Windowless room/layout dilema

3 years ago

Hi all,

I am looking for thoughts on a house I am interested in buying. It has so much going in its favour but it has such a strange upstairs layout it is putting me off slightly.

The house is a middle terrace, which at some point has been extended to create a bigger kitchen and add another bedroom. Unfortunately it has left both the bathroom and the middle bedroom windowless.

Despite this I still like it. It would just me moving in and I wouldn't want to use the windowless room as a bedroom (it wouldn't legally count as one anyway, I think?) and I can think of several other uses for it, but I am concerned that this may put other buyers off should I want to sell at some point in the distant future.

Both the windowless rooms have sun pipes, which when I viewed the property during the day did not let in a lot of light (north facing might be why). The bedroom also has a high up horizontal frosted window into the main, south-facing bedroom.

I feel a compromise would be to replace the sun-pipes with skylights for both rooms to make them brighter. I am not wholey apposed to reconfiguring the rooms to try and make the third bedroom hit an outside wall to put a window in but this would only be possible by sacrificing space in the biggest bedroom and I am not sure if this is even possible or if it would make the rooms to narrow and long? Also I have no idea how much this would cost as it would require moving the stairs and moving the bathroom so it might not even be a realistic option.

The floorplan is a little misleading in the sense that it looks like it may be possible to put an external window in the bathroom, but the extension is actually more in the middle so I don't think this is actually possible.

Really I just wanted to know what other people think. Would I be silly buying a house with this layout or if adding skylights or changing the layout would be a feasible and more attractive option.

This is the floorplan at the moment:

This was what I was thinking of:

Thanks!

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Comments (2)

Kiwikate
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
The house has two good bedrooms and a nice open living space - I can see why you would like it. Windowless bathrooms are not for everyone ( I have one and it doesn't bother me) and neither is a windowless room. I would agree with you that in its current state it is really a 2 bed house and the price should reflect that and the fact the bathroom has no window. As for your proposed plan you would be compromising the large master bedroom at the front, which would make it less attractive I would have thought. If you want to add value you might be able to convert the loft using the windowless room for the staircase. However, for any work you do undertake, it would be important to ensure you do not spend over the ceiling value for the area unless it is your dream home for life.
Nicola Wilkinson
Original Author
3 years ago
Thanks Kiwikate, you have some really good points. I do feel the property is overpriced at the moment as I think they are selling as a 3 bed rather than 2. I agree that by moving the third bedroom as I have planned would sacrifice space from the master bedroom, which I wasn't sure would be a worthwhile but I think it's the only viable option without extending upwards. I like your idea of a loft conversion, depending on what price it sells for as I think at the moment it is at the upper limit of the area value.

As much as I would love a windowless bathroom, I have had one before and it wasn't a big deal and sadly I don't have the budget to have everything off my wishlist!
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Windowless room/layout dilema

Comments (2)

Kiwikate

Nicola Wilkinson
Original Author

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Windowless room/layout dilema

Comments (2)

Kiwikate

Nicola WilkinsonOriginal Author

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Nicola Wilkinson
Original Author