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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To wonder why MN hates en-suites?

414 replies

Greenbluestar · 21/01/2022 08:25

Just curious 🤨

OP posts:
Grasping · 21/01/2022 13:57

We pinched an adjoining bedroom for ours
I absolutely love it.

spongbob · 21/01/2022 13:57

@lagerandcigars

When do you live *@spongbob* that people are bragging about a conservatory, a patio or a corner sofa - the 1970's? Are they bragging about their Ford Cortina too?

Nice hyperbole. I live in London and had a flat in Canary Wharf. I'm just giving my opinion that these places are marketed as bounce and fancy but are just a bragging right - I was definitely taken in by it.

But yes, let's use a straw man. In the nicest way possible, my rent is around the same as you're mortgage on your 6 bed house with 6 ensuites.

I understand it's upsetting when you spend so much money and people aren't impressed by it :-(

Grasping · 21/01/2022 13:59

I haven’t got mine to impress.
I mean, no-one sees it but us.

People have fancy cars to impress, not en-suites!

curlydiamond · 21/01/2022 14:00

We have a large bedroom so put an ensuite in, the shower cubicle is where there had been a poky built in wardrobe that was of little use due to the design. Not lost much of our room, love love love it. So do the kids though unfortunately, each morning there's a battle for who uses our ensuite and who uses the family bathroom to shower.
We only have a shower, sink unit and towel rail though - no toilet. I'm perfectly happy walking across the landing if I need the loo at night, hate staying in a hotel room where using the loo for a bowel movement means the bedroom stinks and I certainly wasn't going to put up with it in my own home.
I know it's normal bodily functions and I'm not embarrased about saying 'might want to give it a minute' before someone else uses the bathroom, but that doesn't mean it's weird that I don't want to smell /hear those functions and I don't expect DH wants to either. Would definitely miss our enuite shower and sink if we moved.

spongbob · 21/01/2022 14:00

@ShirleyPhallus

If it doesn't apply let it fly. I have no idea who you are, maybe your island is nice and fits well. In my experience they don't fit in ordinary places that is peasants live in.

They suit more open houses like in America, not a poky semi in Britain, especially not a compact new build (that's where ensuites are being built)

Once again, I'm sorry you spent money on something that I, an internet stranger, am not impressed by.

MajorCarolDanvers · 21/01/2022 14:01

We've got 2 in our house and love them.

PinkiePonk · 21/01/2022 14:02

I don't like them! The thought of hearing your partner go a metre or two away from you whilst you try to sleep makes me 🤮
I thought most people loved them though.

Although, if you're pregnant an en-suite is handy!

Grasping · 21/01/2022 14:05

@PinkiePonk

I don't like them! The thought of hearing your partner go a metre or two away from you whilst you try to sleep makes me 🤮 I thought most people loved them though.

Although, if you're pregnant an en-suite is handy!

The thought? Never had one then.

Surely you don’t mean go for a wee. I can’t imagine what sort of sex life you have if that makes you 🤮. Do people get up for a shit in the night? I certainly wouldn’t use the en-suite then.

spongbob · 21/01/2022 14:06

@Grasping

I haven’t got mine to impress. I mean, no-one sees it but us.

People have fancy cars to impress, not en-suites!

Some people take their bathrooms very seriously here. But I mean, it's not the kind of thing you bring up in casual conversation ("hi, I'm Sheila, I have 3 bathrooms, what's your name?") but it is definitely a status symbol in some capacity.

Number of bedrooms and bathrooms is an indication of purchasing power and wealth.

5128gap · 21/01/2022 14:10

Snobbery. Associated with new builds, (which in turn are associated with well off WC) and less commonly found in the 'period properties' they see as socially superior.

Grasping · 21/01/2022 14:13

Really @Spongebob?

Not in my world. I’m not even sure I know how many bathrooms or bedrooms my friends have. It doesn’t even come up in conversation. Although I found out last week that a friend I see every week owns 2 other properties.

We pinched a bedroom to make a bathroom, so lost and gained. I wonder if this put me up or down a notch

ShirleyPhallus · 21/01/2022 14:17

[quote spongbob]@ShirleyPhallus

If it doesn't apply let it fly. I have no idea who you are, maybe your island is nice and fits well. In my experience they don't fit in ordinary places that is peasants live in.

They suit more open houses like in America, not a poky semi in Britain, especially not a compact new build (that's where ensuites are being built)

Once again, I'm sorry you spent money on something that I, an internet stranger, am not impressed by. [/quote]
I think you’re do better focusing less on other people’s home interior and more on that enormous chip on your shoulder

AutumnAlmanack · 21/01/2022 14:18

Because I really do not want to hear people urinating and defecating just feet away from where I am warm and cosy in bed, as well as the resultant smells!

BintheZoflora · 21/01/2022 14:18

I’d bloody love an en suite 😂

AnaBananas · 21/01/2022 14:22

I had one built in our new house. I used to have one before and loved it.

TatianaBis · 21/01/2022 14:31

@AutumnAlmanack

Because I really do not want to hear people urinating and defecating just feet away from where I am warm and cosy in bed, as well as the resultant smells!
You realise some people have large houses right?
toddlerdanger · 21/01/2022 14:36

@5128gap

Snobbery. Associated with new builds, (which in turn are associated with well off WC) and less commonly found in the 'period properties' they see as socially superior.
New builds are associated with wealthy WC ? Really ? Hadn't heard that before !
2bazookas · 21/01/2022 14:39

We love ours.

toddlerdanger · 21/01/2022 14:41

@PinkiePonk

I don't like them! The thought of hearing your partner go a metre or two away from you whilst you try to sleep makes me 🤮 I thought most people loved them though.

Although, if you're pregnant an en-suite is handy!

We have had en suites for ages. It's about etiquette isn't it...

You don't go in there and do a stinky poo while your partner is watching telly in the bedroom. A quick wee with the tap on, is not a problem.

It also depends how big your room is. Our bedroom is massive and the bathroom is far away, but my DH is not allowed to do number 2 in there while I'm around. He uses one of the other bathrooms for that and so do I, unless I'm alone in the house.

It's absolutely revolting to poo in your en-suite while someone is around. Just use the family bathroom and for gods sake, Close the door after... my DH frequently forgets to do that. I don't understand men sometimes. They're so gross.

TatianaBis · 21/01/2022 14:42

I think we can add poo issues to food issues as MN most common problems.

OliviaBond · 21/01/2022 14:42

Nothing wrong with an en-suite but it does annoy me when they've crammed one in a 3 bed house yet the main bedroom isn't even big enough to get a wardrobe in. Or they go the other way and you get a 4/5 bed house with 3 en suites a family bathroom and a cloakroom. Who wants to clean all that Confused

2bazookas · 21/01/2022 14:42

@AutumnAlmanack

Because I really do not want to hear people urinating and defecating just feet away from where I am warm and cosy in bed, as well as the resultant smells!
Sorry, sleeping in your bath doesn't count as having an ensuite.

Our ensuite has a door between it and the bedroom; the door has hinges, handle, a lock and every thing. No noises, no smells.

BarbaraofSeville · 21/01/2022 14:43

@5128gap

Snobbery. Associated with new builds, (which in turn are associated with well off WC) and less commonly found in the 'period properties' they see as socially superior.
You're probably right.

Especially when you then get descriptions of 'acceptable' en-suites, which invariably involves descriptions of rooms so large and well appointed, they're probably bigger than our bedrooms, let alone the only family bathroom. In houses like those, an en-suite is seen as necessary because the house bathroom is 'a trek' away.

5128gap · 21/01/2022 14:46

toddlerdanger, I hadn't either until I learned it from MN! New build estates have white vans on the drives and early Christmas decorations up, and this means they are WC.

WombatChocolate · 21/01/2022 14:49

Haha. Loving the snobbery idea and new builds being associated with well off working class.

There’s definitely something in that. The well educated from middle class backgrounds do tend to like the older established roads, rather than new build estates which are on the edge of town and in less established areas. Yes, those older areas have houses which aren’t built with en-suites and so whilst one might be squeezed in or a loft conversion done which includes one, you won’t be getting 3 bathrooms in many standard size houses.

People who don’t like them and argue for a 2nd family bathroom instead, are often picturing their larger, period houses with the bedrooms on one floor. They aren’t thinking of the new build town house with 1 bedroom in the loft with limited headspace in much of it, where an en-suite means no trekking downstairs to the loo in the middle of the night.

It’s not that people don’t like 2nd bathrooms or 3rd bathrooms. It’s that’s they often prefer larger 2nd family bathrooms. If it was a choice if just 1 loo in the house vs 2 loos where one was in an en-suite, they’d go for the en-suite. The critics often forget that many people don’t have the space to go for an alternative and if they want 2 loos or 2 shower rooms, an en-suite is the only way to make it happen easily.