To consider this house with no family bathroom?

[Erisbo]

We have two dds, currently in year 4 and year 1.

We need to move house in the near future, as while both our dds are currently at a lovely primary school, our catchment secondary school that every child on our current street gets allocated has a very bad reputation and is currently rated inadequate.

We're considering one house, a stone's throw from the secondary we'd love our dds to go to, that has been on the market for quite a while. The reason it's been so hard to sell is, we suspect, because the layout of bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs is rather odd.

The crux of the issue is that there is no family bathroom, and the bedrooms/bathrooms are very unequally sized.

On the top floor, there is:
- A massive master bedroom (1), with a huge ensuite (two sinks, a loo, bath, huge shower)
- A big bedroom (2) with an ensuite (bath with shower attachment, loo, sink)
- A small to medium sized bedroom (3)
- A tiny box bedroom (4)
- A tiny box bathroom with a loo, sink & shower squeezed in

Obviously, if we lived there, dh and I would take the master bedroom, but the issue would be which bedrooms/bathrooms our dds would use.

We were thinking we'd probably do it like this:
Dd1 in bedroom 2, and dd2 in bedroom 3. Dd1 would use the ensuite attached to bedroom 2, while dd2 would have baths in our ensuite while she's still little, and then when she's older would have sole use of the tiny box bathroom, with the option of baths in our room if she wanted them.

Mumsnetters with older children - once dd2 is a teenager, is she likely to resent the fact that dd1 has a much bigger room, with a decent sized ensuite, while dd2 would have a smaller room and the use of a non ensuite tiny bathroom?

Should we take the fact that the house has been on the market for so long as a sign, and leave it alone?

I only have one, tiny bathroom in my house. I'm sure they'd manage.

As PPs have said, I would either have the two girls sharing the room with the ensuite, or have that room as a big playroom and both girls use this, while both having small bedrooms to sleep in.

I was always in the box room and I thought it was unfair that my sister had a big room with double bed, two wardrobes and desk and I had a single bed, tiny built in wardrobe and literally nothing else.

Though one daughter having the big ensuite room, and he other having the other two bedrooms and tiny bathroom would seem fair as well.

Crikey...when you said no family bathroom I thought you meant literally.

You are agonising over 3 bathrooms.

We have one small bathroom for 4 of us too - and my 12 and 13 year old girls share a room. It's what we had to do for the good school and decent area. If you like the house, go for it.

Three bathrooms for 4 people sounds plenty. I don't think it really matters that the bathroom isn't big enough for you to consider it a 'family' bathroom.

“Obviously, if we lived there, dh and I would take the master bedroom”

Maybe you coild consider being a bit more flexible. Children spend more time in their bedrooms than adults.

Personally I would give the girls the master bedroom, take the big bedroom for yourselves, have the smallish room as a guest room and the box room could be your walk-in wardrobe.

You don’t have to make rigid decisions about who uses which bathroom. When mine were still at home, they all preferred to use the shower in my en-suite because it was bigger and better than the one in the main bathroom whereas I often use the main bathroom because I like a bath.

Your oldest might get possessive of the en-suite in her bedroom and not want her younger sister to use it, but they are still both very young and you can bring them up to understand that all bathrooms are for everyone and then look at it again when they are older and starting to want privacy.

How much easier it was when every man and his dog didn't expect an ensuite.

Floor plan will make this easier but if feasible I'd make the two boxrooms into one bedroom.

Another option not raised could be to make DC share huge master suite until they are a bit older and you and your husband go to bed 2. Bed 3 & 4 would be for guests.

Do you really want three bathrooms upstairs? Think of the cleaning!

Depending on the layout, could you re-jig the layout to lose the tiny bathroom, but end up with a family bathroom and three bedrooms instead? Ignoring the master bedroom and bathroom in that re-jig.

Think carefully before committing to purchasing a house that has been on the market for a long time due to a poor layout not making it appealing to its target market.

Unless you are planning on living there forever or can adjust the layout to a more marketable one, you are likely to experience the exact same issues about desirability when you want to move on.

I'd have the two girls in the largest room, you get the second largest and the third largest is the guest room. Knock the boxroom into the bathroom to make that bathroom bigger.

I think we definitely need the floorplan before we can properly say. But if the box room and bathroom are next to each other I'd knock through to make a big bathroom.

If feasible, I would keep the large bedroom for guests, and have the smaller ones for the girls. (My DC never play in their rooms) but it depends on how you use the space I suppose.

Our bedrooms vary greatly in size and it is a contentious issue with dc3 who has the smallest (box) room while her eldest sibling has a massive room. It was the only 4 bed on the market when we needed to buy one, so although I loved it (the downstairs space is perfect for us) I knew the bedrooms situation would cause an issue at some point.
If you don’t need all the bedrooms, I’d be knocking some walls down and making a room bigger in this situation I think.

Does the master en-suite touch the upstairs hallway at any point? If so you could divide it into two bathrooms (as it's huge) and put a door onto the hallway.

I would say that location is the most important. You can probably do a fair bit of re-jigging with the help of a good architect.

Sleeping bedrooms - one each for each girl using the smallest rooms.

Use the big bedroom as a shared space, initially playroom but as they get older a teen den, tv room or study. Could have a sofa bed for guests too.

“Another option not raised could be to make DC share huge master suite until they are a bit older and you and your husband go to bed 2.”

I raised it. So did TimeIHadANameChange.

I would have a short consultation with an architect to explore your options in adjusting the current layout of rooms, it would seem to be money well spent rather than ruling the house out because of the current arrangement. Also if you can adjust it to be more attractive a spaces for you it will be more attractive to buyers if you want to sell it in the future. Can you negotiate on price due to the work you would want to do and based on the length of time it has been on the market?
Maybe it's been on the market for a while because other buyers have lacked vision of how it could be?

I don't really this as a problem OP. I'm sure you could make it work for you all.

Are you sure there's not another reason why it's not sold?

I just need to point out that the 4 of you would have 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, which is MUCH more than what most people in the world have.

I'd convert the box room.

buy it, rejig layout, get them into the school, sell it at a profit.

DeadGood. Obviously cross-posted and not as quick at sending in a reply but thank goodness the time line proves how quick thinking you are...