1894 upstairs bathroom

[ilikecobwebs]

Geez.......the sizes of some of these bathrooms make mine seem like a palace, at 5 feet by 12! Cant do ours yet though; two years' time is the plan. 1980's (?) pampas green and downstairs by the front door.....which is where it will stay. Unfortunately the bath's had it, got cracks.
Good set of URLs to investigate for the future.
Actually I dont like white bathrooms....but I fear putting anything else in, in case we move within the next five years or so (which is possible, nearing that retirement decade). Everyone's so insistent on having white these days (shows the dirt, though!).

 

[thiambal]

I'm having some trouble with your logic, Thiambal. My house is currently three bedroom, with a shower room and a large bathroom. Ultimately there will also be a small en-suite to the main bedroom (which answers Nemesis's point below yours).

If I convert the (un-necessarily) large bathroom into a smaller bathroom and a single bedroom, I will be creating a 4-bedroom house. OK - my primary aim is convenience (ie: grandchildren) but won't I also be adding value to the house? Surely a 4-bed house with a modest bathroom is going to be of higher value than a 3-bed house with a large bathroom?

Yep, sounds like you are right to me. I had not read the details of your earlier post where people objected to you splitting your bathroom and I had made a number of assumptions when you compared peoples advice on this post to your own.

If I were you - I would go with it if the current bathroom is huge and you can make a decent size box-room/bedroom out if it- especially as you also have a showeroom and an en-suite. But that is only MHO.

What people were commenting on in this post was losing one bedroom in a 3 bedroom house in order to create a larger bathroom when the small one was already an adequate size for the house.



I guess is all comes down

 

[Nemesis]

There is always a danger (depends of course on the house) that a large number of bedrooms is created, but living space is inadequate to support the number of people who would fill bedrooms. There's a balancing act there. I do know a house where bedrooms split and loft space was converted, making more bedrooms, but when it came to sell it didn't recoup the expenditure as the living room and kitchen were tiny - a house big enough for two really, with the occasional guest.

I would be wary of splitting bedrooms to add en-suites if that spoils the proportions of a bedroom. I'm not actually a great fan of en-suites. We have a small dressing room off a bedroom which was enthusiatically promoted as suitable for an en-suite shower and maybe loo by the estate agent when we bought, but added a large cupboard instead and left it, The complications of pipework in and sewage pipes out were not a simple matter.

 

[Lime]

I have never lived with an en-suite bathroom and wouldn't want to.
However I have lived in a house with dressing rooms and can recommend them.
Why do people wish to have a bathroom (or worse a toilet) in their bedrooms?
Are they afraid of walking the landing to a separate bathroom in case they are seen by the servants?

 

[Penners]

How are you going to form the en-suite? By splitting off part of the bedroom?

No - absolutely not.

There's a funny little room with a tiny dormer window, adjacent to the main bedroom. It has hitherto been used for storing cobwebs and mouse droppings. If I can find somewhere else to put those vital household items, I'm planning to make it into an en-suite.

Easy location for plumbing and waste; easy place to put a door into the main bedroom. It's crying out for it (what's more, the CO agrees!).

 

[Geoff Flegg]

Lime - I'm guessing you haven't got kids - at least not young ones!

I do know what you mean though - my in-laws were considering putting an en-suite in, when it's only them that live in the house now and they have a perfectly good bathroom on the other side of the landing you do ask why??

For us though, it's a god send, as it means I can get up for work in the morning and have a shower without waking the kids up by trampling around the house. In years to come when they're older it means you don't have to queue to have a shower either! And it's not really like having a toilet in your bedroom - it is a seperate room with a door, after all. Mind you I did view one house that did quite literally have a toilet in the corner of the main bedroom - with a 5' tall free-standing screen hiding it from the rest of the room - nice eh......

Back to the original original point - it is possible the room did once just contain a bath, I'm pretty certain that my 1895-ish house was like that. The bathroom is very very narrow, just 1.25m wide, with a bath and a loo alongside it squeezed into that space.

My previous house (1922) definitely had that arrangement - upstairs bathroom (no loo) and an outside toilet. Once again a loo had been squeezed alongside the bath at a later date.

 

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

Loads of you contributed to this thread back in the summer so I wanted to let you know how the bathroom is doing as it is nearly finished.

The final dimensions of the room are 2.6m long by 1.45m wide (going down to 1.35m). We managed to find a gorgeous roll top corner bath that fits with a shower over it and a slim line Victorian toilet. I really wanted one with a high cistern but it wasn't possible in the bathroom so we've got one for the downstairs cloakroom.

I've been updating a blog and you can see the photos here (if you scroll down a bit) - http://1894house.blogspot.com/ Be warned that the house is a tip and we still don't live there after having it for almost three months.

 

[Nimster]

It looks great Sarah! I don't envy you the work involved though :?

I noticed you are worried about fitting in a sofa? You may be ok but if you are really concerned, do a google for (I think) a company called IntoSofa - they make sofas that come in parts that you build in-situ. Guaranteed to fit!

Good luck with the rest.

Nim

 

[Anonymous]

It looks great Sarah! I don't envy you the work involved though :?

I noticed you are worried about fitting in a sofa? You may be ok but if you are really concerned, do a google for (I think) a company called IntoSofa - they make sofas that come in parts that you build in-situ. Guaranteed to fit!

Good luck with the rest.

Nim

Thanks Nim. Although we knew what needed to be done when we bought the place and thought that we knew what we were getting into, it seems to be a much bigger job. I've given up on buying a sofa until we've managed to get rid of all of the dust and soot, which doesn't seem possible.

I'm not regretting it just yet though.