Converting loo downstairs

[Temporaryanonymity]

I have a house on three floors. Ground floor has a large storage cupboard, entrance hall with downstairs loo off. Garage also. We never use the loo, all three of us use the bathroom on the top floor.

Kitchen is small and on the second floor. There is no space for a dishwasher and I am fed up of doing the washing up. I have been thinking of turning the loo downstairs into a laundry room so that I can get a dishwasher instead.

I rarely dry clothes outside but if did I could as easily access the outside from downstairs as I could from the kitchen, as the house is split level .

I can't deny that a second loo might be handy but we have been in the house for several years and I have used the loo maybe a handful of times. There is no central heating there either!

Any thoughts about whether this is a really daft idea?

Concert it to laundry room, but leave pipework in place (capped off) to make it easier to convert back in the future?

Could you put it in the garage?

I did consider the garage but I can only access it from outside which would be a PITA. No budget to sort that either!

Sounds like you'd be carrying dishes up and down at least one flight of stairs - two if you keep them in the kitchen. I wouldn't. Also you still have some washing up even with a dishwasher.

I think the dishwasher is going in the kitchen - the washing machine is moving from kitchen to loo.

Don't suppose you have anywhere on the top floor it could go instead? Our washer and dryer are upstairs in our main bathroom and it makes life so much easier. I'd get bored of taking it all up and down two floors

Is this your forever home? If so obviously do what you want, if you plan to sell in future I'd be careful. I point blank will not buy a house with one toilet, lots of families like 2 toilets and a downstairs toilet is great for young children, elderly etc. So I'd be careful not to affect the saleability.

So you walk up two flights of stairs to use the loo rather than the one downstairs?

I'd think about when you sell. I wouldn't even consider a house without a downstairs toilet and I think many people would be the same.

No, the living room and kitchen are on the second floor. The house is on a hill so access to the garden is via the second floor or up steps outside.

There are loos on top and ground floor.

Washing machine is proposed for ground floor. Dishwasher in kitchen on second floor.

It was built in the early 70s/late 60s so whilst all the rooms are spacious the kitchen isn't.

I'm a single parent so it wouldn't be my forever home under normal circumstances but when my sons fly the nest it will be perfectly adequate for me on my own.

Don't want to move as I have an amazing view of the sea!

My neighbour did this: she converted the downstairs loo into a small utility room/cupboard with a washer and a dryer stacked on top of one another (shelf to seperate them). Works well for her. Not a big job as the drainage issues are already sorted with the loo.

Yes this sounds like a good plan, much nicer to have laundry out of the kitchen and to have a dishwasher instead. I would leave the plumbing for the loo intact (under the floor?) for potential future buyers.

Sorry, I completely misread your plan!

I like having a dishwasher but I wouldn't sacrifice a downstairs loo for it.

Thanks for your thoughts. I think I am going to do it. All that wasted space really bothers me. I have already got a fridge freezer down there because of the kitchen issues. When I bought the house it didn't even have plug sockets down there!

We all avoid the loo because it is cold....

Just saw your update. It sounds like you want to stay in your house for the foreseeable future and you know what works for you and the layout of your house. I've changed my mind. Do it.