To think ensuites are unnecessary and a bit passé

[Foolishlady]

Just bought a new house. 4 bedrooms but just one tiny bathroom. Dh wants to put an ensuite in the master bedroom but I think it will ruin the dimensions and isn't really worth it. I've never really got the appeal of ensuites- unless spacious they always seem a bit cramped and grotty, and the bathroom is only across the hall. I want to make a combined wet room and downstairs loo instead (we're doing an extension so there would be room) but dh says that's silly. So aibu?? Or is he?

I have ensuite envy, I would love one. I don't think they ever will be passé because they are so practical.

My friend has an ordinary sized bathroom plus 4 bedrooms each with ensuites. The house wasn't built like that they modified it to suit their needs. The bathroom is used for a long soak and the ensuites are practical because they have teenagers who regularly have guests staying in their rooms.

Don't lose a bedroom to make an en-suite though. Would lose value on the house. My friend has a downstairs wet room which works well for her and her DH ( she has no kids )

unlucky I don't think you'd like ours! it is in the eaves and doesn't have a lot of room. But maybe my standards are just very low , like my ceilings . It wouldn't work for a tall man, admittedly, but it's fine for 2 women neither of whom could top 5'3 on a good day. Family home, so not really too bothered about resale - more important that the house works for us. Eventually we will have two teenaged girls in the house, so one bathroom not an option. We also have their father and his parents to stay and they are not close family, so this way everyone gets a little privacy. I find it a very peaceful place to sit and look at my phone...

If you don't like it don't get it. The idea of a toilet so close to my sleeping space makes me want to . And the damp from a shower almost as bad.

Our downstairs shower gets used a lot.

You definitely do need anther bathroom.

We have a shower room next to our bedroom which the other bedroom on that floor can share if necessary. We also have a fairly small main bathroom and a shower room/loo on the ground floor so I think your plan for the ground floor is good but don't do a wet room do a shower/loo.

I have had ensuite bathrooms in several houses but prefer our current shower room arrangement as it does not cut into bedroom but it does have the closeness and privacy of an ensuite still.

You definitely need to convert the box room to a shower room upstairs and also install the shower/loo downstairs and it will be fine. To be honest I would never buy a house with just one bathroom and many people wouldn't.

Our en-suite is tiny; a toilet, tiny sink and a shower but I love it. Was my small space when DCs where very small and now everyone needs the loo etc in the morning it's an absolute godsend.

LOVE our en-suite WETROOMS! No shower screens/curtains here... Just had to put a lot of thought into planning the layout to avoid soggy loo rolls/wet socks etc....

If you're doing an extension, why don't you put a bedroom in that (a teenager for example might appreciate being on a different floor from the rest of the family) and make one of the upstairs bedrooms into an extra bathroom? You could even put an extra downstairs loo or bathroom in the extension too? Either as an ensuite to the new bedroom so that the proportions are right, or separately for general use (especially visitors).

On ensuites in general, to each their own.

When I was single I loved an ensuite, so straightforward, especially when sharing a house. Your own bathroom.

Now I'm not single, I don't like them. Principally because I hate hearing someone else going to the loo or anyone else hearing me especially getting woken up in the middle of the night by it, so I prefer a buffer room between my bedroom and the loo. But I also prefer a separate loo and bathroom, as I don't like having to look at a loo whilst reclining in a candle lit bubble bath whilst eating flakey chocolate. And I also think a bath in a big bathroom is better than two small shower rooms, one next to each bedroom.

But I recognise that I am a tiny minority. If you like an ensuite, you like an ensuite.

I think they work best in new builds, where they are properly thought out rooms. When we were househunting last year, I saw a lot of old 2 bed flats that would have had lovely big bedrooms, but both had been cut into to make ensuites, and whilst they could technically still fit a double bed in, they weren't really a double room for two grown ups any more.

I love my en suite, and I mean MY, DH is not allowed to use it and certainly nobody else.

Downstairs wet rooms are great for sewerage workers and those of us with muddy dogs. Our ensuite has only a shower, toilet and basin in, but is lovely and warm, the main bathroom is waiting to have the taps changed to have a shower head in it as well, and I would love to turn the downstairs cloakroom into a wet room, but OH says no. It's right by the front door, so would be ideal to shower off the dog.

don't know about en-suite but I do think 'passé' is a bit passé.

Couple of moves ago I lived in a house with sinks in the bedrooms, that's probably about to come back into fashion?

To me, it's like having a litter tray in the corner of your bedroom. I wouldn't want the cats to poo so close to my bed, why would I want DH to do so? Unfortunately he thinks it's a brilliant idea, so we've just moved into a house that has one. There's a perfectly good bathroom just down the hall and a downstairs loo so one can wee while another bathes, and I'd rather have the space added to the smallest bedroom. If he goes to the loo in the night, the light wakes me up, if he goes in the shower before I'm awake, the extractor wakes me up, to save himself a few seconds walk. I'm not a fan.

Why anyone wants another bathroom to clean is beyond me.

But so is why people are obsessed with showering every day when they aren't dirty.

And as for showering on a weekday morning when you could be asleep, that's utter and complete madness!

I'm with you, OP. I don't see the fuss. Of course, if people like them that's fine, but I hate how they're squeezed in everywhere in totally unsuitable houses.

One of the worst houses I viewed was a Victorian cottage that had been developed up to the hilt. It was a very cold-looking house, all white and chrome, with four en-suite bedrooms. Bear in mind this was a small terrace - the bedrooms were TINY - they had put those baby beds in each one to disguise how tiny they were, and those beds were all you could fit in.

When I pointed this out, the EA told me very snottily that I was the first person she'd heard complain about too many bathrooms. I said an ensuite was all very well, but they had taken up all the space for wardrobes - you'd end up storing your clothes in the bath.

DM has an ensuite - however, she doesn't use it if she has guests because her walls are very thin (yay! new builds!) and you can hear EVERYTHING in the guest room boak

Why a 3 bedroom house needs 3 bogs, I'll never know. Especially when the owner of the exclusive bog can't use it if they have overnight guests. Believe me, you can hear the cistern drip from the ensuite when you are in the guest room.

I'd not base a decision on purchasing a property on whether there were ensuites - they remind me of hotels, where you are forced to listen to your DP evacuating in the morning. Yuck.

Next rant: how, in 20 years, we'll all be sticking up stud walls once we realise that open-plan is harder to heat, you can't hide your mess, you can't get away from each other's noise, and your bi-fold doors are letting in the rain...

When we bought our house the main bedroom had an en suite and I was adamant I didn't want one - because of wee noises and smells - but I do love it now. You can brush teeth and wee in the night without going outside the room - v handy for when we have guests too. We don't poo in it either, by mutual unspoken decision, unless during the day! We have window and extractor fan, and there is no smell.

Also, when dh woke the other night with a sick bug, he only just made the en suite. He wouldn't have made the family bathroom.... So for that reason only I love en suites.

And if go to the loo in the night, I don't turn on the light, so I don't wake dh. I am, surprisingly enough, a convert!

One time we stayed in an Amsterdam hotel that had the "en suite" behind those loom saloon door things, you know, those half-door swingy affairs.
That was fun
If you get this done have proper doors, that's my advice.

Why is an En suite any different to a bathroom elsewhere upstairs unless you're talking of a converted cupboard ?? Mine is bigger and just as well equipped as the family bathroom and just off an entranceway to my bedroom (so no different to most hotels!) So this is Gross??? We actually use it as the family bathroom as kids are small (and we have another loo downstairs)

None of us likes the bath in the ensuite. We've got a separate shower room as well, which is what DD prefers, DH and I like the proper bathroom bath. The ensuite is useful though - extra loo, DH uses the sink for his teeth cleaning/shaving so we're not all trying to use the same one in the morning, and the bath is used as storage for the inflatable canoe and sailing gear, also for bathing the dog in.

In the OPs place I think I'd go for the wetroom, and maybe an extra loo/sink upstairs.

We each have our own bathroom in my house and have to say would not go back to sharing with anyone.

Why anyone would want a downstairs bathroom I don't know.

Some of have a downstairs bathroom, madame, with no extra en-suite, wet room or second toilet because that's all we could afford. You sound a right arse.

I have had ensuites and I really don't like them. I banned DH from using the loo, I can't stand the thought of a loo being that close to the bedroom.
At the moment we have 2 bathrooms, the DDs use one and we use the other. So yes 2 bathrooms works well.

The best house we lived in had 3 bathrooms. I had one, DH had one and DDs shared one. That was bliss.

I'm on your side OP. DH has IBS. I like 2 doors between the loo and my pillow, thanks.

We have a shower in our downstairs cloakroom instead. They are really unpopular but it works really well for us. When one of us gets up early, they can shower without waking up everyone else.

I wouldn't mind a 2nd communal upstairs bathroom, but I don't like en suites. And no no no to the wet room. The floors take hours to dry and you always end up with damp socks.

I like a good ensuite. I don't have one but I do have a gasp wet room next door to our bedroom.

It's a wet room because it's pokey and so this was a means of fitting in a shower without having to sidle past it / the cubicle being so small you can't pick up the soap. It's not always sopping wet, nor mouldy as we put in good quality underfloor heating.