Bigger 4th bedroom or 3rd bathroom?

zagubov

Our house is a four-bed semi. There's a bathroom upstairs and there's an understairs toilet but the builders renovating the house extended this by adding a shower that takes an awkward unused corner out of the adjoining kitchen, IYSWIM. Frankly that's all we need, and all the space we'd think worth using for bathroom space.
If we could expand the box room into the upstairs landing we'd do that ( if we had the money).

fairy_lights wrote: »

The trend for endless bathrooms drives me mad, seriously who spends enough time on the bog to need all these bathrooms? Unless you and all your close family have irritable bowel syndrome, go for the bedroom option.

We’ve grumbled on other threads about how we’re being swayed by fashions rather than rational choice. The craze for open plan living areas which just doesn’t work once you’ve got noisy kids. The madness of building garages so small you’d have to climb out of your car’s sunroof. The laundry rooms being always being downstairs when the dirty laundry’s collected and the clean laundry’s needed upstairs.

And as you say the multiplication of rooms where you only spend a few minutes a day.

Resist the rise of the irrational and fit a sensibly sized sensible bedroom.

Cakeguts

That boxroom is going to become like a corridor trying to be a bedroom. Long and narrow with not much light at the end furthest from the window. I don't think whatever you do with it will add value. Someone looking for a 4 bed house will want a 4 bed house with properly proportioned rooms. If you want to extend this house more it is only going to be worth it to you it won't add money if the rooms are odd shapes. You may also find that you have increased the size of the house to the point where it has reached the maximum value for the road that you live in and so you can't increase the value anymore because anyone wanting a house of that size would go for a different road.

If you extend a 3 bed semi in a road of 3 bed semis you won't necessarily increase the value that much. There will be a top price for the road and however big the house is it won't sell for more than that top price. The reason being that if someone wants a 4 bed semi they are more likely to want to spend their money in a street with 4 bed semis in it. You can only sell this house to someone who can't afford a 4 bed purpose built house which means that you will have to sell it for less than a 4 bed purpose built house in the same area. This might mean that you can't get the money back that you spend on the extension.

So now knowing that you probably can't increase the value of the house by building an extension a bedroom would seem a cheaper option than a wet room?

bramble007

Cakeguts wrote: »

That boxroom is going to become like a corridor trying to be a bedroom. Long and narrow with not much light at the end furthest from the window. I don't think whatever you do with it will add value. Someone looking for a 4 bed house will want a 4 bed house with properly proportioned rooms. If you want to extend this house more it is only going to be worth it to you it won't add money if the rooms are odd shapes. You may also find that you have increased the size of the house to the point where it has reached the maximum value for the road that you live in and so you can't increase the value anymore because anyone wanting a house of that size would go for a different road.

If you extend a 3 bed semi in a road of 3 bed semis you won't necessarily increase the value that much. There will be a top price for the road and however big the house is it won't sell for more than that top price. The reason being that if someone wants a 4 bed semi they are more likely to want to spend their money in a street with 4 bed semis in it. You can only sell this house to someone who can't afford a 4 bed purpose built house which means that you will have to sell it for less than a 4 bed purpose built house in the same area. This might mean that you can't get the money back that you spend on the extension.

So now knowing that you probably can't increase the value of the house by building an extension a bedroom would seem a cheaper option than a wet room?

The box room is west facing and gets all the light from midday onwards so it is actually very very light and bright all afternoon/ evening (in the summer!), thats not my concern.

We haven't reached the ceiling price for our road yet. A lot of the 3 bed semis have had loft conversions on our street - about 50% and there are also a fair few basement conversions too. There are a good few 5 bedrooms on our street too. There is definitely room for improvement and value- just need to decide where best to invest the money.

getmore4less

Is this utility laundry room going to be big enough for ironing.
Where is that done now(If at all)

By going big bedroom/dressing room you may have space for the finished laundry/ironing.

Might be that if you don't need it as a bedroom it may be better used to take other functions into the space from where they are currently done, study/games/dressing/ironing etc. freeing up space elsewhere

Cakeguts

bramble007 wrote: »

The box room is west facing and gets all the light from midday onwards so it is actually very very light and bright all afternoon/ evening (in the summer!), thats not my concern.

We haven't reached the ceiling price for our road yet. A lot of the 3 bed semis have had loft conversions on our street - about 50% and there are also a fair few basement conversions too. There are a good few 5 bedrooms on our street too. There is definitely room for improvement and value- just need to decide where best to invest the money.

The five beds were purpose built or are they extended 3 bed semis? It makes a difference because if the majority of the houses in the road are purpose built bigger than 3 bed semis then the price for the road will be higher than if the majority of the houses in the road are purpose built 3 bed semis. The point is that in a road of purpose built 4 bed semis you can extend to probably get two extra bedrooms in the loft making 6 bed houses.

Do you have off street parking in the form of a driveway? Off street parking where you can unload the shopping from the car outside the front door (not concreted over front garden) will add a lot of value to a house. You have to take into account that you can only get so much parking in front of a 3 bed semi because of the width of the house so a large 4 bed extended semi with no off street parking is another aspect that will affect the price you can achieve. A family will have at least 2 cars.

bramble007

getmore4less wrote: »

Is this utility laundry room going to be big enough for ironing.
Where is that done now(If at all)

By going big bedroom/dressing room you may have space for the finished laundry/ironing.

Might be that if you don't need it as a bedroom it may be better used to take other functions into the space from where they are currently done, study/games/dressing/ironing etc. freeing up space elsewhere

Yes the laundry/ utility will be big enough for ironing- at the moment we do it in the kitchen!

We definitely need it as a bedroom as we rent out our spare rooms at the moment. Its another reason we want to make it bigger, so the person renting it has more personal space and we can get a bit more rent.

bramble007

Cakeguts wrote: »

The five beds were purpose built or are they extended 3 bed semis? It makes a difference because if the majority of the houses in the road are purpose built bigger than 3 bed semis then the price for the road will be higher than if the majority of the houses in the road are purpose built 3 bed semis. The point is that in a road of purpose built 4 bed semis you can extend to probably get two extra bedrooms in the loft making 6 bed houses.

Do you have off street parking in the form of a driveway? Off street parking where you can unload the shopping from the car outside the front door (not concreted over front garden) will add a lot of value to a house. You have to take into account that you can only get so much parking in front of a 3 bed semi because of the width of the house so a large 4 bed extended semi with no off street parking is another aspect that will affect the price you can achieve. A family will have at least 2 cars.

They are all extended via the loft, back extension and/or downwards into the basement. They sell for about £75K more than our house was valued at so I am not too concerned about ceiling price.

No off street parking. Very very few houses where I live have it, but street parking is free and easy (you can always get a space on the road)

getmore4less

bramble007 wrote: »

Yes the laundry/ utility will be big enough for ironing- at the moment we do it in the kitchen!

We definitely need it as a bedroom as we rent out our spare rooms at the moment. Its another reason we want to make it bigger, so the person renting it has more personal space and we can get a bit more rent.

Whats the occupation layout?
Are any family sharing a bathroom with lodgers
how many lodgers
short or long term lets?

To get more money make it 2 small bedrooms

The simple route is empty shell rent and decide what to do with it when you want to use it yourself sell on.

depends on lodger target market what is best for now.
single or double, M or F, Student, mature...
A still adequate room with en suite shower room with toilet and sink might command more money than a large bedroom with sofa study area.


2.75mx3m is a fairly small footprint to make a large utility and a "massive" kitchen diner.

for layout options a plan would help there are a few on here that are really good at spotting potential of a footprint that many of us would not think of.

Cakeguts

bramble007 wrote: »

They are all extended via the loft, back extension and/or downwards into the basement. They sell for about £75K more than our house was valued at so I am not too concerned about ceiling price.

No off street parking. Very very few houses where I live have it, but street parking is free and easy (you can always get a space on the road)

What sort of valuation was done on your house? Do you know how much the extension will cost?

dirty_magic

fairy_lights wrote: »

The trend for endless bathrooms drives me mad, seriously who spends enough time on the bog to need all these bathrooms? Unless you and all your close family have irritable bowel syndrome, go for the bedroom option.

:rotfl: I'm with fairy lights! I don't get it! I also hate wet rooms, especially small ones where toilet is close to the shower. If you need a wee after you've had a shower your feet get wet.