Bigger 4th bedroom or 3rd bathroom?

bramble007

getmore4less wrote: »

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.

It's me and my partner and 3 lodgers. We have the loft room and our own bathroom, they have the 3 bedrooms on the 1st floor and the main bathroom shared between them. They are all currently long term, though the box room always sees more people come and go and is the hardest to rent because of its size and people always say they love the house but the room is too small. I've been renting the rooms out for 8 years to professional tenants aged around 26-40 both male and female.

2.75 x 3m is the footprint for the extra bedroom. The downstairs is being extended by 5.5 x 3m. We currently have an open plan kitchen diner a similar size. So it's being doubled to include a massive kitchen with island as ours is too small and we all cook a lot. We already have a seperate lounge that's 4.5 x 4m.

bramble007

Cakeguts wrote: »

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

The house was remortgaged recently so we have a fairly accurate valuation. Mortgage is £225k. House is worth £475k. Work would cost somewhere in the region of £40-50k - we haven't got a quote yet. This is going by the architects estimates. But the most we would spend is £50k knowing that we would add the same value on or a little more only. We aren't doing it to add value as such. If it only adds what we put in that's fine. It will give us so much more space and we plan to be here a good long while or maybe keep it to rent out if we buy something else in future, money permitting. We've also had several estate agents give valuations.

Hoploz

I'd like to see a floor plan to see the room shapes but I think a second bathroom on the first floor sounds a good idea in principle (as the third is on the next floor up)

Would the new bathroom be ensuite to a large room? Or would you change the original bathroom to be ensuite to the largest room? Just that there's no point having an ensuite unless it is a master bedroom.

I'm currently in the process of reconfiguring which will include adding a third bathroom all on the first floor, which will result in 3 bed and 3 bathrooms. Currently I have two ensuite bedrooms on that floor (which works well as both children have own bathrooms) and two other bedrooms which don't have any bathroom access without walking through the other bedrooms! So I wouldn't choose 3 baths but it wll solve a problematic layout by changing the single room to a bathroom in my case.

movilogo

Second bathroom adds huge value to any house. 3rd bathroom/toilet not much value and 4th onward may subtract value due to wasted space.

Good for HMO if you want to let it in future though

bramble007

Hoploz wrote: »

I'd like to see a floor plan to see the room shapes but I think a second bathroom on the first floor sounds a good idea in principle (as the third is on the next floor up)

Would the new bathroom be ensuite to a large room? Or would you change the original bathroom to be ensuite to the largest room? Just that there's no point having an ensuite unless it is a master bedroom.

I'm currently in the process of reconfiguring which will include adding a third bathroom all on the first floor, which will result in 3 bed and 3 bathrooms. Currently I have two ensuite bedrooms on that floor (which works well as both children have own bathrooms) and two other bedrooms which don't have any bathroom access without walking through the other bedrooms! So I wouldn't choose 3 baths but it wll solve a problematic layout by changing the single room to a bathroom in my case.

The floorplans are here (it wont let me post a proper link as I am a new user so just remove the space between the "h" and first "t" before copying and pasting into your browser) :
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We would keep both bathrooms as being accessed on the landing so all 3 lodgers can share both bathrooms.

bramble007

movilogo wrote: »

Second bathroom adds huge value to any house. 3rd bathroom/toilet not much value and 4th onward may subtract value due to wasted space.

Good for HMO if you want to let it in future though

It has been an HMO in the past, but we are moving in the direction of turning it into a family house now..

bramble007

Thanks for all your responses.

I guess going with our gut of keeping the bedroom as big as possible is the way to go then!

Person_one

Person_one wrote: »

If you were feeling flush, the only bathroom related change I might make would be to have one with a bath and the other with a nice big walk in shower rather than 2 baths with showers over.

Ignore this suggestion, I assumed it was a family home. For lodgers it makes sense as it is.

kerri_gt

dirty_magic wrote: »

: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.

and the toilet paper is all half damp too - eugh. Can't stand wet rooms myself.

I don't get the trend for virtually 1 bathroom per bedroom either. Granted we have gone from 2 toilets to 1 and would like a downstairs one, but I certainly don't miss cleaning the additional toilet. I'd go mad cleaning so many bathrooms.

I also cant stand the trend for open plan living. Fab if you have a kitchen big enough for some kind of family room as well as a separate area somewhere in the house as a more formal living room, but I cannot abide the idea of sitting in a living room looking at my washing up / having the washing matching going / smell of cooking etc. All these new homes seem to be open plan simply because the developers are trying to hide the fact there's no room for more walls, and it saves them a few quid on materials / labour to not build them.

p00hsticks

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2b-wTJ8x3E