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?

Ridingthestorm - I sometimes entertain myself by designing my perfect house (the one I will build on the perfect site, when I win millions on the lottery), and every bedroom has an en suite or a jack-and-jill bathroom, and there's a main bathroom too.

The master bedroom will have a dressing room which you will go through from the bedroom to get to the en suite - so when dh gets up early, to fly down to London for meetings, he can shower without any risk of waking me up (though I usually sleep through it anyway) and so he has somewhere to get dressed other than the bedroom - I find it much harder to sleep through him fossicking for his stuff on his bedside table, and thumping himself down on the bed to put his socks on.

Oh - and the en suite will have a proper bath in it, as well as a shower - it will definitely not be poky!! At the moment, if I want a bath, rather than a shower, I have to brave the main bathroom, which is used almost exclusively by the dses, and is therefore their responsibility to keep clean.

Is that hysterical laughter I hear from you all? Or at least from all of you who either own or have lived with a teenage boy? You are absolutely right to laugh - it almost never gets cleaned, and never to my standards, unless guests are coming, or unless I have decided to treat myself to a bath - in which case I clean it myself.

Who have a downstairs shower room as well as a family bathroom and an ensuite. The downstairs shower has only ever been used when the boiler broke and it was the only hot water we had. Waste of space.

SDT, you've described my bedroom, and all the others in the house when it comes to a dressing room between the bedrooms and bathrooms. And yes I did design the house from scratch, and co-incidentally all of my children have a separate dressing area in their own homes because of the jobs they do and the need to stumble around in the night getting dressed quietly.

I am jealous, Alibali! In fairness, dh does try to shower and get dressed quietly - but sometimes his idea of quiet and mine are very different! Or he will get showered and dressed without waking me up, but then stomps around downstairs, emptying the dishwasher - he wears very solid, leather-soled shoes, which make a hell of a racket on our wooden floors, and is incapable of emptying the dishwasher without crashing plates, cutlery and pans together in a Wagnerian symphony of noise that I do not appreciate at 4.30am. I would rather have to empty the dishwasher myself, at a more reasonable hour!

I can't wait till I get my new ensuite, complete with adjoining dressing room. It'll be 10 by 8 feet and the dressing is larger, the bed is miles away. Not even my husband is allowed to use it, I've kindly arranged another bathroom for him. there's a downstairs cloakroom too. Yes, it's perfectly normal for two people to have three loos.

I work full time and clean 2 en-suites, family bathroom and downstairs loo.
There are 4 of us and we need 4 loos. I can't imagine wanting to live in a house with no en-suites, the best one is for the guest bedroom and means visitors have lots of privacy.

Older people like a downstairs bathroom - if they get less able bodied they won't have to move home.

Ensuites are great, we used to have a downstairs bedroom and such a pain up and down all the time. Now have an ensuite lovely and easy and close.

They are deeply unromantic though, lying in bed waiting for your lover to arrive and hearing them piss like an elephant, fart or drop something dead down the loo before joining you is a bit of a mood killer.

If im honest I would probably prefer to have our master bedroom/ensuite as the guest room and then we use the main bathroom.

I don't like en-suites, I like a few more doors between a toilet and where I sleep... I don't like having to go into a bedroom to use a toilet when I am visiting people...

We inherited a master suite with an en-suite in our house, and I am planning on converting it to two bedrooms with a separate toilet(planning on living here for 20 years...). It's the guest room just now, as DH and I have no wish to use that as our bedroom, and it's weird as a child's bedroom...

I'd much rather have a downstairs loo that guests can use easily, then one that is inside a bedroom...

Essential to family life if you ask me

It seems a bit mad to have one toilet per member of the family. 2 toilets in a house are plenty, unless you get to about 10 people living there. I feel the same way about every bedroom having an ensuite. I'd prefer to use the main bathroom, and would really not like there not to be a main bathroom, with everyone using an ensuite (horrible for visitors). And all that cleaning and wasting of space that could be used for something nice, like a study or play room or music room or just bigger bedrooms.
We are 3 people and share a small bathroom. This is generally ok but not ideal in the morning, when everyone wants to use it at the same time. There's always the garden in case of emergency .
Wet rooms are really horrible - a room soaking with water, even if you just want to use the toilet or brush your teeth. It would definitely put me off buying the house.

AmberLav - I definitely wouldn't want an en suite as the only loo in a house - I agree that people shouldn't be traipsing through a bedroom to get to the loo. Even if they don't mind, I don't want people in my bedroom, except by invitation!

Its obvious some posters think if you have en en-suite there's no other bathroom in the house and your guests have to use your en-suite if they want to visit the bathroom.

All of our bedrooms have an en-suite, as do the individual staff rooms in the garden. We also have another handful of bathrooms and that includes 2 down stairs that are used as guest loo's or for when we are down stairs and there's no need to go upstairs to the loo. They each have a sink, well stocked vanity area and a loo.

In total there's 13 bathrooms and only me, DS, and some of the carers living here full time. It does fluctuate though and this weekend there will a full house with all bedrooms occupied as the children and grandchildren will be here even though they all just live 5 or so minutes away. So us plus about 20 others. The wee ones will be put to bed and can stay snuggled up till morning. We do this a lot and this weekend its so all the new dogs in the family can play together and get used to each other., but most of all its to just be with each other following my baby grandson having a life and death medical emergency on new years day. I will have a full house, I can't wait, and thank God for the bathrooms. We have no more than we need.

I'm finding this really interesting as DH is adamant that we are losing money on the value of out house as we don't have an ensure. We have a bathroom and the space for a downstairs shower room but no ensuite. He thinks we will never sell without one

What's your verdict from this thread Soexcited?

I have a main bathroom, downstairs wet room and a tiny ensuite that wasn't originally in the room. It does make the bedroom an odd shape which can be awkward for placing furniture etc, however it is totally worth it when we have guests and I need to do a poo as I am funny that way

Whilst the wet room is practical and easy to clean it is my least favourite of the bathrooms. They always remind me of hospitals so I really don't use it at all.

Everyone in the house showers in the ensuite, as it is the only electric shower, the others being power showers.

In which way are they passe? How baffling. I think they are designed so that people who share houses with other people can go to the bathroom or shower in the morning naked or in their nightclothes, without carting loads of clothes, products and towels with them to a shared bathroom.

Alternatively, less mobile people find them useful.

Your passe comment only really works for people single people or couples who have no-one else in the house with them but who live in large houses with unused bathrooms.

What an odd thing to say!

An ensuite would be nice imo.
A downstairs loo is really nice and convenient and I love having that.
I don't think I would like to make a room super tiny to squeeze in an ensuite. But I can see the appeal of more than one shower or bath in a busy household.
All of these are just extras though aren't they? It seems a bit showy to suggest that we can't possibly manage without them.

Tiny, loo-visible-from-the-bed ensuites-no.

Spacious, hotel-room-like ensuites with full bath and decent shower (whether over bath or separate)-yes.

Window not entirely necessary, I think.

My en suite has a bath and separate walk in shower, double sinks and a separate toilet. It leads through to a walk in closet, not really big enough to be a proper dressing room but big enough to get dressed in if needed. I love it. Only downside is it's carpeted. Not our choice, the house is rented.

I don't see the point of downstairs shower rooms. You'd have to traipse through the house in a towel to get dressed. A downstairs loo is good enough IMO.

Well I can't comment on your house but I would LOVE an ensuite.

We don't have any ensuites. Neither do most of the houses around me. But, the price of these houses is through the roof.

So, I think people will put up with no ensuites, if they want the house enough