and gymnastics of the kids---or parents-----doesn't interfere with the sleep of the other home's occupants. Or TV sounds either.

My husband works rotating shifts. Our master bedroom is away from the rest of the house so he can sleep and we won't have to be quite as mice during the day. It's going to make life so much better when I don't have to complain to the kids that they are being to loud! LOL

Cas, I'm with you. At all their ages, I liked being on the same floor, same hall as the kids. When they're little I want to know if they waken, when they're older I want to know if they're sleeping yet! None of this "I finished my homework and went to bed at 11" when I saw the light on at 1am on a school night. And everyone learns to sleep through everything.

Working odd shifts, that i can see, but my DH would probably need a hotel room in the middle of the desert to get the uninterrupted sleep he would desire.

OTH, if a master comes off the front hall or a living space, I would want an antechamber/vestibule/some kind of break, just so that visitors don't see the bedroom, and so I don't feel like I'm sleeping in the living room.

Personally, privacy doesn't play into my desire for a first-floor master. My reasons:

- We're mid-40s. Right now we can scoot up stairs all day long, but at some point that's no longer going to be true. I want to build a house in which I can expect to live for the rest of my life.

- This is personal opinion, but I have always liked the look of a 1.5 story house. One bedroom down, two bedrooms up makes this type of house fall into place perfectly -- that is, the square footage just works out right.

We discussed a similar topic on the home decor thread when we were talking about stuff. It seems that when I was growing up, kids and their stuff, including toys, were limited to areas..like their rooms and a family room or rumpus room, and the rest of the house belonged to the adults. But nowadays, it seems kids and their stuff have the absolute run of the entire house, so there is a trend toward parents using the MBR to reclaim "their own private sanctuary" away from all the kids and their stuff...though it is questionable how successful that is as kid stuff still migrates into the MBR and the Mbath...

I don't think intimacy has a lot to do with it for most people. Where there is a will there is a way (ahem).

As my dh and I have gotten older we enjoy a quiet master bedroom. There is always a place in the house that is quiet and away from the hustle and bustle of all of the activity of family life...our bedroom.

If someone needs a nap or has a headache or is sick...this is where I put them. In my big comfy bed in my quiet bedroom. It is far away from our family room and the room is very peaceful.

When my dd was home with our baby grandson who wasn't sleeping well at night, my bedroom was her sanctuary for daytime naps.

We are finally making progress on our new home plans and this was one of my "essentials"...some kind of seclusion of the master bedroom (on the first floor).

Good topic to discuss.

Our new home will have split bedrooms, and I'm locating the door to the master at the end of a hall for the following reasons:

1- I don't want guests peeking into my bedroom. I live in a two story now, and the great thing about 2 stories is that when company is over they RARELY go upstairs and see your less than perfectly tidy bedroom. I don't want guests looking at my clothes sitting on the side chair, nor my jewelry on the counter.

2) In my current 2 story, we can see (and hear) both kids bedrooms from my bed. While this was fantastic when they were small, they are now tweens and teens. We don't want them hearing us at night. We do want that privacy- and so do they!

3) Quiet- When we go to bed at night or wake up early in the morning, we don't want to hear the TV or other goings on in the house.

A lot of these reasons make sense. I asked because the plan we are leaning towards has sort of a double hallway leading to a first floor master and I couldn't see the reason for it.

I have toddlers now and it is hard to imagine how your needs and wants will change as they get older. It never occurred to me that a day will come when I can be asleep while they are awake, and we will definitely want some separation.

Good question! We actually designed our new house so that we are completely away from the kids' rooms and most living areas. My oldest is 16 and my baby just turned 7. Times are changing around our house. :)

We bought a house with a 1st fl master suite and, despite a yr of renovation and 33% expansion, have kept it so.
4 bedrooms and 2ba are upstairs. Our kids are 11,12,14; we moved in 3 yrs ago.

Here is what we like about it

1. Privacy -- for intimacy, for conversation, for watching a movie when they are in bed
2. The views are better on the first floor in our case.
3. Easy access to our pool and outdoor patios
4. The feeling of having a "wing"; from our entry hall, we have our MBR, his and her MBAs, an office, laundry, and access to the pool and spa.

The negatives:
1. Less supervision of bedtimes
2. God help us when they start to date, just sayin'