What you wish you had done when remodelling bedroom/bathrooms

[quinquereme]

Probably a couple of years off, so still at "in an ideal world" stage.

Currently we have four beds and one bathroom and one shower room, none en-suite. Ideally would like another bedroom so kids can have one each and we have a spare. All the bedrooms can fit doubles plus wardrobe and a desk.

Plot is somewhat oddly shaped so we're restricted on expansion.

On my wish list is:

• cupboard for sheets/ towels (I know very exciting!)
• additional bedroom with en-suite
• reconfigure spare room and our room to add a Jack and Jill bathroom and make the spare room a dressing room and fold down bed (so you have a master "suite" which can convert into a spare bed).

Anything else ? Any experience of doing something similar ? We could also make all the bedrooms en-suite - is that useful for when the kids are older ? Our current plan is to take the bedrooms with the two best views for our "suite", is that a bit mean ?

Would you have less but bigger rooms/ bathrooms ?

How long you planning on the kiddywinks being at home?
A family bathroom and en-suite for yourselves would be ample in my opinion. No one likes having to sit on a warm toilet seat after your brother but it’s a passage of life.

I may have had a Prosecco too many and read it as you wanted a loo for each child

We did a big remodel about 4 years ago. We have a bathroom, the kids(now older and in university/out of the house) have a bathroom and the guest room has a bathroom (on a different floor). They were welcome to use the guest bath but they don't - the 3 of them happily shared the family bathroom.

I'm not a big fan of en-suites. But do like having one bathroom as ours and one for the rest and one for guests - our guests, when we had such things - love it too. I also have a linen closet for sheets and towels built in on the landing (built with the house in 1911 but we changed the layout of it) and love it. I put another one in our bathroom.

The single best thing we did with our bedrooms was put in expensive but excellent wardrobe systems - like california closet stuff. Everyone has all the storage they need.

Basically storage makes a huge difference.

Storage storage storage.

Absolutely take the best views, on the whole you will appreciate them more.

I don’t think kids need an en-suite but when they are teens you will be happy to have more bathrooms, so I’d plan a wet room shower room as well as a family bathroom and your en-suite, plus a loo downstairs. I think a hang out room (like a teen play room) is a good thing because it means they can have Xbox / tv in there, and not in bedrooms.

I’m not sure about your jack and jill and dressing room/spare bedroom idea tbh. I wouldn’t want guests using our en suite and if I was a guest I’d feel a little uncomfortable using what was clearly the hosts’ en suite. I’d say keep your en suite as yours.

In your shoes I would aim for an en suite, a shared kids’ bathroom, and then a small shower room carved off or near the guest room. Kids to be allowed to use the small shower room to avoid queues for the kids’ bathroom, when there are no guests.

I certainly wouldn’t make all bedrooms en suite.

A Jack and Jill bathroom at a house I"m staying in would make me very uncomfortable.

I don't mind sharing with the kids... but using the hosts ensuite?

Not a fan (and I've got friends who have a similar configuration - "family" bathroom didn't have a shower, so the only shower was in their ensuite which was Jack'n'Jill to the hallway.

I hated the feeling of being in their space and used to try to avoid showering when I visited - fortunately I was a member of their local gym chain and had multi-gym memembership so used to go for a swim in the morning....

They've now refitted the kids bathroom and I know I'll feel much more comfortable showering when I visit. Even if I have to share with a teenage boy (Lynx-tastic!!)

cupboard for sheets/ towels

Put a tiny radiator in it and you can use it as an airing cupboard.

oh and agree with others - jack and jill is just stressful. When we had our house re-done we stayed in a house that was lovely but had 2 jack and jill bathrooms. It was honestly quite stressful - especially for guests.

Have your own en-suite and best view,

If you have guests a lot then give the spare room an en-suite the kids can use as an extra bathroom when it’s free,

We used to give guests who needed it our room and en-suite when the house was full of dhs kids. When the house wasn’t guests just used the family bathroom and we had the en-suite.