To move the family bathroom downstairs?

[letsjustdothis]

We've seen our dream property after years of looking...it's beautifully secluded, architect designed, and even within our budget, but the problem is, the eaves make the top floor feel a lot smaller than it is.

This looks okay for the bedrooms but the "main" bathroom has a tinier than average bath with attached shower head and a toilet and sink crammed in, and no storage options. It doesn't actually have a terrible footprint on the plans but in reality feels tiny and extremely claustrophobic because the ceiling height is incredibly low (part of the room is effectively lower than knee height) and there's no window (no idea how the extraction/fresh air works, if at all...).

I just don't think it's viable at all, but we love the rest of the house.

We could change the smallest bedroom into the bathroom instead, but then it would only be a 2 bed house which I think is too few bedrooms for its size (currently 2,000 sq ft on paper).

I was thinking we could just knock the bathroom through to the smallest bedroom instead and use it for a dressing area/cupboard storage, as closing off one of the doors would also increase the amount of usable ceiling height space for that bedroom.

And put a family bathroom downstairs off the sitting room (which is a decent sized second reception room with one tiny window). The house is very open plan with a big hallway, so I don't think it would look out of place.

Both my partner and I love a big bathroom, and he likes to have late baths, so there would also be the advantage that he wouldn't wake me up. And if there was a leak or something (as happened in our current house), it wouldn't wreck a ceiling. Plus some potential buyers may appreciate a downstairs bathroom for accessibility needs, although we would really like it to be our forever home so it may be practical even for us in the future.

The master bedroom upstairs has a small ensuite, so there would still be some kind of bathroom up there.

There's also a small cloakroom downstairs with just a toilet and sink, but I don't think there's the space next to that room to make it into a full bathroom.

We can't knock through the ensuite and bathroom to make a normal sized bathroom with a window because there's an old chimney in between the two.

So it seems like building a small extension for a family sized bathroom could make sense. The space where it would be built is currently part of a (long) flat paved driveway so we don't need it, and it's not at all visible from the street, plus there are tall electric gates so no one can see in.

That said, I'm reading that having a downstairs bathroom is really undesirable and knocks a lot of value off the property. I've been googling but a lot of situations seem to be where it's the only bathroom/toilet in the property, or where you have to walk through the kitchen to get to it. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on this specific situation.

UK based, if that's relevant.

YABU = you wouldn't buy your dream property if it had the main bathroom downstairs and just an ensuite upstairs.

YANBU = doesn't bother you because there's a toilet and shower upstairs and it would be better to have a nice family bathroom even if downstairs.

Do you have a floor plan? How many are in your family and is it likely to expand?

I wouldn’t buy a house with the main bathroom on the ground floor, unless it was a bungalow. And definitely not a bathroom off the sitting room.

But if this is your dream “forever” house presumably you plan to live in it for a significant period of time- in which case you should do whatever you want and that suits your lifestyle. I wouldn’t be worried about resale if I intended to live in it for a couple of decades.

This is the floor plan and it's just me and my partner, no plans to expand. We have friends/family visit a lot so do a lot of entertaining, but they don't stay over often.

https://www.imghippo.com/i/PZMOY1721991747.jpg

More interested to hear if we ever wanted to sell in future, whether it would put families off as we have no experience in that area and imagine it's most likely a family would be buying it from us!

I never understand people who frown on a downstairs bathroom. After all waking hours using the loo are longer than overnight!!
Go for your downstairs bathroom op. Sounds like a fabulous plan. And who wouldn't want a dressing room?

I wouldn't want my main bathroom downstairs but I do also have a tiny main bathroom so can understand the desire to utilise a bigger space.

Do what works for you if you plan to be there for ages / ever.

Who will be using the family bathroom, if it's just you and dh, and you have an en suite?

Big disadvantage of a downstairs bathroom is lack of privacy. eg when one person wants to have a shower or bath, and go in and out of the bathroom in towel or dressing gown, and somebody else has visitors.

Could you get rid of the en-suite and knock through to make the main bathroom bigger instead?

I voted YABU before reading the update, but I still think it would be a mistake to get rid of the existing bathroom. I reckon: yes, absolutely put a big bathroom downstairs if you want one. But don't take out the upstairs bathroom. It'll be more expense do do the work upstairs as well as downstairs. When you come to sell, it would make it less appealing to a family to have the only upstairs toilet as an en suite. I don't want kids traipsing through my bedroom whenever they need a wee in the night! And as you don't have kids you don't really need the extra space upstairs as you already have two spare rooms up there. On the rare occasions you have guests, it'll be nicer for them to be able to go to the loo without going downstairs.

That's true.

We'd be using it for baths and probably most showers because the ensuite is tiny too. There is a reasonably big shower in there but the door opens right onto it.

My partner is planning to use the sitting room as a study so it would be "his" space from the perspective of visitors etc, so I think potentially it would be quite private. Day visitors could use the downstairs cloakroom. Or overnight visitors could potentially sleep in the sitting room on a sofa bed and use it as their own bathroom.

My bathroom is really close to the sitting room. I absolutely hate it so would advise against that.

I'd keep the upstairs one and make the small sitting room into a bathroom.

I don't think you can tell from the plans but the other two bedrooms can fit a double bed and side tables but nothing else; the eaves are so low/slanting there's no wardrobe height (unless you don't have a bed and have a wardrobe instead). The cupboard in each is pretty deep but not practical for clothes.

Oh interesting, why do you hate it?

I'm also very much open to other suggestions about how to fix the too small bathroom, any solution will do!!

We can't unfortunately, as there's an old (disused) chimney between the two and I think it would probably cost a fortune to remove.

Edit: actually now I'm wondering if it's shown on the plan and it's that shadowed bit behind, at the side of the bedroom, and not in between like I thought...

If you have to build an extension for a downstairs bathroom anyway, why wouldn’t you just build a two storey one and have the bathroom upstairs, using the ground floor space for a study or something?

Architect designed yet impractical? Surely not!

We can't knock through the ensuite and bathroom to make a normal sized bathroom with a window because there's an old chimney in between the two.
What's to stop you taking the chimney out?

I would whip the bath out of the upstairs bathroom leaving the toilet and basin so nobody has to come through your bedroom at night.

Extend the bedroom bottom left into that space - maybe a built in wardrobe?

I would definitely put a downstairs bathroom in that sitting room top right.

OH and I are in our 60s now and actively searching for a “now and in our old age” house. A spacious bathroom downstairs or somewhere to put one is high on our list. So it wouldn’t put us off at all!

Soz. Cross-posted.

As your ensuite and main bathroom are adjacent - could you block off the door in your bedroom and knock through between ensuite and bathroom ? With a bit of re-jigging there would be space of a full size bath with shower over. Then split off a proportion of combined ensuite-bathroom for a walk in storage area.

Because of the lack of privacy for everyone. If you're in the bathroom, the only one so the toilet is in there, visitors can hear. It can make people uncomfortable. If I move again, it's definitely a no-go. I rent, so I can't do much to fix it.

But since your sitting room will be a study, probably you'll be OK.

So is mine [ and it's the only one in the house]and it's fine, why would I worry about people knowing I went to the loo, it's not a cause for shame, what an uptight attitude - we all need to go.. Which is why all these threads end up being about personal taste and circumstance🤔

That's true.

Taking the chimney out is costly but may not be as bad as you think, especially if you’d be paying for an extension otherwise.

I’d look first at ways to improve the existing bathroom. Either knock through to ensuite, or add a dormer, or both. Even adding a large Velux could make a big difference.

I would also investigate combining the upstairs bathrooms into one main bathroom if the structure permits.