WWYD? Two bed with upstairs bathroom or Three bed with downstairs bathroom?

[fatnfrumpy]

This is our new renovation project.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-39337991.html
We aim to spend the next four months doing it up to sell.
WWYD our options are to have a -:
two bedroom house with upstairs bathroom. This option means loseing bedroom three, making bedroom two smaller by having a stud wall corridor to bathroom at back. Plus point we could have one large kitchen/diner and WC downstairs.
Three bed with bathroom downstairs. Bedroom two made smaller with corridor to bedroom three. Bedroom one made smaller with small en-suite shower and wc.
We are hoping to make 20k in resale so want to take the option whereby it makes the house worth more. Although if it makes it more saleable thats good too.
We also plan to -:
New DG windows throughout
New dampproof course,
French doors from Reception two into garden.
New kitchen with intregated appliences, block up back door so using french doors instead.
New interior doors,
Carpet or engineered oak and decorate throughout.
Remove gas fires and surrounds and open up fires either open or wood burners
What do you all think?

The only advice I would give you, if you intend selling after doing the house up is do your research first of all. If you have paid X for this 3 bed house what are your costs going to be on top of what you have paid for it ? There will be your ongoing costs of living, the money you will spend doing the place up and a sum for any contingencies . If your target market is families, I would go with an upstairs bathroom and a WC downstairs. Even though you are hoping to make £20k after you have done it up, there is no guarantee that you will achieve that, so have you spoken to estate agents in the area to see who their clients are and what they are after ? Lastly, work on the house with your head and not your heart as you say you want to sell, so no over the top purchases .

With that layout I'd go for a bathroom upstairs. In my mind there aren't really 3 bedrooms to start with as one is effectively a corridor so you're not losing a bedroom

I fI was putting in oak floors and woodburners etc I would expect more than 20k profit!have you researched as the works you plan will be quite expensive and time consuming for the profit you are wanting. Can you do 2 beds plus bathroom upstairs and study somewhere? I have done this a few times and study very popular if well done and no room for bed 3

Bathroom upstairs in bed 3 poss with small walk through computer area before bathroom door.
Cheaper floors than oak - you aren't going to be living there.
Large kitchen diner & wc downstairs
Spend money blocking up back door only if it gives much better kitchen layout
Can't see side elevation so not sure if you need new front door - or could build a small porch for better kerb appeal, bit more space?

I often watch Homes Under the Hammer (yes I know ) and downstairs bathrooms are a no-no.

Buyers don't want downstairs bathrooms admittedly however we bought house with downstairs bathroom reluctantly as we needed to move and there was bugger all else for sale, have been very pleasantly suprised- means kids can be in bath while I'm cooking tea and supervising so don't have to camp upstairs. Also concrete floor means they can splash as much as they want and i dont need to worry about rotten floorboards. We fitted a loo in a cupboard upstairs though as no way would want to go downstairs in middle of night. We are getting our loft done making ours a 4bed with downstairs bathroom which may affect resale but if space for a loo and sink upstairs you will find buyers many happy with that as extra bedroom plus wee in night solved and if yo market it to young families with benefit of downstairs bathroom explained then to will be fine!

I think that you will need to remove the chimney breast in bedroom 2 in order to create a realistically wide enough to access bedroom 3 if they are as deep as shown. That's quite a pricey job and may require party wall awards.

I think it's really hard to achieve a satisfactory layout when the stairs run up the central wall of a house as these ones do. Have any of your neighbours redesigned the layout? Can you ask to look round and see how they have located bathroom/third bedroom?

I agree lala you need to check out the neighbours as it may be the case that people buying in this area expect d/s bathroom and know before viewing. A toilet upstairs is a plus though. Do you have a floor plan?

The floorplan is on the rightmove link

Have seen it now sorry! You d need chimney out it would make a huge difference.

YY everything LadyCurd said.

Do you need new windows? According to the description, the double glazing is quite new and from the photos it looks ok.

Just checked layout and your layout is same as ours re. Stairs up middle- is there space for a WC and sink on landing at top of stairs? That's where ours is we didn't need to move doors there was a deep cupboard there, the upstairs layout is tricky, bedroom 3 having to be accessed by bedroom two is a pain and not worth making a corridor as bedroom two loses so much space. I'd say for a conversion and resale with aim of profit, just change bedroom 3 to bathroom/ensuite

Thx all.
The DG is in actual fact single glazed, though why they paid for single not double is beyond me, Plus estate agent should have noticed!!
Doing research on neighbouring roads the price difference between 2 or 3 beds is about £3,000!!
I am going more on having a really long kitchen /dinner and downstairs loo.

Are you sure the windows are single-glazed? It's quite hard to get single-glazed windows now and against the regs for a supplier to provide them.

I would put downstairs toilet and utility where the bathroom currently is

From the description

"In recent years the boiler has been replaced and there is also double glazing throughout the house"

Certainly looks like double glazing to me

I think the bathroom could become a study with shelves Keep the loo and fit the kitchen really well and try and integrate it with the dining room using similar woods flooring etc

I'd prefer an upstairs bathroom and downstairs WC and utility room, with room to put up the drying rack.

I think the costs in removing the chimney to get the upstairs corridor in are going to sway your decision.

Best of luck op- just make sure the works you do are really necessary.
E.g. Does it really need a new damp proof course? From the photos it does look like double glazing as well?

I think I'd also prefer access to the garden from the kitchen (purely for the mess of dogs etc)

Could you close off the back door from the kitchen and put a back door in where the window is next to the downstairs loo? That would give you a bit more space in the kitchen for something... more countertop? pantry? big fridge?

We had a house just like this but no downstairs bathroom. The third bedroom had been made a bathroom and was way too big for a house that size. We turned the back part of the bathroom into a bathroom with a much more compact layout (bath on one wall and toiled and sink on the other) and then made an upstairs utility room with a washer/dryer with countertop (we used it as a desk as short of space) and cupboards above for detergent and linens. It was a really useful layout and people loved the upstairs utility when they viewed the house. If you did this you could make a study/guest room downstairs where the bathroom is.

Removing chimney not that expensive if you drop woodburers and oak floors they are not necessary in a development of that £. Windows ok too If there is only 3k between 2/3 beds ten I think 20k profit might be unrealistic as we are in a down turn. Is this a one off or are you thinking of a career in this?

Sausagedog27, unfortunatly we do have to sort out the damp proof as the survey came back that the party wall has rising damp! The vendor has agreed to pay half of the £5,000 quote we have had including replastering etc.
Also on the survey and on the guarantee supplied by the vendor in 2007 the windows were replaced with UPVC single glazed windows.
We bought for £170,000, hope to resell for £225,000 which is what other similar houses on the estate were sold for in 2012.
Our budget is £20,000 and we expect to do most of the work ourselves. We have an spark, plumber and plasterer on board that we used on our rental renovations last year.
This is the first one we are doing up to sell. We hope to have it ready by May.
Will update with pics when we get going in mid Feb.

Get several quotes for the damp proofing - they can vary drastically in price and where they find it.

Are the other houses selling as 2 bed or 3 bed? There can be a big difference in the type of buyer between the two house sizes. If you moved the bathroom upstairs, you would have to retain some space for a downstairs loo, anyhow, so that would limit what you would be able to do with the space released - possibly turn it into a futility room with good storage.

The 3rd bedroom coming off another one is going to be a problem for some buyers. It would be just as much of a problem if it was the only bathroom - someone would have to walk through someone else's bedroom to go to the loo in the night. That would rule out 2 adults wanting to buy the house as a share. It would be more practical as a family house with 3 bedrooms, even with that layout.

And I agree with others that you don't want to add in expensive fixtures and fittings.

I've never heard of single glazed uPVC windows- they wouldn't have passed building regulations even in 2007. What were the owners thinking?!