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Downstairs Bathroom Dilemma
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ActionCat
Posts: 52 Forumite
Hello, I'm just after some opinions and alternative views on our current house situation, please. Apologies that this is long-winded!
Our house is a tyical victorian small terrace. It has an extension on the back which houses a kitchen, lobby and bathroom. The upstairs has 2 bedrooms - the second bedroom was previously 2 rooms and the 2 doors and light switches are still in place. We had originally planned on moving the bathroom upstairs into one half of the second bedroom, leaving a small second bedroom. But adding family planning to the mix has caused a dilemma... The advantages of moving the bathroom are:
1. An upstairs bathroom! Going to the loo in the middle of the night is a pain. The bathroom, being at the end of the extension, is also very cold.
2. We can create a larger kitchen/breakfast room in the extension. The current kitchen is small and awkward and also really badly designed - the space doesn't allow many cabinets. Also, I don't actually like the colour or the cheap look of the current units!
3. New bathroom. I don't mind the bathroom toooo much but it annoys me that it has a large shower cubicle as well as a bath when it doesn't treally have the space for it. I would much rather have a decent sized shower bath so I could have room to dry properly and to put bathroom storage in. We are also looking at trying for a baby in the near future and I can see that the current situation with the bath half tucked behind the shower would make it difficult for bathing baby.
3. We can add double doors from the kitchen/breakfast room into the garden. I really feel that our garden isn't part of our house/lives because it's so detached. The only wndows from which you can see the garden are the kitchen window which looks directly onto the fence at the side and the dining room window which just looks along the narrow stretch next to the extension. Outside space is so important to us - our previous flat had a 60ft garden that we landscaped and had great views of from inside the flat which we enjoyed so much. Our current house has a postage stamp sized yard
We want to improve the garden but feel like it's a bit of a wasted space tucked away. And I think that having a small garden for a baby to sit in/kids to play in while I get on with cleaning the kitchen or whatever and still be able to watch over them would be a huge advantage.
However, moving the bathroom upstairs has the following problems:
1. No spare room if we have a child. Both our parents live far away and it would make things more difficult for them to visit. We also want to have a second child reasonably soon after and I am worried where they would sleep as the second bedroom isn't particulary large.
2. I don't know what would be best in terms of resale value. It doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money if it doesn't increase the value of the house at all - this is not our 'forever home' so it would feel like a waste of money just to do it for our benefit for a few years. Is a 2 bed house with upstairs bathroom and fab kitchen/breakfast room worth more/same/less than a 3 bed (v. small 3rd bed) with downstairs bathroom?
I have thought about leaving the bathroom where it is, reinstating the partition to create bedroom 3 but also adding patio doors from the dining room, perhaps installing a different kitchen and a shower bath. But that would still be a fair amount of money spent on something that still wasn't great - you could only see along the narrow stretch alongside the extension from the patio doors and not into the garden at the back of the extension so couldn't watch over small children, the kitchen would still be awkward with not enough units and the bathroom would still be cold!
Does anyone have any views or opinions on this situation? Or any other suggestions? (Unfortunately, I don't think we could really afford to move if we had children! And we have already moved further out of town to find a small house instead of our previous flat.)
Thanks!
ActionCat
Our house is a tyical victorian small terrace. It has an extension on the back which houses a kitchen, lobby and bathroom. The upstairs has 2 bedrooms - the second bedroom was previously 2 rooms and the 2 doors and light switches are still in place. We had originally planned on moving the bathroom upstairs into one half of the second bedroom, leaving a small second bedroom. But adding family planning to the mix has caused a dilemma... The advantages of moving the bathroom are:
1. An upstairs bathroom! Going to the loo in the middle of the night is a pain. The bathroom, being at the end of the extension, is also very cold.
2. We can create a larger kitchen/breakfast room in the extension. The current kitchen is small and awkward and also really badly designed - the space doesn't allow many cabinets. Also, I don't actually like the colour or the cheap look of the current units!
3. New bathroom. I don't mind the bathroom toooo much but it annoys me that it has a large shower cubicle as well as a bath when it doesn't treally have the space for it. I would much rather have a decent sized shower bath so I could have room to dry properly and to put bathroom storage in. We are also looking at trying for a baby in the near future and I can see that the current situation with the bath half tucked behind the shower would make it difficult for bathing baby.
3. We can add double doors from the kitchen/breakfast room into the garden. I really feel that our garden isn't part of our house/lives because it's so detached. The only wndows from which you can see the garden are the kitchen window which looks directly onto the fence at the side and the dining room window which just looks along the narrow stretch next to the extension. Outside space is so important to us - our previous flat had a 60ft garden that we landscaped and had great views of from inside the flat which we enjoyed so much. Our current house has a postage stamp sized yard
We want to improve the garden but feel like it's a bit of a wasted space tucked away. And I think that having a small garden for a baby to sit in/kids to play in while I get on with cleaning the kitchen or whatever and still be able to watch over them would be a huge advantage.However, moving the bathroom upstairs has the following problems:
1. No spare room if we have a child. Both our parents live far away and it would make things more difficult for them to visit. We also want to have a second child reasonably soon after and I am worried where they would sleep as the second bedroom isn't particulary large.
2. I don't know what would be best in terms of resale value. It doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money if it doesn't increase the value of the house at all - this is not our 'forever home' so it would feel like a waste of money just to do it for our benefit for a few years. Is a 2 bed house with upstairs bathroom and fab kitchen/breakfast room worth more/same/less than a 3 bed (v. small 3rd bed) with downstairs bathroom?
I have thought about leaving the bathroom where it is, reinstating the partition to create bedroom 3 but also adding patio doors from the dining room, perhaps installing a different kitchen and a shower bath. But that would still be a fair amount of money spent on something that still wasn't great - you could only see along the narrow stretch alongside the extension from the patio doors and not into the garden at the back of the extension so couldn't watch over small children, the kitchen would still be awkward with not enough units and the bathroom would still be cold!
Does anyone have any views or opinions on this situation? Or any other suggestions? (Unfortunately, I don't think we could really afford to move if we had children! And we have already moved further out of town to find a small house instead of our previous flat.)
Thanks!
ActionCat
0
Comments
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First point would be: what can you afford to do?
In terms of resale, it really depends on what other houses on your street have. I.e. all house on our street have downstairs bathroom, we thought about building an extension and moving it upstairs but, it would have cost more than it would have added, and second we never got planning permission for it anyway! Having said that a bigger better kitchen with french windows is going to help resale.
How small would the upstairs bedroom become, would it turn into an unuseable shoebox, or would it still be "OK"?
I'm sure some others will think of some other things too....0
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