Wow! That's alot of bathrooms! I would be in favor of sacrificing a few to get more storage, if only so I didn't have to clean them!

With one full bath still left in your basement, I think using the other one as a laundry is great. We have 2 laundry rooms and use the old one (in the basement) for the cleaning rags, the puppy's bath towels, and stuff that gets really dirty. (Like our laundry after a camping trip.)

As for the one on the 4th floor: how do you use that space? If you use it for more than just storage, for example as a game room, craft space, sleepover space, etc., I'd think you would want at least a half bath up there. Is this your guest floor? As a guest, I'd rather have a full bathroom handy than a laundry. And if all the bathrooms on floor below are en suite, then someone on the top floor (if it had no bath) would need to either walk through a bedroom or go down yet another floor to use a hall bath. (If I'm reading this right.)

Hope this helps. The house sounds amazing and I can't wait to visit. :)

I would say yes, but depending upon the era and location of the bath you are removing, I might stockpile the fixtures somewhere and also tread lightly when it came to removing anything that is historical fabric. If they are 1970s fiberglass bathrooms or shoddy plumbing forget saving anything, but in any case you may want to simply cap off plumbing if it is adequate rather than going for wholesale removal of it all.

If this house was a bed and breakfast, its more than likely that the next buyer will not be another single family, but someone who is interested in another B&B or some kind of multi unit situation and it could be mutually beneficial if there was plumbing in place for the re (re) conversion.

Twelve bathrooms, twelve bathrooms. I ran out of fingers so my mind is boggled. I need to take off a shoe. Twelve? You are making this up?

Of course I'd get rid of a few bathrooms if I wanted to use the space for something else. I can't imagine even thinking twice about it let alone posting the question on a forum.

Gibby this site is exactly for this reason, to think out loud and get some help in figuing it all out. I see no problem with it as I'm sure others don't either. I can't see what you get out of posting such a nasty remark.. I was enjoying the thread till you posted. : (

Chicago the top floor (we trip over calling it the third and fourth because the basement is actually a daylight basement, feels very full floor if that makes sense) there are three bedrooms (our guest rooms). They all have full bathrooms on suite so they don't have to share. This one bathroom in the back is just an extra that didn't apparently make the cut when they were looking to find space for bathrooms on this floor. I think it might have been part of the big room when the house was an apartment building or everyone shared it....who knows. My thought for that one room originally was to remodel it period appropriate and have it be an extra (say husband and wife are trying to get ready at the same time etc) but really...how often does that happen with guests? And we normally don't have a house full. So having a washer there just keeps me from hauling bedding and towels (which is a pain) down the stairs and up again.

Pal, the only original bathrooms left are not actually even original. They had one in the master suite but it's been moved from it's original location and one that was jack and jill between two of the family rooms on the same floor, but again, it's been gutted and moved into two bathrooms. We do have two original toilets, sinks and claw foot tubs which we'll keep and use when we remodel them all. They were all done "ok" but on the cheap (no tile...all fiberglass etc). They look ok but are not appropriate historically so we'll redo them to be so.

Your remark about future B&B was exactly why I have been pondering and wanted to get some feedback. We do expect to own the home for over 20 years (while DS is in school) as this is the area we wanted to retire in so we're likely to keep it as planned. But as I do things I do think about the possible scenarios in our world...what if we had to sell sooner? because of that I want to keep the potential of B&B as a buyer open (It was the oldest B&B in the pacific northwest). Your capping off idea is great. I can easily work with that idea and if I do change the top floor we can locate the stackables where the shower is so that it would be an easy fix to go backwards to a bathroom...though on that floor the stackables might be better for a B&B since they used that room for storage and the maids stuff.

LOL Ionized....yes 12. It was a B&B before we bought it. And yes the number boggles...but even more so when you get around to cleaning them regularly. We didn't think to ask if they'd include servants in the servants quarters! Stupid mistake LOL We also got 134 plants with the house and 400 cheap juice glasses....I got rid of those LOL and wouldn't mind paring down a few bathrooms.

Really though, it's a bigger house than we intended to buy and I need to find ways to make it flow better as a family home, and until my 4 year old takes over cleaning bathrooms, this is one area I have to work on! Planning now will help us as we budget each room's remodel.

Jaazzy thank you for answering the next post. :) You rock.

Gibby I've remodeled two homes since finding GW. I find that musing aloud to the group often yields great ideas and makes me think in new directions. I can't count the number of things I did differently because of someone's musings or my own over the last few years. And for all I know there might be some guy with 14 bathrooms who I inspire to tear a few down :OP

my only concern would be that it is zoned to be a b&b....but if your stated plans of staying in the home for 20+ years is accurate, i wouldn't worry one bit about removing some bathrooms....(unless you're planning to have 4 or 5 more children!!!) i would reevaluate the possible scenerios, weigh the probabilities, and if the odds were in your favor of staying there for the long run, would gamble and change the house to your taste. playing the scenerio game can drive you crazy...life's too short!!! (hold onto those juice glasses tho...you'll never have to buy disposable cups!)

About the basement bathroom...is the wine cellar for storage only or will it be a space that's also open to guests/entertaining? I'm thinking of small wine tastings. If it's more than just storage, perhaps having a small powder off of the wine cellar makes sense. Could you have a washer dryer and wall off the rest of the space for a half bath? Then the larger downstairs bath can be a kids' bathroom for playdates, etc. And the powder room can be kept for guests. My children aren't particularly neat or careful in the bath. I'd love separate adult/kid powder rooms!

Love the idea of having the upstairs laundry. I hate lugging things up and down, and guests will thank you too.

Still swooning over the idea of so many bathrooms. Fabulous! (Though not swooning over having to clean all of them!)

Igloo: now that I understand the rooms on the top floor better, I'd be all for having a small laundry up there. I think that would also be appealing if someone did convert it back to a B&B at some point (appealing for whoever does the laundry, anyway!) Please post pictures as you go about your reno.

LOL Appealing and laundry rarely go hand in hand (at least to me) heh heh

Busybee we had it rezoned to single family but we're in a national historic district and there are b&b's all over the joint in the bigger homes. It would be just as easy for a new owner to have it rezoned back to it's former status. We had to do it for the mortgage. LOL On the four or five kids...at least they'd all get their own rooms :) Actually we are hoping to adopt one or two in the very near future but four or five....not a prayer in heck!! At least not until I find those hiding servants LOL

You know pickle, that is a very valid concern (the kids bath being the only one on the first or basement level). My son's play room is currently a MESS of train tracks and trains and within five mins of cleaning it up, it's always a mess again so a wine tasting guest would have to traverse the tracks to get to the bathroom....you've just decided that one for me. Since it will be a tasting room as well (it's a big 20x20 room that was used for wood storage back in the days the house was built) we probably should leave that as a powder room. The way it's configured I could take out the tub and put in a stackable laundry where it is that I could use for my sewing laundry and leave the balance of it alone (hide the laundry behind a curtain or pretty doors perhaps....).

You know, this is all the fault of my grandfather who used to say that unused plumbing was always a nightmare waiting to happen. I'm always wandering around the house flushing the unused toilets and turning on the sinks and showers LOL DH laughs at me.

Chicago I will be sure to continue babbling along as we get to planning all of the remodel. Every bathroom needs to be redone in one way or another and we don't have a kitchen LOL (It's on the back porch) so I get to do another of those. We're also thinking of putting in an entertainment kitchen (very small) in the gardeners cottage (with the idea that we could use it for mom one day if she needs it and use it during the remodel). But before any hammers fall I have to research the place to death to make sure we're doing everything period appropriate. (Which is actually really fun).

Only 12 bathrooms? Take a look at this:

Here is a link that might be useful: A Las Vegas Mansion, Glue-Gunned to Perfection

Oh my goodness....that's so tacky it's almost cool LOL

And I can assure you...none of my bathrooms look like that LOL

I wonder if I could build a 13th with a glue gun and some spare parts???? I Have three toilets in boxes out in the garage....heh heh

i'd settle for 2...

Must be a beautiful old house. So nice to hear you want to do it period appropriate. Sadly so many gorgeous old houses are gutted around here and Home Depot'd to death. It's one thing to take out a 70's bathroom, another thing to remove all the gorgeous original stuff. So sad. And they have such good old bones!! I'm looking at the bones in my shower right now. I'd pay dearly to have a second bathroom, been dreading this repair for 2 years. Just HAD to be done. No shower = cranky husband. He doesn't like baths. Somehow I don't think you have that problem...

i'd settle for 2...

Must be a beautiful old house. So nice to hear you want to do it period appropriate. Sadly so many gorgeous old houses are gutted around here and Home Depot'd to death. It's one thing to take out a 70's bathroom, another thing to remove all the gorgeous original stuff. So sad. And they have such good old bones!! I'm looking at the bones in my shower right now. I'd pay dearly to have a second bathroom, been dreading this repair for 2 years. Just HAD to be done. No shower = cranky husband. He doesn't like baths. Somehow I don't think you have that problem...

OK, Suero. I will now run screaming from the room1! That link was scary!

I wonder if 30 - 40 years from now, people will look at 70's bathrooms the way we look at those from the 20's and 30's and think it's a shame to rip them out. Doubt it. And oh well, it's too late for mine. : )

I think with 12 you can lose one or two for increased storage. Just be careful about which ones you remove with regard to which bedrooms, so that all the bedrooms are easily serviced by a bathroom. I've stayed in bed and breakfasts before where two rooms shared a hall bath. I didn't do it myself, but still. So if it ever had to be converted back to a B&B, it shouldn't be too big a problem.

Pirula...I can almost bet that the answer to your question is NO LOL And the same for 80's horrific bathrooms with tile, lots of grout, colored sinks and toilets as well as oak cabs. Bleh.

The addition of the bathrooms for all of the bedrooms was actually done really well. None are shared and each has at least a shower if not a bath and shower. I could see if it ever did become a B&B again that keeping the one in the wine room would make sense (plus the whole issue of the trip through the kids room to get to the other one now if ya'll have tasted too much wine). But the other on the top floor...it's actually an extra (3 bedrooms on the floor and four full baths). I actually dreamed of a stackable last night after hauling laundry down to the basement yesterday LOL

The master suite remodel will probably ruin that half of the 2nd floor for B&B use unless they charge a chit load for the suite LOL But really we don't expect to move and we want a well apointed suite. It's two bedrooms with two baths now and a huge 8x8 foot space between that's empty (probably a skelaton or two....) It used to be one big room with a dressing room and bathroom (I wish we had all of the fixtures...it was written up in the paper at the time). We're going to put it all back as best as we can figure out. Any future B&B user can just figure it out later LOL

Funky....I'll mail you a key...Send DH over when he gets grumpy. We'll let him spend the day showering in all remaining bathrooms til he's had his fill :oP

Just a suggestion, have those front loaders delivered. We didn't and had to bring the thing up the stairs ourselves. Our staircase is narrow and has a landing so no dolly can be used. Never again! Those things are heavy!

LOL Jjaazzy...we had the same problem in our home in alaska :) I'm all about good delivery services after trying to move one on our own. Our staircase here is really wide, but it's kind of precious so I wouldn't allow a dolly (I've seen them beat up stairs in the past). So that means hauling the things up three long flights! Not a prayer in heck I'd do that.

I do tip well heh heh I have to to get them to deliver anything as soon as they see the stairs in the house heh heh

Igloo, I think you might even consider renting a cherrypicker that could easily lift the frontloader and any other appliances and the delivery guys could use a line to coax them through your upper windows.

Three flights or MORE? And a really nice staircase?
Whooooaaaa, you have a lot of bathrooms. By the time you are done remodelling all those, you'll be able to do it professionally. Get some local decorating/engineering students to help out for experience on their resumes.