Downstairs bathroom off kitchen

[siluria]

Hi all. Apologies for long post!

My husband and I bought a house last year which we love - it's the middle of three Victorian houses that used to be two-up two-downs before they had extensions. Downstairs it has a really big open plan living room/dining room, an extension with a 15 x 9 foot kitchen in it, a little lobby with a door to the garden (there's also a door to the garden from the living room), and a small (4 x 6) downstairs loo/utility room.

The first floor used to have just two double bedrooms in it - front and back. But the back bedroom (which would be about 13 x 12) has been converted into a large bathroom and a landing area with the boiler in it and bookshelves. There's now also a fully-kitted out loft-conversion with proper staircase etc, and that room (which is our bedroom) is 17' x 12'. The front bedroom, also 13 x 12, is the same as it has always been, I guess. So we have two bedrooms and an upstairs bathroom + landing.

My husband has been offered his absolute dream job much closer to London, where I already work (I commute there - 1.5 hour commute each way and we have a 20-month-old DD and another baby on the way). There's no way he can pass this up as the opportunity just won't come around again. We can't rent the house (we'd lose £400 a month on the mortgage alone) and have 0% equity. When we were planning on staying, we always wanted to convert the house to 3 bedrooms, but had complicated renovation plans which would have been expensive and time-consuming.

So we have a quicker plan now for adding equity: simply to turn the downstairs loo/utility AND the little lobby area into a bathroom which would come directly off the kitchen (apparently it used to be this way - this would make the bathroom 8x6). And take out the upstairs bathroom, knock down the partition wall between it and the landing area, and thereby reinstate the lost bedroom. This would mean we had 3 double bedrooms and a downstairs bathroom off the kitchen. This is by far the cheapest option and we think it would add at least £20k to the value of the house, meaning we could sell, cover moving costs, and have a small sum left over to bank and begin saving for a new deposit. (We'll go into rented.)

My question is: does this sound like a sensible trade-off? All the rooms will be really good sizes, and I know downstairs bathrooms are pretty common in Victorian terraces of this layout, but downstairs bathrooms off the kitchen - how much of a drawback would that be to you if you loved everything else about a house? It's possible we could leave a toilet/sink ensuite in the back bedroom - would that make a difference?

[siluria]

Thanks magimedi. The thing is, we can't sell it as it is. It's in good order. But we have no equity. None. Maybe even slightly less than none. So we need to add equity somehow, and we have a lot of unused/unusable space.

On the loft-toilet thing, the only solution we can think of is to have an ensuite toilet/sink in the back bedroom - all the plumbing is already there (and the toilet is already there). It would mean cutting in another window, but it would at least mean that there was a toilet on the middle floor.

[HarderToKidnap]

I know the sort of house you mean, everyone I know round here lives in one and pretty much everyone has moved the bathroom upstairs and then converted the loft or made small boxroom upstairs. I'm another who would never look at a bathroom downstairs house and if I were to it would be with a view to moving the bathroom upstairs and my offer would reflect that. The master bedroom would be two flights of stairs away from a loo, it's not practical.

[Mintyy]

Siluria
I know they are common. I live in London where most of the housing stock is Victorian and when most bathrooms were fitted they were in a back extension off the kitchen.

I have also worked as an Estate Agent and I know that downstairs bathrooms are one of the most disliked features in a property. Is there any way you could create 3 bedrooms but keep a separate small cloakroom with just wc and basin upstairs?

[HarderToKidnap]

Could the loft convert to two bedrooms?

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

Ah, yes it seems that one door is fine for the way that building regs are applied now so that's good. It does look like to move a bathroom you need building control approval though.

What's the ventilation like in that area at the moment? Will it be sufficient?

What about the loss of the utility area? For a family home, that's pretty important in my opinion.

Will be very interesting to hear what the architect and estate agents say.

[ILikeBirds]

You'd also be losing an extra loo then, if you already have a downstairs toilet.

2 bed with upstairs bathroom and downstairs toilet and utility beats a 3 bed with downstairs bathroom only imo. Even more so when one of those bedrooms is an attic room.

[LadyKooKoo]

We have a Victorian terrace with two double bedrooms upstairs and a bathroom off the kitchen. There are loads of them like that in our area. We sold for £2k under the asking price within 3 days of it going on the market. It was on for more than £15k higher than three other houses on the road and also is the best price achieved on the road since 2008. Not everyone has a problem with downstairs bathrooms. However, saying all that, I would question whether an extra bedroom would add as much as £20k to the value so I would definitely recommend that you speak to several agents first.

[MinimalistMommi]

We have a victorian terrace, two reception rooms downstairs with very small galley kitchen in double height extension at back of house.

Two double bedrooms upstairs with bathroom in the top half of the double height extension.

With young children, I would never buy a house with bathroom downstairs as I would have to escort children downstairs who are scared of being downstairs alone at night time to use the bathroom.

[Mintyy]

I always think of d&v bugs when I see downstairs bathrooms off kitchens. Its bad enough trying to contain the spread of germs as it is. And anyone suffering from d would have to sleep downstairs incase they couldn't get to the loo on time. And anyone in the kitchen could hear all the activity going on in there. Nooooooooooooo!

[fussychica]

Not for me sorry.No kids but getting up in the night to go to the bathroom on another floor takes me back to living in a massive Victorian 4 storey house in London as a kid and having to come down three flights in the freezing cold to go to the loo.

[MortifiedAdams]

My home that I own has a bathroom off the kitchen and it doesnt bother me.one bit. However, it is a ground floor flat. If it were a house I never would have bought it. I like the bathroom to be on the same floor as the bedrooms as the majoroty of the time I spend in the house is evenings/nights.

[Iamcountingto3]

We have one of those Victorian houses where the bathroom is tacked on at the back next to the kitchen. It wasn't my first choice when we were moving, but there were so many of them in the market at our price point I stopped caring - and now I much prefer it to an upstairs bathroom.

That said, I think it depends on your local market as to whether you would really add 20k by doing this, so defn one to trust local EA on.

[georgedawes]

Have to say I wouldn't consider a house like this either.

[IHeartKingThistle]

We had a bathroom off the kitchen in our last house and I liked it BUT we also had a shower room upstairs. I couldn't have coped if it was the only bathroom.

Being able to bath the kids downstairs was awesome though, as was chucking the washing straight in the machine!

On balance, sadly I think you'll find it much harder to sell without an upstairs bathroom of some kind. We divided our second bedroom to make smaller bedroom and shower room. Could that work?

[MooncupGoddess]

Agree with everyone else re bathrooms off the kitchen. It's horrid going to the loo if there's someone cooking next door, and feels like a massive trek if you need the loo in the middle of the night.

However, if you have enough money to afford to move the bathroom, then surely you have enough money to cover the costs of selling the house?

[Magimedi]

I think the OP needs to make more money on the house to afford a move to a more expensive area??

I just hope that whatever you do does add equity - it's an odd market out there atm.

[petitdonkey]

Windowless bathrooms are really okay though - I would prefer that to a downstairs bathroom. My ensuite has no window and it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

[siluria]

ilikebirds we wouldn't be losing an extra loo if we kept a toilet/sink ensuite in the back bedroom.

We need to have equity in the house to sell it - it's too boring and complicated to go into but there it is. But I get the MN message loud and clear! Thank you all for your replies - has helped a lot.

[JuliaScurr]

bathroom downstairs is easier with small dc's
off kichen not so good - need extractor fan

[FireOverBabylon]

I woludn't convert the bathroom back into a bedroom. We rented a terrace with a bathroom off the kitchen. The stairs down to the ground floor were really steep if you're dashing to the loo in a morning, and visitors sitting in the kitchen can hear you having a wee. with little ones, I'd also be concerned about them dashing through the kitchen to the loo if you're cooking. At least with an upstairs bathroom, you can say "I've got hot fat on a tray here, please don't come through the kitchen until I tell you" or whatever.

[ILikeBirds]

Keeping the ensuite is a slightly different proposition.

What is the layout in the majority of the houses in the street? It's harder to sell a house with a downstairs bathroom where it's not the norm

[moogalicious]

Another with a windowless bathroom. Our house originally had a downstairs bathroom off the kitchen - didn't bother me but my dh hated it. So we squeeze a bathroom between two bedrooms upstairs with the soil pipe going under the bedroom. It's well ventilated and bright. We made the downstairs one into an office with adjoining cloakroom.

[Rubidu]

My last house sounds similar to yours, OP. It was a 3 bedroomed mid-terrace cottage with a little garden at the back. The kitchen, sitting room & utility were on the ground floor, 2 bedrooms and bathroom on first floor, then attic bedroom on second floor ... originally there would have been two big bedrooms on the first floor but it had at some point been converted so it had one big bedroom, one windowless internal bathroom, and one smallish but ok back bedroom. I have to say I was fine with this .... much more preferable than a downstairs bathroom when you have young children. Don't think your conversion ideas make sense when it sounds like you'd be marketing it as a family house.

[Heavensmells]

I have a downstairs bathroom I a terrace and its really not that bad! I have three children although one is still in nappies and nobody really gets up in the night to use the loo so that isn't a problem.
I actually prefer it being downstairs. Older children can have a bath whilst I'm washing up, the next to the kitchen thing does bother me but is rather have three huge bedrooms upstairs than put a bathroom in.

[LillianGish]

"We think it would add at least £20k to the value of the house" on what basis? Three beds sells for more than two, but downstairs bathroom sells for less than upstairs one. I think you need to do your sums really carefully before you shell out for the work. At the end of the day you may get someone who would rather have three big bedrooms and will settle for a downstairs bathroom, but my guess is that they would expect a discount compared to other three beds with the bath upstairs. Quarts and pint pots spring to mind. It's a subject close to my heart at mo as we have been trying to sell mil's house which used to have a downstairs bathroom which she moved upstairs at the expense of a third bedroom. Problem there is that he new bathroom is only accessible through one of the bedrooms which also puts people off. I don't think she added value to the house or lost it - the point is she did what suited her and my feeling is that is what anyone who buys your house will do. You may find you move the bathroom downstairs only for them to move it straight back up again.