Extend bathroom or have a large guest bedroom?

[smaths]

DH and I are at an impasse on this. I would like to hear your collective thoughts on what we should do! I'm deliberately not stating which option is mine and which is DH's in the interest of neutrality. (apologies this is a bit long)

We live in a fairly large house which at present has a bathroom measuring approx 2.1m by 3.5m (6' 11" by 11' 7")

The bathroom currently contains toilet, wash hand basin and a large bath but the bath is under a sloped roof so there is no shower in the bath as it's not really possible for anyone taller than 5'6" to stand up in it. There is a closet for the hot cylinder and a large linen closet protruding into the bathroom.

Adjacent to this bathroom is a large bedroom, which DH uses as his "office" (for filing paperwork, he doesn't actually work in it, he's a farmer) and is currently more of a junk room where we've dumped all the stuff we can't find a place to put (there is no bed atm). The "bedroom" measures 5.4m by 2.8m (17 '8" by 9' 2"). There are 3 windows in this bedroom.

Between these rooms is a stud wall so there is no real problem knocking the wall down.

We have 4 other bedrooms and 2 small DDs. We have a WC/shower room downstairs but no other basins/showers/loos.

Option 1: Keep the dividing wall where it is, but move the hot water cylinder into the adjoining bedroom and remove the linen closet. Linen & towels could be stored in a closet elsewhere in the house. Install a shower cubicle in the space where the hot water cylinder was, giving a "full bathroom" and only marginally reducing the size of the bedroom.

Bedroom would be furnished as a combined guest bedroom/office, with double/king guest bed, lots of storage and desk/filing along one wall.

The bedroom is sufficiently large that a wash basin and shower could also be put in it for guests, but probably not a loo, as putting in a soil pipe on that side of the house would be difficult. We don't have the budget for this at the moment, but it could be a later add on.

Option 2: Extend the bathroom into the bedroom, making a very large, L shaped bathroom. Due to the position of the windows, this would take an area measuring 2.35m (7' 8") by 2.8m (9' 2") out of the bedroom, leaving a bedroom 3.05m (10') by 2.8 (9'2").

The bathroom would be almost doubled in size from 80 square feet to 150 square feet and would have plenty of room for storage of linen & towels, laundry baskets, clothes airers/drying that sort of thing. The bedroom would fit a sofabed or fold out double and still be an office as well. There would be no room for extra ensuite/washing facilities.

The decision is purely on practicality, the house is a family farm so will never be sold and adding value is irrelevant. As we are in a rural location, when we entertain, our guests tend to stay overnight. There is no scope for adding ensuites/basins in any of the other bedrooms.

One of us likes the idea of a massive bathroom and bugger the guests, they don't stay that often anyway (and are largely our parents or friends who aren't terribly fussy as they are usually pissed by the time they go to bed.
The other thinks the bathroom at its current size is perfectly serviceable and the creation of a spacious guest bedroom, possibly with separate washing facilities would be much more practical. In the fullness of time, one of our DDs may want to move into it as it would be bigger than the "main" bedrooms, however it's colder and noisier as it's beside a main road. We would never make this our master bedroom for those reasons.

WWYD?

and there lies the problem ... if you do this so that guests benefit now and eventually a daughter does - what about your other daughter !!! I would go for a fabulous bathroom that will benefit all - then have a small spare room with office type storage and in the future you will have no arguments as to who gets the room upgrade ! :-)
( you can always have a farm office built in the garden !)

Vote for larger bathroom.
Don't think the washbasin in the bedroom thing works with no toilet.

Larger bathroom, we have a guest room with en suite that is bigger than our bedroom with en suite. We deliberately choose the smaller room as it had a much larger bathroom. A large guest room is a waste of space IMO!

Thank you for your replies, 3-0 in favour of bathroom is quite conclusive! Unfortunately this was not my preferred option, I want to keep the bigger bedroom but I take your points... DH will be delighted!

Your bathroom is twice the size of mine already.

I'd put books, computer desks, sewing tables and more wardrobe space (which can store all those bathroom things away from the steam and more besides) in a large spare room, it would be bliss. Big bathrooms are a total waste.

If I was DN I'd move out of her tiny bedroom and into their ridiculous big bathroom.

A large guest room used only for guests is a waste of space., But who on God's green Earth has one of those.

That's like having a dining room for eating in. Not dumping laundry, sewing, doing craft and homework. A dinning room not walled with book cases, that has no computer table (I'm typing on the PC in ours at the moment) and no toys.

A room used only for it's named purpose is not a room, it's a waste.

That said, I do wish people would stop using under the kitchen table to dump junk.

I would have a bigger bedroom and smaller bathroom! It's a waste of space to have one any bigger than can house all the facilities one desires. It does depend on your guests as well, we have some friends stay a few times a year who have small children and they all have to squeeze into our small double room, it's a bit of a pain and will only get worse as their children get bigger

Can't see the point of a bigger bathroom tbh but can see why you want a shower,

Yes, circumstances change, my DFs now have a little boy, DSIL has a second child I thought would never happen. Extra crashing out room is very useful.

We actually don't have a spare room, DD2 gets thrown out of hers.

But it is a big double room that you can just get 4 people in.

Whether it's the above visitors or her own birthday sleep over, the room is useful.

I would keep the bigger bedroom but would really maximise the space in there, including maybe storage for linens/towels and think about having the clothes airers and laundry baskets in there, out of the way but close to the bathroom.
I think its more useful to have a room which gives you loads of storage than a massive bathroom. Esp since there is room to put a separate shower in there.

And yes good point re families staying over as they could all fit in your spare room which is a really nice option and one which most houses don't have.

I'd go for option 1. We're in a similar position to you (family farm, large room wasted as farm office/junk), reasonable size bathroom). And if you didn't put an ensuite, could you put a door in and make it a jack and Jill bathroom?

I'd do what I could to get a separate shower (especially important to de-stink a farmer as quickly as possible). Could a re-jig of the whole bathroom layout allow a linen closet as well? Or by moving the boiler would this allow a linen closet next to it?

I've just evicted my farmer from his junk office to make a family kitchen and he's relinquished the other downstairs option too. He's going to be moving into dd's room, she'll go into another bedroom, but he'll need a massive clearout of paperwork first!

Could you not put a small ensuite shower room in the bedroom so you have 2 bathrooms but have the guest ensuite when guest stay.
We have this and my teenage Dd uses the guest shower room as her own when we don't have guests staying.

I'd go for the spare bedroom. We did some alterations and now have a bigger bathroom which is just a bit of a nuisance really. As it just gets messier! Could you not change things round in your present bathroom so the shower could go over the bath. We have a shower cubicle and I hate it so eventually will get a shower over the bath. Much better.

I would have a seperate loo & handbasin rather than just a bigger bathroom.

That will very much benefit everyone especially if you put in a shower that is not affected by a flusing loo.

Your dh will always need office, a guest room is always handy - make them suffer with the cold room

I would do what was necessary to install a second shower. This would benefit the family (especially as your DDs get bigger!) as well as guests.

Normally I don't see the point of big bathrooms at the expense of bedrooms, but this is one where I think the additional shower is what would work best.