FTB renovation questions

[formerlondonlass]

Usually a lurker so trying to be brave!

We're buying a victorian semi and are thinking about moving the main bathroom upstairs and getting rid of the ensuite.

Would this be expensive? Would making the bedroom smaller be an awful idea? We're hoping to extend up into the loft in the next two years to create an extra bedroom (possibly two if feasible).

Anyone love floor plans and have any other ideas of things we can do to make the layout more family friendly? I'm clueless!

Thanks in advance!

What would you do with the downstairs bathroom space?

See my thinking is

Where the downstairs bath is - turn that into a downstairs loo for guests - the rest can be utility or boot room - extension of the kitchen so you can get out into the garden.

Then turning thevupstairs bathroom into jack and Jill bathroom - or extending in to the 'extra bit' so you have two separate shower rooms upstairs - from the bedroom

Hi Green,

We were thinking similar to what you've suggested for downstairs.

For upstairs we definitely want a bath rather than shower rooms, but unsure on the best way to configure it. Not sure whether we'd need lots of £££ and further foundations to extend on the first floor but maybe an option!

My concern about the layout you have posted is what you would do with the plumbing and the soil pipe. You have them coming down into the middle of the house and will need to get them to the drains somehow.

It will be difficult to get a bathroom upstairs with your current footprint, most victorian houses where they have added a bathroom have done it in an extension above the kitchen.

If you aren't going to do an extension and it works with your loft plans I would remove the chimney breast in the back room and put a narrow shower room from the stairs to the back of the house, reducing the size of the back room.

If you can do an extension I would do one above the kitchen and add a corridor from the master along the side of the back bedroom (with a door from the back room) so both bedrooms can access it independently.

Whatever you do, make sure it fits with potential work on the loft so you don't have to rip it out in a couple of years time.

Thank you Alana, that's given us some things to think about! We're get some plans drawn up so we know what the options are so we don't do something which would make things worse! Ideally we'd extend out above the kitchen but I don't think we can afford to.

Creating anything other than a jack and jill bathroom looks complicated, and trying to fit a bath by stealing some space from a bedroom doesn't look easy. If long term the plan is to extend into the loft I'd leave as is until that point.

DH's previous house was exactly as Alanna has described. It worked really well as a layout and we sometimes regret selling it. The people he sold it to have added a loft conversion.

I also like the idea of a jack and Jill bathroom + loo downstairs. If you’d like to add a loft in the future, think about where you’d position the stairs - it looks like by adding a bath upstairs, one of the bedrooms will be reduced to a single/box room. Not sure you could also carve out a space for stairs up unless you extend the first floor.

Thank you to everyone who has replied.

I'm inclined to find out how much it would be to do a single storey extension and aim for that in the future so we don't lose the second bedroom space. It has been helpful to think about it out loud so to speak!

Happy to hear any other contributions!