No bathroom

[GiBlues]

DH and I are thinking of building a 2 storey extension on our house which will mean all 4 bedrooms we have now will be bigger as well as adding 2 extra en-suites. So 4 bedrooms, 3 en suites.

DH has suggested we do away with the main bathroom and make that a 4th en-suite so everyone has their own bathroom. I’m not sure as I think it seems odd not to have a main bathroom although we do have a downstairs toilet for visitors so the main bathroom would only be used by the person in the 4th bedroom.

Would love opinions on what we should do:

YABU for no main bathroom and YANBU for keeping the main bathroom

That mock up looks ideal @bridgetreilly if you don't need a guest bedroom you could knock down the wall between bedrooms 3 & 4 and then everyone has a bigger room.

The girls can share a bathroom and DS has his own, they don't need individual bathrooms.

Personally I would rather have more bedrooms than bathrooms, I think having every room as en suite is just OTT and would keep the family bathroom. Who wants to clean that many bathrooms!

En Suites are grim. I wouldn't even consider a house that didn't have a separate bathroom.

I've heard of someone who thinks indoor toilets are disgusting, he can't believe that some people shit in the same building where they prepare their food and eat. (Ancient American in an unmodernised house built in the era when it was normal for the toilet to be in an outhouse.)

I think some people have very odd views, based on insufficient exposure to the modern world.

Literally the only difference that necessarily exists between an en-suite and a separate bathroom that isn't is that you don't have to walk through a shared corridor to get to an en-suite. Being smaller, not having windows, smelly, damp, are literally faults any bathroom can have, when compared to another.

You can argue that being directly connect to the bedroom means it's easier to release smells and steam into the bedroom, but that's not a problem I've ever come across in the eight en-suites I've experienced in my life. Perhaps this is a problem with en-suites in conversions, I have no experience of those. The ones I've used were always built-in when the house was first built.

I do have a windowless en-suite in my London flat, it is identical in size, facilities and quality to the (also windowless) main bathroom, and doesn't release anything into the bedroom. The door is on rising butt hinges, so will mostly close itself even if I didn't deliberately close it behind me. It also has an extractor with a humidity sensor that runs on high setting for up to two hours after a shower, and on low-setting 24 hours a day otherwise, so the air is always as fresh as any bathroom with a window I've ever used. (Actually, the air is better than some windowed bathrooms...)

We have two en-suite (one jack and jill) a downstairs loo and a main bathroom (all have their own windows). The main bathroom never gets used as we all prefer showers. I’ve considered making it into another bedroom.

When we were all teenagers at home there would of been arguments if 2 siblings had a bathroom and one had to use the 'family' bathroom I think just all have an en suit you have a downstairs bathroom and when kids leave home can always use them for guests to stay then :) x

Am I the only one reading this thinking how awful to have all those bathrooms to clean?!

I used to be an estate agent OP. O think that's four en-suites and no family bathroom would put off some potentials with young families. Some people wouldn't like the idea of a toddler having an en-suite, also I think many people would prefer to be able to bath little ones in a main bathroom, rather than the ensure of the master bedroom (otherwise your en-suite effectively becomes a family bathroom, filled with bath toys, etc, rather than being a nice place for your to relax).

I suppose I should add that an en-suite isn't necessarily directly connected to a main bedroom, so even if that were a disadvantage, it's not intrinsic. You can have a dressing room/walk-through cupboard between the two, thus potentially putting two doors between the bedroom and the en-suite. Make the toilet separate from the main bathroom, so you pass through the main bathroom to get to it, and you have three doors compensating for the lack of a decent toilet extractor fan.

I cant stand en suites - the thought of shitting in what is essentially the corner of your bedroom - worse - your partner shitting in the corner. at least with a main bathroom you can leave and go and get ready for work, each having bathroom space at the same time - you cant do that if you had 4 occupied ensuite bedrooms,

I would want a main bathroom too. If you don't have one, where do you bath the dog?

So yes - what bridget has mocked up is exactly what I’d do, possibly knocking through bedrooms 3 & 4 and reconfiguring the bathroom to be bigger. Then DS gets bedroom 5.
If you only need 4 rooms, and you’ll have an extra space downstairs guests can sleep in at a pinch? I’d go for 4 beds.

bridgetreilly I agree with you. We have a similar configuration - in fact we changed an en-suite bathroom to a bathroom which was accessible from the main landing and changed the main bathroom to a shower room with full length shower. That means we have 5 bedrooms that can all access 2 bathrooms and 1 which has an en-suite. We also have a downstairs toilet and could, (if it was ever needed) convert that to a shower room by knocking through into a cupboard next to the dowstairs loo.

Be careful what you wish for OP. I remember when our extension was completed and I gained bathroom number 3 that I very quickly wished I still only had 2 bathrooms when it came to cleaning. I also seem to spend endless amounts of time and money on stocking all the bathrooms with toileteries and toilet rolls.

We have this, 3 en-suite and one guest wc in the utility room. No one who visits thinks it's odd.

Oh and only one has a bath and a shower, the other two just have a shower. Once my youngest is a bit older we'll get rid of the bath as the rest of us only use showers. I would put the bath back in if we ever decide to sell as I know that many want a bath in a house. We've got a hot tub so if I use that to chill out in so don't use the bath.

we Haven’t had any guests stay over for over a year, and when we do we have an inflatable mattress we can put in the lounge for me and DH and give the guest our room but as I say it’s very rare anyone stays over. Which is why I hadn’t considered adding another bedroom.

It has never once occurred to me that anyone would consider an en suite grim. If you were very unwell in a bathroom way, wouldn’t it be easier?!

I think en-suites are massively grim. I don’t want to shit in the corner of my bedroom.

Unless the extension is adding a 5th bedroom and another useful downstairs living space, you will spend more on the extension than any increase in value. The price of a 4-bed with 2 bathrooms is not much different from a 4-bed with 4 bathrooms. Too many people won’t want the extra bathrooms to clean or plumbing worries that come with them.

also if, like me, you live in a small flat, the bathroom is going to be next door to a bedroom, a kitchen, a lounge....if next to a bedroom, the only difference is where the door is?

I'm all for an en-suite so long as everyone cleans their own. But I would rather have an extra bedroom so people can stay over if necessary. It's hardly ideal for you and your DH to sleep in the lounge.

Yeah I hadn’t thought about cleaning 5 toilets

We don't have a main bathroom. We have en-suites for the 3 bedrooms and a downstairs toilet. Works fine for us.

Proper en-suites are convenient. I love ours for its convenience and privacy. However, I do agree that cleaning extra bathrooms isn't an appealing prospect, and if you stay in the home after the children have left, you might want to use one or two rooms for other purposes, in which case the extra bathroom will be one more thing to clean and a waste of space.

I don't think there's a right or a wrong answer, really.

We have 4 bedrooms, all en-suite, all en-suite have windows. And a house bathroom (but I don't know why?) Plus a downstairs loo too. Works perfectly. All bedrooms have dressing rooms too. I wouldn't change a thing. Everyone loves their privacy.

I would keep a general bathroom so if you (or a future homeowner) has a party or people staying over on couches in the living room etc (teenagers friends etc) there is a second loo/proper bathroom that they can use without going through a bedroom.