Second bathroom......or not?

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  • SailorSam
    SailorSam Posts: 22,754
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    I added just showers to two of the bedrooms here. Then there is a bathroom with a shower and an extra loo downstairs.
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  • phoebe1989seb
    phoebe1989seb Posts: 4,452
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    Hoploz wrote: »
    Those sound fine to me. Sometimes it's better to have a roomy shower room than a cramped bathroom. My last house ensuite was 8' x 6' and made a lovely shower room with offset quadrant with integral shelving. The main family bathroom was a similar size but had a shower over the bath for the kids.

    Thanks Hoploz :)

    I think it's just that we've been spoiled at previous houses where we had several large bathrooms, at least two of which were converted from good-sized double bedrooms ;)

    Moving here to a considerably smaller house we felt lucky to still have one 13' x 8' 9 bathroom with the option to add a second by converting bedroom 4 (12' x 11'), but now our plans have changed it's a case of maximising our ability to achieve a sale!
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  • Doozergirl
    Doozergirl Posts: 33,780
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    edited 9 October 2016 at 8:15AM
    There's nothing wrong with those sizes, the average British bathroom is 8'x6', but from an aesthetic point of view, I'd make the bath fit perfectly into something unless you opt for a freestanding. Sometimes smaller is better or just spacially planned out before the walls go up is much better.

    If you can get the door in the middle, then 9' by 3' actually makes a great little shower room and might give a bit more space to the bathroom. Rooms that size are also relatively easy to tag on to other rooms as ensuites.

    I'm surprised that a 2000 square foot house that sounds a little top heavy and only has four beds can't fit a couple of ensuites in, but there's no floorplan to go on. That study does sound superfluous. I'm not sure how many empty nesters need five beds plus study. My experience of people like that is that they generally buy big for the associated downstairs space. Dressing rooms and ensuites would be high on the list.
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  • phoebe1989seb
    phoebe1989seb Posts: 4,452
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    edited 9 October 2016 at 12:02PM
    Doozergirl wrote: »
    There's nothing wrong with those sizes, the average British bathroom is 8'x6', but from an aesthetic point of view, I'd make the bath fit perfectly into something unless you opt for a freestanding. Sometimes smaller is better or just spacially planned out before the walls go up is much better.

    If you can get the door in the middle, then 9' by 3' actually makes a great little shower room and might give a bit more space to the bathroom. Rooms that size are also relatively easy to tag on to other rooms as ensuites.

    I'm surprised that a 2000 square foot house that sounds a little top heavy and only has four beds can't fit a couple of ensuites in, but there's no floorplan to go on. That study does sound superfluous. I'm not sure how many empty nesters need five beds plus study. My experience of people like that is that they generally buy big for the associated downstairs space. Dressing rooms and ensuites would be high on the list.

    Thanks DG :)

    We already started drawing up plans - DH is a designer so has access to the software and his BF owns an award-winning bathroom showroom in Hants but as we're a long way from there now it's not so easy to ask for advice - it's just me that's technically challenged, lol! Will definitely try your suggestion re: the smaller shower room though......

    When DH is back - away on business for a few days - I'll see if he'll help me get a floorplan of the house up so you can better see our strange layout. If you imagine a three-storey building (plus cellar) - but only one room deep - with a two-storey extension (also one room deep) added on the end, you should get an idea.

    The original 1850s 'cottage' had two rooms on each of three floors. Typically there was no bathroom at that point. When the property was extended in the 1920s, two new living spaces were created on the ground floor with spacious landing (study!) and master bedroom above. One of the the first floor bedrooms was converted to a bathroom, hence the size being quite good. At the same time the ground floor was extended slightly outwards into the garden to create the cloakroom, enlarge the original reception room (now our kitchen) and create a veranda.

    Several new doors and windows (Crittall - they also replaced most of the original sashes with these, although we still have a few in situ) were added to the original building too, as well as lots of typical Arts & Crafts features, some of which have sadly been lost. A succession of owners that didn't appreciate the charm of the building haven't helped, but we are in the 'rescue and restore' school of renovators so have gradually been putting that right ;)

    Edited to add: the master bedroom is actually on a slightly different level to the study/landing. Not saying conversion to an ensuite wouldn't work - you had to step up to our previous ensuite - but there are three steps/stairs leading up to the master from the study, plus there's a huge feature chimney breast (fireplace on study side) between the two rooms that we wouldn't want to remove.....
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  • Doozergirl
    Doozergirl Posts: 33,780
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    It certainly sounds like fun. If you do want a different take on it, find that floorplan :)
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  • Andypandyboy
    Andypandyboy Posts: 2,472 Forumite
    Definitely two bath/shower rooms, I wouldn't want to share with guests.
  • DaftyDuck
    DaftyDuck Posts: 4,609
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    OK, I'm going to pretty much disagree with all of the above views. I would agree, except this sounds like an exceptional, odd, and beautiful property. I've done a few of these, and haven't always improved the bathroom numbers. It's essential to have one main stunning bathroom. Absolutely essential. Cutting the current one in size is something I certainly would not do. Houses like these do attract the well-heeled, and they accept sacrifices for having such a house. But they, as owners, will not sacrifice every single bath to sitting in a restricted space, with no large window, and no space to dress.

    They won't mind if their guests do, however.

    I would not split the main bathroom. I would try to find space for small ensuite(s) if possible, and they could be small.

    I do understand the desire for multiple bathrooms. My student rental has ensuites for each bedroom, all with 1200-sized showers.

    Quirky properties attract quirky (rich) buyers, and most are willing to accept oddities like few bathrooms. Just, not their main bathroom!

    Yes, a floorplan would help... ;)
  • Doozergirl
    Doozergirl Posts: 33,780
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    edited 10 October 2016 at 10:24AM
    I specialise in large, listed buildings for wealthy clients and there is no such thing as compromise for anything!

    I totally agree that it would be better to find ensuites from existing bedrooms but I would not say that one big bathroom trumps multiple bathrooms.
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  • phoebe1989seb
    phoebe1989seb Posts: 4,452
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    edited 10 October 2016 at 11:01AM
    Thanks Dafty :)

    Yes, the house is definitely all of those things, lol!

    I confess I'm in two minds - what's new? - as I love the large bathroom we have currently, as it feels very 'large country house', and in previous houses we've restored we have always had one very special bathroom - not necessarily the main bathroom, but often the en suite - as a feature. Usually this has been supported by other - also quite nice as we have the connections, lol (just remembered another very good friend is the MD of Arte Form :D) - secondary bath/shower rooms.

    For example, our last house when we bought it (an unmortgageable Georgian thatched ruin of a place) had only one really tiny bathroom serving the five bedrooms in the main, original building. (There was also an attached annex with 1980s pampas bathroom suite, but that didn't really count!) As we didn't want to mess too much with moving walls in the (non-listed) Georgian rooms, we decided - against the advice of particularly up-himself architect we originally employed - to leave the tiny bathroom as it was, but install a large shower instead of the cramped bath the PO had put in twenty years previously. This was next to (but not en suite per se) one of the guest bedrooms. The finished result was stunning, imho ;)

    Controversially we didn't have a large 'family' bathroom as such. The master bedroom had a closed off access point into another guest bedroom (too large to have been an original dressing room plus this was never a particularly grand house, having been owned by the local saddler in Georgian times) and we opened this up, thus creating a large en suite. Once knitted out with Hans Grohe Axor Montreux, V&B plus a rather lovely Porcelanosa marble-topped vanity (bought for a song on fleabay!) the heavily beamed room looked amazing! We retained the old bedroom access door into the landing, thus it could still be separated off should future owners so desire......

    Over the next few days - when DH is back - we're going to go over our options, but atm I'm leaning towards keeping the large bathroom (reconfiguring the corridor though) and squeezing in a small en suite shower room on the top floor to service the two bedrooms up there. As there is already the 3' x 3' cubby with basin, I think stealing an extra bit of space from the adjoining bedroom is doable without compromising the building's integrity.

    It means the actual master won't be en suite, but I don't want to mess with the layout of the landing/study as this has too many original features that we value.

    TBH, I think a house of this type and character is better suited to larger, more luxurious bathrooms that you want to spend time in. I know that currently I'd much rather linger in our large, carpeted bathroom complete with 1990s Daryl, Sottini, Mira & Bette and some fetching blue mosaic tiles, than in the cramped space that was our original bathroom in the thatched house......I just couldn't wait to leave that :p

    Cheers again for all your suggestions, folks :T
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  • DaftyDuck
    DaftyDuck Posts: 4,609
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    Doozergirl wrote: »
    I specialise in large, listed buildings for wealthy clients and there is no such thing as compromise for anything!

    I totally agree that it would be better to find ensuites from existing bedrooms but I would not say that one big bathroom trumps multiple bathrooms.

    Oh, I agree - I think we are saying the same thing, just fudging things 'cos Phoebe has filed the house plan in the wrong folder ;) C'mon gal, pen and paper over coffee! :D

    I'm certainly not saying one bathroom trumps multiple bathrooms, not even if it's generous. However, shaving some space off a bathroom to produce a physically and visually "pinched" ensuite is horrendous in a quality property.

    I saw, a few years back, a lovely 18th century farmhouse in Lincolnshire, lovely large well-proportioned bedrooms, central pendant light with glorious picture rail and coving in all ... except for the square corner-cut-off in each and every one of them, where an obligatory en-suite (no windows, plasterboard walls, modern door and noisy fan) had been jemmied into each. Hideous!

    I don't think for a second that Phoebe, with her record, will aim that low, but I don't believe having bathrooms available for each bedroom is needed in a desirable old house - although it might well be in a modern one.

    But... a plan, (wo)man! We want a plan! There's always space for a clever ensuite, a "Jack 'n' Jill", or something.

    Mind you, the main bathroom in my current dive went in sometime in the 1960's... needs a little updating...
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