To ask if what's best- bigger bedroom or ensuite?

[Marsaday]

A bit of a WWYD really but I've never had this option before so I've no idea myself.

We will soon be moving into a 3 storey townhouse with two possible choices of master bedroom. choices as follows:

1: generous double, two large windows, lots of light. No ensuite, would need to use family bathroom which currently has no shower.

1. Identical in size to 1. But under eaves so reduced head height at both ends. Has a nice ensuite with large shower.

I've only ever had poky dark master bedrooms with no ensuite so honestly no idea whether it's better to have a slightly bigger brighter room or an ensuite.

Can anyone with experience help me out?
Decor in both rooms is in a poor state so we will decorate first whichever we decide to use.

To answer questions :
Dc are DS (2.5yrs) and DD (4 months). There will not be any more as its enough of a madhouse with two

We do need a guest room because DH parents live abroad so visit approx 3 times a year for about 5 days at a time. We don't often have other guests though. All the bedrooms are large enough for a double bed except little girls room.

Also have dilemma around this- if DD goes in the girly room (not tiny but a funny shape) and we leave spare ensuite for guest room, this leaves DS in a massive bedroom by comparison with his sister which seems unfair...

Bigger bedroom for me.

Ensuite doesn't appeal at all!

That said-could you put a seperate shower in the family bathroom?

No room for a separate shower, but we could easily and relatively cheaply add a shower over the bath with a glass screen. This is what we will do long term anyway once the DC are needing to shower.

I despise ensuites, in fact we are having ours taken out shortly. Fine if the room is big enough to have a decent sized ensuite and still have a big enough bedroom, but ours is more like a cupboard with a toilet and shower in but still takes too much space out of the bedroom, so it's pointless.

In your case I would not want to be further up the house than a baby - I would want to be on the same floor or below.

Do they both have built in wardrobes? Slopey ceilings are a pain with freestanding wardrobes.

I'm not a fan of en suites - not least because of DH's IBS - but different strokes and all that.

Also depends what you'd be using the other room for. You might not want an unsupervised 3 year old with unfettered access to their own bathroom, for example.

I would go for the bigger bedroom. A friend has an ensuite and complains of no 2 smells wafting in as she wakes!!! Her Dh likes an early morning clear out! I had never thought of that problem before she said.

Bedroom allocations aren't set in stone...

You have your DD sleeping in the room nearest you for now as she is BF during the night.

Whoever gets the other ensuite has to vacate into small room when you have visitors

I wouldn't want young children having an ensuite due to flooding/playing with water etc. ...

I'd go for option 1 too. We have an ensuite and I hate it, it's right by my side of the bed and you can't use the toilet in the night anyway, not right by someone's bed. It means our bedroom is too small, we can't fit all of our clothes into the one cupboard and one chest of drawers there is space for, and we have to edge around our (standard double) bed to get to my side.

That said, if it's two rooms in the same house rather than choosing between two houses, can't you try out one and swap if you don't like it?

If you have four bedrooms and one of them is small, you will always have the problem that one of the children has a bigger room than the other if you need to keep one of the four as a (presumably double) guest room. I really think your main consideration should be that you don't want a toddler on the floor below. Don't mean to be morbid but I would worry about the safety of having children on a floor below me. I think you have to have baby on the same floor as you for logistical reasons, and your toddler on the top floor.

We've bought the house and the rooms already exist like this.
Room 2 loses no space to ensuite as it's sort of to the side in landing space.
The floor space of the 2 is identical, its just slightly less usable space in room 2 du to sloping ceilings, but they don't come right to the floor, more like to shoulder height. This room has a built in wardrobe.

If toddler gets spare ensuite we'll put a latch on the door at adult head height until he's old enough to be trusted with taps

We considered idea of using smaller ensuite room for DD and shipping her out when we have guests, but that won't really work as I doubt the inlaws will want to sleep in her cotbed

I find en suites grim and noisy. I'd go for better room sizes.

DCs have their own bathroom and I have my own ensuite. I'd choose that option every day of the week if we had to move; I love having a little bit of space that's just mine, even if it's tiny.

We've never had problems with the DCs bathroom; when DS2 was very small and we took the side off his cot we just popped a stair gate across his door of their ensuite (it has two doors; one from each DCs bedroom) to stop him getting into mischief. He's 5 now and never got up to anything more serious than miss the loo when he pees.

caitlin what are the safety issues of toddler on the floor below as opposed to above?
We'll have stair gates and we'll keep using a baby monitor until we're convinced he's old enough to be sensible when he wakes

My dream is to store my clothes in my bedroom!

We have an en suite which I rarely use. It's the original fittings and rather tatty. I'm by the main door anyway so when I was doing night feeds and maintenance in our first years of living here, it was easier going to the main bathroom.

I like lighter.

I had no idea there were people who didn't like ensuites!
I love mine

I'd make the large bedroom in the attic with the en suite a guest room, put your DS in the smaller bedroom in the attic for now and your daughter in the little room on the same floor as you (in the big airy room). I see no advantage to having an ensuite in your own house (if there's only 2 bedrooms per floor it's not like you have to move far to get to your own bathroom) but for guests it's great for privacy. You might want to swap your kids about when they get older. Or would it be possible to even out the sizes of the bedrooms in the attic so both kids could be up there eventually (depending on the layout maybe with a jack and jill bathroom instead of 2 ensuites).

Big airy room for me. I have a teenager though, and my ideal would be adults to have the big room and family bathroom, DD to have an ensuite room upstairs. Guests have the smaller ensuite room upstairs.

Bigger bedroom every time. Who wants to be sleeping near a toilet - which you generally are with builders shoehorning ensuites into rooms that weren't that big to start with.

Bigger bedroom. I had an en suite in old house, it was very nice but I dont miss it that much.
Slopy ceiling would put me off more, my old bedroom had this and at first I loved it. I always had a thing for sloping ceilings, but it was stifling in summer and the rain would be really loud on the roof, louder than in my current "normal" bedroom.

I like having a big bedroom and don't miss having an en-suite.

I could move us all around so we have a smaller bedroom with en-suite, but gave that to one of my daughters.

dulce the ensuite isn't taken out of the bedroom area, its to one side behind the landing so toilet not that close

bertsdinner i am worried that it might be too hot under the roof. It's a modern house though ( built 2008) so should be well insulated. I hadn't thought about the rain thing though!

En-suite every time. Our DC are 13 and 11 and the older they've got the more we've appreciated having an en-suite ( think teenagers/ sleepovers etc).
I'm up to the loo in the night too, so I absolutely want to be near a toilet. No need to put the light on so no lights, fans, etc.
As long as bedroom storage space isn't a problem, en-suite all the way.

Marsaday, old house was a modern townhouse, built 2011. It was hot in summer and cold in winter.
To be fair, it wasnt the best built house in the world, local builder and had a lot of faults. Think it was badly/cheaply built to be honest so other sloping ceilings may be fine.

I hate ensuites, having to try to pee quietly, never mind anything else.

I'd put a shower over the bath and keep the en suite room as guest room.

If the ensuite is the on,y shower, guests and children will end up suing but anyway.

Suing but?? using it, that should have been