any ideas on a potential layout change?

warby68

No idea if this works as I'm not in the building game but..

could you leave the master bed alone, pinch some space from Bed 2 for a proper bathroom and leave that as a single bedroom.

Then halve the size of the downstairs bath to make just a WC next to the back door and extent the kitchen wall and doorway by the extra few feet to enlarge the kitchen.

Then open plan to living room so that one run of kitchen could be an eating peninsula or even lowered to table height

silvercar

Do you absolutely need a back door to the garden?

Ideally yes, but in a small house that is making compromises, having to go out through the front door to reach the garden wouldn't be so terrible.

8 months of the year you won't venture into the back garden, so the lack of direct access from the rear wouldn't be so terrible and the house is small enough that it wouldn't be much of a trek from the front door.

Atomix

Just to say this one would suit a corner toilet and give you some vital floor space...

http://www.bathrooms.com/toilets/corner-toilets/metro-compact-corner-toilet?pla=on&muid=2a1d714b-e49b-4b40-ba17-0abb78da0ff9&gclid=CNXoiIjz6c4CFROeGwod2UoPew&_%24ja=tsid%3A55987%7Ccid%3A206668213%7Cagid%3A25095851413%7Ctid%3Apla-84615222493%7Ccrid%3A101889681733%7Cnw%3Ag%7Crnd%3A11506725866956584994%7Cdvc%3At%7Cadp%3A1o1

Winter_Phoenix

Doozergirl wrote: »

https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/metro-combined-two-in-one-wash-basin-toilet-500mm-wide-x-300mm?campaign=googlebase&gclid=COvejcrj6M4CFc2RGwodq-cFoQ

That may be too deep. I've seen ones where the sink is more to the side.

These are great in tiny cloakrooms, but I stayed in a B&B which had one in the en suite. Trying to clean my teeth with a loo in the way was challenging, to say the least.

As you say, one with the sink offset would be more practicable for a main bath/shower room.

OP: Don't forget the possibility of sliding doors in areas where there isn't much room - they really free up space. The kind which slide and then click into place are much better than the ones which just slide.

And is there any way to reorganise the upper floor so that less space is wasted on the landing - by moving the staircase, for example?

drummer_666

Thank you for all the comments.

I won't be having an extension - too much cost that I won't recoup and the kitchen is an ok size as it is.

Please ignore my previous floorplan of the rejig upstairs, I messed up on the measurements and I can't take any space away from the bedrooms, they need to be left as they are.

I don't need a shower upstairs at all. Since before I purchased the house I knew that I'd put an upstairs toilet in. Now I have the house and got measuring, I thought that there is space for a shower upstairs so I could add one.

Prior to this house I had a downstairs bathroom and upstairs toilet, so it's no big deal to me. Do people think it would be better for resale if I made it into just a WC rather than shower room?

My main thinking of changing the layout downstairs was because there is an area of wasted space with the 'corridor' that leads to the garden door. It just seems a shame to have space that isn't utilized.

Yes I want to keep the door into the garden

Thanks a lot to everyone commenting on this

bouicca21

How does it then compare to other properties in the same area? My only unbreakable rule when I was looking for a property was that there had to be a toilet on the same floor as the bedrooms. So for me your latest idea makes sense. If other properties in the same area all have downstairs bathrooms and no toilet upstairs, I think that might give you an edge when selling.

SingleMaltWhisky

If the bath is for your personal preference why not plumb it in to one of the bedrooms and rejig the shower room upstairs or downstairs but with the intention to best suit a new buyer who will want a standard, easy to explain layout? When it comes to selling the place just take out the bath in the bedroom. Remoulding the overall layout to suit your personal preference when growing numbers of people are happy to settle for a shower room and wouldn't accept an odd layout in return for an unwanted bath tub would make the place harder to sell. Also, if you're going down the airbnb route you'll find a room with lots of fluffy towels in it and a bath tub probably does well with hipsters and allows you to charge a little more.

AirJoe

If your staircase is wide enough, what about turning the top of the stairs 90 degrees (triangle steps instead of rectangular steps) and moving the wall of the small room upstairs to be flush with where they end at the moment. Bath against the back wall, toilet and basin to the right as you walk in.

If that still wasn't big enough you could even step it a foot or two into bedroom 2 and still keep it a double (just!).

Make that the main bathroom and then put in the compact understairs toilet, strip out the main downstairs bathroom and extend the kitchen into your kitchen diner.

drummer_666

AirJoe wrote: »

If your staircase is wide enough, what about turning the top of the stairs 90 degrees (triangle steps instead of rectangular steps) and moving the wall of the small room upstairs to be flush with where they end at the moment. Bath against the back wall, toilet and basin to the right as you walk in.

If that still wasn't big enough you could even step it a foot or two into bedroom 2 and still keep it a double (just!).

Make that the main bathroom and then put in the compact understairs toilet, strip out the main downstairs bathroom and extend the kitchen into your kitchen diner.

I like this idea a lot!

I could have a bathroom the same size as downstairs currently is without even needing to change the stairs.

Though the current bathroom is tiny.
I'm struggling getting my head around how I could reconfigure the top couple of steps to triangle, but I def think it can be done to add at least another 30cm or so to the length of the new room

I'm not bothered about having two loos if there's an upstairs bathroom so would keep the space under stairs for boiler / washer or a larder

Do you (or anyone) have any advice on me working out the stairs reconfiguration?

Thanks a lot

zagubov

fairy_lights wrote: »

I'm imagining a scenario where the OP puts the toilet and sink upstairs and then has a solitary bath slotted under the stairs...and to be honest it sounds like something that would pop up on the 'have a look at this' thread.

I can see that myself. On the other hand,the advantage of an upstairs toilet probably trumps the disadvantage of a downstairs bath. TBH in our climate we'd be better off moving utility rooms upstairs where we traditionally keep baths, or better, shower rooms.

Baths can be a rare sidelined luxury.