3rd bathroom - wwyd?

[BaryMerry]

Our house is currently a 4 bed, 3 bathroom house. Two of these bathrooms are on the ground floor - a large family bathroom (was previously a bedroom - converted due to previous owner's mobility issues) and a smaller shower room. Plus there's another large bathroom upstairs - none of these are en suite FWIW.

We recently discovered the shower in the small bathroom is leaking somewhere, affecting the walls on either side so we're preparing to rip everything out and do up the small room. We were all set to simply put in another small bathroom but I now have serious reservations - I don't think we need a third bathroom in this house, particularly when there's a very nice family bathroom with toilet, sink, bath, and over-bath shower literally one room away. And upstairs a good-sized bathroom (with bath and eventually a shower) for the 2 DDs.

Instead of replacing the little shower room I have suggested we rip out the bathroom fittings, plaster, redecorate, re-floor and turn it into a little laundry room, with a washing machine, cupboard for cleaning products etc. and storage for bedding, duvets etc. This would then free up cupboard space upstairs currently used for this AND would also free up a small conservatory at the back of the kitchen which we currently use as a utility room for washing machine etc. Also I think it would be far less expensive - and what we save here would be very useful in the many other areas of the house which need work!

DH is against this - but his best argument for keeping it as a bathroom is "we can both brush our teeth in separate sinks at bedtime" or that he prefers a proper shower cubicle to an over-bath shower.

So - WWYD? Have a third bathroom - a small but nicely decorated new shower room OR lose a bathroom and gain a mini laundry/utility room. OR do something else with the wee room - I'm open to suggestions!

[SwedishEdith]

Mini laundry - definitely.

[BasinHaircut]

2 bathrooms DOWNSTAIRS? Sounds mad!

I'm assuming your bedroom is downstairs too? I'd have the utility room instead of a 3rd bathroom but I agree that a shower cubicle is better than an over bath so would want to keep that. But not at he expense of a utility room when there are 2 other perfectly good bathrooms.

[RB68]

Def not a bathroom seems utterly pointless

Mini Laundry sounds good if it frees up other areas to feel more spacious etc - perhaps keep a utility sink so he can clean his teeth in there if he wants

[BackforGood]

I'm with you.
Can't see the point in that many bathrooms
We are a family of 5 (moved here when they were little and they are now teens) and we've never felt the need for more than 2 bathrooms.

Maybe put a little downstairs loo and washbasin as part of the utility if he really thought it an issue?? although can't really see the point if one of your bathrooms is already downstairs.

[caroldecker]

utility, utility, utility

[BaryMerry]

Exactly! Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks it could be a massive waste of money to replace the small bathroom. It's definitely a 'quirk' of the house that there are two bathrooms downstairs - like a say, a legacy of the previous owners who converted one of the bedrooms into the bigger downstairs bathroom.

I do agree with him that a cubicle is better but my argument would be to use some of the money we would have spent on the little bathroom to put a shower cubicle into the bigger one - there's room, with a little re-jigging.

Basin yes our bedroom is downstairs, DDs are upstairs. Initially we viewed the little bathroom as a sort of ensuite that just wasn't attached to the bedroom IYSWIM? Because I know some homes of a similar size that would have three bathrooms - a family, a cloakroom and an ensuite - and that seems to make sense. But ours just doesn't make sense, not when they're so flipping close to each other! also I don't want to have to clean THREE toilets

[sparechange]

Utility room, definitely.
Can you keep a loo in there to use as a guest toilet? Then the bigger bathroom is yours
You can get a double sink if it means that much to him

[Pico2]

What about redoing the little shower room with a view to getting the other downstairs bathroom turned back into a normal room? Is there something that would be useful for? I can't see the need for big bathrooms, they seem like a waste of space.

[LettuceLaughton]

Yes, scrap the shower room for a little laundry / utility room with a sink. You really must.
A separate shower in the big downstairs bathroom if possible.

[LettuceLaughton]

Oh, I was thinking the big downstairs bathroom had the only bath. Is that not right?

[BaryMerry]

sparechange there wouldn't be room for a loo as well as a washing machine and cupboard, it is fairly small. Perhaps there could be a sink but it might limit cupboard space due to pipes etc and I can't see a massive need for it.

Pico2 that is something we have considered, but the big bathroom really is nicely done up and fairly recently too I think - fully tiled and decent bath/sink/loo with loads of storage. And I'm not exactly what we'd do with a 'normal' room as we have enough bedrooms and an office which will eventually have a sofa bed for the very rare occasions when someone stays over. I don't see the point of a spare bedroom - they just attract junk!

But...like I say I'm open to suggestion, so if there was a brilliant idea for what to do with a converted bathroom then I'd totally replace the small bathroom as one big bathroom (upstairs) and one small one (downstairs) would also be fine with me!

Gift-wrapping/craft room (I'm crap at both!)? Playroom? (they're getting too big for this now!) Dressing room?? Photography studio? (I can dream...!)

Perhaps some lateral thinking is required...

[BaryMerry]

Lettuce the big downstairs bathroom has a bath, now equipped with a (bargain) over-bath shower and screen which DH fitted himself - he was very pleased with himself for doing this! The upstairs one also needs redecorated but we're living with it for now - it has a bath and will have a proper shower cubicle as we anticipate two teenage daughters needing many showers in years to come

[RandomMess]

utility room is a much better idea, great if you can keep a loo in it as a cloakroom too though

[wowfudge]

Study? Seriously - utility room. I hate the phrase, but it's a no-brainer. Shoot me now.

[RandomMess]

Do they share an internal wall? Can you steal some space to make the utility room bigger?

[yomellamoHelly]

We have three bathrooms. It's too many for a 4 bedder. Go for the utility.

[BaryMerry]

Random they don't share a wall - there's another room in between (office/spare). The small bathroom does share a wall with the kitchen though, and I think this could be useful in the future? It won't need done for some time but if we wanted to completely re-jig the layout of the kitchen we could use the existing utility/conservatory (which goes off the back of it) and borrow space from what would then be the small bathroom/utility space to play around with what goes where and open up the back of the house a bit.

But that's definitely something that only might happen at an unknown point in the future - and I'm a fan of doing what's right for the house just now. We've only been in here a year and a bit - we're still working out which room does what and how best to use the space, and the more I think about it the more I like the idea of creating a smaller utility out of this bathroom and then improving the current utility/conservatory to make it a nicer space too.

[Pipbin]

"we can both brush our teeth in separate sinks at bedtime"

You need a third bathroom so you can save 10 minutes at bed time?

Mini laundry!! Oh I can imagine the shelves with all the bed linen and towels.......

[BaryMerry]

Pipbin I know. I think I could just about squeeze in my Lakeland heated drying screen too...

[BaryMerry]

Now, perhaps I need to show DH this thread to let him see I'm not just dreaming up crazy ideas! I'm actually getting quite annoyed at the thought of spending £2k? £3k? on a bathroom we DON'T NEED.

[neolara]

Utility. I would kill for utility room.

[RandomMess]

I have a utility cupboard just the washing machine and tumble drier in it, that is good but a room with storage and drying space, well that would be amazing!

[AliceInUnderpants]

Utility definitely. I'd imagine it would be a bigger selling point for the house too.

[BaryMerry]

Alice that's what I'm wondering - we're not planning to move ever but in terms of value, surely 4 bed, 2 bath + laundry/utility + conservatory would be better than 4 bed, 3 bath and a sort of half conservatory/half utility porch thing.

[SchnitzelVonKrumm]

Utility all the way