Anyone have time to look at this floorplan and tell me where you would out a bathroom?

[IlanaK]

We have put an offer in on a maissonete today. It has one bathroom downstairs, but we MUST put a shower room upstairs for it to be livable for us. We can't give up any of the bedrooms as we need them all, but we could give up part of one.

The floorplan is on my profile. Keep in mind that the "front" foor upstairs is not in use as the main entrance to the flat is downstairs. And all the plumbing is at the back of the house we think. There is a flat on the first floor that may have plumbing at the front, but I am not sure about this.

We have a couple of ideas, but would like people to look at it with fresh eyes if possible.

Thanks!

It would be best to carve a space from bigger bedroom, but if plumbing is below the smaller bedrooms and you get the space there you'd end up with one really small room. Any way you can go to the attic?

No attic as there is a flat above this one.

I had thought carve out a part of the larger bedroom. Dh wants to use the redundant hallway that leads to the no longer used front door as well as a part of the larger bedroom. This would involve major work though.

I was just wondering if there was an obvious answer we missed.

You could turn the stairs through 180 degrees and put the shower up next to the small back bedroom

If you include the corridor into the larger room and put a bathroom on the wall between the 2 rooms that might work?

Turn the stairs? I am intruiged! How would one do that?

Why not put it at the back of the big bedroom then incorporate the redundant hallway into the bedroom so you don't lose any space there over all. I mean the space behind the door to the back of the room.

Does that make sense?

If plumbing isn't too much of a problem (it shouldn't be too hard to run pipes), I'd put one at the front where the existing 'landing' is - ie above the front door/entrance hall.

Only thing is might be a bit narrow? If possible could you move the wall of the master bedroom a bit to the left (so the wall would be almost against the window bay iyswim) to give the bathroom a bit more space. Might be difficult/expensive though as the wall is probably load-bearing.

Or, if the bathroom is intended as an ensuite, you wouldn't have to move the wall, as you could access it through the master bedroom, so could have a shower one end, loo and sink the other, with a door in the middle.

Does any of this make sense?!

Katymac - you suggestion about including the corridor into the big room is one a friend said to me today and I think it is a good one. We would need planning permission to block off the front door with a bathroom, but by incorporating the door into the room, we could just put some furniture in front of it.

just to put complete spanner in the works. are you absolutely sure you will be able to move stuff around, ie will the freeholders/other leaseholders allow you?

It takes a whle day & a couple of carpenters

Actually I would be tempted to make the big room/corridor into 2 smaller rooms & make the back bedrooms into larger room & shower room

Thanks fattipuffandthinnifers - that corridor is only 80cm wide so I think too narrow to even do what you suggested. Thanks anyway.

We would be the freeholder for the whole building so there would be no problem there.

Again Katymac, I am intruiged with your ideas. Are you suggestion extending the large bedroom into the corridor space and then splitting it into two? There is only a window at the front so not sure how that would work?

80 cms is wide enough if you can put the door midway down off the big bedroom

You walk in to the sink with the shower to the right (in front of front door) & the loo to the left

can you build above the store then?

can you put a window where the door is currently?

Can you put the bathroom in the small bedroom and then take down the wall between the corridor and the big bedroom and if poss change the door to a window?Then you could have 1 decent double and a smaller single at the front?Where does that top door go?

The store room is under the pavement where the stairs go up the front of the house to the main front door. So, this flat is lower ground and raised ground floor and the flat above is first floor. We enter by going down steps from the pavement; they enter by going up steps to the raised front door then going in to a tiny communal area which has their front door (inside) which then leads to steps up to their flat. The tiny communal area also has the front door that leads into the corrider on the upper floor of the flat i am buying. So the store room is actually under the outside steps leading up from the pavement to the main front door on the raised groudn floor. Does that make sense?

So, no to building above the store and no to putting a window where the door is as that just leads to the tiny communal area inside.

Also is there any space next to the corridor underneath the upstairs flats stairs IYSWIM - could you pinch some low ceiling height space. It may compromise sound proofing though.

You could also put an en suite in big bedroom if that would work for how you live as there is still a ds bathroom which is not as bad as you would think.I had a v similar maisonette and just put a cloakroom upstairs and it worked well BUT I only have 1 child but a lot of guests!

Argh - lost my post to Katymac:

We need the bathroom to not be ensuite to that bedroom as my eldest two boys will share that large room.

How many children and what ages?

3 children - all boys. One aged 8, one aged 5 and one aged 11 months. Two eldest have shared for the last few years and that works well. Plan for the future is for eldest to have (smallest) room of his own) and younger two to share. Long long term plan is to buy upstairs flat and have plenty of room for three boy teenagers.

And thanks again everyone for your help

If it was in the budget i would get rid of d/s bathroom and move it up to small bedroom and make sure it has everything in it.then put in a loo understairs and take down the wall between the kitchen and bathroom and pinch a bit off the reception room and make a big open plan family room across the back and use front reception as master bedroom but once you bought the top floor you could reclaim the space into a more traditional layout.

I think carve out between the 2 big bedrooms and run the plumbing through the middle bedroom as in the long long run that could be turned into ensuite in the future when you buy the upstairs.

If you mess too much with the corridor then your going to have to undo all of that in the future IYSSWIM?

Thanks noddyholder - interesting idea, but dh is set on two full bathrooms (well, one shower one bath). I also really like to keep a seperate reception room.