Where to put bath?

[BigRenoLittleBudget]

Our house is a 4 bed with only one bathroom at the moment. It used to be a toilet/basin/bath with shower over but the people who lived here before us removed the bath and put in a big walk in shower. We have decided the house needs another bathroom but there isn't space to add another upstairs (even an ensuite) without seriously compromising bedroom space. Therefore we are creating a second bathroom downstairs by extending the current downstairs loo - it will be a reasonable size as we're stealing space from the kitchen.

However we have 3 DC and are currently struggling without a bath especially for the younger two. Our options at this point are:

A) Leave current upstairs bathroom as it is as it's a nice big walk-in shower and the bathroom doesn't really need renovating at the moment as relatively new. Put a bath in new downstairs bathroom with a shower over. This solves the short-term issue of being able to bathe the kids. My reservation with this option is that then the only bath in the house would be downstairs which isn't ideal for a nice relaxing bath, and it also reduces the potential usefulness/resale value of the downstairs bathroom i.e. a shower would be more accessible for older relatives staying, if anyone had limited mobility and couldn't get upstairs, and/or upon resale. To me, upstairs bathrooms should have a bath and downstairs should have an easily accessible shower.

B) Put shower only in downstairs bathroom. Knock through bathroom into airing cupboard next door to add a bath and keep the separate shower - this is what neighbours have done - would then require us to renovate a lot of the bathroom and add about 10K to costs. We would need to borrow extra. This is ideal in terms of layout and would be the ultimate goal but will really stretch us financially

C) Leave current upstairs bathroom as it is, put shower in downstairs bathroom but no bath. Put up with the inconvenience of no bath in the short term with a view to do option B further down the line if/when funds allow.

D) Put shower only in downstairs bathroom. Remove upstairs walk in shower and swap for shower over bath. This gets the bath in the 'right' location and the downstairs then has the easy walk-in shower but the bathroom alterations would cost about 2K and then we have lost our lovely upstairs shower.

Well done if you got this far. Please cast your votes!

Do it once properly even if it means putting it off a couple of months to save, so for me that would be a shower room downstairs and a family bath upstairs with bath.

You obviously love the walk in shower but also a bath (same here) we have a lovely walk in shower downstairs and a bath with shower over upstairs.

thanks @Sugarcube84 unfortunately we can’t easily delay it because it’s forming part of a bigger renovation that we’re having done in a couple of months and the walls downstairs need to move to make the new kitchen, so we can only delay it if we don’t mind living in chaos for even longer which I’d rather avoid. Also it would take us at least 6 months to save up the extra so not really doable.

Well that’s your answer then you have no extra cash to do it so that’s losing 2 options

so either bath downstairs leave upstairs as is

or just shower downstairs with a view to changing upstairs when you have saved.

I’d still just put a shower downstairs if it were me

I would not bother with the second bathroom downstairs and extend the upstairs bathroom to fit in the bath. Seriously who is going to use your shower room off the kitchen.

I honestly don't get mumsnet with this stuff. Over half the houses I lived in and many we viewed have downstairs bathrooms. It completely normal and FAR more practical (I say that as someone who HAS lived with the different set ups).

We are deliberately adding a downstairs one to this house and I guarantee it will end up the most used one.

It’s not a bathroom off the kitchen. It’s next to the kitchen, between the kitchen and utility room. I wouldn’t want a downstairs bathroom as the only one in the house but with a 4 bedroom, surely two bathrooms is better than one bathroom? As I said we can’t fit in an ensuite.

We are remortgaging to fund all our building work so we would just have to borrow extra rather than save up. I would just rather not have the higher monthly repayments but in theory it is an option.

Yes I had a thread a few years back about this house we were thinking of buying where they'd put the bathroom upstairs in the very large second bedroom, and I was considering moving the bathroom downstairs (extending the downstairs toilet), and was categorically told this would devalue the house etc etc even though it would make the house a 3 bed (instead of a 1 usable bed with a boxroom) and the majority of 2 bed houses in the area had downstairs bathrooms and were going for the same price as this one. I was only asking how big a job it was and still got so many people telling me it was such a terrible idea.

We didn't end up buying the house in the end but that's definitely the reno we would have done if we'd bought it.

I think if a downstairs bathroom is cost effective and gives you the bathroom layout you want at an affordable price, go for it.

Put back the bath in the main bathroom with the current shower over the bath (perhaps go for an L shaped bath to give you a bit more showering space). This would not cost a huge amount if you are able to match up the tiles. Downstairs, fit a cloakroom with space for a shower, but don't put the shower in yet, perhaps use the space for a washing machine and/or dryer. As your kids get bigger, you might decide to convert the loft and put a bathroom in there. That would make a lot more sense than having a bathroom on the groundfloor which would probably hardly be used, but if you've created space for one and decide you want it, it will be a relatively small job to do.

D.

I see the logic in this approach but a few issues for us would be
a) we are having a utility room so no need for washer/dryer space
b) we won’t be converting our loft as the pitch is shallow and we’d have very little usable space up there, we also have solar panels and a water tank which have a lot of gubbings up there already which would be costly to move.

However I suppose one option would be to create the space but not finish the room and in the meantime we could knock through upstairs to make the bathroom bigger and add a shower. We could use some of the money saved from not finishing the downstairs bathroom to pay for upstairs. However it would still be additional cost and I’m not sure how much would be saved as we’d at least need the loo and basin downstairs so would need flooring etc

I would do what suits and works for your family now. We were in the same position a few years ago, although three bed house instead of four.
We needed the extra bathroom and instead of splitting the largish bathroom upstairs into a small family bathroom and tiny ensuite we decided to extend the downstairs WC into a bathroom. We put a bath with large shower over the top in the downstairs bathroom. It has been perfect for our family with three small children. Being able to bath them downstairs has been so convenient and I can honestly say the downstairs bathroom gets used by everyone a lot more than the upstairs one

Hmmm yeah good point I hadn’t thought that it might be more convenient to bathe the kids downstairs than upstairs. The bathroom will be opposite the playroom and across from the lounge so could work well for them to take turns in the bath while playing etc