Would I be mad to remove the bathroom?

[PickledElectricity]

I have fallen in love with a house that needs absolutely everything doing to it, in a conservation area.

It used to be a 4 bed but they turned a bedroom into a bathroom and it is absolutely enormous for what it is.

I have 2 DC and would like a third in 2-3 years' time so ideally need 4 bedrooms. 4 bedroom houses here are outside of my budget currently.

Would I be mad to remove the bathroom (maybe leave a small shower room) and put one in downstairs instead?

Floor plan attached.

yes. keep looking

I’d be hesitant about getting rid of it as kids get older and hassle of going downstairs might wear thin for showering etc. although going upstairs for the loo could be equally annoying. Maybe shower room with toilet is best option then you have both. Where would you put the bathroom downstairs?

One of those bedrooms is very small anyway you'd be better looking for a 2 or 3 bed and converting the loft

any chance you can get a bigger floor plan that's big enough to read the dimensions? That one is tiny and blurry even when I open it in a new tab.

Generally I'd say that if you plan on having 5 people in the house then you should be thinking about adding on bathrooms not taking one away! One downstairs bathroom and nothing upstairs doesn't sound practical at all for a family of five. You could perhaps reduce that one in size (it's a pity they didn't turn the smallest room into the bathroom instead) but even then it would probably have to be an ensuite and a very small bedroom which wouldn't be helpful unless someone's happy to have the whole family traipsing through their bedroom.

I'd be thinking about splitting the biggest bedroom in half (the inbuilt wardrobe looks like it's taking up a huge amount of the room) or doing an attic conversion rather than taking the bathroom out.

To be honest by the time you've done that and added at least one other toilet you'd be better off just getting a 4 bed. Tradework is extortionate currently, if you can even get someone in, not even considering the stress.

I would imagine that with a couple and 3 children you would be looking for a house with 2 separate spaces downstairs too. One open plan living space would be quite limiting.

Yes that's what I meant, shower and toilet upstairs.

I would want to at the very least move the bathroom to the smallest bedroom. I suppose 2 children could share but I'm aware they'll want their own space in teenage years etc.

Our current house only has a downstairs bathroom and I don't have any issues with that.

I would like to extend the downstairs a bit but if that's not doable then turn the kitchen into a bathroom and utility room and then move kitchen into what is now the dining room.

My concern is it might feel a bit cramped then? But there's a garden room with electricity etc which could be another living space.

Apologies, I am on my phone and took screenshots. Hopefully these are better!

If you essentially want to change the entire layout, then is is not the house for you. Unless you are a qualified builder/plumber/electrician and like a project?

My dad is a builder and provided a lot of free labour when we bought our current house. He also called in favours for discounted plastering, for example. I think he would help out again.

If I was paying everyone then the costs would be prohibitive.

My thinking was everything clearly needs doing anyway. That bathroom needs ripping out - certainly the carpet needs to go - so while I'm at it, could I turn this house into what I want for the next 15-20 years?

I dont know why people are telling you not to change the floor plan when it was already changed and you would essentially be changing it back. Do it, yours sounds much more reasonable and long term than a massive bathroom.

If it used to be a 4-bed, where was the bathroom at that stage? I can't see from the plan where the bathroom could have been.

Ideally, you want a downstairs loo plus an upstairs bathroom/shower room with a loo in it, but this house does not look big enough for that.
If you eventually have 3 DC, living with only 1 loo in the house gets awkward.

You could completely re-do the upstairs to somehow fit in 4 beds and a bathroom, but it is only worth it if you can also fit in a loo downstairs. The value of a 4 bed house will be compromised if there is only one loo.

I don't think it had a bathroom when it was built, or perhaps it had an outhouse. It's an old house.

I'm now thinking if I should have just name changed and posted a link to the house in the first place!

Some old houses had the bath in a tiny room behind the kitchen somewhere (maybe even in a lean to) and an outside separate loo. Sink would have just been the kitchen sink.

If you're looking to do work and extend then I'd change the smallest bedroom to a bathroom and reinstate the bathroom as a big bedroom. You won't need the extra bedroom for several years and at that point you and DH could have the back room and give 2 DC the big front room and do something creative about dividing it to give them each their own space within it. If you are extending then I'd look at opening up the kitchen and living room and then partitioning off the front of that room with sliding/pocket doors so you can have a snug or a big room for a party. Extending out beyond the kitchen would give you the option to create a bootroom/shower room with built in sink and laundry cupboards so it look more like a bathroom rather than a utility.

Has the house been lived in for the past 2 yrs? If not, I will share info about a government scheme to get houses back to a liveable state and saves you VAT.
Would a loft conversion be an option?
Is the garden room insulated and heated?
Could bedroom 1 be split and do something like the pic?

We have a downstairs bathroom that we use more than the family one upstairs, but then, we don't have kids.

The downstairs is very odd, I suppose you could make a bedroom at the front and still have a decent living space at the back if you don’t need a dining room.

We only had one toilet for three of us for a while, a lot of crossed legs! Five people and one toilet will be bad, and particularly so when someone gets a tummy bug.

Would a bathroom fit in the strip between the current bathroom and the wardrobe of the front bedroom? ie turn thr bathroom into a bed room, and shrink bed 1.

Reverting to just a downstairs bathroom would be a big negative step, imo.

The lounge/ diner looks huge. I would move the bathroom to the smaller bed room and put a partition wall in downstairs, making a flexible, separate room at the front that can act as a bedroom for the oldest child . We did something similar when DSC moved in permanently. The room can then be turned into a separate sitting room when they leave home.
The rear downstairs section next to the kitchen can be used as a diner/ lounge (if left large enough). Houses with only bathrooms downstairs are notoriously difficult to sell.

As pp have suggested however, there will be bathroom wars with five of you in the house so you might also need an extension or loft conversion shower room at some point! We eventually remortgaged and added a shower room and utility to cope with having six of us living in the house.

Personally I don’t think either the bathroom
or the downstairs main room is “huge” like many posters. I think it’s just the right amount of space for a 3 bed house. I would not want to be a family of 5 living in that small of a house if it could be helped. I would take the money you plan on rennovations and add it to the budget and buy yourself a decent 4
bed house ideally with a couple
of bathrooms.

I’d make bedroom 3 into the bathroom, turn the bathroom back into a bedroom, and then split bedroom 1 since it’s dual aspect. You definitely want a decent bathroom upstairs

Make a small shower room with toilet upstairs and another slightly bigger one with a bath downstairs? (No standalone shower). You can get baths into really small spaces now.

This! We have 3 kids and I would go absolutely insane if we had to live open plan.

To achieve 4 beds and a shower room you will end up with a small double for the master bedroom. It depends how you feel about that.

Havent rtft

In theory reconfiguring is fine imo. The problem is the sq footage (of lack of) you are working with.
This is barely enough for a family of 4 and I wpuld not fancy living there as a family of 5.

The Biggest room is 12 x 11 which is honestly small. It will barely fit a standard double and a wardrobe each (no chests of drawers).
We need to house a super king 2 x drawers and 3 double wardrobes between us 🙈. My dh is a horder so I just think 😵‍💫 when I see houses like this.

Given the size of the house I don't get why you wouldnt leave 1st floor as is and just convert the attic later....much easier all round.