Ensuite bathroom advice

[babyboyHarrison]

Looking to do an extension. House will have 4 beds and 2 bathrooms. How important is it that one of the bathrooms be an ensuite?

Main issue is it would have to be the larger bathroom that would be the ensuite. I would prefer to have this bathroom as the master bathroom and the second as a shower room with walk in shower. We have 2 young kids so will be doing baths for several more years. We live in catchment for excellent schools so always likely to be a family home. Second bathroom has space for a bath but would have to have a shower over.

So really just want to understand how important an ensuite is to people or does it not really matter so much as long as there are two bathrooms.

In our previous house we had two bathrooms, both upstairs, but neither ensuite. We liked it that way as both were accessible to everyone. If friends stayed then each family could use their own bathroom.
The downside seemed to be when we sold, viewers expected one bathroom to be en suite. Despite one bathroom being next door to a bedroom.
So I really don’t know the best answer.

Thanks for the comment. I think separate bathrooms would work nicely for us but mentioned it to our neighbour and they were shocked we weren't having an ensuite and kept going on about it. Making me doubt our decision and whilst we don't intend on moving anytime soon don't want to do something off putting to future purchasers unnecessarily. It will (hopefully) be a lovely house by the time we are done and it's in a very popular area so don't want to do something daft. I'm guessing a lot of purchasers would expect an ensuite master in our area.

Is an ensuite bigger than main bathroom weird? It might be that we could arrange it with two doors to the bigger bathroom so you could lock whichever door you don't want to use but still have the option to access from the bedroom or Hall. Maybe that's the simplest way forward.

Love everything about the plans except the master bed doesn't feel special enough, an ensuite would help but don't want to do it at the expense of a good family bathroom.

We will end up with 4 double rooms with three about the same size and one a bit smaller (guest room) so the master isn't really any much better than the kids rooms at the moment.

I agree. Most people will expect a master with ensuite. I think usually the ensuite is smaller than the family bathroom but I think as long as you have a decent sized room as the main bathroom with a bath to bathe children it will be fine.

A vote for en suite here but surely you can just do what suits you now and change it when you come to sell.

What I mean is that changing a door position would be inexpensive but on further thought maybe not as you'll lay out the bathrooms differently (and then there's the tiles to consider).

I wouldn't be keen on the two doors arrangement.

Sorry, this is no help at all!

I would be more likely to buy a house without an ensuite. I never get the attraction to be honest. If me or my partner have to get up earlier the last thing we want to do is wake them up by using the ensuite

With the smaller bathroom, could you take out the bath and have a walk in shower instead.
If you are not planning on moving anytime soon, I would not worry about it, just do what works for you and your family now.

Ensuite is not critical. If it's a family house, and the only bathroom which can have a bath, then much better to have it accessed from the landing so you can do kids bathtime without going through the parents' bedroom.

I don't really get all the fuss about ensuites either. It's very nice to have a bathroom to yourselves but no particular need to have it directly off the bedroom. If it's next door to the bedroom that's just as good, arguably better as less disturbance when one of you goes for a wee at night etc. (Admittedly we will be putting one in directly off our bedroom but only because a door off the landing isn't possible!)

I don't think it matters. We're in the process of buying a 4 bed house with 2 bathrooms, neither of which is an en suite (the only en suite is just a loo and we will be changing that so it has a shower but that's on the top floor).

Thanks everyone. It doesn't sound like there is a massive majority either way. Just started doubting myself after neighbours comments. Think we'll stick with two bathrooms but will try and configure the one bathroom so a door to the master could be added in the future without having to rip the bathroom out. That way it wouldn't be too expensive to turn into an ensuite if ever needed.

I know we aren't planning on moving anytime soon but we will be paying for two new bathrooms and it affects where we put drainage in so want to get it right.

Thanks again.

I would prefer two bathrooms acessed from the hall, rather than one en suite and one family.

More flexible and I don’t really like en suites anyway. I don’t see the issue with stepping out of your bedroom and waking 2 meters to a bathroom in a family house.

Our ensuite is onjy a tiny bit bigger than the main bathroom
However we have a large walk in shower in the bathroom and a jacuzzi bath in the ensuite. Our dc are older though and tend to just shower

I prefer separate. Means two doors between noisy fans, steamy damp air, or bathroom smells.

All we cared about, when buying, was that there was more than one loo or space to install a second one. Having an ensuite wouldn't have swayed us either way.

I think as long as you have two bathrooms it doesn't really matter, but having said that I love having an en suite!

We've been looking at houses and I've decided that we would like a second bathroom but it doesn't need to be en suite? Our current house has a large family bathroom and our bedroom has an entrance suite shower with toilet and sink.

When we extended our house to make it a 4 bedroom house we didn’t put an en suite in. I don’t like them.
Instead in our extension is the 4th bedroom, with a separate shower room across the hall which is the same size as our main bathroom so we have a large double size shower cubicle in it. This means we could have a deep and wide cupboard in between them for storage.

We extended to 4 bedrooms and have a huge master and ensuite which is about the same size as the main bathroom (I think).
I love having an ensuite, I wouldn’t have been bothered when dc were young but now with teenagers there’s always people in my house and I can get up and go to the toilet or have a shower without having to get dressed in case I meet a person in the hall.

I was just going to post the same reason as UndomesticHousewife aa to the reason we would want an ensuite.

We now live in a house with and with an en suite and I love it. Always thought I wouldn't be fussed, but we have a lot of friends and family to stay, so when the house feels over run, once I'm through my bedroom door. I have my own space and bathroom and I wouldn't not have it. No kids so can't comment on that.

In terms of resale value, I think it depends on what you expect your 'competition' to be. If the type of house yours will become includes en suite then be prepared that you may not be able to get as high a price or may be perceived as less desirable. But if typical is just one bathroom, it sounds like you'll be ahead of the pack with two anyway.

Do you have enough space to make it "Jack and Jill" style from the start, I.e. have two doors, one from the hall and one from the master bedroom? I lived in a flat where the second bathroom was like that, so you could close off whichever route seemed most appropriate, depending on whether you had visitors or family. I'm sure I've seen it in other house particulars too.

I like the idea of Jack and Jill bathroom but I wonder how many people would forget to lock both doors, would be a bit embarrassing sitting on the loo and your house guest walks through the unlocked door to the hall!

I haven't looked at the layout but yes I think we could do a jack and Jill arrangement with two doors. Not too worried about people walking in one door would just be left locked permanently. I expect what we'll do is layout the bathroom so a door could be added into the master bed but probably just no bother installing it until the kids are older.

It's helpful hearing other people's thoughts on these things. Im tweaking the house plans but expect I'll post them for peoples thoughts at some point. Cheers.