Opinions please: loo vs utility vs neither

[tentative3]

I'd love to get some feedback on this issue if anyone would like to share!

We have a c.1840 3 storey terrace which is listed. It has two extensions on the original kitchen at the back which together form a 28 foot long space. The original kitchen is a galley kitchen, with no scope to alter that. The room then opens up a bit and we have a dining table opposite a range cooker. There is then a step up (which will have to stay, realistically) to French doors to the garden with a tiny utility on one side and a shower room/loo on the other.

The room faces south but a lot of the light is blocked, partly by the shower room. It feels dark and dingy and at this time of year you need the lights on all day, which seems madness in a south facing room. We haven't lived through a summer here so don't know what will happen then.

Anyway, we are planning on redoing the kitchen and would like to bring in more light. We are struggling with layout but are fairly set on getting rid of the shower room. We could move this into the utility, just, but would then need to fit the washing machine/ironing board etc elsewhere, or we could go for a lootility and lose the shower (then only one bathroom in a 4 bed house). Or we could just keep the utility and lose both loo and shower (not keen on this).

The house is worth about 450k and is not our forever home so we do need to be mindful of what will be most appealing to buyers. I think in another setting buyers in this bracket would absolutely expect utility and downstairs loo (probably separate). However, this is a location in this absolute heart of town, it's a lifestyle choice to live here, to a large extent, so buyers will expect some compromise.

There is no scope to relocate either to anywhere else in the house.

What would you do?

I'd probably go for the 'lootility' option as a lot of people don't like downstairs bathrooms / shower-rooms anyway.

I think the down stair loo is a must but the 2nd shower and the utility room are both nice to have.

The downstairs shower lots of people will see as compromise anyway so I would probably stick with loo ulitily combined.

I grew up in a family of 5 and we only had 1 shower/bath and it was never an issue. I think people now want a ensuite rather than 2nd shower but which ever way you go but as this isn’t an option for you I would just go with which ever you prefer

Can you definitely not fit the shower room anywhere else or squeeze a loo under the stairs? I have to say, I wouldn't be keen on a wc/shower off the kitchen and I value utility space more so I'd keep that.

I suppose to some extent it depends how many of you are living in the house to know whether you need a second bathroom - if it's just you and a partner, fine; if it's you and four children, less fine.

Thanks for the feedback so far.

It's just us; it is a 4 bed house technically but I think it's unlikely you'd ever have a big family living here although you could certainly have more than just a couple here.

The stairs separate the two reception rooms so the understairs cupboard opens into the front sitting room. I guess you might be able to get a loo in there, but it would be very complicated with pipes from what I can see and obviously with it being listed we're not going to get permission to reposition the stairs.

I would love to try and get a loo on the third floor, and it is something we'll investigate but I cannot currently see a way to do it unfortunately.

If we go loo/lootility it would open off what would be the dining area rather than the kitchen area per se but I agree, I'm not wild on the idea of loos or bathrooms there either, I just can't see an alternative. I think losing a downstairs loo altogether would be a bad idea.

It's so tricky because I feel like I'd have a good idea on what people would/wouldn't accept in this price bracket ordinarily (we looked at plenty of those houses) but not here.

I depends how much money you want to spend but the ideal situation would be to shunt everything in the kitchen towards the garden a few feet and then leave the space that you have created at the back to put in a downstairs loo and utility (I'm assuming the typical Georgian/Victorian layout of reception rooms at the front and dog-leg on back housing the kitchen). If the kitchen needed replacing anyway, then it's worth doing but otherwise a bit of an extravagance.

If it's just you and partner in house, turn one of the bedrooms into another bathroom (and dressing room if size permits) - that would surely make the most sense.

I'm not sure I explained myself very well - by at the back, I meant nearer the main body of the house, further from the garden. You could then create a small corridor to the new kitchen area and have utility and/or shower room tucked off that.

I'd go for loo-tility, and would never consider a house without a downstairs loo. The older I get the more I appreciate not having to run up the stairs when I come in!

Lootility with a weeny shower stall?

Can't get a shower in with a lootility sadly. Even a loo is going to be tight.

lala I understand what you mean completely, it was well explained. I don't think there's room though. The galley part of the kitchen is 6'9 at its narrowest and the door from the reception is bang in the centre sadly. There is an option to create a walkthrough utility there but we can't decide if that would be a bit weird. You'd have to walk through it, no other way to kitchen.

A friend has a walk-through utility but it doesn't look weird, everything is hidden behind floor to ceiling cupboards with sliding doors. It's fab .

Just testing if these pics work

some more

That's what I'd want to do, floor to ceiling but worried it would be overwhelmingly dark. We have to keep the cupboards on the window wall (dishwasher etc and boiler up top) otherwise I'd get shot of them and just have cupboards on the shared wall.

It's like tetris!

Lootility for sure!

I’d lose the shower and try to keep the rest of it. When we were looking for a house I really wanted one other bathroom for the occasional guest to use. Sharing a shower upstairs is fine and I think more convenient for an overnight guest than going to use one downstairs through the kitchen.

I think I'd keep a second shower and loo and sacrifice the utility.

Could you bring extra light in with skylights, or those light tunnel things?

Can you even relocate the toilet into the utility area? (Its the bathroom area that is light blocking). The utility is the wrong side of the house to your soil pipe?

I’d like a second shower for a 4 bed house but keep the loo for sure whatever you do.

Can you get a rooflight put in the kitchen? Or veluxes?

There are 2 small veluxes outside the bathroom already. We would make those bigger either way.

I'm not sure about the toilet relocation and the soil pipe, we're still just at the throwing ideas around stage. It would have to be on the external wall I assume, which we already know will make the lootility awkward. Whether we can extend the existing pipes round to there I don't know.

I'd go for the lootility option personally

I don't think a second bath/shower is essential in a 4 bed house but a downstairs loo is and would be a shame to lose the utility room

First priority = downstairs loo
Second = utility
Third = shower

So go for lootility

In my experience downstairs showers only get used as a last resort. And for dogs.

Thank you for my word of the day. Hostility

Now, I need a word for a cupboard room which is both a study and a clothes drying room.

Lootility not hostility

What have other houses on your street done?

If your option is to have a loo opening from the kitchen/dining room, don't do it - it's dreadful and you'll never want to use it when there are visitors in the kitchen. I'd go for a utility room instead. Is it possible for you to drop the floor in the understairs area and fit in a small loo there?

Can you fit the washer/dryer (stacked) and a basin in a loo-tility room? So from the pic I would replace shower cubicle with washer/dryer? I am lucky to have space for both but we had washer and dryer in downstairs bathroom for a bit and that also worked.

Whatever you do I would keep the loo somewhere. I think people want at least two loos these days even in a smaller house than yours. (We have four 😱 with 2-3 bedrooms but the house came like that!)