Could you put a shower room in this house?

joanie

Is Bedroom 1 big enough to put another wall running parallel to the divinding wall between bed 3 and bed 1? you could possibly put a jack and jill type shower room for access by both?

Claremac

Would it help if you had a washer/dryer combination? I've only ever had a combo for the last 25 years and no problems. It might be an easier answer than trying to find space for both.

kunekune

Not a bad idea Claremac, though we currently possess both washer and dryer, and also when we last had a combined one, it didn't have enough drying capacity. Does yours only dry a half-load? With a child who isn't properly toilet trained and a messy eater, we do a LOT of washing, and I'm at work all day so drying outdoors isn't always an option.

After sleeping on it, again (I don't go and see houses unless they are suitable on paper), I think it would be a several-stage thing: first of all, either put in a shower in the existing upstairs bathroom, using a walk in side on a bath (the disabled child also would have extreme difficulty getting into the bath for a shower) OR dispense with a bath and just have a good shower. Then at a later point, make a large utility/shower area under the stairs/in the porch area downstairs. That's not urgent, after all. The dryer could go in the box room or hall cupboard for the time being (it's a condenser so it doesn't need venting), and the extra freezer would either go in the bottom of the pantry or in the hall cupboard if we put the dryer in the boxroom. Lack of storage in the kitchen can be fixed by using a sideboard in the living room for plates, etc - there's lots of room in there even with using the dining room as a study.

Next step: finally talk to the bank and get an agreement in principle (it's 3.5x my income, OH's income ignored, so we're not exactly stretching ourselves), and then 'get around' to looking at the house on the inside. It has been on the market for 2-3 months so far. Probably look at the other one (just over the road, same agency) as well for comparison - that's been on the market for 6 months and reduced twice.

silvercar

Seems a bit of a contradiction between a house that is a long way above street level and the need for a walk-in shower. Could this be a problem in the future?

margaretclare

baby_fuzz wrote: »

first instincts were to make a good-sized bathroom by knocking the WC into the bathroom as per your suggestion. Is there any reason why you can't just have the shower over the bath - with a walk-in side?

No - from experience I can see that this wouldn't work. The OP said that her DH would in the future need a walk-in shower. Exactly like us. With my replaced hips, and DH's replaced knees, we have had experience of the type of rooms on holiday which were said to be en suite and disability-friendly but which turned out to have shower over bath - completely unusable.

I would do your best to install shower and loo into one of the downstairs spaces, even if this means using one of the cupboards. And do you really need a tumble-dryer - very costly to run and environmentally-unfriendly?

It's possible to get what are called 'low profile' modern shower enclosures. I recently had our bathroom upgraded while DH was in hospital. We couldn't have a 'walk-in' shower because of old floorboards and joists, plus 1930s lead drainage pipes, but what we have now is a much lower 'step-in' than the one we had before, which DH now manages with ease, even with a stiff leg.

I am not in favour of having everything put into one big 'family bathroom' upstairs. There are always times when (a) more than one person needs the bathroom at a time and (b) when a downstairs facility is very useful indeed.

GDB2222

I think you should get an architect to help you, if you are thinking seriously about this house. There are problems with putting a shower/wc into the cbd next to bedroom 1, as there's no waste pipe nearby. So, you might need a pumped waste, which is noisy and prone to break down.

Strapped

Another option would be a through-the-floor lift, from lounge into bed3. You might be able to get a grant to help pay for it. (And I'd then replace the bath in the main bathroom with a mobility shower as it sounds like only 1 of your family (you) would ever use it anyway). My BIL is currently having a through-the-floor installed in his house and I was amazed how neat it is.

Annpan

Kunekune,
I think the house is lovely but I can't help thinking you would be better off with a bungalow?
I can see alot of options for changing the layout of the house you like but it costs money and usually more than you think it will - I speak from experience!
If the one with the garage is a similar price and more modern could you use the garage space for conversion if it's attached to the house?
Good luck whatever you decide.

seven-day-weekend

After having read this thread, it just confirms to me that I can't understand why people are so averse to downstairs bathrooms in a house.

My UK mid-terrace which we have owned for over thirty years has ONE downstairs bathroom/toilet, nowhere to put another one without major expense or losing a bedroom.

I've always thought that if there is only one, downstairs is preferable to upstairs - far more useful for children and if anyone has mobility problems. And you spend much more time downstairs than up!

OP, I would try and get your shower/toilet facilities in the downstairs space if you possibly can, and then maybe you will be able to find a spare corner somewhere for your tumble dryer.

I agree about not having the washing machine in the kitchen. In my UK house it is in the workshop, and in my Spanish house in the downstairs cloakroom (quite common here), although the kitchen is big enough. However, if you have used your downstairs space for a shower room, you may have to keep the washing machine in the kitchen.

kunekune

Oh gosh, what a lot of responses (been in car coming back from n.y. in scotland ...).

1. Silvercar, you know, I hadn't looked at it like that. I think, from memory, that the problem is to do with the distance between street and house, not house and pavement. But when I next do a walk past, will think of that (family walk tomorrow ...???)

2. Annpann and Strapped, I quite agree about 'bungalows'. Only thing is that the only ones around here are (i) two bedrooms or (ii) on two floors. How you can have a r two floor bungalow, don't ask!!!!! And the two floor ones have tiny living areas. There are some fancy ones, but if only money was easy... we thought we had two incomes for the next 18 years. We almost certainly don't.

From what I hear, it can take years to get approval for alterations. That's ok so long as we can manage in the interim. With no shower at all, we can't, but that is to do with our family, not with disabilities.

3. Seven-day-weekend, we lived in New Zealand for a long time, which changed our thoughts about dirty clothes & kitchens. Everyone has separate laundry, cos it is not done to have dirty clothes in the kitchen in maori culture, and who would design a house that excluded a big part of the population.

The hard thing for us is that we're not old. OH may have 3, 5 or 10 years of work ahead of him. This is young onset parkinsons. The children are now 7 and 9 (son has Down Syndrome, hence the references to toiletting difficulties). So our house has to be, first and foremost, a family home. Fancy stuff like lifts is in our future, and hopefully not until the children have left home (yes, children with DS leave too). So what I'm thinking about is what works for us in the meantime.

I must sound a bit obsessive but working out housing (we are in rental, our lease ends in July) has become a massive obsession since OH's diagnosis. Please forgive me for going on and on; this won't be the last time, I suspect.