Bigger bedroom, bigger bathroom, or ensuite?

[brainonastick]

I'm going round in circles here.

We've currently got a small 4th bedroom (about 12x6 foot), which is practically useless as we can't use it as a guest room as can only fit a single bed in and not much else. Next to it is the family bathroom, also small - literally room for a sink, loo and bath (about 8 or 9 foot by about 5 foot). Next to that is the tiny ensuite (about 8 or 9 foot by about 3.5 foot) that has been formed by taking a chunk from the master bedroom (but still leaves about 12x12 bedroom). We've also got a nice shower room downstairs.

I was thinking about doing away with the master ensuite - is that a good idea from a resale point of view?

The extra space would either be:
a) knocked into the bathroom to make more of a decent family bathroom space, or
b) possibly add a little bit to the small 4th bedroom so its about 12x8 foot - ie a small double or decent single room - plus a little extra on the bathroom, only a foot or so.

What would you do?

There's also a chance that we would do a 2 story extension at the back in the future, add on to the master bedroom, so we could re-instate the ensuite then with the extra space. But that might never happen given our current rate of progress!

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I would do A with a view to doing B when extending.

Thanks. You don't think losing the ensuite would be a no-no then?

I'm not sure we could do a then b, as they lie in a line - bedroom, bathroom, ensuite. So if we've already knocked the bathroom and ensuite together, then we would have to rip it all out again to make the bedroom bigger if we did the back extension.

So, one vote for bigger bathroom - any others?

If you are looking at it from a resale point of view, I would keep the en-suite. If, however, you are unlikely to be selling up in, say, the next three years, then go by what suits you - personally, I would rather have two small bathrooms than one larger one - but some people value a spacious bathroom. If you have lots of guests, than enlarging the "guest" room might be a priority - if not, I would leave it. (

Thanks, sensible advice. We're not sure how long we'll be staying though - the next school move for the oldest DC is a bit uncertain (current middle school only just out of special measures), so it could be 3 years, or it could be 8 years+. I think that's why we're going round in circles!