What's best big bedroom or extra bathroom?

[beachbodyunready]

We have a 4 bedroom house which currently has 4 double bedrooms of varying sizes. DH and I have a good sized double with dressing rooms and ensuite, there is a large family bathroom and DS and DD have double rooms (although ds's is significantly bigger), the spare room is a small double. Ds's room has 2 windows and is next to the the bathroom, which is currently being renovated.

I mentioned to the plumber/builder that we could do with another bathroom due to DS and DD both taking ages in the morning and according to him we could partition DS's room and make a fairly decent ensuite bathroom. It wouldn't be particularly difficult as all the main bathroom plumbing connections are just the other side of the wall. He thinks it would cost around £500 for a partition wall and then roughly £2k for the tiles, shower, toilet and fixing it all. So £2.5k for everything.

After partitioning ds's room he would still have a double sized room of around 11'by 11' which I think would be plenty of room.

So would you do it and add the ensuite? I can't see that we would lose out as the bedroom would still be large enough and we'd have an extra bathroom hopefully relieving the morning pressure and adding a bit of value to the house. DH is non committal and thinks it's a lot of work and the bigger bedroom is a better feature....

Extra bathroom.

There is plenty of room for the extra bathroom and 11*11 is still a decent sized bedroom.

Yep - agree with the above. As they get older it will be great, and also when you have visitors

That sounds very cheap for a decent bathroom. Where is the builder getting the shower etc from? I would want input on that because cheap doesn’t always add money.

Yup, definitely ensuite.

So there are currently 2 bathrooms altogether? Or is there another washroom downstairs? If there is one downstairs of a decent size I would be tempted to turn it into a WC/shower room. If not then the ensuite sounds good, if your children's rooms back on to each other could you make it a Jack and Jill bathroom? (ie two doors to the bathroom, access from both bedrooms)

Bigger bedroom.

Thanks for the responses I'm glad to see that nearly all of you think that an additional bathroom is a good idea.

The builder/plumber charges the going rate around here and we will buy all the fittings and materials. He's a good friend that we've known for years so I'm not worried about the quality of his workmanship. Overall the labour will be around £1200 the rest will be fittings, tiles, shower & tray etc.

We do have a downstairs toilet but there is absolutely no scope to be able to add a shower or extend it in any way.

I made DH remeasure Ds's room and it's actually 13' wide not 11' so even after the partition wall he would be left with a 13' by 11' bedroom.

We have 3 adults and a child sharing a 4 bed house, we have two main bathrooms and an en suite, and there have been many times that the third bathroom has come in very useful. 2.5k is a good price to add on a lot of extra functionality :)

Another 'bathroom' vote here.
I don't understand the plethora of en-suites in new builds over the last 20 yrs round here, when the bedrooms aren't big enough to put anything in, but 11 x 13 is a good size still, so well worth doing - particularly for that bargain price.

Another vote for extra bathroom. It is still a double bedroom.

I’d go for another bathroom if it isn’t compromising bedroom size.

I just viewed a house where an ensuite in one of the bedrooms made it into a single and I’d be taking out the ensuite if we were to buy, as bedroom space more of a premium for kids rooms.

Seems like a reasonable price but I have to ask... DS got the biggest room - now will he have a still big room and an ensuite? Or will it go to your daughter?

I was 'fantasy buying' the other day, and I 'fantasy' turned down a house because it had two en suites, one bathroom, and my 'fantasy' children were fighting about it. My 'fantasy' solution was a different house where there was a master with en suite, two normal even sized double bedrooms, then a guest room secreted away downstairs with an en suite.

My preferred arrangement would honestly be a second public bathroom if that's at all possible?

Real me votes do what you like, fantasy me (with all my fantasy money), would choose a different house.

Thecatsthecats

There's a large age gap between DS and DD, and he got the largest bedroom by virtue of the fact that he was born first and it's always been his bedroom. DD's room is still large it's probably about 13'x13' with built in wardrobes so all usable spacecraft iyswim. I'm sure DD would love her own bathroom when she's a teenager and maybe if DS goes off to college or moves out she could take it over, but adding one to her room wouldn't work because of the location of the plumbing.