Moving bathroom upstairs .. where to put it!!

last year

last modified: last year

Hello. We are a couple who live in a small 3 bedroom Victorian mid-terraced house in London. The area is in zone 2, mix of young professionals, families, and about 40% local authority owned.

We have a limited budget for improvements. There is also ceiling price on properies in this area. This means that we cannot afford the following popular improvements - as much as I would love the end result.:

Side return extension. Far too expensive presently, I've heard everything from £70,000+++++ bandied around. The end result would be a glassy extension of 12 x 4 feet...!

Loft conversion. The roof is very small and low in pitch. This is a conservation area prohibiting dormers or front-facing veluxes. In order to meet building regs, any loft conversion would involve taking down the ceilings by 10-15cm on the first floor to create headroom in the loft and to create space for steel RSJ beams. This would mean having to move out of the house for months, create a huge mess, and cost £££, all for a small loft room.

The biggest bugbears we have in the house are the dark moody kitchen which receives little natural light, and the bathroom being downstairs and off the kitchen 😡.

This is the current floorplan:

Downstairs, we are intending on removing the wall between the kitchen and the bathroom to create a larger kitchen. In what is currently a bathroom, we will install Velux skylights into the sloping roof, and large patio doors in the place of the current small bathroom windows, to create a bright dining area. The current back door will be blocked off to create wall cabinet space. We may/may not knock down the hallway wall adjacent to the stairs in the living room.

So, upstairs we need to find room for a bathroom! 💡

Option 1️⃣: - Split the middle bedroom into a small bathroom and a box bedroom. End result is a 3 bedroom house when you include the teeny box bedroom. Here is an upstairs floorplan for a neighbouring house (PS ignore the stairs up to their loft .. again, we cannot have this):

Option 2️⃣: - Have a lovely luxury bathroom with separate bath and shower in what is currently the bedroom above the kitchen. Install a (unnecessary but nice) Velux above the bath for wow factor. End result is a 2 bedroom house. Here is an upstairs floorplan for a different house in the neighbourhood with similar bathroom (though without the unnecessary Velux):

Which option would you go for? Does anybody have any creative alternative options which don't cost the earth!?

We are planning to live here 5+ years, and for us we don't need a third box bedroom. We would overall rather live in a house with a nice bathroom, rather than a poky bathroom and a box room which would rarely be used.

In any case the house would have "loft potential" in the future if we won the lottery / for a future buyer. However, I am concerned about turning this from a 3 bedroom into an admittedly much nicer 2 bedroom house, in terms of destroying house value? 🔥

Estate agents just say "do the whole hog £200k renovation with the side return, lower the ceilings for a compliant loft, get a wine cellar" etc etc, but they would say that?

Thank you 🙏🏽

Option 1

Option 2

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Comments (4)

Tani H-S
last year
Humm, what a difficult decision.

I think perhaps you need a couple of agents to value it as it stands now as a 3 bed with downstairs bathroom vs a 2 bed with upstairs bathroom and more downstairs space.

That will give you some idea if you will lose a lot of money just making it suitable for you and a good starting point.

As a buyer - with no kids. I would rather have 2 bed and bathroom upstairs than the current setup.

If I had children then that might change but do I want kids traipsing downstairs in the middle of the night to get to the toilet? Probably not either.

I've found whatever you do, someone will want it different and if you are definately staying there for a few years and it doesn't devalue it much then you will gain the value back in enjoying your house more.

Location wise - if you go with moving it upstairs, you might want to use the bedroom over the current kitchen for ease of plumbing as they will save money in the long run.

If you keep it downstairs then you could look at moving the kitchen to the end so you have garden views and put the bathroom at the back of the old kitchen.

If you could then squeeze at least a wc upstairs out of the smaller room (at the entrance so you don't cut up much of the bedroom) then that could work for having a wc in the night.
Overton Windows thanked Tani H-S
User
last year
Sounds like you would prefer option 2. Go with what you want. Like you say, any future owner could do a loft conversion if they want. I'd try to keep a cloakroom on the ground floor.
Overton Windows thanked User
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I love your new plan. You are right to make the doorway from the house to the bathroom, you only need a concrete lintel above it, the wall will be fine! ( Any builder can do this! ) Can you spin the bath round so that it's under the window though?? You will probably have enough room for a storage unit to the left of the door as you walk in. Aswell as running Bagpuss,... we are experienced property developers and i always do all of the plans, and purchasing of materials etc.........also, 50% of the labour with my husband most of the time. It pays to know what's possible sometimes. I get up really early, so, following on from your latest plan, I 3d'd it for you, as i had nothing better to do. The pictures are a little grainy but you get the idea x
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Thanks pjbell! My first thought was 'no way, we use bedroom 2 and can't lose it - far too radical'. But then I stopped and looked and actually, that may well be worth considering! All bedrooms are in use - bedroom 2 is our studio/craft room/office. Kids are in the back bedroom and top floor. I've got my heart set on an en-suite and keeping our large bedroom but have been mindful of making the studio too small so was opting for a small shower room. I've been pondering if there is anything we could do to have a larger family bathroom but couldn't see how. This could give a large family bathroom and more luxurious en-suite. The back room is south facing so would be much better for a studio - its worth seeing the size if we split into two bedrooms. I do like the fact that all bedrooms are decent doubles and wouldn't want them much smaller. We are going to be here for the next 10-15 years and will then look to downsize when the kids have flown the nest. This will be the only major work we'll do so although it needs to be right for us, I also want it to be as appealing as possible to the next family. Definitely food for thought - thanks!
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your house is almost exactly the same as my own house that I am currently doing work on. I would turn bedroom 3 into an en suite and a main bathroom - in your house you would have windows in the both rooms - I've attached my property floor plan to give you the idea. I too have a sun room attached to the back of my property which I was turning into a sitting room and putting a home office to the front of the property by partitioning the front room. I would definitely go for a utility room, they are a valuable luxury if you have the space, washing machine, mops, vacuum cleaners, coats - it's great to have somewhere to store all these things...
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Overton Windows
Original Author
last year
Thank you both for your helpful and considered replies, I really do appreciate it. I do prefer option 2 for myself, there is always just the worry that we won’t live here forever and with a depressed housing market.. :-/
User
last year
There are always ups and downs in the housing market. I wouldn't let that influence your decision. It's your home, and will be for several years, so do what feels right for you, not some imaginary future owner. My mum never got the house she wanted because she was scared of making changes. She passed away in a house that made her unhappy ☹️
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Moving bathroom upstairs .. where to put it!!

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Tani H-S

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