Would you buy a house with a toilet in an open-plan room?

When we were viewing flats in London with houses all split on 2 there were heaps of upstairs flats that had the bathroom off the kitchen - I found it really off putting and I never met anyone who actually bought one to live in - think landlords mostly buy them and rent them out

Agree with everyone else - make it in to some kind of utility room along the back so a) it doesn’t look as weird b) makes it look a bit more thought out! You will essentially still save room because whilst you will lose the edge of one of the rooms you will be moving the washing machine etc in there therefore saving space by not having this all in the new open plan area.

Me too. And was thinking that any prospective buyers would be wondering about your level of kink.

No, that’s really offputting.

This is no longer true !

It's perfectly legal.

No I wouldn't.

There are planning laws about having a toilet off a kitchen I believe…

I’d keep the toilet and shower where it is but make a utility off to the right (currently where your door out from the kitchen is) and move the door to the side vs bottom of that toilet room). That would connect well to the outside, and keep a neat and intentional room as well as making the kitchen then seem like a more intentional space. I’d also be tempted to add a door from kitchen to family room and from under the stairs vs the centre of the room if space permitted.

No. I would leave it as it is.

Yeah, I was under the impression that you can't go from having a downstairs toilet to no downstairs toilet.

Not sure if you can get rid of the only downstairs toilet (Building regs part M). Whatever you do check that the walls you want to remove are not structural and see if you need Building regulation approval before starting work.

I have two friends who have done this and it’s awful. They have a dining room table sat outside the toilet door , so there’s no privacy .

One door is fine, but you need a hand wash basin in the loo room.

No. for the same reasons that you don't want to move it.
If I did buy it I'd want to do that work, and I'd add the cost of that into my reckoning.. and all the upheaval entailed.

I once viewed a house that had a very damp and neglected 2-room annexe. There was no kitchen area, just a large open space with a separate bathroom. One of the bathroom walls had a serving hatch installed right beside the toilet...

The mind boggles....was it for uninterrupted box set binge viewing? To keep the convo with guests flowing? To pass snacks/books/more toilet paper in? Just too funny, we cracked up and the poor estate agent (who was on his first day with that particular firm) had no words.

That's fair enough if you have no options, but OP has 2 other toilets.

You assuming she is in England or Wales. In Scotland and Northern Ireland she does legally. So maybe clarify what jurisdiction you are talking about before critising others. And I didn't say she legally required it. I ssid she needs it. And you do. If you don't do it, it doesn't work. Nobody uses it. Odours are not good.

@lostinspace00 you're really not helping yourself by repeatedly putting up plans that aren't to scale!

Where in your floor plan is the shower that you say is currently in the downstairs loo at the moment? Is the side kitchen window shown to scale? Is the outside door off the kitchen shown to scale?

In theory you could do something to extend a utility along the back wall with a pocket door; get a washer & dryer stack in there; have a cupboard for mop/ironing board/hoover etc beside washer stack; plenty of coat hooks & shoe racks; and potentially even some pantry/food storage. Plus a new door sideways into the shower/loo from the utility.

In practice, I expect you'd have to completely replumb the shower & loo to have a side door instead of front door into the space. And it looks like your large kitchen window starts too close to the back wall to make a utility simple, as it would probably also end up with some weird diagonal wall/hard to use space in the corner because you can't get a straight wall without cutting off the existing window.

Which then makes sense of your comments that it would cost too much.

Why in the name of god didn't you talk this all through with your builder BEFORE booking the work in? Or take it to your local Howdons/Wren/Wickes for ideas on how to make the most of the total space, rather than ending up with the world's weirdest feature loo?!? Their design services are usually free & they could have come up with half a dozen better ideas before you committed to any cost 🤷🏼‍♀️

Knock down walls in haste, repent at leisure???

We have a bathroom (toilet & shower) right at the end of our kitchen/diner/family room. It's probably about 18ft from the kitchen section and is next to a sofa and tv. It's really unobtrusive. It has a window etc and good ventilation.

If people don't want to go in there they can just go upstairs?

It would put me off.

Also, if you have another loo upstairs (whether as part of the bathroom or a separate loo), I think I'd still want to keep the downstairs loo.

Our first house had only one loo and that was in the bathroom. Our current house has a loo in the bathroom (upstairs) and a loo downstairs off the hall and I would not want to be without it, especially for visitors, children and elderly or infirm relatives. Some of the houses in my road that were built around the same time as this one (nearly 50 years ago) were also built with a shower in their downstairs loo, which is even better.

Crazy tbh!

I don't think that's the case anymore. We've stayed in a new build with a toilet off the kitchen.

Lots of homes don't have second toilets - we don't.

Our bathroom (and only toilet) is directly off our kitchen.