What would you prefer? En-suite situation

[Spectrum2001]

My house is a converted barn with what some may consider an unusual lay out. The ground floor has the entrance hallway and it leads straight into 3 bedrooms and a bathroom, with the upstairs being the living space. I’m wanting to update the layout to give more privacy, as at the moment you could be coming out of the bathroom in just a towel and if the front door is open then you’ll be on view to whomever is there!
My idea would be to put a doorway in from the hall to the bedroom area, and change the layout from 3 bedrooms and a bathroom to 3 en-suite bedrooms.
But as much as I’d like it, I need to consider possible ‘sell ability’ in the future.
What would you look for in a property? Are en-suite’s deal breakers?

I was reminded of this sketch from Chewing the Fat!

As long as you don't have a glass door on your bathroom, all should be ok, OP!

Plan B for me.

Or even more simple (cheap) what about a bookcase / room divider at right angles to the wall so that it blocks the line of sight from the door but then isn't a permanent change?

Have you hit the headroom under the statues for plan B? You appear to have gained a lot more space than I'd think was available.

in plan c the rooms have changed size again and what are the doors to the left of the front door for?

I hate Jack & Jill bathrooms. It's not so much the remembering to lock both doors as people remembering to unlock them after using the bathroom thus making it unusable for one room all the time!

Have you looked into where you can have plumbing moved to? I did some lovely drawings, but it was virtually impossible to the in/out plumbing to where I needed it, a friend had to lose her back door because of the way the plumbing needed to be run.

I'm not at my computer so can't put it in to sketch up right now but can if you like the idea but I think with 4.5m wide bedrooms you have enough for 2 en-suites back to back - they'd both be 2m wide which is loads. A standard bath is 1.7m

Very quick sketch idea for 3 en-suites without changing the stairs. The 3rd bathroom you could make smaller to give yourself a little bootroom. Or just leave as is.

Plan b save a fortune and close all three bedrooms of from hall

Was going to suggest similar to plan B.
personally I don’t like houses where bedrooms are off the hall or an open landing so B would be ideal.

A load of bedrooms all en suites makes a house like a B+B, in my opinion

A porch is best option and is a permitted development. I dislike en-suites and would never have one.

I was going to suggest the same as @Muffinbutton, put a tall bookcase or similar screen in the hall, block the line of sight to the bathroom. Or put a door on the corridor to the bedrooms?

Otherwise, fiddling around adding or moving bathrooms seems like a lot of trouble to circumvent a scenario that's easily avoided, to be honest. I'd only do it if I actually wanted/needed another bathroom downstairs.

I like en suites but not jack and Jill. I’d make that one into a family bathroom with a door from the hall.

I'd go for B
Main reason being if someone visits and needs the toilet they'll need to go into a bedroom. We had this problem as wanted en suites for main and kids bedrooms so architect said about this problem so needed a 4th bathroom (main one) which works really well

@Whatevershallidowithmylife if it’s a listed barn conversion, nothing is permitted development.

I dislike Jack and Jill bathrooms. It’s something I would ask for money off the asking price - it’s a cheap and annoying solution. If you have space, make two en suite shower rooms. Keep the main bathroom and add a room dividing screen.

The bathroom in my holiday house is on the ground floor off the hall and adjacent to two bedrooms. The front door is nearby. No one has ever complained. It’s fairly normal to have a bathroom off the hall in this layout. Our views from the upper rooms are spectacular and we have two bedrooms with en suites on the first floor. I think a bathroom on the ground floor is not really a privacy issue. We assume people relax in the bath (1800 long!) and 850 wide and certainly children can have a good wallow in it!

Thank you everyone, all of your opinions are great. It’s very interesting to know that en-suites are not that big of a deal, Plan B is the most cost effective option and I can make the bathroom much bigger by moving the stairs (that need replacing anyway) and that will create a natural doorway to screen off the bedroom/bathroom.
I also think I’ll look into porch options, although a previous poster is correct, we have no permitted development rights here.
When we’ve got to renovate anyway, we can improve what we’ve got so it suits us but keeps the place sellable if and when that time comes.

thanks again 😊

I like c, but ideally separate the sink from the wc and shower. It makes the room much more useable by 2 people.

I think unless you really want en-suites yourself, I would go for plan B or even as PP said, put some kind of room divider/book shelf/screen in place to block the line of sight from the front door.

7 bathrooms? I hope you have a cleaner 🤣

I'm not a huge lover of en-suites although I recognise the need in a household with a few family members.

We've just bought a house with an en suite, a family bathroom and a shower room and are leaving the en suite as a guest room. I don't want to listen to my husband or be listened to while peeing in the middle of the night about three feet from the bed thanks.

I don't like Jack and Jill bathrooms, they are a pain. 2 doors to lock, 2 doors to unlock.

I don't like a house with all ensuites. You always need a bathroom you don't have to walk through a bedroom for for guests and also I don't want to do a poo in a bathroom that leads onto a bedroom, I don't want to smell my husbands poo while I'm in bed for example.

@penelopepinkbott I used to, but they were terrible. Every cleaner I've had has been terrible and I always feel cheeky for asking a cleaner to clean.. the kids take care of their own bathrooms with their own cleaning stuff and the two communal ones barely get used.

We manage.

@ThreeTreeHill Do you never stay in hotel rooms?

What a daft response.

Most people don't live in a hotel.

FWIW, I'm not keen on having my husband do a shit while I'm in bed in a hotel room either, but accept that it's a temporary situation that's not ideal.

Also a lot of hotel rooms are designed with the bathroom not directly opening onto the bedroom space to ensure a modicum of privacy and soundproofing which is not available in a suburban home that's been modified.

During our recent house hunting, the amount of terrible en-suites we saw that had been shoehorned into rooms at the expense of decent space and storage was quite something. But then I grew up in the 70s with a loo at the bottom of the garden and no bathroom, so find the modern obsession with a bathroom for virtually every house member quite something!

We all manage very well in hotel rooms! It’s not daft as this is where the idea of en suites comes from. Are you always this rude?

Your original response was 'do you never stay in hotel rooms?'

Which is not the same as having the permanent solution of having an en suite in your house, as most people visit hotels once or twice a year and either like or dislike them, but understand that it's something to put up with ( or not) for the duration of that time.

So it's daft to make such a false equivalence.

Sorry for derailing OP.

The biggest cost will be moving the stairs.

In the first picture, you don't need a whole wall with a door. That just creates a wasted space. Just put in a door

The second and third pics don't change the stairs or current bathroom. Just move door into bedroom and create new bathroom for other two rooms

No idea why my pictures magnified. Hopefully you can figure out